Farrand Memorial Lecture

A public reception will precede the lecture in the museum atrium and lobby beginning at 6:00 p.m. The museum is located in the Biological Sciences Building (address above).

Join Daniel C. Fisher, Claude W. Hibbard Collegiate Professor of Paleontology, U-M Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences, and Curator, U-M Museum of Paleontology, for the 22nd annual William R. Farrand Memorial Lecture, presented by the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History.

Focusing on the life of the Buesching mastodon, represented by the large cast skeleton displayed in the atrium of the U-M Museum of Natural History, On the Trail of an Ice Age Mastodon will reveal the story of one male’s struggles and victories, from adolescence to the mating-season battle that ultimately claimed his life.

Paleontologists seeking to understand the lives of extinct animals often make do with scant clues gleaned from an animal’s skeleton, from its circumstances of preservation, and from its time of death. Reconstructing lost ecosystems is always a challenge, but sometimes we get lucky. At its best, the fossil record provides clear snapshots, or even motion sequences from the past, such as footprints showing how an animal moved. On a larger scale, we can now read records of growth and behavior archived in the mineralized layers of mastodon tusks, allowing us to follow a single animal for years, across entire landscapes. For the first time, we identify seasonal migratory behavior that may have been key to meeting the challenges of reproduction near the end of the Ice Age.

This event will be live-streamed.