Event type:
Evening meeting, Lecture
Organised by:
Home Counties North Regional Group
Venue:
Sir Robert McAlpine, Hemel Hempstead
Event status:
EVENT CLOSED
Virtual palaeontology is a powerful (revolutionary?) new approach to the study of fossils, which opens new possibilities for computational palaeobiological analysis, recovery of difficult material and dissemination of morphological data. A broad group of techniques are suitable for nearly all fossils and virtual palaeontology will be a mainstay of palaeontology for the 21st century.
It entails the study of 3-dimensional (3-D) fossils on screen as digital interactive screen models. Reconstruction is directly from single real specimens as a medium for palaeobiological study. It requires 3-D fossils, which are not uncommon and even 3-D soft parts are not too rare.
Time
6pm for 6:30pm
Cost
Free
Venue
Sir Robert McAlpine
Eaton Court
Maylands Avenue
Hemel Hempstead
HP2 7TR
Speaker
Mark Sutton, Imperial College
Mark Sutton did a degree in Natural Sciences at Cambridge, specialising in Geology and Palaeontology. then did a PhD in Cardiff, in Welsh Ordovician Inarticulate Brachiopods, followed by a 3-year stint in Lampeter (darkest Wales) lecturing in IT.
In 1999 he started 6 years in Oxford, working on the 3-D fossils of the Herefordshire Lagerstatte, where he became interested in 3-D reconstruction and virtual palaeontology. Since 2005 he has been a lecturer at Imperial College, researching a range of palaeontological subjects centred around the origin and early evolution of major invertebrate groups, often using virtual techniques.