Doors Open from 6:40pm

Refreshments available.

Entry Fees:

Members - Free*

Non Members 26+: £3

Non Members 18-25: £2 - Under 18s: FREE

All tickets are RESERVE ONLINE & PAY ON THE DOOR! Cash & Card accepted.

* (Even if you are a member, please make sure you claim your tickets so we know attendance numbers and venue capacity.)

£Donations also accepted.

Please note for events in Jan, Feb & March we will not be taking new memberships for the 2023-2024 period, only 2024-2025 (Apr-Dec).

ABOUT THE SUBJECT

This talk will aim to explore all of the dinosaur finds from south Wales, including the very recent ones. These finds give us an unequalled opportunity to fill in our knowledge of environments and biodiversity from the Late Triassic (220 million years ago) to the earliest Jurassic Era (195 million years ago). This was a time when hot equatorial deserts were gradually being replaced by shallow warm seas during a process of sea-rise and associated local climate change.  Dinosaurs were a newly evolved group of reptiles which survived the end Triassic Mass Extinction events and even benefitted from the new conditions, leading to the diversity of forms we know and love from the Mid Jurassic onwards. However, little would have been known about these early dinosaurian days in the UK if it wasn't for the fossils described in this talk.

The talk will include all the local footprints - even the ones at Penarth (that might not be prints...!)

ABOUT THE SPEAKER - Cindy Howells

Cindy is a representative of the National Museum of Wales (Amgueddfa Cymru)* and has been working there for 38 years as a palaeontological curator after gaining her geology degree in Cardiff University. She is currently on the committee of the South Wales Geologists Association* and by the date of the talk will be their Vice-President. In addition she represents the Geological Curators' Group* (an international specialist group) as Membership Secretary, and has a particular interest in promoting the work carried out by amateur collectors and building bridges between these and museum curators so that the most important finds can be preserved for posterity in museum collections.

OTHER USEFUL INFORMATION

National Museum of Wales Spotters Guides*