NYC ATHEISTS MONTHLY MEETING

Evolutionary Trends: Why Did Dinosaurs Go Extinct?

The Clues Are Right Here Under Our Feet:
Dinos Once Ruled New York

Everyone loves to hear about dinosaurs, says Dr. Bret Bennington, professor of geology atHofstra University. They are captivating to just about everybody. “It’s the mysteries surrounding them,” he explains. “The big question everyone wants to know is, why did they go extinct? But equally important,” he notes, “is why and how did they get started?”

What’s amazing to New Yorkers is that clues to these dinosaur mysteries lie beneath our very own feet. “There is a fascinating and very rich history of dinosaurs on the East Coast—New York,New Jersey and Connecticut,” says Dr. Bennington, who will discuss this intriguing discovery at NYC Atheist’s October 29th meeting. “We don’t have the kind of dinosaur fossil bones you might find out West; but we have some significant information preserved in the rocks in our area.”

Dinos Roamed New Jersey

Yes, dinosaurs once roamed the lands the George Washington Bridge spans, they trod on what is now the Jersey Turnpike, they lumbered through woodlands that, eons later, became Park Avenue.

Moreover, dinosaurs have some interesting significance in terms of evolution: “They are a good illustration of the process of evolution and of some of the big evolutionary ideas that have been developed in the last 150 years,” asserts the professor.

Dinos Survived Longer Than Man

The man who coined the term “dinosaur” was a British zoologist whose ulterior motive for defining this category of giant reptiles was actually anti-Darwinian. He was Richard Owen, probably the only person that Darwin ever admitted publicly to not liking.

Owen was one of the heads of the British Museum and a famous comparative anatomist. He worked on some of the vertebrate fossils that Darwin brought back from the Galapagos Islands. But Owen was an anti-evolutionist and became an intellectual opponent of Darwin. He believed that his dinosaurs would provide a counter argument for evolution.

But of course they didn’t. “Actually, dinosaurs were efficiently evolved for survival, since they lasted for 150 million years. In contrast, our lineage, hominids, have been around for only six million years, so dinosaurs have got us beat for a quarter and a half of magnitude.”

Dynamic Speaker

What made dinosaurs finally go extinct? “The rocks and fossils that provide clues to that event are here in the New York area,” reveals Dr. Bennington, who for 17 years has taught geology, Darwin, paleontology and Dinosaurs at Hofstra University. “This is a very interesting place for the study of dinosaurs.”

Come on Thursday to hear this dynamic speaker tell you things you never suspected about dinosaurs and evolution!

Come to enjoy a tour of the dinosaurian world revealed in rock formations of the New York area. Hear about the spectacular scientific relationship of dinosaurs and evolution in a friendly Atheist atmosphere where you can ask questions freely and openly.

EVENT SUMMARY

WHAT: “When Dinosaurs Ruled New York,” a talk by Dr. J. Bret Bennington,

Associate Professor of geology at Hofstra University

WHEN: Thursday, October 29, at 6:30 pm

WHERE: SLC Conference Center

352 Seventh Ave. (bet. 29th & 30th)

16th Floor

COST: We would appreciate a donation of $5 to help cover cost of meeting

space. Unemployed exempt.