Big Blue Marble is proud to welcome two important voices exploring extinction and survival: poet Darla Himeles, author of Flesh Enough, and paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara, author of Why Dinosaurs Matter. Both will be exploring what poet Himeles describes as “the Anthropocene’s last sunlit hours” within Lacovara’s understanding that “only the past provides the broad view that we desperately need to prepare for the future.”

Darla Himeles, a Mt. Airy-based poet, translator, and essayist, can be read in recent issues of Women's Review of Books, American Poetry Review, and Pittsburgh Poetry Review. Darla holds an MFA in poetry and poetry in translation from Drew University. She is currently a doctoral student in American literature at Temple University.


Dr. Kenneth Lacovara has unearthed some of the largest dinosaurs ever to walk our planet, including the super-massive Dreadnoughtus, which at 65 tons weighs more than seven T. rex. In his quest to understand these titanic creatures that strain the human imagination, Lacovara blends exploration in remote locations across the globe with the latest imaging and modeling techniques from engineering to medicine. By using 3D imaging, 3D printing, robotics, and medical modeling techniques, his work is helping to shift our perspective of giant herbivorous dinosaurs from their historic portrayal as hapless lumbering prey to that of fearsome, hulking, hyper-efficient eating machines that deserve our awe and respect. Lacovara’s TED Talk, “Hunting for dinosaurs showed me our place in the Universe,” was among the Top 10 TED Talks of 2016.

Lacovara led the effort to create the Edelman Fossil Park in New Jersey. Within its quarry, Lacovara and his team are using a rich cache of 65 million year old fossils to solve the mystery of the extinction of the dinosaurs. He holds a Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Delaware. At Rowan University he is the founding Dean of the School of Earth & Environment and Director of the Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park.