Thursday, October 6, 2011 Elephants: Past, Present, Future? An Illustrated Presentation By Virginia Riddle Pearson Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and Princeton University 4:00 - 7:00 PM Lecture at 5:30 PM
Aldrovandi, Ulisse. De Quadrupedibus solidipedibus volumen integrum. Bononiæ, 1649. Collection of the Wagner Free Institute of Science Library. Fewer than 400,000 African and Asian elephants exist today. These last remnants of the 100 million year old lineage of Proboscidea are under severe threat of extinction. Virginia Riddle Pearson will discuss the evolution and complex life history of elephants and the perilous future these sentient beings face due to the ivory poaching crisis, to relentless agricultural expansion onto elephant rangeland and migration routes, and to the lethal elephant herpesviruses, the current focus of her research. Virginia Riddle Pearson is a Guest Researcher in the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University, an Honorary Associate in the Department of Vertebrate Zoology at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and an Emeritus Trustee of the Zoological Society of Philadelphia. She has studied elephants for forty years and is currently investigating transmission of the elephant herpesviruses in wild elephant populations.
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