Were Dinosaurs too big? Discussing Dinosaur Evolution

Everyone knows about dinosaurs as the most impressive animals that ever existed. Or is our view flawed? We accept them as dynamic, intelligent, caring creatures that bounded across the plains, indulging in complicated courtship rituals, building nests and nurturing their young. When this view was recently challenged, palaeontologists around the world rose up angrily and petitioned for the theory to be banned.

Brian J Ford argues that our accepted view is wrong. He claims that the Cretaceous habitat was completely different from what scientists believe, and that dinosaurs evolved in shallow lakes and lagoons.

Darren Naish asks “were some non-bird dinosaurs swimmers or waders? Sure: anatomical evidence indicates that a few species probably did live this way. But were most or even all non-bird dinosaurs aquatic, as proposed by a lone, controversial author?”

In this talk, we look at the evidence relevant to this claim and then open up the discussion to our audience.

Dr Darren Naish is a vertebrate palaeontologist and author based at the University of Southampton. His technical work mostly focuses on the flying pterosaurs, the evolution and anatomy of predatory dinosaurs, and the biology of the giant, long-necked sauropods. He writes widely on animals of all kinds. His most recent books include Dinosaurs: How They Lived and Evolved (co-authored with Paul Barrett) and Evolution in Minutes.

Brian J. Ford is a renowned biologist who has published hundreds of scientific articles in journals including Nature, New Scientist, Scientific American and the British Medical Journal. He has written for The Times, the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian and has hosted programmes including Science Now and Kaleidoscope for the BBC. He has frequently contributed to programmes including Newsbeat and Newsnight and is a fellow of Cardiff University, former fellow of the Open University, a fellow (and former officer) of both the Linnean Society and of the Institute of Biology.