Dispatches from the Field, a new digital program designed to bring The Explorers Club community closer—wherever you are.
Each session kicks off with a 15-20-minute talk from a Featured Speaker, recorded and posted later to the public on explorers.org and our YouTube channel.
This will be followed by Campfire sessions—intimate, Members-Only breakout groups where you can connect, share ideas, and build relationships.
This edition features Ricardo Araújo FI’23, to present “In the Field with the Triassic: The First Dinosaurs, Mammals, and the Tangled Origins of Warm-Bloodedness”
Journey back to the Triassic, when the first dinosaurs and mammals began to reshape life on land. For this Dispatches from the Field, Ricardo Araújo takes us straight to the field site in South Portugal’s Loulé District, drawing on expeditions he’s led there and in Mozambique to follow the fossils that reveal their earliest history. Using advanced imaging alongside fieldwork, the talk also explores the tangled origins of warm-bloodedness, one of the key innovations behind the rise of mammals, birds, and dinosaurs.
Members only – click here to register.
Ricardo Araújo
Ricardo Araújo is a vertebrate palaeontologist and researcher at Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon. His work explores the evolution of dinosaurs, mammals and warm-bloodedness through fossil anatomy, inner-ear biomechanics, advanced imaging and fieldwork. He has led expeditions in Mozambique and the Algarve, uncovering key Triassic fossils that illuminate the origins of modern terrestrial ecosystems. He has obtained the prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant in 2025. His research combines paleontology, physiology, engineering and artificial intelligence to understand how extinct animals moved, sensed their environment and evolved.
