From the Ashes of Dinosaurs – Dinosaur Extinction and the Rise of Modern Birds and Mammals

Being a paleontologist is your fate when you start hunting dinosaurs before fifth grade and make fantastic discoveries in middle and high school. Tyler Lyson grew up in Marmoth, North Dakota, close to the fossil-rich Hell Creek formation. In these famous rocks he discovered Dakota, an Edmontosaurus with preserved and petrified soft tissue and skin.

Dakota the dinosaur was highlighted in the Vail Daily in 2007 HERE.

After his early discoveries, Tyler earned his Ph.D. at Yale, did postdoctoral work at the Smithsonian, and is presently a curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. The change of life from either side of the mass extinction event at the end of the Mesozoic Era, 66 million years ago, along with turtle evolution, are his main research interests.

Tyler’s work in the Hell Creek Formation has been highlighted in the PBS documentary Making North America. His quest to discover why mammals became predominant after the extinction of the dinosaurs was the subject of the PBS Nova series film, Rise of the Mammals. The film recounts the discoveries made by the Denver Museum of Nature and Science at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary at Corral Bluffs, Colorado. This location holds a remarkable record of the extinction of most dinosaurs (excluding birds, their descendants) and the rise and early evolution of mammals.

Join Tyler as he discusses the amazing discoveries that have been found in Colorado’s rocks on either side of one of earth’s major extinction events.

Light refreshments served.

Location: Betty Ford Alpine Gardens Visitor Center (Education Center)