December 4th - Birds and Dinosaurs with Feathers

On Thursday December 4th, Prof. Mike Benton from the University of Bristol will be talking on 'Preservation of the birds and dinosaurs with feathers from Liaoning China'. The lecture starts at 7.30 at 16 Queen Square and is organised by the Bath Geological Society.
There was a sensation ten years ago when the first photographs of fossil birds and dinosaurs from the Early Cretaceous of Liaoning in China were published. Here were exquisitely preserved specimens that showed feathers. Other fossils were also exceptionally well preserved. The most astonishing find was that a number of small carnivorous dinosaurs too had feathers, so confirming the long-standing view that birds evolved directly from dinosaurs. A team from the University of Bristol is working with colleagues in Beijing to study the preservation and tissue structure of the feathers. We hope to understand just why so many thousands of astonishing specimens have been so well preserved, and to find what the unexpected view of soft tissues tells us about the evolution of birds.