The Fossils Being Formed Today Will Show How Humankind Disrupted Life on Earth
In this lecture, Mark will explore the dominant themes of his work. As a palaeontologist, he has spent a lifetime collecting fragments of past lives to weave stories about how life on Earth has changed over millions of years. Sometimes these changes were remarkably good, like the evolution of flowers, and sometimes very bad, like the loss of entire animal groups, such as dinosaurs. He uses the patterns that emerge from the deep geological record to help inform the near-future trajectory of life on Earth in the era we now live in, the Anthropocene, where humanity is a dominant force.
224th Lecture Series Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow
Date: Wednesday 14 January 2026
Time: 19:30 - 21:00
Venue: Charles Wilson Building, Lecture Theatre 201
Category: Public lectures
Speaker: Professor Mark Williams, University of Leicester
Mark Williams is Professor of Paleobiology at the University of Leicester. He studies the evolution of the earth, palaeontology, climate and environmental change, and has a particular interest in the Anthropocene. He is the co-author of the popular books ‘The Goldilocks Planet’, ‘Ocean worlds’, ‘Skeletons the frame of life’ and of the forthcoming ‘The cosmic oasis’ (all Oxford University Press). He is also the coauthor of ‘The Anthropocene – a multidisciplinary approach’ (Polity books). He has worked on all continents, and in all terrains, from Antarctic icescapes, to the deserts of North Africa and central Asia, to the jungles of southeast Asia.