Vertebrate Paleontology News & Updates

Recent research appearing in the journal Science overturns a long-held idea that flowering plants didn’t evolve large fruits and seeds until after the mass extinction of dinosaurs about 66 million years ago, when Earth was smacked by a giant asteroid.

KU has 55 graduate programs in the top 50 among public universities — including eight in the top 10 — in the latest U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools rankings.

The KU Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum at the University of Kansas has named Christina Lutz as the vertebrate paleontology lead preparator and lab manager. In her role, Lutz will support the research and educational mission of the Vertebrate Paleontology division by preparing fossil material collected from the field and creating high-quality molds and casts of vertebrate fossils for use in research, teaching and public exhibits.

The University of Kansas moved up seven spots to No. 74 among public universities in this year’s U.S. News & World Report “Best Colleges” rankings, released Sept. 23.

Paleontologists from the University of Kansas have described for the first time a species of Swaindelphys discovered in Texas’ Big Bend National Park, though the ecosystem was drastically different in the Paleocene, when it thrived, than today.