DinoFest 2019 Speaker: Kathleen Ritterbush
Floating Fortresses of the Jurassic Seas by Kathleen Ritterbush, Assistant Professor of Geology & Geophysics, University of Utah
A global mass extinction paved the way for dinosaurs to conquer the land, and for strange – and lazy – creatures to fill the oceans. Seafloors hosted meadows of sponges, as large spiral-shelled ammonites swam above. New research tests the possible swimming speeds of these extinct squid-relatives, and suggests that the most abundant ammonites probably only swam fast during emergencies. Their shells were floating fortresses, lurking beneath the surface.