DinoFest Speaker: Niki Krivka
Sunday, February 1, 2026 | 1:30 p.m. – 1:55 p.m. | Swaner Forum, NHMU
About Niki Krivka
Niki Krivka is an undergraduate geology student at Westminster University and a paleontology collections assistant at the Natural History Museum of Utah, where she is currently conducting research on lagerpetids with Randy Irmis. Niki loves all things paleontology, and she volunteers in the prep lab and out in the field with the paleo team at the NHMU. In her free time, she loves drawing, photography, birding, and snuggling with her cat, Frank.
About the Lecture
Lagerpetids: The Non-Flying Cousins of Pterosaurs
Lagerpetids are a group of reptiles that lived during the Triassic Period. Though they superficially resemble meat-eating dinosaurs, they were more closely related to pterosaurs, with which they coexisted up until the end of the Triassic. Unlike pterosaurs, however, lagerpetids could not fly and were instead ground-dwelling. My talk will discuss the anatomy and behavior of these strange and enigmatic critters, as well as how they may be able to help us understand pterosaur ancestry.