October 2006

Our October Lecture:
Monday, 23 October 2006, 6:00 P.M.
McGill University
Otto Maass Chemistry, room 217


Dr. Hans Larsson

Hunting Dinosaurs and other fossils
in the Canadian High Arctic:
what ancient climate change may tell us

Fossil collecting in the high arctic has many
challenges. However, expeditions to this region in search of dinosaurs and dinosaur-aged fossils have yielded new insight into what kinds of animalsand plants existed in the Canadian High Arctic during the Mesozoic Era (250-65 million years ago). This time marked the 'evolution' of the High Arctic as the land mass coursed northwards to shift the local climate and photoperiod. This continental-scale climate change is expected to impose evolutionary pressures on the entire ecosystem. Tracking the changes to this ecosystem in recent years has begun to yield information on these arctic palaeo-communities. These results and an overview of arctic fieldwork will be discussed.

Dr. Larsson is an assistant professor of the Redpath Museum and associate member of the McGill biology department where he studies Paleontology and Evolutionary Developmental Biology. His primary research interest is how reptilian morphology has changed since the Mesozoic era, with a focus on archosaurian reptiles (crocodiles, birds, and dinosaurs). Dr. Larsson has also researches the molecular and morphological developmental mechanisms responsible for the changes in the evolution of vertebrate morphology. He has done extensive field work in Argentina, Niger and most recently in the Canadian arctic. In Niger his teams have discovered eight new dinosaur species and five new crocodile species. His most recent expeditions (2003 and 2004) to the Canadian High Arctic studied signatures in the fossil record of ancient climate shifts in palaeo-faunas. During these expeditions he also unearthed fragments of a tyrannosaur dinosaur, the northern-most discovery of such a species and significant to reconstructing ancient ecosystems.

Dr. Larsson contends that fossils lying undisturbed in the Canadian Arctic contain unique features not found in regions where the climate was more stable. Come meet this dinosaur hunter and find out how his research may shed light on long-term trends in ecosystems related to climate change.