Future Meeting: Dinosaur macroevolution and building an integrated database for both academia and the public

*Postponement of 36th IGC: The Government of India has reviewed the situation emerging out of the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID - 19). It considers the health and safety of the esteemed delegates and guests of the 36th International Geological Congress Paramount. In view of this, the Government has postponed the congress to a later date.*

Dinosaurs are a major vertebrate group that attracts a great deal of attention from both academic researchers and the general public. Their documented evolution records some major transitions, including the evolution of powered flight from terrestrial animals and the extraordinary development of gigantic body size (which includes the largest known land animals). Dinosaur evolution is also characterized by dramatic changes in species diversity such as the rapid diversification and dominance of dinosaurs after one or two extinction events in the Late Triassic and the sudden disappearance of all non-avialan and a number of avialan dinosaur lineages during the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction. This session will focus on topics pertaining to dinosaur macroevolution, including both taxonomic diversity, and morphological and ecological changes through space, time, and phylogeny, in addition to body size evolution, and the evolution of bird-like features associated with bird origin. We also discuss how an approach centered on a database will help to advance dinosaur macroevolutionary research, and how to build an integrated database for both the academic community and the general public to achieve goals for academic research and wider science popularization.