Speaker Dr Darren Naish

We’re in the middle of a revolution in our understanding of the sea reptiles that lived across the planet during the so-called Age of Dinosaurs, properly termed the Mesozoic. These include the shark-shaped ichthyosaurs, the famously long-necked plesiosaurs, and those great swimming lizards the mosasaurs. New species are being discovered at a rapid rate, and new finds on their evolution, biology, behaviour and environment challenge old assumptions. The UK – the Dorset coast in particular – remains globally important in our understanding of these animals. In this talk, we look at how our ideas on ancient sea reptiles have changed, on what ancient sea reptiles were like as living animals, and on what we still hope to discover. There is still so much to learn.

Darren Naish is an author and palaeozoologist who works on dinosaurs, ancient sea reptiles and the flying pterosaurs. He received his PhD in palaeontology from the University of Portsmouth in 2006. He has published numerous books, mostly recently Ancient Sea Reptiles (Natural History Museum, London/Smithsonian Books) and Mesozoic Art (with Steve White, published by Bloomsbury), and he blogs at Tetrapod Zoology (tetzoo.com) where he writes about all manner of zoological topics. He also works for the BBC Natural History Unit and is chief scientific consultant for the Apple TV+ series Prehistoric Planet.