The March 29 session of the 2018 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology’s Speaker Series is a presentation by Dr. Susan Crockford, University of Victoria, BC, entitled, “Dogs Across The Pacific: How Man's Best Friend Came to the New World Before the Arrival of Europeans.”
Dogs came to the Americas from Eurasia with their human companions. Virtually everywhere archaeologists find evidence of people in the Americas at sites 10,000 years old or less, they find skeletal remains of dogs. Where in Eurasia did these dogs come from? How did the biological transformation from wolf to dog happen? Can we tell from their remains where wolves first became dogs, and what route dogs and their human companions took to the Americas?
Dr. Susan Crockford has spent almost 30 years studying the history and evolution of dogs. Her research focuses on the role of thyroid hormone in vertebrate speciation, archaeological studies on dog origins, prehistoric dogs in the Americas, and genetic studies.
In her presentation, Dr. Crockford will discuss her research on the history and evolution of dogs in the Americas, providing some new answers to these age-old questions. Copies of Dr. Crockford’s book, Rhythms of Life: Thyroid Hormone and the Origin of Species, will be available for sale by author (cash only).
The Royal Tyrrell Museum’s Speaker Series talks are free and open to the public. The series is held every Thursday until April 26 at 11:00 a.m. in the Museum auditorium. Speaker Series talks are also available on the Museum’s YouTube channel: youtube.com/c/RoyalTyrrellMuseumofPalaeontology.
