May 13, 2010
Paleontologist to lecture May 21 at the Burke
Dinosaurs of the Lost Continent is the title of a lecture by Scott Sampson, a dinosaur paleontologist and host of the popular PBS KIDS show Dinosaur Train, set for 7 p.m. Friday, May 21, at the Burke Museum.
Sampson will explore ideas and controversies in paleontology, including the “lost continent” of Laramidia and the great extinction at the end of the Mesozoic. Sampson is the author of Dinosaur Odyssey: Fossil Threads in the Web of Life (University of California Press, 2009), the first comprehensive review of dinosaur paleontology for a general audience in more than two decades.
Tickets for the lecture are $5 for the general public and are free to Burke members. Register online here.
Sampson is the last in a series of lecturers who have visited the Burke in conjunction with the exhibit, Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway, which will close May 31, Memorial Day. Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway brings together the best of the Burke Museum’s fossil collection and the fossil-inspired artwork of Alaskan artist Ray Troll, whose whimsical illustrations of imagined scenes from prehistoric times help bring to life real fossils of giant ammonites, killer pigs, saber-toothed cats, dinosaurs and more.
To honor the closing weekend, the Burke Museum will be giving away free copies of the Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway exhibit poster to visitors, while supplies last, from May 28–31. Admission to the Burke is free to students, faculty and staff.
