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SUMMARY:Motion in the fossil record: Reconstructing dinosaur limb kinemati
 cs from fossil footprints - Dr Peter Falkingham - Liverpool John Moores Un
 iversity
DTSTART:20190315T164500Z
DTEND:20190315T171500Z
UID:TALK121246@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ben Johnson
DESCRIPTION:Fossil footprints are a record left by an animal in motion\, p
 reserving an interaction between a foot and a substrate.  If we can unders
 tand this interaction at a fundamental level\, we can begin to reverse eng
 ineer track formation and reconstruct the limb movements of long extinct a
 nimals such as dinosaurs. \n\nThe track-forming process is far more compli
 cated that a simple stamp-and-mould though\, and even studying the foot-su
 bstrate interactions in living animals is made difficult by the opacity of
  the substrate. Combining bi-planar X-ray of birds walking over compliant 
 substrate with supercomputer simulations of individual sediment grains pro
 vides a never-before-seen view of the sediment reorganization that results
  in a track.  The insight from this process can be applied to 200 million 
 year old fossil dinosaur footprints\, exposed over multiple laminations. T
 he result is not only reconstructions of actual dinosaur limb motions\, bu
 t an understanding of the sources of diversity in fossil tracks.\n\n_Peter
  is a Senior lecturer in Vertebrate Biology at Liverpool John Moores Unive
 rsity. He is broadly interested in animal locomotion\, and particularly in
  recovering motion from the fossil record via computational techniques. He
  holds a BSc in Geology and Biology\, and an MSc in computer science\, bot
 h from the University of Bristol. In 2010\, Peter was awarded a PhD on Com
 puter simulation of dinosaur tracks from the University of Manchester. Sho
 rtly after\, he held a Marie Curie international outgoing fellowship joint
 ly between the Royal Veterinary College\, London\, and Brown University\, 
 USA\, in which he developed techniques for recording and simulating footpr
 int formation in birds and dinosaurs._
LOCATION:Tilley Lecture Theater\, Department of Earth Sciences
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