January 25, 2022, via Zoom Presented in partnership with the Kansas City Public Library The program: Recent fossil discoveries in southern Missouri have helped scientists identify a new species of dinosaur, Parrosaurus missouriensis. The large duck-billed dinosaur measured 35 feet in length and roamed the region 75 to 90 million years ago. The Missouri dig site has yielded fossil remains for over 80 years and has helped expand the knowledge of dinosaurs in the U.S. east of the Western Interior Seaway, a body of water that divided North America more than 70 million years ago. In this presentation, paleontologist Peter Makovicky, who helped lead the dig, will explain the significance of the new dinosaur skeletons and how the Missouri site informs our understanding of Earth’s prehistoric ecology. The speaker: Dr. Peter Makovicky is a professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Minnesota. He is a paleontologist whose research aims to understand the patterns and processes of macroevolution using the fossil record, with an emphasis on Mesozoic vertebrates. He addresses these questions with a combination of fieldwork, anatomical studies using character analysis and morphometrics, phylogenetic inference, biogeography, and comparative methods analyses of trait evolution. He principally uses dinosaurs as a research model because of the group’s longevity surpassing 150 million years, global distribution, high diversity, and the possession of unique anatomical structures. Dr. Makovicky’s fieldwork spans the globe with longstanding, active programs in Argentina, China, Antarctica, as well as the United States.

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