UA ALLELE Lecture to Examine Emergence of Life in Global Warming Periods

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Dr. Ryosuke Motani, a vertebrate paleobiologist specializing in fossils from the age of dinosaurs, will visit The University of Alabama campus to give the lecture, “Emergence of Marine Mammals and Reptiles during past Global Warming and Sea Level Rise,” Thursday, March 29 at 7:30 p.m. in room 127 of the Biology Building.

His lecture is open to the public and is part of the Alabama Lectures on Life’s Evolution, known as ALLELE, lecture series, which is in its sixth year.

Motani is a professor at the University of California-Davis, and he is best known for his studies of ichthyosaurs – a group of prehistoric marine reptiles that evolved a fish-shaped body. His research focuses on how long-term changes in physical environments affect or drive the evolution of vertebrates.

His most recent studies include nocturnality in dinosaurs, evolution of shell-eating marine reptiles, and the influence of temperature on evolution of marine reptiles.

Motani received his bachelor’s degree in geology from the University of Tokyo in Japan and master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Toronto, Canada in 1994 and 1997, respectively. Motani has done significant research overseas in China and Japan, as well as field work in Canada, California and Nevada. He has been published in numerous scholarly journals and has been the recipient of research grants from the National Science Foundation, National Geographic Foundation and other sources.

While on campus, Motani will visit anthropology classes and will give a talk to students titled, “’Nocturnality in Dinosaurs and How We Can Tell It,” Wednesday, March 28 at noon in room 205 of Smith Hall.

The presentation is part of the 2011-2012 ALLELE series, an interdisciplinary lecture series supported by UA’s College of Arts and Sciences, the Honors College, Blount Undergraduate Initiative, New College, Educational Studies in Psychology, Research Methodology and Counseling, and the departments of anthropology, biology, chemistry, English, gender and race studies, geological sciences, history, philosophy, psychology and telecommunications and film.

The ALLELE lecture series is part of UA’s College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships and memberships on the USA Today Academic All American Team.