Ediacaran Biota and the Charnia Fossil
- Calendar
- Lectures
- Date
- Wednesday, 8 Jan 2025 7:30 pm
- Locations
- & CSTS Zoom Channel ID 912 0723 6181 , Royal Agricultural University - Sir Emrys Jones Lecture Theatre
- Speaker
- Dr Alex Liu, Associate Professor
- Department of Earth Sciences, Cambridge University
Description
Resolving the Ediacaran enigma: Unravelling the fossil record of early animal evolution
Animals (the biological group of organisms containing everything from sponges, jellyfish and snails to worms, insects and ourselves) are one of the major Kingdoms of life on Earth, but they only evolved around 600 million years ago.
This talk will introduce fossils of the enigmatic ‘Ediacaran biota’, which preserve our oldest records of early animal life, and will explain what we currently know about how and when animals diversified to ultimately dominate the planet. Along the way we will visit field sites both remote and familiar, and meet a variety of weird and wonderful fossils that provide unique and unexpected insights into our ancient past.
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Alex is an Associate Professor in Palaeobiology at the University of Cambridge where he researches the origin and early evolution of animals, and the interplay between biological and geological events throughout Earth's history. He trained as an Earth Scientist, obtaining undergraduate and doctoral degrees from the University of Oxford, before spending time as a postdoctoral researcher in Cambridge and Bristol, and taking up his faculty position in Cambridge in 2016.
In addition to conducting fieldwork all over the world to find new fossils that allow us to track early animal evolution, his research group also conducts laboratory, analytical and big-data studies to better understand aspects of fossil preservation, ecological structure and physical and chemical environmental conditions during the Ediacaran and Cambrian periods of geological time.
Location
& CSTS Zoom Channel ID 912 0723 6181
- Street
- Market Place
- City
- GL7 Cirencester
- County
- England
Based in Cirencester, Capital of the Cotswolds
Royal Agricultural University - Sir Emrys Jones Lecture Theatre
- Street
- Sir Emrys Jones Lecture Theatre, RAU
- City
- GL7 6JS Cirencester
- County
- Gloucestershire
Royal Agricultural University (RAU) is situated close to the junction of the A419 (Cirencester to Stroud road) and the A433 (Cirencester to Bath road) on the south-west edge of Cirencester.
The entrance to the Stroud Road car park is off the A419. (Satellite View, RAU page and RAU campus map)
The Parkinson Lecture Theatre (19 on the map) can be found by entering from the Stroud Road car park, and following the path on the right-hand side of the Garner Lecture Block, the first entrance on the right leads to the Parkinson Lecture Theatre.
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