Daybreak Discoveries: The Unseen Paleobotanical War

Wake up with awe instead of alarm clocks!

Join us bright and early for Daybreak Discoveries — a morning lecture series where nature and science come to life before your second cup of coffee. This series is designed to highlight the science happening right here at the Museum and connect you to the newest conversations in science. Whether you're a nature lover, science nerd, or just need a reason to get out of bed—this is your kind of morning routine.

This morning's lecture is led by Dr. Gussie Maccracken who is the Curator of Paleobotany at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. She specializes in paleobotany (the study of fossil plants) and their ecological interactions with insect herbivores. Her research investigates Late Cretaceous and early Paleocene ecosystems to understand how the K–Pg mass extinction, which killed off the non-avian dinosaurs at 66 million years ago, impacted life on Earth and how life rebounded in the age of mammals. Dr. Maccracken earned her PhD at University of Maryland, College Park while conducting research at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History, and completed her BA at Colorado College.

In her lecture this morning, Dr. Maccracken will highlight how our world is shaped by an unseen war that has been waging for hundreds of millions of years. This is the war between plants and their insect adversaries, a war of chemicals. And, for better or worse, some of these chemicals are tightly interwoven into human societies, a part of our shared histories and everyday life

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