Meetings

Archaeopteryx, the icon of evolution, is one of the most heavily studied fossil taxa. Despite over 160 years of active research, the 14th specimen at the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History has revealed important new information regarding the skeletal and soft tissue morphology of this taxon. This new data elucidates how both the skeleton and soft tissues were modified during the acquisition of flight in avian dinosaurs.

Jingmai O’Connor is a vertebrate Paleontologist currently working at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago as the Associate Curator of Fossil Reptiles. Previously, O’Connor worked at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology (IVPP) Of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing for 10 years. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Southern California under Dr. David Bottjer, where she studied Mesozoic birds with Dr. Luis Chiappe at the LA Natural History Museum.
O’Connor‘s research explores the evolution of flight in the Dinosauria, the emergence of bird-dinosaurs, and the biology of Mesozoic birds, exploring birds and their closest dinosaur relatives through feather origins and function, aerodynamics, reproduction, respiration, diet, ecology, ontogeny, and much more.

O’Connor has published over 170 papers, including descriptions of over 50 new species. She has conducted fieldwork in China, Mongolia, Romania, Canada, Spain, and South Africa and now maintains an active field program in the US.

Harleena Franklin is a paleoecologist who focuses on rapid change over the last 20,000 years. She got her undergrad degree in Life Sciences at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, UK, her Master's in Library and Information Science from Syracuse University, and another Master's in Bioarchaeology from the University of Aberdeen, and Geology from the University of Buffalo.

Harleena will be talking about tracking water cycle changes using biomarkers as a proxy for climate. Specifically, measuring hydrogen isotopes from leaf waxes and tracking vegetation change with pollen and ancient DNA.

Long before modern paleontologists mapped global extinction events, human cultures have sought to understand the rise and fall of lost worlds. This presentation traces the evolution of extinction theory from Indigenous oral traditions, natural historians of the 18th and 19th centuries, and to the modern paleobiological revolution. By examining how our understanding of deep-time catastrophes transformed over the last 2 centuries, I explore the physical drivers behind Earth's major mass extinctions and the traits that governed which species survived and which didn't. Ultimately, this historical narrative connects ancient biotic crises to the Anthropocene and highlights our place in mass extinction discourse and processes.

Please join us for our annual holiday party with our fabulous auction, pot-luck, optional gift-exchange, and merriment! For those who want to clear out their excess fossil treasures and collections, here is your chance to do that by donating to our auction. We'll be looking forward to all of the great food and great company!

Eric Scott is a vertebrate paleontologist specializing in extinct Ice Age large mammals, particularly horses and bison. He studies the evolution and extinction of North American Pleistocene megafauna, with a focus on biogeography – particularly, how the geographic distribution of species can change through time, and how this can inform our understanding of Ice Age extinctions. He has worked throughout western North America as well as East Africa. He is Vice President and Principal Paleontologist of Cogstone Resource Management and an adjunct lecturer at California State University, San Bernardino. He is emeritus Curator of Paleontology for the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands, California, where he worked for 24 years. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1990.