Miami University’s Hefner Museum of Natural History’s 51st lecture will be given by Larisa DeSantis, Ph.D.   Dr. DeSantis will draw on her extensive research of both fossilized Pleistocene (Ice Age) and modern megafauna–from sabertooth cats to cougars, polar bears to coyotes–to present an all-ages public lecture titled “Prehistoric Predators: Using the Past to Inform our Future.”   Dr. DeSantis’ lab studies prehistoric ecology and its impact on extinction and evolution as a way to interpret the present and to predict what the future will bring.  Her work on fossils from Rancho La Brea in Los Angeles and in Australia provides insight into the pressures predators and other large mammals face during times of rapid climate change.   Free for all ages, with a reception at the Museum (100 Upham Hall) afterwards.