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Paleontologist to speak about the origin of mammals
Paleontologist Richard Cifelli, curator of the vertebrate paleontology department at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, will present a free public lecture 7 p.m. March 27 titled “The Origins of Modern Mammals: Where Do the Fossils Fit?” in the museum’s Kerr Auditorium.
The fossilized bones of prehistoric mammals are often tiny: in some cases as small as those of a modern shrew, and the remains are almost never complete, museum officials said. Most of Cifelli’s research is done based on preserved teeth small enough to place on the head of a pin, and must be studied with the use of a scanning electron microscope. Nevertheless, Cifelli and other scientists have been able to learn a great deal about the evolution of early mammals, officials said.
Cifelli’s talk will illustrate how recent discoveries have focused the debate about the origins of mammals more narrowly, while at the same time revealing new diversity among early mammals — diversity that in itself has fueled new points of controversy.
Cifelli has conducted fieldwork on all of the major continents. He studies the systematic and evolutionary biology of all groups of vertebrates, but his current research focuses primarily on mammals from the Age of Dinosaurs. He has discovered 50 mammal species, published more than 150 scientific papers and recently published “The Origin and Evolution of Mammals,” a comprehensive history of mammals, with colleagues Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska and Luo Zhe-Xi.
Additional information about this and other programs at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History is available on the museum’s Web site www.snomnh.ou.edu or by calling 325-4712. The museum is on the OU Norman campus and is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday.
— Transcript Staff
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