Monday, February 22, 2010

Get onboard the “Dinosaur Train”

NEW HAVEN - On Thursday, March 4, Dinosaur paleontologist Dr. Scott Sampson, research curator at the Utah Museum of Natural History and primary scientific consultant and on-air host of Discovery Channel’s Dinosaur Planet and the PBS series Dinosaur Train, will visit the Yale Peabody Museum to explore some of the latest ideas and controversies about dinosaurs at 5:30 p.m. March 4.
The talk is free and open to the public and will be held in the third floor auditorium.
Keep in mind: For "more than a century, paleontologists have been collecting abundant, often spectacular dinosaur fossils from the Western Interior of North America. Only recently have we learned that most of these dinosaurs—among them horned, duck-billed, dome-headed, and armored plant-eaters, as well as giant tyrannosaur meat-eaters and smaller “raptor-like” predators—existed on a “lost continent” known as Laramidia," according to organizers.
Talk topics include: How were so many giant animals able to co-exist on such a diminutive landmass? Why were most of these dinosaurs adorned with bizarre bony features such as horns, crests, domes, or spikes? How did the predatory giant Tyrannosaurus rex ultimately evolve, and what factors may have led to the great extinction of dinosaurs at the close of the Mesozoic Era?
Following the presentation, Sampson will sign copies of his recent book, "Dinosaur Odyssey: Fossil Threads in the Web of Life." The first comprehensive review of dinosaur paleontology for a general audience in more than two decades, it covers the topics addressed in the talk.

Editor's note: this information was provided by the Yale Peabody Museum

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