Digital fossils: Using X-rays to Uncover Secrets of the Past

Calendar
Lectures
Date
Wednesday, 11 Sep 2024 7:30 pm
Speaker
Professor Emily Rayfield, Professor of Palaeobiology
School of Earth Sciences University of Bristol

Location

& CSTS Zoom Channel ID 912 0723 6181

Market Place, Cirencester GL7

Royal Agricultural University - Sir Emrys Jones Lecture Theatre

Sir Emrys Jones Lecture Theatre, RAU, Cirencester GL7 6JS

Description

Digital fossils: using X-ray to uncover secrets of the past
 
Or rather, how do  they know that?
Thanks to Jurassic Park, Walking with Dinosaurs and other computer-generated imagery, we are all familiar with dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals brought to life on our television and movie screens.  But how do scientists know anything about how dinosaurs moved, fed, the sounds they made and their colouration?
In this talk I will discuss how far palaeontologists can make statements about the behaviour of extinct animals, drawing together evidence from fossils, living animals and using X-rays and methods co-opted from engineering.

 

 

News Flash from the Bristol University website!

A University of Bristol palaeontologist is among 25 medal and award winners announced by the Royal Society today [Wednesday 28 August].

Professor Emily Rayfield from the University’s School of Earth Sciences has received the Gabor Medal for pioneering a new, cross-disciplinary era of engineering-informed computational palaeobiology.

Professor Rayfield’s research focuses on how skeletal mechanics influences morphological evolution and the relationship between form and function in biology.

 

More at : https://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2024/august/emily-rayfield-royal-society-medal.html

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