Boston Flora

Tag: paleontology

  • Tuesday, January 23, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm Eastern – The Bone Wars, Online

    Not long after the California Gold Rush, a different frenzy captured Americans’ attention: A rivalry dubbed the Bone Wars emerged in the fledgling field of paleontology between two young scientists, Othniel Charles Cope (on right, below) and Edward Drinker Marsh (left). Originally amicable colleagues–they even named fossils after each other—they became rivals in a long and bitter turf war complete with theft, corruption, and sabotage. Cope and Marsh would go on to name over 130 species of dinosaurs between them, but each would die impoverished and with damaged reputations due to their relentless fight.

    Hans Sues, a paleontologist at the National Museum of Natural History, discusses the struggle between Cope and Marsh, plus their contributions to the field of paleontology and to the Smithsonian. This Zoom program takes place Tuesday, January 23 at 7 pm Eastern. $25 Smithsonian Associates members, $30 nonmembers. Register at https://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/tickets/bone-wars

  • Thursday, June 27, 6:00 pm – The Shadow of the Quagga

    On Thursday, June 27, beginning at 6 pm at The Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford Street in Cambridge, Eric Scott will speak on The Shadow of the Quagga: What a Long-lost Zebra Reveals about Horses, Evolution, and Extinction. The quagga, a South African zebra, became extinct in the 1880s, but it still shapes our views on life and death in the animal kingdom. Paleontologist Eric Scott (San Bernardino County Museum) provides a brief history of the quagga—its discovery, exploitation, extinction, and potential rebirth—and reveals how these animals continue to inform us about paleontology, biology, and equine evolution.  Free and open to the public.

    http://www.thisdaytrivia.com/content/quagga.jpg

  • Tuesday, November 17, 6:30 pm – Reanimating Extinct Plants

    Science for the Public presents Dr. Jonathan P. Wilson, California Institute of Technology, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, at the Boston Public Library on Boylston Street in a free lecture on Tuesday, November 17 beginning at 6:30 pm.

    A nature walk in New England 300 million years ago would have looked quite different from one near Boston today. Instead of forests composed of oaks, maples, and pines, the area would have been dominated by unusual extinct forms: mostly climbing ferns and seed plants under a canopy of trees that more closely resemble telephone poles than anything in a modern garden. How did these plants work?
    In this talk, he will explore how recent advances in plant physiology allow paleontologists to understand, in a quantitative fashion, how extinct plants functioned. Are there fundamental physiological differences between extinct plants and living ones? What can we learn about ancient environments and ecosystems from looking at fossil plants? For more information, log on to www.cityofboston.gov.

    http://www.plantcare.com/oldSite/httpdocs/images/MM/IMG0504090.jpg