November 19, 3p.m.:

Speaker: Chris Sidor
Institution: University of Washington
Title: The original bone heads: paleobiology and evolution of burnetiamorph therapsids
Description: Burnetiamorphs were middle-to-late Permian therapsids (i.e. stem-group mammals) known from fossils across southern Africa and Russia. Notably, were among the first clades of tetrapods to develop a wide array of bony ‘horns’ and other adornments on their skulls, which in other lineages have been considered characteristics enhancing species recognition or mate competition. In this seminar, I will provide an overview of the clade, compare their cranial anatomy to the pachyostosis seen in other clades (e.g., pachycephalosaur dinosaurs), and discuss the macroevolutionary implications of burnetiamorphs being much more speciose than expected given its comparatively small sample size.
Host: David Blackburn