Displaying items by tag: 65 million years ago

 

Dinosaurs may be extinct, but they never go extinct with kids. While these huge dangerous reptiles disappeared from the earth over 65 million years ago, they are still very much alive in the imagination of countless toddlers and kids and continue to be featured in many movie dynasties. Vertebrate paleontologist and dinosaur expert, Nizar Ibrahim shares his love of these fascinating creatures. He has scoured the deserts of North Africa for clues to life in the Cretaceous period, when the area was a large river system teeming with a profusion of diverse life. His team has unearthed giant dinosaur bones and footprints as well as remains of prehistoric fishes, crocodile-like predators, and giant flying reptiles. He is renowned for his decades long work tracing Spinosaurus, one of the most unusual dinosaurs yet found: a predator that was longer from snout to tail than an adult T.rex, and that had a six-foot tall sail on its back.  Ibrahim’s multi-disciplinary research projects shed light on a period of major changes for our planet including extreme climate fluctuations and the breakup of the supercontinent.

 

 

BIO: Nizar Ibrahim is a vertebrate paleontologist and comparative anatomist with a background in the bio-and geosciences and a Ph.D. in vertebrate paleontology. His teaching and research affiliations include the University of Detroit Mercy, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (Pittsburgh, PA) and the University of Portsmouth (UK).  Over the last decade, he has reached millions of people around the globe via speaking tours, exhibits, educational videos, books, and scientific literacy projects for young people. Ibrahim and his discoveries have been widely featured in National Geographic magazine, most recently in Reimagining Dinosaurs, and in Nature, Science, the Wall Street Journal, Discover, and many other major national publications.