Interdisciplinary Lunchtime Seminar

Unearthing a South China Ammonite: Palaeontology in Hong Kong

2019-02-26 12:00:002019-02-26 12:00:00Asia/Hong_KongUnearthing a South China Ammonite: Palaeontology in Hong Kong

Interdisciplinary Lunchtime Seminar
Unearthing a South China Ammonite: Palaeontology in Hong Kong

Dr. Stephen Chung On Ng
(Assistant Professor, Centennial College, The University of Hong Kong)

Date: February 26, 2019 (Tuesday)
Time: 12:00 – 13:00
Venue: Room 201, 2/F, May Hall, The University of Hong Kong
Enquiry: (852) 3917-5772, ihss@hku.hk

    2019-02-26 12:00:002019-02-26 12:00:00Asia/Hong_KongUnearthing a South China Ammonite: Palaeontology in Hong Kong

    Interdisciplinary Lunchtime Seminar
    Unearthing a South China Ammonite: Palaeontology in Hong Kong

    Dr. Stephen Chung On Ng
    (Assistant Professor, Centennial College, The University of Hong Kong)

    Date: February 26, 2019 (Tuesday)
    Time: 12:00 – 13:00
    Venue: Room 201, 2/F, May Hall, The University of Hong Kong
    Enquiry: (852) 3917-5772, ihss@hku.hk

      Overview

      Title:

      Unearthing a South China Ammonite: Palaeontology in Hong Kong

      Speaker:

      Dr. Stephen Chung On Ng (Centennial College, The University of Hong Kong)

      Date:

      February 26, 2019

      Time:

      12:00 nn – 1:00 pm

      Venue:

      Room 201, 2/F, May Hall, The University of Hong Kong (Map)

      Language:

      English

      Enquiry:

      (Tel) (852) 3917-5772
      (Email) ihss@hku.hk

      Abstract

      Palaeontology and fossils in Hong Kong have generally received little attention in spite of a growing public interest in rock formations since the inauguration of the Hong Kong Geopark. The first local fossil discovery, a Lower Jurassic ammonite reported almost a century ago by Dr. C.M. Heanley, happened also to be the first fossil reported from South China, given that at that time most geologists and paleontologists were based in Peking, with their main sites of study in North China. Naturally, the investigation of fossils in Hong Kong has always been tied to that of the rocks that make up the region. The first such systematic study was carried out as part of the first geological survey of the territory in the 1920s, subsequent to the Heanley report, by a team of Canadian geologists, in an attempt to construct the stratigraphic history of Hong Kong, but it was the next pulse of study fifty years later in the 1970s, which eventually led to the publication of a two-volume palaeontological treatise. Given the fifty-year hiatus, it is of interest, using paleontology as a case study, to explore the value of the science in Hong Kong and the determinants that drove its development.

      About the Speaker

      Stephen Chung On Ng teaches earth sciences and environmental ethics at Centennial College, and is also affiliated to the Medical Ethics and Humanities Unit, LKS Faculty of Medicine, and the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Hong Kong. His research interests include environmental geology, environmental sustainability, and the history of science.

      Poster