DinoFest 2019 Speaker: Nathan Smith

Dinosaurs on Ice: Evolutionary Morphology and Biogeography of Early Jurassic Dinosaurs from Antarctica by Nathan Smith, Associate Curator, Dinosaur Institute, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

 

A paleontologist works on exposed rock in the Antarctic.

The Hanson Formation on Mt. Kirkpatrick in the Central Transantarctic Mountains has yielded a diverse Early Jurassic terrestrial fauna, which includes the saurischian dinosaurs Cryolophosaurus, Glacialisaurus, and several new early sauropodomorphs. These species fill critical gaps in our understanding of early dinosaur evolution and their geographic distribution, and are helping us understand how polar dinosaur communities evolved through time.

Return to the DinoFest 2019 overview.