Broadcast — Cutting Edge Lectures in Science: From embryos to adults: The life and times of a dinosaur

Dinosaurs have undergone a remarkable renaissance in recent decades. Far from being sluggish reptilian monsters doomed to extinction, new discoveries and new methods of scientific investigation have revealed dinosaurs as complex, highly active animals and one of the most diverse and successful groups of land creatures in the history of life on Earth.

Professor’s Reisz’s research team has studied the anatomy and life history of Massospondylus, a dinosaur that lived some 200 million years ago. Although not as visually striking as certain other dinosaurs, Massospondylus is unique among all dinosaurs in being known from many excellently preserved skulls and skeletons. These remains, along with the remarkable discovery of nests of this dinosaur  have allowed his team to reconstruct the life and times of this dinosaur in minute detail from an embryo all the way to a full adult, a feat unmatched in previous dinosaur research.