What: Public lecture ‘Decoding the past to conserve our future’

Who: Delivered by Prof. Larisa DeSantis (Vanderbilt University, USA)

When: 8 pm Monday 18^th July

Where: Aula Maxima

Tickets are free and are available through the Eventbrite Booking System.

This is the first RIA Discourse of the 2022/23 series and will focus on how the ancient past can reveal cautionary conservation lessons and even warn us about our potential future.

Mammalian communities have undergone dramatic ecological and evolutionary changes throughout time. While it can be difficult for us to recognise and perceive the magnitude of these changes in a human lifetime, conservation paleobiology leverages the fossil record to provide critical insights into mammalian responses to climate change across the globe. From the study of ancient animals like sabertooth cats and marsupial lions, ancient life serves as “canaries in the coal mine”— alerting global citizens to the consequences of climate change for life on Earth. 

Larisa DeSantis Decoding the past to conserve the future