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SUMMARY:Birdwatching on a cosmic scale: The avian fossil record and the or
 igin of modern bird diversity - Daniel Field (University of Cambridge)
DTSTART:20220125T130000Z
DTEND:20220125T140000Z
UID:TALK168797@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Emily Mitchell
DESCRIPTION:Living birds are the most diverse group of terrestrial vertebr
 ate animals\, comprising nearly 11\,000 extant species. They inhabit virtu
 ally every corner of the modern world\, and exhibit a mind-boggling variet
 y of forms and lifestyles. But how has this awe-inspiring diversity arisen
 ? This talk will explore recent research into how\, where\, and when the s
 pectacular diversity of living birds\, their specialised features\, and th
 eir extraordinary phenotypic variety have evolved. This exploration will r
 eveal how new fossils\, advanced visualisation techniques\, and a wealth o
 f new phenotypic and genomic data are providing important new insights int
 o these longstanding evolutionary questions. Advances in all of these area
 s point to a key event in Earth history as having kick-started the radiati
 on of modern birds: the extinction of the giant dinosaurs. Our research il
 lustrates that the end-Cretaceous mass extinction event nearly wiped out b
 irds alongside their dinosaurian brethren\, but the interval immediately f
 ollowing this mass extinction event appears to have witnessed the extremel
 y rapid diversification of modern birds—giving rise to the early ancesto
 rs of the major groups of birds alive today. We will seek to unravel the e
 ffects of this mass extinction on avian ecology\, anatomy\, and diversity\
 , and will explore how the recent discovery of the world’s oldest modern
  bird fossil informs our understanding of the earliest stages of modern bi
 rd evolutionary history. 
LOCATION:Zoom
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