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SUMMARY:Henslow Fellows Lectures - Resolving the early record of animal ev
 olution: Insights from the enigmatic Ediacaran Biota - Dr Alexander Liu\, 
 Department of Earth Sciences
DTSTART:20140514T170000Z
DTEND:20140514T173000Z
UID:TALK51922@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Beverley Larner
DESCRIPTION:The evolution of animals was one of the most important biologi
 cal events in the history of life on Earth\, not only because it paved the
  way for our own existence\, but because animals have had an enormous and 
 irreversible impact on our biosphere. In recent years\, the focus of studi
 es into the initial evolution and radiation of animals has centred on the 
 fossil record of the late Ediacaran Period\, which documents diverse commu
 nities of unusual organisms that lived between 580 and 541 million years a
 go. As a Henslow Junior Research Fellow\, I have investigated some of the 
 oldest localities of these Ediacaran fossils\, and my findings have played
  a significant role in advancing our understanding of both what these orga
 nisms were\, and the dynamics of Ediacaran ecosystems. In particular\, the
  discovery of probable cnidarians within these assemblages\, and of locomo
 tion trackways created by similar organisms\, provides the first strong ev
 idence that animals were present around 565 million years ago. This knowle
 dge permits us to tackle more substantial evolutionary questions regarding
  how and why animal evolution took place at this particular point in time.
  
LOCATION:Bristol-Myers-Squibb Lecture theatre\, Department of Chemistry
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