Sioux Falls Science Pub @ Severance Brewing

A free event about dinosaurs in a relaxed atmosphere. No prior knowledge needed, just curiosity!

The modern world is full of extreme and amazing animal locomotive behaviors, resulting from millions of years of selection and ecological adaptation. For example, birds represent one of the most diverse and successful groups of modern vertebrates, and much of that success is linked to their ability to fly. When did the first bird ancestor take to the air, what drove them to take off in the first place, and how do you get from the 40-foot-long multi-ton Tyrannosaurus rex to the half-ounce bee hummingbird? Join Alex Dececchi, Ph.D., an evolutionary biologist/paleontologist, for a Dinovember evening of birds and dinosaurs at the Sioux Falls Science Pub, and even a Kahoot game with prizes!

The talk will begin at 7 p.m. at Severance Brewing. The venue and event are family-friendly!

Dr. Dececchi is a professor at Dakota State University who works on questions of the origin and evolution of birds, dinosaur biomechanics, and other issues of dinosaur evolution. His work uses comparative approaches between birds and their dinosaur ancestry to estimate biomechanical performances of terrestrial and aerial locomotion. Some highlights of this research are the revelation that powered flight had multiple origins prior to the origin of birds and that wings in non-flying feathered dinosaurs were capable of enhancing terrestrial locomotory performances.