The Origins of Our 野猪类

So why does a strange-looking, piglike creature adorn so much of Webb’s website, publications and campus? 对于这个答案, we need to go back to 1936, when biology teacher Ray Alf took his students out for a fossil-hunting trip near Barstow. Student Bill Webb ’39, son of our school founder, stumbled across a mammal skull. The young men and Alf dug up the skull and shared it with noted paleontologist Chester Stock at Caltech to identify what they discovered.

Stock identified the 15-million-year-old fossil as a previously unknown species of a peccary, similar to today’s javelinas.

The discovery galvanized Alf and the school, launching a feverish campaign to unearth fossils across the U.S. 很快, the fossil hunters had dubbed themselves 野猪类 Men, created a theme song and branded their fossil-hunting forays as 野猪类旅行.

In 1968, when noted artist and architectural designer Millard Sheets designed a museum for Webb to house the now 1,000s of fossils students and Alf had discovered, he created a mosaic featuring a peccary over the door.

今天, all Webb students take a 野猪类 Trip as part of their freshman Evolutionary Biology class, learn the 野猪类 Song and become part of Webb’s 野猪类 Society. 每年夏天, more than a dozen students venture into the American Southwest for an extended two-week fossil hunting trek.

Students also explore museum sciences and research through an intensive program of honors and advanced studies that has generated more than 50 scientific papers co-authored by students and published in peer-reviewed journals.