DinoFest 2019 Speaker: Adam Pritchard
The Rise of the Reptiles by Adam Pritchard, Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellow, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
Before dinosaurs evolved, their ancestors and the ancestors of modern lizards, crocodylians, and turtles were a small part of global ecosystems. A mass extinction at the end of the Permian Period 252 million years ago and rapid evolution produced the incredible range of reptile body plans that filled Triassic ecosystems. This vast array of species includes long-necked tanystropheids, chameleon-mimic drepanosaurs, bird-beaked trilophosaurs, and other new fossil discoveries. These early reptiles set the stage for the origin of dinosaurs and lived alongside the earliest dinosaurs throughout the Triassic Period.