In the almost 80 years since then-Colgate trustee Col. Austen B. Colgate donated an Oviraptor philoceratops dinosaur egg to the university, many members of the Colgate community have been touched by what has become arguably the school's most famous gift — perhaps no one more so than geology professor Connie Soja, who has conducted research on the specimen with Colgate undergrads, gathered information about how the university acquired it, and shared it all with countless college students, local schoolchildren, and academic groups.

Last summer, Soja deepened her connection to the egg by returning to the Flaming Cliffs at Bayan Zag, year-old fossil was found by famous explorer and friend of the university, Roy Chapman Andrews (the model for the film character Indiana Jones).