You are invited to attend the free webinar

Thursday, 29 October 2020 -  8am (GMT) / 4pm (Beijing) 

 Register here (https://www.dur.ac.uk/conference.booking/details/?id=1607)

 Registration deadline: Wednesday 28th October – 2pm (GMT) / 10pm (Beijing)

Presented by:

David A.T. Harper is Professor of Palaeontology in Earth Sciences and Principal of Van Mildert College in Durham University. He is a former President of the Palaeontological Association and the International Palaeontological Association, and is currently Chair of the International Commission on Stratigraphy.

Zhan Renbin, a research professor at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS), is now the Director of NIGPAS, the Secretary-General of the International Paleontological Association (IPA), the Chair of the Asian Palaeontological Association (APA), and the President of the Palaeontological Society of China (PSC).

What will be covered?

·        Life has been evolving on our planet for some four billion years but for most of geological time life was microbial

·        Within a window of some 100 million years animal life appeared in complexity and diversity and gradually began to dominate our biosphere

·        Major biotic events such as the Cambrian Explosion, The Great Ordovician Biodiversification and the Late Ordovician Extinction changed the direction of life on Earth, established its resilience and initiated more modern marine ecosystems

·        Intrinsic factors such as competition between animals and extrinsic factors such as climate and environmental change were key evolutionary drivers

·        Crucial fossil evidence from China and beyond will be discussed and illustrated.

We invite you to join us for the first webinar in our Knowledge Across Borders series – a partnership between Durham University in the UK and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.