We invited Dr. Makoto Manabe, Deputy Director of the National Museum of Nature and Science, to give a lecture on December 2nd (Saturday) and 3rd (Sunday) as a special project for Kumamoto University Campus Museum Special Exhibition ”Dinosaur Fossil Collaboration Exhibition -The Launch of Research/excavation by Kumamoto University and the Museum”  being held at the Kumamoto University Chemical Experiment Station from November 1st (Wednesday) to December 20th (Wednesday), 2023.

On December 2nd, the lecture was mainly aimed at children and families who love dinosaurs, and the lecture was titled ”The latest dinosaur science starting from picture books” and lasted for about 2 hours. In the first half, paintings such as ”Seimei no Rekishi” (written by Virginia Lee Burton) and ”The Story of a Bird that Became a Bird” (written by Eitaro Oshima), which are also included in elementary school textbooks, are introduced. There is an explanation about the characteristics of dinosaurs and the evolution from dinosaurs to birds, etc., and in the second half, the latest research results are explained, and dinosaur research based on beautiful photos and data such as catalogs and papers from Dinosaur Expo 2023 supervised by Professor Manabe. We were impressed by the way the children listened to the talk with serious eyes and the many pointed questions asked after the lecture.After the Q&A session, a long line formed to get Mr. Manabe’s autograph and to take pictures.

On December 3rd, ”Advancing Dinosaur Science: From the Meiji Era to the Present and the Near Future” was held once in the morning and once in the afternoon at the Staircase Classroom of the Chemical Experiment Station. In a lecture room from the Meiji era, the state of early dinosaur research and dinosaur reconstructions and models were introduced, followed by paleoecological reconstruction of dinosaurs and taxonomic research based on data from the field of comparative anatomy. In addition to introducing research examples using the latest research equipment such as CT scanners and synchrotrons, Professor Manabe was directly involved in research such as the mass extinction caused by meteorite impacts at the end of the Cretaceous period and the results of dinosaur excavations in Argentina. There was an introduction to the research being carried out and a report on the results. This lecture was held mainly for university students and the general public, but in the morning there were many elementary, junior high, high school and high school students as well as parents and children, and after the lecture there were as many questions as the day before. After the lecture, some people visited the dinosaur fossil collaboration exhibition again and received explanations about the exhibited specimens from Professor Manabe.

In a survey after the lecture, ”It was an exciting lecture for children and adults of all ages.” ”Thanks to Mr. Manabe’s easy-to-understand explanations, it was easy to understand even for people with little knowledge about dinosaurs, and it was very interesting.” ”It was a valuable experience to listen directly to Professor Manabe, a leading expert on dinosaurs,” and ”I would like to participate in more events in the future.” It was a meaningful lecture.

December 2nd lecture

December 3rd lecture