The natural world as humans have known it, i.e. our “modern land ecosystem,” first evolved more than 90 million years ago. According to Novacek, senior vice president and provost of science at the American Museum of Natural History, that tremendous history is now in danger of coming to an end. His talk will recount how humans evolved and took possession of the Earth, how our ancient roles as exterminators and then cultivators changed the planet, and how we should try to engage the evolutionary future of our own and other species in a paleontologically-informed way.

Recorded Saturday, November 10, 2007 at The Field Museum.