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Conference on April 16
Brings Together
World-Renowned Scientists
to Address Origin of Animals

March 16, 2003 -- UCLA symposium on Friday, April 16, will bring together internationally renowned scientists to address the origin of animals.

Free to the public, the 15th annual symposium sponsored by UCLA's IGPP Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin of Life (CSEOL) will be held in UCLA's Schoenberg Auditorium (near Hilgard and Westholme avenues) from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The geologically "sudden" appearance of animals in the fossil record - known as the Cambrian explosion, the event that gave rise to the evolutionary line leading to humans - has long been shrouded in mystery. In "On the Origin of Species," Charles Darwin argued that the lack of a rich fossil record predating the rise of animals at the beginning of the Cambrian period of geological time (some 550 million years ago) was "inexplicable," an absence that could be "truly urged as a valid argument" against his theory of evolution.

"For more than a century, this problem remained unsolved and seemed unsolvable," said UCLA paleobiologist J. William Schopf, founder and director of CSEOL, author of the prize-winning book, "Cradle of Life," and one of the world's leading experts on the earliest life on Earth.

"But in recent years, the picture finally has changed," Schopf said. "A vast pre-animal fossil record, dating to billions of years ago, has been uncovered. New animal fossils have been discovered, some appreciably older than the oldest Cambrian-age deposits. In addition, new techniques have been devised, chiefly from molecular biology, that sort out this problem. This symposium brings together world experts to tell us about how and when animals first appeared in the Cambrian explosion of life."

Participants at the symposium will be:

Charles R. Marshall, professor of geology and biology at Harvard University, adjunct professor of geobiology at MIT, and former member of UCLA's department of Earth and space sciences. Marshall, recipient of the prestigious "young paleontologist" Schuchert Award of the Paleontological Society and a Guggenheim Fellowship, is an internationally recognized pioneering leader of the new wave of biologists and paleontologists deciphering how evolution works. He has applied in-depth understanding of mathematics, molecular biology, paleontology and the workings of evolution to studies of the incompleteness of the fossil record, extinctions in the history of life, and the molecular evolution and systematics of living systems. Marshall will speak at 9:10 a.m. on "The Cambrian Explosion of Animals."

Ellis Yochelson is past president of the Paleontological Society, the leading national scientific society in his field, and an historian of the geological sciences. He is the worldwide expert on Charles Doolittle Walcott, discoverer of the Cambrian explosion and the Burgess Shale fossils. Yochelson was recipient of the 2003 Geological Society of America's History of Science Medal. A paleontologist at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History until his official retirement, he remains an active researcher and a world-renowned specialist in the study of fossil mollusks (especially snails and their relatives). He served as president of the History of Earth Sciences Society and as editor or co-editor of major publications in paleontology. He is a recipient of the Distinguished Scientist Award of the Washington Academy of Sciences, an honorary lifetime member of the History of Earth Sciences Society and the 2003 award winner of the History of Geology Division of the Geological Society of America. Yochelson will speak about Walcott at 10 a.m.

Desmond H. Collins is a world expert on the Cambrian explosion as evidenced by the 530-million-year-old animal fossils of the Burgess Shale. He holds the position of senior curator at Canada's Royal Ontario Museum and is head of the department of paleobiology. He is also a faculty member of the University of Toronto's departments of zoology and geology. His work has been featured on science television programs in the United States, Japan, Canada and the United Kingdom. His honors include his selection as chair of the Geological Association of Canada's Palaeontological Division and distinguished lecturer of the Paleontological Society. From 18 seasons of fieldwork (1975-2000), Collins' experience has provided a new perspective on the ancient fauna of the Burgess Shale. He will speak at 11:10 a.m. about "The First Big Find: Fossils of the Burgess Shale, Canada."

Jun-Yuan Chen, research professor at the Chinese Academy of Science's Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, is one of China's most distinguished scientists. Chen is discoverer, with Chia-wei Li, of the oldest animal fossils now known: 580 million years. Formally recognized in 1987 by China's National Scientific Council as that country's Outstanding Scientist, in 2003 Chen was honored as recipient of China's highest scientific accolade, the national First Class Award of Science. He was recognized early in his career for his seminal studies of Cambrian-age cephalopods, ancient relatives of modern squids; over the past decade his investigations of the remarkably well-preserved Early Cambrian Chengjiang fauna of South China have established his prominence worldwide. He is the author of 15 books, and his research on the Chengjiang fossils has contributed new understanding of the nature of evolution, rates of evolution and the development of biologic complexity. He will speak at 1:30 p.m. about "Amazing Fossils From the Dawn of Animals and the Cambrian explosion of Life."

Mark Webster, assistant professor of paleobiology at UCLA, is among the most accomplished young paleontologists in the United States. He is an expert on early-evolved fossil trilobites, ancient lobster-like animals that are the prize catch of every fossil hunter. He has carried out geological and paleontological fieldwork in Spain, Scotland, England and the United States. His honors include the Geological Society of America's 1998 Outstanding Student Research Award. Admired for his research and teaching, Webster is associate director of CSEOL and played a major role in organizing the symposium. He will speak at 2:20 p.m. about "Trends in Early Animal Evolution: Anecdotes and Evidence From Trilobites."

Kevin J. Peterson, assistant professor of biology at Dartmouth College, is an international leader in the interdisciplinary science involved in unraveling the origins of animals. A recent UCLA Ph.D., Peterson was recipient of a CSEOL Fellowship in 1990 and is the first former CSEOL Fellow to participate as a speaker in a CSEOL symposium. He conducted his graduate studies at UCLA under the tutelage of Charles Marshall and served as a visiting researcher in the department of palaeontology at the Natural History Museum, London. Peterson has given invited lectures at universities and national and international scientific meetings. He will speak at 3:30 p.m. about "Tempo and Mode of Early Animals Evolution: The Molecular Record."

David Bottjer, professor of paleontology in USC's department of Earth sciences and a research associate at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, will moderate a question-and-answer session, starting at 4:20 p.m., when the audience will have an opportunity to ask questions. He is the incoming president of the Paleontological Society. He is also editor-in-chief of the journal "Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology," and co-editor of the highly acclaimed book series, "Critical Moments and Perspectives in Paleobiology and Earth History." An active researcher, focusing especially on the evolutionary paleoecology of macroinvertebrate animals as evidenced in the Phanerozoic geologic record, he was honored in 2002 as CSEOL's Distinguished Scientist of the year.

Mikhail Fedonkin, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Russia's leading expert in the field, is expected to attend the symposium and participate in the question-and-answer session.

Previous topics in the CSEOL symposium series have included "Are We Alone in the Universe?" "The Endangered Earth," "Major Events in the History of Life," "Humans and the Environmental Crisis," "Evolution and the Molecular Revolution," "Origin and Evolution of the Universe," "Origin and Evolution of Intelligence," "Engineering the Human Germline," "Evolution in the Computer Age" and "Extinctions in the History of Life." Each symposium is later published as a book.