Just how wild is your cat? Join David Evans for a conversation with biologist Jonathan Losos as they discuss how researchers today are unraveling the secrets of the cat using all the tools of modern technology. From GPS tracking (where do backyard cats roam?) and genomics to forensic archaeology, today’s research continues to reveal the mysteries of your cat’s past. Captured in his latest book: The Cat’s Meow: How Cats Evolved from the Savanna to your Sofa, Losos’ work gives us a cat’s-eye view of today’s habitats, an inside look at wild cat cousins from around the world whose habits your sweet house cat sometimes eerily parallels. Humans are transforming cats, and they in turn are transforming the world around them. What may the future hold for both Felis catus and Homo sapiens?

Speakers: 

Jonathan Losos

Jonathan Losos is an evolutionary biologist known for his research on how lizards rapidly evolve to adapt to changing environments. A graduate of Harvard University and the University of California, he has held faculty positions at Washington University and at Harvard University. A former Curator in Herpetology at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, he returned to Washington University in 2018 and was appointed as the inaugural holder of the William H. Danforth Distinguished University Professorship and Director of the Living Earth Collaborative, a partnership between Wash U., the Saint Louis Zoo, and the Missouri Botanical Garden. This new biodiversity center, nearly unique in partnering a leading university, zoo, and garden, has as its mission to advance knowledge of biodiversity and to ensure the future of earth’s species in their many forms.

David C. Evans

David C. Evans holds the Temerty Chair in Vertebrate Palaeontology and oversees dinosaur research at ROM and is Co-Chief Curator for Natural History. He is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto. David is an Ontario-born researcher who is recognized internationally as an authority on the rich dinosaur fossil record of Canada, and on the mass extinction event that marked the end of the Age of Dinosaurs. As a curator, he helped develop the Museum’s dinosaur galleries, and was Lead Curator of the major travelling exhibition Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants from Gondwana. He has been featured on television shows, and most recently, co-created the HISTORY series Dino Hunt Canada.

David’s research focuses on the evolution, ecology and diversity of dinosaurs, and their relationship to environmental changes leading up to the Cretaceous mass extinction event. Active in the field, he has participated in expeditions all over the world, including in Africa, Mongolia, and Canada, and has helped discover 10 new dinosaur species in the last five years- including the remarkable horned dinosaur Wendiceratops from southern Alberta, and the wickedly armoured Zuul crurivastator (Zuul) named after the monster from the movie Ghostbusters.

Recorded September 25, 2024