Paul Sereno, an internationally known paleontologist who has discovered dinosaurs on five continents, will give a public lecture at the University of Colorado at Boulder on Monday, Nov. 8.
His talk, "Dinosaurs on Drifting Continents," will be held in Macky Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
Sereno's presentation is the 40th George Gamow Memorial Lecture, a prominent lecture series that brings renowned scientists to CU-Boulder to speak to general audiences of non-scientists. Sereno is a professor at the University of Chicago.
His talk will focus on the evolution of dinosaurs and how his discovery of new species on different continents helps explain how and when the ancient southern continents of Africa, South America and India separated from each other more than 100 million years ago.
Sereno's research has taken him all over the world in pursuit of ancient fossilized remains to help piece together what he calls "the tree of dinosaur life." He plans to continue his dinosaur hunt in Tibet, in what he describes as the last unexplored piece of what was once the great southern landmass Gondwana.
In 1988 his team found the earliest dinosaurs to roam the earth, Herrerasaurus and Eoraptor, in the foothills of the Andes in Argentina.
Sereno's African discoveries include Afrovenator, a 27-foot-long meat-eater, and skeletons of a 70-foot-long plant-eater he named Jobaria. He also discovered a bizarre fish-eating dinosaur with huge claws and a sail on its back, which he named Suchomimus, and found the skull of a huge Tyrannosaurus rex-sized meat-eater called Carcharodontosaurus.
Sereno has written for National Geographic and Natural History magazines, and has been featured in numerous documentaries. He also is a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence and has been recognized with numerous honors and awards including the Boston Museum of Science's Walker Prize for extraordinary contributions in paleontology.
The George Gamow Memorial Lecture Series began in 1971 and honors the late CU-Boulder physics professor who was pivotal in developing the big-bang theory of the creation of the universe. He also was recognized for his many books popularizing science for non-scientific audiences.
For more information about the lecture or the George Gamow Memorial Lecture Series visit or call (303) 492-0754.