Internationally Renowned Speakers Lined up for Yorkshire Fossil Festival in Scarborough

A line-up of internationally renowned speakers from the worlds of palaeontology and Earth science will give free public talks for this year’s Yorkshire Fossil Festival in Scarborough.

The event which takes place which takes place from 10 to 12 September will see online lectures by

• Dr Anjana Khatwa, earth scientist, presenter and advocate for diversity in science
• Professor David Bond, mass extinctions expert at the University of Hull
• Dr Elsa Panciroli from the University of Oxford, author of Beasts Before Us

Dr Anjana Khatwa will give the inaugural Sue & Pete Rawson Lecture, How to Talk about Rocks and Influence People, at 2pm on Friday 10 September. The leacture will focus on how to help people of all backgrounds engage with the extraordinary story of our planet.

Over the past 20 years, Earth Scientist and presenter Dr Anjana Khatwa has travelled the world in search of remarkable rocks that reveal the deep history of our Earth. She will reveal some of the places she loves and the techniques she uses to help people fall in love with their hidden stories under their feet.

Anjana has spent 15 years at the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site where she developed an award-winning education programme. Anjana is now Engagement Lead at Wessex Museums, developing strategic programming to engage underserved audiences with museum spaces.  She is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and was awarded the RH Worth Medal in 2021 from the Geological Society of London for services to outreach and education in the geosciences.

Professor Dave Bond, extinctions expert at the University of Hull, will give the inaugural William Smith Lecture, A Beginner's Guide to Mass Extinctions, at 2pm on Saturday 11 September. It is likely that Planet Earth faces an impending extinction crisis if humans can’t curb their excesses. Some say the modern extinction has already begun, because species are disappearing at an alarming rate. Professor Bond's lecture will ask the question "how can we, as the supposed agents of this environmental catastrophe, know what will happen?"

The third lecture, entitled Beasts Before Us: The Untold Story of Mammal Origins and Evolution, will be delivered by Dr Elsa Panciroli at 3pm on Sunday 12 September. Elsa is a palaeontologist who studies the evolution and ecology of extinct animals – particularly mammals from the time of dinosaurs. She is a researcher based at the University of Oxford, and associate researcher at the National Museum of Scotland. Elsa’s work takes her around the world to collaborate with scientists in China, the US, South Africa and Europe to understand the origin of major animal groups. She is a keen science communicator delivering public talks on palaeontology and the origin of mammals. She has written for The Guardian, Palaeontology Online and Biological Sciences Review. She is a graduate of the BBC’s Expert Woman training programme, and frequently contributes to radio and podcast programmes, such as Crowdscience, The John Beatty Show and Our Lives. Her latest book, Beasts Before Us, is the first popular science book to completely re-tell the story of our most ancient of ancestors, proving they weren’t just mammal precursors: they were pioneers.

The lectures are all free and will be screened on Zoom. They an be accessed by registering on the Yorkshire Fossil Festival Evenbrite page: http://yorkshirefossilfestival.eventbrite.com

Expert speakers will also introduce films in the Fossil Film Fest, a new partnership this year between the Festival and the Stephen Joseph Theatre. The Valley of Gwangi (8pm on Friday 10 September) will feature a discussion with palaeo-artist James McKay, looking at dinosaurs in art and on-screen, while Ammonite (8pm on Saturday 11 September) will be introduced by Liam Herringshaw, Yorkshire Fossil Festival director, with a contribution from Zoe Hughes, Curator of Fossil Invertebrates at the Natural History Museum.

The Yorkshire Fossil Festival, based around Scarborough’s Rotunda Museum and online from Friday 10 to Saturday 12 September, will see contributions from local and national museums, universities and businesses, providing entertainment and expertise. The Festival launch day on Friday 10 September will feature events especially for schools.

Subject to final Covid confirmation, the in-person exhibitors at this year’s Yorkshire Fossil Festival will include the Universities of Hull, Sheffield, and the Yorkshire Geological Society, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, and the Dinosaur Isle Museum, whilst online contributors will include the Geologists’ Association, the University of Cambridge’s Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, and the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

For more information visit: https://yorkshirefossilfestival.co.uk and https://www.scarboroughmuseumstrust.com