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FEATURING:
Darin Croft, PhD
(Associate Professor, Department of Anatomy)
EVENT TOPIC:
Imagine
a
tropical
savanna
with a mixture of trees, shrubs and grasses, not
unlike what you might see in parts of East Africa. Now scan the horizon
for signs of life. A small group of hoofed plant-eaters is gathered
near the edge of the forest. They look like horses, with a single,
large hoof on each foot, but they are miniature, standing a mere three
feet tall at the shoulder. An animal that appears to be a giant
tortoise lazily munches grasses nearby. Its shell is unmistakable, but
it has small ears, large, fleshy lips and an armored tail, features you
have never seen before in a tortoise. Suddenly, a rabbit-like
animal dashes from some nearby shrubs, flushed out of its cover by
something that looks like a cross between a raccoon and a hyena. The
meat-eater retreats to cover after its unsuccessful attempt, and as it
turns you see what looks like a small baby clinging to its belly,
partially enclosed by a small pouch.
If you could travel to
Argentina 16 million years ago, this is what you might have seen.
Unfortunately, this and other fantastic animal parks of the past now
exist only in the minds of paleontologists and others interested in
ancient life. At this month’s Science Café Cleveland, we will
visit some of these ancient game parks, focusing on the strange mammals
that once roamed South America. Our guide will be Dr. Darin Croft, a
paleontologist and mammal specialist from Case Western Reserve
University. We will discuss the extreme variety of living mammals,
finding and collecting the fossilized bones of extinct mammals, and
using information from living mammals to understand the lifestyles of
extinct ones.
WEBSITE LINKS:
Cleveland Museum of Natural
History (CMNH)
Extreme
Mammals exhibit
CMNH YouTube Video
on Extreme Mammals
Story
about
recent
Nature
article on early mammal
EVENT INFORMATION:
This Science Cafe will be the first cafe
held at our new venue
We
are very excited about the new venue and hope to see everyone there to
welcome the Market Garden Brewery as a new sponsor and event space
of Science Cafe Cleveland. The Market Garden Brewery is just
around the corner and across West 25th street from the GLB Tasting
Room. It's right next to the West Side Market and we may park in the
market lot. The Market Garden Brewery offers dining options before,
during and after the event. Not to mention beer!
WHERE: The Market
Garden Brewery
(Located
at
1947
West
25th Street next to the West Side Market, Cleveland, Ohio)
WHEN: August 8, 2011
Drinks
at
6:30
pm,
discussion starts around 7:00 pm
WHO: Sponsored by Case Western
Reserve University chapter of Sigma Xi, WCPN
ideastream, and the Market
Garden Brewery
click here to download a pdf of the event flier
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