Programme of Events

 
Black Country Geological Society’s indoor meetings will be held during the winter months at the Abbey Room at the Dudley Archives, Tipton Road, Dudley, DY1 4SQ.

Unless otherwise stated, the Abbey Room and Zoom meetings will normally open at 7.30pm and lectures commence at 8.00pm.

Those wishing to attend field or geoconservation meetings please contact our Field Secretary (email address on the Contacts page).

Any non-members wishing to attend our virtual meetings should contact our Meetings Secretary for instructions (email address on the Contacts page).

Other contact details are also available on our Contact us page.

Updated 13 October 2023.

Members please check your email for any last minute changes.

Recordings of some of our virtual talks can be found on our YouTube channel.

Events in November–December 2023

  • 20 November (1 event)
    Origins of Starfish and their relatives

    Origins of Starfish and their relatives   7.30 -

    Monday 20 November (Indoor Meeting): 'Origins of Starfish and their relatives'. Speaker: Aaron Hunter.
    Asterozoans, including starfish and their close relatives, the brittle stars, are amongst the most instantly recognisable and iconic marine animals. They are a dominant and successful group of living echinoderms based on their diversity, abundance and global distribution. Despite their ecological success and a fossil record spanning more than 480 million years, the early evolution of asterozoans remains a mystery. New discoveries from France and Morocco have begun to resolve this mystery. We look at the earliest common ancestors of the 'Bat Star' somasteroids and their Cambrian descendants, including a new fossil from the exceptionally preserved Fezouata biota in Morocco, which is the earliest starfish-like animal so far recorded in the fossil record. We then follow these exceptional fossils through the Ordovician, as true starfish and brittle stars appear and show how they rapidly diversified during the biotic revolution we call the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event.
    Click here for a Google map of the location.



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  • 11 December (1 event)
    Members Christmas meeting.

    Members Christmas meeting.   7.00 -

    Monday 11 December (Indoor Meeting): Members' Evening and Christmas Social. This is our annual chance for members to share their geological experiences in a sociable atmosphere with a Christmas buffet provided by the Society.
    Click here for a Google map of the location.



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