Lecture: Chasing the Dragon: Fossils and Feathered Dinosaurs in China
Speaker:
Entry Fee
Members: Free
Visitors: £5.00
Date and Time
19:30 -
Location
Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, 16-18 Queen Square, Bath BA1 2HN
Lecture Description
The exceptionally preserved Jehol Biota of Liaoning Province in NE China represents a unique window into an early Cretaceous world (~135 million years ago) populated by early birds and ‘feathered’ dinosaurs, which have attracted worldwide media attention. Many of the new species described from this deposit have necessitated a revision of our understanding of bird evolution and even the evolution of flight itself. The talk will highlight some of the exceptionally preserved specimens known only from this fossil assemblage, and following the author’s fieldwork around Beipiao in the summer of 2000, will illustrate how little is still known about the sedimentary sequence in which the fossils are preserved. Brief mention will be made of joint Anglo-Chinese research proposals which will seek to investigate the lake sediments in which the fossils are found, to determine the controls on sediment deposition, the reasons behind the exceptional preservation of fossils and to initiate a comparison between this and other biotas of comparable age.