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SUMMARY:Darwin's Beagle  fossils and their significance for his evolutiona
 ry thought - Professor Adrian Lister (Natural History Museum)
DTSTART:20141103T170000Z
DTEND:20141103T180000Z
UID:TALK54360@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Jack Wright
DESCRIPTION:When Darwin embarked on the Beagle voyage in 1831 he considere
 d himself primarily a geologist\, having been enthused and trained in the 
 subject by the Rev Adam Sedgwick. During the voyage he made copious observ
 ations on the geology of South America and wrote a book on the subject on 
 his return. He was also fascinated by fossils\, and made several major dis
 coveries\, which he himself acknowledged as having been one of the most im
 portant factors in leading him to his theory of evolution.  These included
  skulls and skeletons of several extinct Pleistocene  large mammals new to
  science\, leading Darwin to think about endemism and extinction\; marine 
 shells found high in the Andes which forcibly brought home to him the dyna
 mic nature of the Earth\; and subfossil corals from the Pacific and Indian
  Oceans that led him to theorise about the origin of coral reefs.  The tal
 k will be illustrated with images of Darwin's original specimens\, many of
  which survive in museum collections.\n\nAdrian Lister read Zoology at Cam
 bridge and completed his PhD here on \nevolution in Pleistocene deer. Afte
 r postdoctoral research in the \nZoology Department and a Research Fellows
 hip at Girton College\, he \nmoved to University College London as a lectu
 rer in 1991\, becoming \nProfessor of Palaeobiology in 2002. In 2007 he to
 ok up a post of \nResearch Leader at the Natural History Museum. He is the
  author of \nover 150 scientific papers and four books\, Evolution on Plan
 et Earth\,\nMammoths: Giants of the Ice Age\, Mammoths: Ice Age Giants\, a
 nd a\nchildren’s book\, Tracker’s Guide to Ice Age Animals.   His work
 \nfocusses on the evolution and extinction of mammals of the Ice Age\, \ne
 specially deer\, elephants and mammoths.  In addition to excavating \nand 
 studying fossil material from around the world\, he has studied \nliving e
 lephants in Ghana\, India\, Nepal and Borneo.
LOCATION:Harker Room 1\, Department of Earth Sciences
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