DinoFest Speaker: Emma Schachner, Ph.D.
Saturday, January 31, 2026 | 1:30 p.m. – 1:55 p.m. | Swaner Forum, NHMU
About Dr. Emma Schachner
Emma Schachner, Ph.D., is a comparative functional morphologist, and assistant professor in the Department of Physiological Sciences at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine. She runs a multidisciplinary research lab that studies the evolution of the vertebrate respiratory system. She uses 3D imaging, modeling, biomechanics, and development to investigate how animals breathe, why lungs are so weird, and the myriad creative ways that extinct and extant animals use their lungs for “non-breathing” activities.
About the Lecture
Unusual Avian Lungs and the Implications for Their Dinosaurian Relatives
Birds have highly specialized lungs that evolved to be structurally and functionally very different than any other living animal today. In addition to breathing, they also do many other non-ventilatory “jobs,” including for example, enhance flight in soaring birds. How is this relevant for dinosaurs, and what do we know about dinosaur lungs? Dr. Schachner will talk about the respiratory biology of modern birds and the implications for their extinct archosaurian relatives.