Join us for a rare opportunity to hear from five leading palaeontologists from the Natural History Museum as they reveal some of the great scientific discoveries and mysteries of the last few decades.
This thought-provoking masterclass offers the opportunity examine how life has both shaped and been shaped by the Earth’s environments, with some of the leading experts in the field. They will talk you through new research that has changed the way many people now think about evolution, from how dinosaurs became extinct to the most important environmental issues facing the human population today.
You will also learn more about the scientific methods used to study fossils and how the experts plan and execute their research within the Natural History Museum.
Content
Paul Barrett will reveal new discoveries that are challenging our understanding of how dinosaurs dominated the land for tens of millions of years and how to explain their extinction.
Chris Stringer will explore how unexpected advances in scientific methods are helping to rewrite the story of human evolution.
Zerina Johanson will take you through the evolution of sharks and other fish, from their origins of over 420m years ago, when they had strange forms that lacked jaws and teeth, to the highly adapted sharks and bony fish of today.
Anjali Goswami will discuss what makes us mammals, how we as mammals acquired our distinctive characteristics through the transition from our mammal-like reptile ancestors, and how mass extinctions have shaped our evolution.
Tutor profiles
Richard Twitchett is a research leader in the Earth Sciences department of the National History Museum. He is particularly interested in how marine ecosystems responded to major biological and environmental changes of the past - such as those associated with global warming and the mass extinction episodes of the Phanerozic. He is trained in geology, biology and palaeoenvironmental analysis.
Paul Barrett is the Natural History Museum’s senior dinosaur expert. He has travelled widely in pursuit of their fossils and is a specialist on dinosaurs from the UK, China and southern Africa. He has worked on all major dinosaur groups and has published >150 papers on dinosaur biology and evolution. His popular books include Dinosaurs: How They Lived and Evolved and Dippy: The Story of a Dinosaur Icon.
Chris Stringer is a British anthropologist and researcher at the Natural History Museum. He is a leading expert on human evolution as well as a fellow of the Royal Society. His research has focused on the past 500,000 years of human evolution, especially the origins of Neanderthals and modern humans. His books include The Origin of Our Species and Homo Britannicus: The Incredible Story of Human Life in Britain.
Zerina Johanson is merit researcher and head of division in the Earth Sciences department at the Natural History Museum. Her research focuses on the evolution and development of the early vertebrae skeleton, focusing on dentitions and the postaxial skeleton. Some of her current projects include evolution and development of the pufferfish dentition, and devolution and development of the axial skeleton of jawed vertebrates.
Anjali Goswami is a research leader in life sciences at the Natural History Museum, and an honorary professor of palaeobiology at University College London. Her expertise is in vertebrate evolution and development, particularly using high-resolution image analysis to quantify and reconstruct the evolution of biodiversity and understand how development, ecology and large-scale environmental effects have shaped organisms through deep time. She has worked on groups from insects to dinosaurs, but her main interest is in the evolution of mammals. She has searches for fossils all over the world, from Svalbard to Madagascar, and currently leads expeditions in Argentina and India.
Details
Date: Saturday 1 February 2020
Times: Full-day course, 10am-4pm
Location: The Guardian, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU
Price: £99 plus £5.11 booking fee
Event capacity: 100
Complimentary lunch and refreshments included.
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