Free Lecture/AGM

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Palaeontological Association
39th AGM & ANNUAL ADDRESS
Wednesday 13 March 1996
Sutton Lecture Theatre, Imperial College, London

This meeting is FREE and is not restricted to PalAss members; any and all 
interested parties are welcome to attend.
Prof R. McNeill Alexander is (by anyone's definitition) a leading international 
expert on biomechanics and this should be an extremely interesting and informative 
lecture.

ALL-TIME GIANTS

Prof. R. McNeill Alexander FRS
University of Leeds

Throughout time, the Earth's largest animals have been faced with problems linked 
to their size.  These problems include food intake and heat balance, support of 
body weight, and maintainance of a viable population.  Modern whales, elephants and 
condors help us to understand extinct giants such as Shonisaurus (a whale-sized 
ichthyosaur), whale-sized dinosaurs such as Antarctosaurus, and Quetzalcoatlus and 
Argentavis (the largest pterosaur and flying bird, both the size of a man).  This 
lecture will consider the factors that set the limits to size, and how the problems 
of giant size have been overcome by the largest animals ever to have swum, run or 
flown.

The AGM will commence at 2.30 pm and will be followed immediately by the Annual 
Address.  At approximately 4.00 pm there will be a wine reception.  Both the AGM 
and the Annual Address are open to all interested parties.  There is no entrance 
fee.
For more information contact the Secretary of the Association, Dr Paul Smith, 
Lapworth Museum, School of Earth Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham  
B15 2TT. Tel:  0121 414 4173; e-mail:  m.p.smith@bham.ac.uk



Dr Mark A. Purnell

Department of Geology, University of Leicester
University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, U.K
tel: 0116 2523645  fax: 0116 2523918