Press

ALBANY, NY – An expert in fossil plants will lead a “tour” of the Earth’s climates, past and future, at the State Museum February 21 as part of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists Distinguished Lecturer series.

Dr. Kirk Johnson, vice president of research and collections and chief curator of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, will discuss how fossil plants reveal lost worlds, extinct biological communities and ancient climates. His free lecture, at 7 p.m. in the Huxley Theater, is titled “Crocodiles in Greenland and Hippos in London: A Fossil-Fueled Tour of Past and Future Climates.” He will demonstrate how more precise dating of fossils has provided scientists with a better understanding of such phenomenon as climate change and global warming.

The lecture is co-sponsored by the Museum, the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Albany and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists Foundation.

“Dr. Johnson will provide examples of the great changes to the Earth, life, and the climate that occur over time,” says Dr. Charles A. Ver Straeten, a Museum geologist. “We see similar evidence of significant change over time in New York. Geological data shows that the city of Albany was covered by over a mile of glacial ice 20,000 years ago. In contrast, ancient coral reefs in the state indicate that New York was covered by shallow tropical seas 400 million years ago.”

Fossil plants play an important role in recording such change. Dating back 50 million years, they have shown that the Earth’s icy polar regions were once ice-free and densely forested, while rain forests today, found in the tropics, once reached middle latitudes. Johnson’s talk will move from the Amazon basin to the high Arctic, and from today, back to Deep Time, as he explains the Earth’s history by visiting fossil sites on various continents.

Johnson’s popular and scientific articles have covered topics ranging from fossil plants and modern rain forests to the ecology of whales and walruses. His work with fossil plants has provided some of the most convincing evidence that an asteroid caused extinction of dinosaurs. His work has also led to discovery and analysis of a 64-million year-old tropical rain forest in Colorado, indicative of the Earth’s warmer climates at the time.

The New York State Museum, established in 1836, is a program of the New York State Education Department. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible.

Further information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum Web site at .

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