DinoBite: Neil Patrick Kelley, Ph. D.

Sunday, January 26, 1:00 - 1:25 p.m.

Here Be Monsters: Giant Ichthyosaurs and Their World

"Here Be Monsters: Giant Ichthyosaurs and Their World" delves into the evolution of giant ichthyosaurs, the first marine reptiles to reach immense sizes. Were there really ichthyosaurs as big as whales? What did they eat? Why did they go extinct? What animals did they share the seas with? Drawing on recent fossil discoveries from around the world, and across the American West, this talk explores these questions, examining the ecosystems these ocean giants inhabited and their eventual extinction.

About the Speaker

Neil Kelley, Ph. D., is a paleontologist and evolutionary biologist with a special interest in extinct marine reptiles that were the top ocean predators during the Mesozoic (the ‘Age of Dinosaurs’). He has participated in fossil excavations in China and across North America, including multiple sites in Nevada, and worked in museum collections around the world. He is an associate professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.