The April 5 session of the 2018 Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology’s Speaker Series is a presentation by Dr. Christina Barron-Ortiz, Royal Alberta Museum, entitled, “The Extinction of Alberta’s Ice Age Horses.”
The remains of ancient horses are relatively common in the Ice Age record of Alberta. These remains are often fragmentary, but some nearly complete specimens have been found. Some of the most complete Ice Age horse skeletons in North America were collected in Alberta.
Most of the remains are approximately 11,000 to 100, 000 years old, a time interval that corresponds to the last glacial stage. This makes them particularly important for understanding how climatic and environmental changes at the end of the Ice Age affected populations of these animals.
In this presentation, Dr. Barron-Ortiz will discuss research she and her colleagues have undertaken to understand how these ancient horses lived, and how environmental and climatic changes may have contributed to their extinction 11,000 years ago.
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.
