ARIZONA THROUGH TIME SPEAKER SERIES
Take a journey into Arizona's past in this six-part speaker series. Each talk is presented by a different scientist and covers geology, paleontology, and anthropology topics specific to Arizona, from the deep past to the present day.
DEVONIAN DEEP DIVING STATE 48: A COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF ARIZONA IN THE AGE OF FISHES
Dr. Grant Boardman, Research Associate at AZMNH, kicks off the series by taking us back to a time when our desert state was mostly underwater. He covers what lived in those ancient seas and how Arizona's Devonian past shaped the landscape we know today.
UNEARTHING ARIZONA'S LOST WORLD
Dr. Brian Curtice is a vertebrate paleontologist whose research focuses on sauropod dinosaur systematics and dinosaur behavior. His work has helped clarify the taxonomy and anatomical significance of giant sauropods, including supporting Supersaurus as the longest dinosaur currently recognized, and helping resolve confusion surrounding Ultrasauros and Seismosaurus. In addition to research, he is active in public paleontology education through Fossil Crates, where he emphasizes evidence-based interpretation and accessible scientific communication.
THE LATE CRETACEOUS IN ARIZONA
Dr. Robert McCord is the Curator of Paleontology at the Arizona Museum of Natural History. His research and fieldwork have uncovered and identified fossils from across Arizona, including local mammoth and mastodon finds, and he has spent years building the museum's understanding of the state's prehistoric past. In this talk, he explores what Arizona looked like and what lived here during the Late Cretaceous.
COLLABORATIVE ARCHAEOLOGY: AKIMEL O'ODHAM CULTURAL KNOWLEDGE AND THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD
The series shifts from paleontology to anthropology and Arizona's deep history of human habitation with Dr. Chris Loendorf of the Gila River Indian Community Cultural Resource Management Program. Dr. Loendorf discusses how Akimel O'odham cultural knowledge and the archaeological record work together to tell a fuller story of the Phoenix Basin's past.
TRASH MOUND IS A DIRTY WORD
Dr. Kirk Costion, anthropology faculty at Mesa Community College, makes the case for the archaeological value of what looks, at first glance, like garbage. His research centers on the development of social complexity in early village societies and on prehistoric cross-cultural interaction and in this talk, he shows how a site's discarded, everyday debris can hold some of its richest stories.
O'ODHAM POTTERY: PREHISTORIC, HISTORIC AND CONTEMPORARY NATIVE AMERICAN CERAMIC PRODUCTION IN THE PHOENIX BASIN
Linda Morgan, Director of the Gila River Indian Community Cultural Resource and Management Program, closes out the series with a look at O'Odham pottery traditions in the Phoenix Basin, tracing ceramic production from prehistoric times through the historic period to today.