St Edmund Hall's Fellowship Lunchtime Lectures: Dr Luke Parry

Join us on Friday 4 December to hear Dr Luke Parry talk about 'Worms: a half a billion-year history'. This event is hosted by the Principal of St Edmund Hall, Professor Katherine J. Willis.

Luke Parry is as an Early Career Teaching and Research Fellow in Earth Sciences.

A worm-like body shape is present in many distantly related animal lineages, having evolved many times within animals. Among these different types of worm, the segmented annelids are the most familiar, encompassing earthworms and leeches as well as a staggering diversity of different forms that live in the ocean. Like most other major groups of animals, annelids first appear in a geological blink of an eye in an event called the Cambrian Explosion, approximately 540 million years ago. The bodies of annelids are mostly soft and typically do not survive after death as fossils. Fortunately for palaeontologists however, the Cambrian Period contains an unusually large number of exceptional fossil sites where evidence of ancient guts, muscles and even remains of nervous systems and brains are preserved.

In this talk Luke will introduce the diversity of annelid worms that live in the modern ocean and introduce recent discoveries from his research that showcase where their staggering diversity came from, particularly during their early history over half a billion years ago.

This is a 45 minute lecture followed by a Q&A.

Registration is required. Attendees will receive the zoom joining link the day before.