{"id":7410,"date":"2011-01-13T16:14:36","date_gmt":"2011-01-13T21:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=7410"},"modified":"2015-09-25T13:33:22","modified_gmt":"2015-09-25T17:33:22","slug":"alumnus-to-speak-about-oldest-forms-of-complex-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2011\/01\/alumnus-to-speak-about-oldest-forms-of-complex-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumnus to speak about oldest forms of complex life"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_7409\" style=\"width: 490px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7409\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7409 \" title=\"Guy Narbonne and David Attenborough at Mistaken Point\" src=\"http:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/gn-and-d-attenborough-mistaken-point.jpg\" alt=\"Guy Narbonne shows Sir David Attenborough evidence of the oldest, large, multicellular creature in the world at Mistaken Point during the filming of a BBC special.\" width=\"480\" height=\"270\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-7409\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Guy Narbonne shows Sir David Attenborough evidence of the oldest large multicellular creature in the world at Mistaken Point during the filming of a BBC special. Photo: Richard Thomas, NL Parks and Natural Areas<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A renowned paleontologist who studies the origin and early evolution of animals will present Brock\u2019s first Faculty of Mathematics and Science Distinguished Alumni Lecture this month.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7411\" style=\"width: 154px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.complex-life.org\/guy_narbonne\" target=\"_blank\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7411\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7411  \" title=\"Guy Narbonne\" src=\"http:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/guynarbonne.jpg\" alt=\"Guy Narbonne\" width=\"144\" height=\"193\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-7411\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Guy Narbonne<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.complex-life.org\/guy_narbonne\" target=\"_blank\">Guy Narbonne<\/a> (BSc \u201975), who grew up in Niagara, is a professor and research chair in Paleontology in the Department of Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering at Queen\u2019s University. He was recently inducted into the prestigious Royal Society of Canada, one of Canada&#8217;s highest academic honours.<\/p>\n<p>Narbonne&#8217;s research and descriptions of the biology, ecology and history of Ediacaran biota \u2014 the oldest forms of complex life yet discovered (575-542 million years old) \u2014 have greatly influenced our understanding of evolution.<\/p>\n<p>In his lecture, Narbonne will speak about the unusual soft-bodied animal fossils discovered by him and his colleagues in 2002 in 580-million-year-old rocks at Mistaken Point in Newfoundland. The discovery pushed back the age of Earth&#8217;s earliest known complex life to more than 575 million years ago, soon after the melting of massive glaciers.<\/p>\n<p>These Precambrian fossils help to resolve \u201cDarwin\u2019s Dilemma\u201d regarding the very late appearance of large organisms, billions of years after microscopic life first appeared. Evidence suggests that large animals developed in response to dramatic environmental changes \u2014 notably the end of a global ice age and a large rise in atmospheric oxygen.<\/p>\n<p>The Faculty of Mathematics and Science Distinguished Alumni Lectures showcases the talents and accomplishments of notable alumni from the Faculty. These public lectures are free and everyone is welcome to attend.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What:<\/strong> \u201cWhen Life Got Big: Glaciation, Oxygenation and the Origin of Animals\u201d<br \/>\n<strong>When:<\/strong> Monday, Jan. 24, 5 to 6:30 p.m.<br \/>\n<strong>Where:<\/strong> Academic South 217<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A renowned paleontologist who studies the origin and early evolution of animals will present Brock\u2019s first Faculty of Mathematics and Science Distinguished Alumni Lecture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[119,3,1],"tags":[237,236,59,3328],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7410"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8695,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7410\/revisions\/8695"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}