Available online
Description
Many fossil dinosaurs have patterns of distribution which for a long time have puzzled palaeontologists. Dr. Barry Cox has analysed their distribution in terms of our present knowledge of where the... continental plates were in the past. In an outside broadcast recorded in the dinosaur gallery of the Natural History Museum, he describes how his analysis has changed the way in which fossil reptile distributions are now regarded. In an interview with Dr. Chris Wilson, Dr. Cox describes some personal aspects of the historu and methods of his study and development of ideas during research.
Many fossil dinosaurs have patterns of distribution which for a long time have puzzled palaeontologists. Dr. Barry Cox has analysed their distribution in terms of our present knowledge of where the... continental plates were in the past. In an outside broadcast recorded in the dinosaur gallery of the Natural History Museum, he describes how his analysis has changed the way in which fossil reptile distributions are now regarded. In an interview with Dr. Chris Wilson, Dr. Cox describes some personal aspects of the historu and methods of his study and development of ideas during research.
| Module code and title: | S333, Earth science topics and methods |
|---|---|
| Item code: | S333; 03 |
| First transmission date: | 15-02-1976 |
| Published: | 1976 |
| Rights Statement: | |
| Restrictions on use: | |
| Duration: | 00:25:00 |
| + Show more... | |
| Producer: | Neil Cleminson |
| Contributors: | Barry Cox; Chris Wilson |
| Publisher: | BBC Open University |
| Keyword(s): | Continental plates; Dinosaur Gallery; Fossil dinosaurs; Natural History Museum; Palaeontologists; Research |
| Footage description: | Chris Wilson, at the Natural History Museum, Kensington, introduces the programme. Barry Cox, in the Museum, examines a skeleton of triceratops. Cox explains how he came to analyse distribution patterns of vertebrates in terms of plate tectonics. He places model tectonic plates on a globe as they were at the time of the first land vertebrates. Cox looks at the distribution of vertebrate amphibians from the Carboniferous to the mid-Permian in terms of the Euro-American plate before its fusion with Asia and Gontwanaland. Cox next uses a map of the world to look at the position of the tectonic plates from the mid-Permian to the end of the Triassic. He points out that at this time there was a single world continent with land vertebrates of the same kind spread all over. Cox goes on to look at the vertebrate distribution and plate movement from the Jurassic to the Cretaceous. He uses a globe, maps and still shots of dinosaurs to make his points. Chris Wilson interviews Barry Cox who describes some personal aspects of his research into fossil vertebrate distribution. |
| Master spool number: | 6HT/71902 |
| Production number: | 00525_1209 |
| Videofinder number: | 1372 |
| Available to public: | no |
