Inaugural Lecture: Prof Steve Brusatte

The School of GeoSciences is pleased to announce the Inaugural Lecture of Steve Brusatte, Professor of Palaeontology and Evolution.

The lecture will be held at 6:00 pm on Thursday, 3rd October 2024 in the Alder Lecture Theatre, Nucleus Building, King’s Buildings, University of Edinburgh.

All are welcome to attend.

Most Dinosaurs Die, Mammals and Birds Survive

Dinosaurs prospered for over 150 million years, diversifying into thousands of species that ranged from Earth-shaking plant-eaters to carnivores the size of buses. Then, 66 million years ago, their fate changed forever when a six-mile-wide asteroid unleased a cascade of environmental destruction. Almost all dinosaurs died, but among the few survivors was one peculiar subgroup with feathers and wings. Together with our small furry mammalian ancestors, which also endured, they would remake the world. In this talk, Steve Brusatte will explore research from his Edinburgh lab that illuminates many facets of this story: how birds evolved from ferocious dinosaurs, the sudden collapse of dinosaur ecosystems when the asteroid hit, how birds and mammals survived, and then how mammals marshalled the ability to give live birth to well-developed babies to rapidly grow in size to supplant the dinosaurs and build the foundation for the modern world, including humankind.

Steve Brusatte is a palaeontologist and evolutionary biologist who specialises in the anatomy, genealogy, and evolution of dinosaurs and mammals. He grew up in Illinois, studied geology as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago and obtained a PhD at Columbia University, and joined the University of Edinburgh in 2013 as a Chancellor’s Fellow. He has named and described over 20 new species of dinosaurs and other fossils. A keen populariser of science, he is author of the Sunday Times bestselling pop science book The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs and several other books for fossil enthusiasts of all ages, and is the palaeontology consultant for the Jurassic World film franchise and ‘resident palaeontologist’ for the BBC’s Walking With Dinosaurs franchise.

• 5.45-6.00pm Arrival refreshments
• 6.00-6:10pm Welcome
• 6.10-7.00pm Lecture and Q&A session
• 7.00-8.00pm Reception

Host or Publisher School of GeoSciences