Michael Novacek and 'Terra' (broadcast Friday, November 16th, 2007)

Ira talks with Michael Novacek, author of Terra, paleontologist and curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, about a new fossil discovery. Researchers excavated a 100 million-year-old skull of a Nigersaurus and found it had a very unusual set of teeth. Range of motion image courtesy of Dr. Kent Stevens, University of Oregon (http://www.cs.uoregon.edu/~kent/). (Credits: Produced by Flora Lichtman. Images courtesy of Project Exploration, © 2007 National Geographic. Compsite motion image © Kent Stevens.) See More Videos

In this segment, Ira talks with Michael Novacek, paleontologist and curator at the American Museum of Natural History, about the history of ecosystems on the planet Earth, and current risks to our environment.

In his new book 'Terra,' Novacek combines evolutionary biology, paleontology, and modern environmental science to look at how the natural world as we know it came to be, and the human factors that could put it at risk. Teachers, find more information about using Science Friday as a classroom resource in the Kids' Connection.