When Dinosaurs Conquered the Skies: Incredible Evolution

Jingmai O'Connor is the Associate Curator of Fossil Reptiles at The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Jingmai grew up in Pasadena, CA. She is first generation Chinese and second generation Irish. Jingmai's research explores the repeated evolution (and parallel refinement) of flight in the Dinosauria, the dinosaur-bird transition, and the biology of stem-avians, not through any one aspect but exploring Paraves through the evolution of feathers and complex plumages, aerodynamics, reproduction, respiration, trophics, systematics, ontogeny, and taxonomy. Taking advantage of the exceptional soft tissue preservation of the Jehol Biota, Jingmai seeks to go beyond skeletal anatomy, to understand the biology of stem birds and their closest relatives and trace the evolution of modern avian features.
Maria Brzozowska was born in 1992 in Poland but spent most of her childhood growing up in Turkey. In 2010 she graduated from Leeds Arts University with a BA in Visual Communication. In 2016 she completed her MFA in Media and Design. She is a visual storyteller who enjoys taking a poetic approach to her art creating new, unknown lands. She uses traditional painting techniques aided by digital methods. She also works with children's storybook publishers and loves illustrating magical and poetic stories.