March Program – Caelan Libke

 The ceratopsian dinosaur, Triceratops, is one of the most widespread and abundant dinosaurs from the end of the Cretaceous Period in North America. Fossils of this iconic dinosaur have been found as far north as Alberta and Saskatchewan in Canada to as far south as Colorado. There have been some suggestions that Triceratops fossils from Canada and Montana tend to be larger than those from further south, although this theory has not been properly tested. The speaker will talk about testing this theory and what size variation in Triceratops, if it exists, might tell us about these dinosaurs and the world they lived in.

 About the speaker –I am a 2nd year Ph.D. candidate working with Dr. Jordan Mallon at the Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. I have worked on a wide range of fossils from turtles to insects in amber, and, of course, dinosaurs. My current Ph.D. work focuses particularly on the dinosaurs that lived in the western interior region of North America immediately prior to the end-Cretaceous mass extinction