Evolutionary Dead-Ends in Eastern Arabia by Dr Richard (Dick) Hornby

TIME: Refreshments from 7pm, lecture from 7.30pm

VENUE: Salon 1, Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi Hotel and Villas, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi

LECTURE TITLE:  Evolutionary Dead-Ends in Eastern Arabia by Dr Richard (Dick) Hornby

LECTURE SUMMARY:

In a changing environment, it is usually the most highly adapted species that suffer most. Dick Hornby will draw on his long experience of the region to highlight some of the strangest and most highly adapted species in UAE and Oman, and he may speculate about their future prospects. A diverse range of animals and plants will be covered, including some very odd invertebrates, fish, reptiles, birds and mammals, and a few higher plants.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: 

ENHG Life Member Dr Richard (Dick) Hornby has a background in zoology, but he also has a keen interest in botany and ecology in general. After working with the Nature Conservancy Council in East Anglia and Southern England, he moved to Abu Dhabi in 1993 to set up the National Avian Research Centre (NARC), which is now part of the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi. When the organization was well established he moved to the UAE Federal Environmental Agency to advise on wildlife and land use issues.  In 1996 he became an independent ecological consultant, extending his interests into marine and coastal ecology.

In 1997 Dick joined the staff of The Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems as an Academic Editor, while continuing with ecological consultancy. In 2005, jointly with Veryan Pappin, he established Nautica Environmental Associates, which is the only Abu Dhabi based consultancy that specialises in ecology. The company has grown to about fifteen people and has carried out hundreds of environmental studies and ecological surveys. Dick takes the lead with all the terrestrial surveys but also devotes a lot of time to marine invertebrate work, mostly in the laboratory.

Dick has published in the ENHG’s journal Tribulus on the following topics:  A Red List of Birds of UAE, Red List of Mammals of UAE, Checklist of Reptiles of UAE, gazelles in UAE, coastal biodiversity, intertidal molluscs, clam shrimps, spoon worms and dragonflies. He was Chairman of the Emirates Natural History Group from 1993 to 1999.