The Rhynie chert is a 407-million-year-old fossil deposit discovered over a century ago close to the village of Rhynie in Aberdeenshire. The fossils from the Rhynie chert preserve evidence of an early terrestrial ecosystem frozen in time complete with plants, animals, fungi and a host of microbial life. Research on the Rhynie chert has provided unprecedented details of early life on land, cementing the global importance of this fossil site. Dr Sandy Hetherington, University of Edinburgh, will provide an overview of this world-famous fossil locality and describe how new techniques are allowing us to characterise and understand the diversity of life at this crucial point in Earth history.

Perthshire Society of Natural Science is one of the oldest Scientific Societies in Scotland and encourages interest in the natural World by means of lectures, meetings and field outings.

The annual Curious Minds Lecture series, presented by Culture Perth & Kinross and the Perthshire Society of Natural Science is themed around “Contemporary Science in Scotland” and, over past seasons, speakers have covered a stimulating array of scientific topics from dinosaur fossils in Skye, through the human genome to black holes, gravitational waves and the science of consciousness.