Living in a Jurassic World: Could Dinosaurs be

Lurking in Our Backyards?Oct 21, 2015

Introduction

Dinosaurs ruled the earth for hundreds of millions of years but then suddenly vanished – or did they? This talk will start with the sometimes surprising ways we think the dinosaurs may have gone out, and the near misses they managed to survive before their final exit. We will then move on to how part of their lineage actually continued to the present day. The talk will finish with a tour in an actual Harvard laboratory to showcase some of the shockingly similar features shared between ancient dinosaurs and modern day birds.

Speakers

Martin Fan grew up in Plano, Texas and received his Bachelor of Science degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 2012. He is currently in his fourth year pursuing a Ph.D. in Immunology at Harvard Medical School. Working in the laboratory of Dr. Larry Turka, he studies molecular signaling in cells important for preventing autoimmunity and rejection of organ transplants. Outside of lab, he enjoys cycling, cooking, and photography.

Matt Schwartz is a seventh year PhD candidiate in Genetics and Genomics in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program at Harvard Medical School. Matt grew up in Cleveland and received his Bachelor of Arts in Biological Sciences from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. He is currently studying the role of long noncoding RNAs in the growth and patterning of the developing chicken limb in Cliff Tabin’s lab in the Department of Genetics. Outside the lab, Matt loves hiking and camping (especially in our national parks), cycling around Boston, going to concerts and music festivals, and is an avid reader. Matt has preparing for this lecture since long before he started graduate school; he grew up loving dinosuars and claims that at age five his favorite book was not a children’s book, but a dinosaur almanac.

Glossary of Important Terms

Asteroid: A rocky object orbiting the sun. Usually smaller than most moons in the solar system.

Genera: Plural of genus, a group of one or more species.

Cretaceous: Final time period during which the dinosaurs existed. Lasted from 145-66 million years ago.

Paleogene: Time period after the dinosaurs, during which most mammals developed. Lasted from 66-23 million years ago.

Volcanic winter: A multi-year loss of sunlight caused by suspended volcanic ash.

Extraterrestrial: Coming from outside the Earth

Gravity anomaly map: A map showing the density of an area. Can be used to find oil deposits, or other geological features.

Decomposer: Organism that feeds on dead or decaying matter. Includes organisms such as fungi, worms, and insects.

Bolide impact: A collision of an extraterrestrial object with the Earth. Often, the object disintegrates in the atmosphere and does not make contact with the ground.

Lineage: All the descendants of a common ancestor

Primitive Trait: A trait present in the ancestors of a particular lineage

Derived Trait: A novel trait to a particular lineage not present in its ancestors

Resources to learn moreDinosaurs: Everything You Wanted to Know, http://paleobiology.si.edu/dinosaurs/info/everything/what.html The Origin of Birds, http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/evograms_06,

Upcoming SITN Events

Oct 28th, Growing Together: How viruses have shaped human evolution

Nov 4th, From Stargazing to Space Travel: Our brief history into space

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