Animals, Sediments, Slime, Muck and Goo:  The Record of Earth’s Early Animals and their Environments with Implications for Discovering Life Elsewhere 

presented by Dr. Mary L. Droser

Distinguished Professor of Geology

Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences

Wednesday, February 5, 2025

5:00pm - 6:00pm - Reception 

6:00pm - 7:00 pm - Lecture 

UCR Palm Desert 

75080 Frank Sinatra Drive, Palm Desert, CA 92211 

About Dr. Droser’s lecture

Planet Earth has an exceptional record of the unfolding of complex life on our planet.   The oldest record of animals is full of diverse but sometimes strange looking soft-bodied forms that included organisms that grazed microbial mats, were attached to seafloor but reached up to over a meter in height and even floated in the water column.  Earth’s earliest ecosystems were surprisingly complex.   In her talk, Dr. Droser will talk about what we do and do not know about the rise of animals on Earth and why we should care!

About Dr. Droser

Dr. Droser has an undergraduate degree from the University of Rochester and a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California.  Dr. Droser is a paleobiologist and paleoecologist who specializes in the advent of complex life on earth.  Dr. Droser has worked on 4 continents studying the fossil record of early animals and has received funding from NASA, the National Science Foundation and National Geographic to do this research.  Much of Dr. Droser’s field work is in South Australia which holds the best record for the advent of animals.  There, Dr. Droser has worked to establish a new National Park based on the these fossils and is working with the South Australian government on a World Heritage Bid.  Dr. Droser received the 2022 National Academy Walcott Medal, the 2022 SEPM Moore Medal and the 2024 Paleontological Society Medal.

Please register below, the lecture is free and open to the public. 

Light refreshments will be served while supplies last.

For more information on the Science Lecture Series visit CNAS Science Lecture Series website