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SUMMARY:New Jurassic Dinosaurs from the Gobi Desert of Western China - Pro
 fessor James Clark &amp\; Professor Catherine Forster (George Washington U
 niversity)
DTSTART:20150309T170000Z
DTEND:20150309T180000Z
UID:TALK54372@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Jack Wright
DESCRIPTION:The Gobi Desert of Asia is one of the most important field are
 as for dinosaur discovery in the world.  Most of the well known localities
  are in the Cretaceous Period near the end of the Age of Dinosaurs\, but a
  few are from the poorly known Middle Jurassic\, when dinosaurs were first
  attaining their great size and ecological prominence.  While best known f
 or its dinosaurs\, the Jurassic also witnessed the beginnings of the moder
 n terrestrial vertebrate fauna of mammals\, turtles\, crocodilians\, lizar
 ds\, frogs and salamanders and the evolution of birds from dinosaurs.  \n\
 nSince 2001 Clark has been co-directing with Dr. Xu Xing field work in Mid
 dle - Late Jurassic fossil deposits of Xinjiang\, China\, in the far weste
 rn part of the Gobi Desert.  These extremely successful expeditions result
 ed in a host of discoveries\, including the oldest tyrannosaur\, alvarezsa
 ur\, and ceratopsian dinosaurs\, multiple skeletons of a bizarre new herbi
 vorous theropod dinosaur that had been mired in muddy “death pits”\, a
 nd the oldest pterodactyloid pterosaur.  Dr. Clark will give an overview o
 f these expeditions and discuss the theropod dinosaur discoveries.  Dr. Fo
 rster will discuss the ornithischian dinosaur discoveries in Xinjiang and 
 those from her work in the Cretaceous of South Africa. \n\nDr. Clark studi
 ed paleontology at UC Berkeley and the University of Chicago and worked at
  UC Davis\, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History\, and t
 he American Museum of Natural History before taking the Ronald Weintraub P
 rofessorship at GWU.  He participated in the AMNH expeditions to the Gobi 
 Desert of Mongolia from 1991-2001.  \n\nDr. Forster studied geology and pa
 leontology at the University of Minnesota and the University of Pennsylvan
 ia and was an Associate Professor at Stony Brook University before moving 
 to GWU.  She is a renowned expert on ceratopsian and ornithopod dinosaurs\
 , and has pursued field work in Madagascar\, South Africa\, China\, and th
 roughout the USA.  She is immediate past president of the Society of Verte
 brate Paleontology.
LOCATION:Harker Room 1\, Department of Earth Sciences
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