51st Annual Hefner Lecture “Prehistoric Predators: Using the Past to Inform our Future”

Miami University’s Hefner Museum of Natural History’s 51st lecture will be given by Larissa DeSantis, Ph.D. Dr. DeSantis will draw on her extensive research of both fossilized Pleistocene (Ice Age) and modern megafauna–from saber tooth cats to cougars, polar bears to coyotes–to present an all-ages public lecture titled “Prehistoric Predators: Using the Past to Inform our Future.” Dr. DeSantis’ lab studies prehistoric ecology and its impact on extinction and evolution as a way to interpret the present and to predict what the future will bring. Her work on fossils from Rancho La Brea in Los Angeles and in Australia provides insight into the pressures predators and other large mammals face during times of rapid climate change. The Lecture will be held Thursday October 16, 2025 7:30pm in Laws Hall Room 100, free for all ages, with a reception at the Museum afterwards.

You may also like the following events from Hefner Museum of Natural History:

• Next month, 9th October, 06:00 pm, MU Audubon Presents: Ornitherapy: For your Mind, Body, Soul in Oxford