Our Lecture Series is free and open to the public

Check back to see our 2026 - 2027 Speakers
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​Thanks to our 2018-2026 Speakers

Monte Marshall, Ph.D., Emeritus SDSU
Why You Can't Stand with One Foot on the Pacific Plate and One  Foot on the North American Plate

​Zev Brook, San Diego Natural History Museum
Adventures in the Eocene: paleoclimate and paleoecology in a greenhouse world

​David M. Miller, Ph.D.
Exploring Lake Cahuilla's Much Larger Predecessor Lake: Shorelines at 50m Elevation

​Jenny Ross, Research Affiliate, Stout Research Center
The Salton Sea: Past, Present, and Future

​Lyndon K. Murray, Ph.D., District Paleontologist
TBD: The Big Ditch

​Monte Marshall, Ph.D., Emeritus SDSU
The Evolution of our Understanding of the San Andreas Fault

​James W. Cornett, Desert Ecologist
Climate Change and the California Deserts: repeat photography and vanishing keystone species

​​Steve Holen, Ph.D., President and Director of Research at the Center for American Paleolithic Research
The Search for the Earliest Americans: An Old Archaeological Controversy

​Annalisa Berta, Ph.D., Emeritus SDSU
Sea Mammals, Past and Present

Regan E. Dunn, Ph.D.
Harbinger of the Future: Drought, Fire and Extinction in the latest Pleistocene at Rancho La Brea​

Fred Croxen III, Professor of Geosciences, Western Arizona University
The El Golfo Project: 30 Years of Collecting and Research

Jessie Atterholt, Ph.D.
Exploring the Evolution and Diversity of the Enantiornithes (“Opposite Birds”)

Diana Lindsay
A Look Back at ABDSP’s 90-Year History with a Focus on the Paleontology and Botany Societies

Monte Marshall, Ph.D
How the Theory of Plate Tectonics was Developed​

J. David Archibald, Ph.D.
How Darwin Proved Evolution

Jason Collins
Paleontology at Dudek in San Diego

Monte Marshall, Ph.D.
The Earth's Magnetic Field - Past and Present

Eric Scott, Ph.D.
Ice Age Horses of Western North America

Kathleen Holen, Ph.D.
Women in Archaeology

David M. Miller, Ph.D.
The eastern California shear zone, past and present

Jack Horner
The Real Jurassic Park
Building a Dinosaur

Tom Demèrè
Whales and Baleen: How the largest animals on Earth evolved to feed on some of the smallest

William Stout
Dinosaurs, Penguins and Whales: Wildlife of Antarctica

Greg McDonald
Smilodon: The Iconic Sabre-Tooth

Jessie Atterholt
The Mysterious World of Vertebral Canals in Birds and Other Archosaurs

Geof Spaulding
The Pleistocene Ecosystems of the Desert West

Steve Mulqueen
Petroleum Seeps: A Natural Phenomena with Significant Influence on History and Paleontology
Eric Ekdale 
Whales in the Digital Age: Using CT Imaging to unravel the mysteries of Baleen Whales

Lyndon Murray 
Introduction to ABDSP

Jenny Ross 
The Island of California: Is there a scientific explanation for the 17th century myth?

Ron Blakey, Jorge Ledesma, Monte Marshall, George Morgan and Pat Abbott
Geologic Change in Western North America Since the Age of Dinosaurs

Pat Abbott
Sturzstroms: Large Volume, High Velocity Killer Debris Flows
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PLANTS

The presence of petrified wood scattered across the desert floor tells a vivid story of pre-historic woodlands in the distant past.

PALEOCLIMATE

The climatic and environmental story told by the rocks and fossils of the Park begins about 7 million years ago in the Miocene.

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VERTEBRATES

Discoveries from the fossil beds of the Anza-Borrego Desert have contributed to our understanding of the evolutionary history of  many vertebrate lineages.


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ROCKS

A look inside the rocks of Borrego. Bright colors identify the components of this plutonic rock.


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MAMMOTHS

The climatic and environmental story told by the rocks and fossils of the Park begins about 7 million years ago in the Miocene.

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INVERTEBRATES

Many of the species live today in the Gulf of California and a surprising number survive only in the Caribbean Sea.

STRATIGRAPHY

Forces originating in the relative motion between the Pacific and North American plates are tearing the southwestern edge of  North America apart.

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RECENT DISCOVERIES


​A fossil bird beak found in the 1960s has recently been re-identified as belonging to a “terror bird" - family Phorusrhacidae.

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EVENTS


Plan to join us in November for the start of our Certification Program, and at our monthly lectures from December to April.

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