"On the Trail of World's Oldest Dinosaurs": In-person Badger Talk in Burlington, WI

Join presenter Dave Lovelace on September 23, 2025, at 1:30 PM at the Burlington Public Library for a talk about dinosaurs as part of the Homeschool Class program. Children usually range from 5-15. Registration is strongly encouraged. Attendees can sign up through the Burlington Public Library website ( https://www.burlingtonlibrary.org/site/).

For many decades the first dinosaurs were thought to be restricted to the southern hemisphere due to major climatic barriers. It was thought that there was a 10-15 million year lag between their first appearance and when they finally made it north of the equator. However, UWGM-led expeditions to the Popo Agie Formation of Wyoming have uncovered several new taxa that tell a different tale, one that overthrows the ‘southern hemisphere origins’ of dinosaurs and supports an early cosmopolitan distribution.

Dave Lovelace is a vertebrate paleontologist specializing in Triassic-aged rocks of the Rocky Mountain West (252-201 million years ago). He joined the UW Geology Museum team as a research scientist after completing his PhD at UW-Madison’s Department of Geoscience in 2012. Dave combines the study of ancient bones, trackways, and soils to build a picture of what ecosystems looked like 230 million years ago — when the first mammals, turtles, crocodiles, lizards, dinosaurs, and birds evolved. Since becoming a member of the museum team, Dave had made several exciting discoveries including: the oldest known turtle tracks in the world, two mass-death-assemblages of Late Triassic amphibians, and the oldest dinosaur tracks in Wyoming.

You may also like the following events from Badger Talks:

• This Saturday, 30th August, 08:00 pm, Universe in the Park: In-Person Badger Talk at Kohler Andrae State Park, Sheboygan, WI in Sheboygan
• This Saturday, 30th August, 08:30 pm, Universe in the Park: In-person Badger Talk at Big Foot Beach State Park in Lake Geneva, WI in Lake Geneva
• Next Wednesday, 3rd September, 10:30 am, "Music and the Human Spirit (focus on neuroaesthetics)": In-Person Badger Talk in West Bend in West Bend

Also check out other Trips & Adventurous Activities in Burlington, Workshops in Burlington.