HMNS BTS – Through Time: Terrestrial Life Debuts x Cockrell Butterfly Center
April 12 @ 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
IN PERSON – The popular paleo series returns, with a twist. Join professional Paleontologist and Science Educator, James E. Washington III on a journey through time in the Morian Hall of Paleontology and featured halls of the Museum. When vertebrate life came out of the water and conquered land, the root of our own human family tree debuted in the fabulous, fighting, fin-backed reptile, Dimetrodon, apex predator of the Texas Permian, 280 million years ago. Catastrophic die-offs at the end of the Permian Period (252 million years ago) exterminated most of the dominant life forms, but the empty niches welcomed new clans of dynamic creatures. All the while, arthropod “bugs” were evolving in the background. The second half of the tour will take place in the Cockrell Butterfly Center to examine the conditions that led to arthropods being the most abundant group of animal life today.