Science+Cafe+with+Professor+Losos

I attended the teen science cafe on December 14th for a presentation by Dr. Losos, author of the book “Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, and the Future of Evolution” and Harvard University professor. Professor Losos started out by referencing a common theory known as the dinosauroid theory, It states that the Troodon a species of raptor which had a large brain and opposable thumbs would have evolved in an ultimately very human-like form. He then goes on to find the flaws in this theory by showing the major differences in evolution from species that came from the same family. He also referenced the movies “Jurassic Park” and “The Good Dinosaur” to incorporate modern day examples into his lectures.

The topic is APES related by going into depth on the differences of divergent and convergent evolution. It also talked about the factors that would keep the Troodon from becoming humanoid which relates back to limiting factors that we talk about regularly in class. I had personally never heard of the troodon or the dinosauroid theory so it largely increased my personal knowledge of the subject and was much more intriguing than the last teen science cafe that I had been too.