As a part of UT’s 19th celebration of Darwin Day, the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences will present nail-biting research on crocodiles.

Sarah Sheffield, Ph.D. candidate in Earth and Planetary Sciences, explained the scope of Darwin Day and the event.

“Darwin Day is an event that celebrates Charles Darwin’s birthday and his theory of evolution via natural selection,” Sheffield said. “ We are actually the longest running celebration in the entire country of Darwin day.”

The event, Not Just Living Fossils: Crocodylian Evolution and Diversity from the Age of Dinosaurs to the Present, will be led by Stephanie Drumheller-Horton, paleontologist and lecturer for the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department, and will focus on the taphonomy of fossils.

Joy Buongiorno, graduate student in microbiology, gave her insight on the general idea of taphonomy.

“(Taphonomy) is basically what happens to fossils after they are created, while they are in the rocks, and what type of post-depositional alterations they are subjected to,” Buongiorno said.

Drumheller-Horton will explain her research with crocodiles’ bites and fossils that contain them.

“Her main organism of study has been crocodiles and the bite marks that they inflict on their prey,” Buongiorno said.

The event will showcase the way Drumheller-Horton collects her information on crocodiles and how she compares fossils with live crocodile bites.

To compare fossils with live crocodile bites, Drumheller-Horton compares bite marks on bones similar to the fossils from live crocodiles on a farm.

“By looking at modern analog she is able to make interpretations about bones that she finds in the rock records,” Buongiorno said.

Drumheller-Horton will further explain how she is able to use these comparisons to decide the origins of these fossils at the event.

The free event is scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 3 at 7 p.m. and will take place in the Alumni Memorial Building, Room 27.