“Feathered Dinosaurs and the Origin of Birds” will be topic of Jan. 30 lecture

January 24, 2007

One of North America’s leading paleontologists will give a lecture at Georgia Southern University.

Canadian scientist Philip J. Currie will speak at the Nessmith-Lane Continuing Education Building auditorium on Tuesday, Jan. 30, at 7 p.m.

‘Feathered Dinosaurs and the Origin of Birds” is the title of Currie’s lecture, which is free and open to the public.

Currie is the Canada Research Chair in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Calgary and the former curator of dinosaurs at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology.

As a researcher at Tyrrell, Currie focused on the growth and variation of extinct reptiles, the anatomy and relationships of carnivorous dinosaurs, and the origin of birds. His work in the field has been concentrated in the Arctic, Antarctica, Argentina, Canada, China and Mongolia.

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Currie has given hundreds of lectures all over the world and published 12 books and more than 100 scientific articles. He was awarded the Sir Frederick Haultain Award for contributions to science in Alberta, and he also received the Michel T. Halbouty Human Needs Award from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

The lecture is sponsored by the Georgia Southern Museum and the Campus Life Enrichment Committee.
For more information, contact the Museum at (912) 681-5444.