Video Lecture: A 60 Million Year Journey from Wings to Flippers
If you are interested in watching a lecture on penguin research at North Carolina State University, please check out this video of the first lecture in the “Celebrate our Research Staff” series. This series is meant to honor the contributions to all the people who make research possible at NCSU.
Fantastic lecture. I’m a science enthusiast who loves the topic of evolution, in particular the evolutionary history of modern animals. Thank you for posting this for us to watch.
Chris Lindsay
April 29, 2011 at 4:47 pm
What an intteresting talk. I did not know that penguins appeared so rapidly after the extinction of the dinosaurs. Thanks for sharing!
phonezilla
May 2, 2011 at 9:23 am
I’m here via the panda’s thumb – I really enjoyed your presentation! In your talk, you mention that it might be difficult to recognize a flying penguin ancestor in the fossil record, because it is less likely to preserve well and because many of the features that make penguins so distinct are related to their loss of flight.
Now I’m curious about the features that would let us recognize a flying penguin as a penguin. Maybe we could see a post on this subject somewhere down the line? Either way, I will definitely be back to read more of your blog!
erica h-g
May 3, 2011 at 7:39 am
Thanks for the comments. Recognizing a flying penguin ancestor would be tough, but we could probably do it if the fossil was complete enough. I’ll keep this in mind for a future post.
Dan Ksepka
May 3, 2011 at 2:48 pm