Lectures

Lectures are open to all and there is no charge for admission. However regular in person attendees are expected to be members of the society.

Time:
7:45pm for 8:00pm

Venue: 
In Person: Sorby Room, Wager Building, (formerly Geoscience),
The University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading.
Use Car Park 8 (OS: SU 7336 7159, W3W: ///herbs.clap.type, Lat,Long: 51.4385775,-0.9459335)
Via Zoom: Members are sent the joining link by email.
Non-members wishing to join a zoom lecture can request this using the registration link when shown. Requests should always be made before 6pm on the previous day.
This lecture will be both in the Sorby room and via Zoom.


2025-05

Monday 12 May 2025

Uncovering the Dinosaur Highway

Dr Emma Nicholls, Oxford University Museum of Natural History
Non Members Registration

In 2023, quarry worker Gary Johnson uncovered a number of ‘unusual bumps’ on the limestone floor whilst stripping back clay with his vehicle. Knowing there were dinosaur footprints in the area, the Quarry contacted Oxford University Museum of Natural History who, together with colleagues at the University of Birmingham, assembled an excavation team that led to the incredible discovery of over 200 footprints, comprising at least five trackways. These traces of a Middle Jurassic world give us direct evidence of dinosaur behaviour, and include both the 9-metre-long ferocious predator Megalosaurus as well as several sauropods up to twice that size. The new trackways link up with another site, excavated nearby in Ardley in 1997, making the area the fifth largest dinosaur trackway site in the world. Emma is a palaeontologist and Collections Manager of Vertebrate Palaeontology at Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Her work on exhibitions, education, and care of museum collections has contributed to several museum awards throughout her career, and she has appeared on numerous radio and television programmes talking about dinosaurs and palaeontology. Her primary research interests are Mesozoic reptiles and sharks. In 2021, she was part of the team of specialists that excavated the ‘Rutland ichthyosaur’, thought to be the largest, near-complete reptile skeleton found in Britain. In 2024, she co-led the excavation of the largest dinosaur trackway site in the UK, located in a North Oxfordshire quarry.

Programme 2025

The programme for 2025 as currently proposed is also available as a pdf document.

Other programmes

Previous years programmes and other programme information can be found on the About us page.