Palaeocast
231 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 1 month ago - ★★★★★ - 154 ratingsA free webseries exploring the fossil record and the evolution of life on Earth.
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Episodes
Episode 139: Marrellomorphs
May 16, 2022 20:51 - 52 minutes - 72.7 MBMarrellomorphs are the group of early Paleozoic arthropods that get their name from the well-known Burgess Shale fossil Marrella splendens. They have for a long time been considered to be closely related to the trilobites, based on similarities in their gills, but numerous studies have since suggested they are closer related to mandibulate arthropods (crustaceans, insects & myriapods), although their strange appearance means other relationships might still be plausible. Since they have a s...
Episode 138: Hispaniolan Sloths
April 20, 2022 21:01 - 1 hour - 88.1 MBSloths (or do you pronounce it “sloths”?), are a group of tree-dwelling xenarthrans from South and Central America. They are well known for their sedentary lifestyles where they just hang around and seemingly do fairly little. But has this always been the case? When we look back at the fossil record of sloths, what kinds of ecologies do we see? How far back does their fossil record actually go? In this episode, we speak to Dr Robert McAfee (Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine) abo...
Episode 137: Tanis
February 25, 2022 17:13 - 1 hour - 83.1 MBThe end-Cretaceous mass extinction was a cataclysmic asteroid impact that ushered in the end of the non-avian dinosaurs and forever changed the course of evolution on Earth. But what can we say about the timing of the event, other than it happened 66 million years ago? Well, it turns out that Tanis, a relatively-recently discovered fossil site in North Dakota, is full of lines of evidence that are allowing earth scientists to piece together when the impact occurred. In this episode, we’r...
Episode 136: Burmese Amber Pt2b
February 15, 2022 13:40 - 41 minutes - 57 MBContinuing our mini series on Burmese Amber, we now turn our focus to the ethics of working on this fossil material. Can possessing or working on amber from Myanmar ever be considered ethical? In the first part of this episode, we examined the political context, work around Myanmar’s fossil exportation laws and follow the money back through the trade routes. Now, in the second part, we discuss why it’s currently unethical to study Burmese amber, what palaeontologists can do about that, and...
Episode 135: Burmese Amber Pt2
February 03, 2022 13:54 - 48 minutes - 66.1 MBContinuing our mini series on Burmese Amber, we now turn our focus to the ethics of working on this fossil material. Can possessing or working on amber from Myanmar ever be considered ethical? In the first part of this episode, we examine the political context, work around Myanmar’s fossil exportation laws and follow the money back through the trade routes. In the second part (released in two weeks), we’ll be discussing why it’s currently unethical to study Burmese amber, what palaeontolog...
Episode 134: Mammal Locomotion and Ecology
January 16, 2022 15:53 - 52 minutes - 72.3 MBIn this episode we talk to Professor Christine Janis about mammal palaeontology, and her career. Christine is one of the world’s foremost experts in mammal palaeontology and mammalogy. She has authored dozens of scientific papers, and has been co-author of the major textbook Vertebrate Life for the last 20 years. Christine has had a long and distinguished career, and is currently a researcher at the University of Bristol in the UK. Her work is particularly focused on mammal locomotion and ...
Episode 133: Drawing and Painting Dinosaurs
January 02, 2022 18:50 - 1 hour - 95.8 MBIt can be argued that palaeoart is the single biggest hook for getting people interested in prehistoric life. It takes the complex scientific terminology and data found within the academic literature and translates it into a reconstruction of an extinct organism. It is only through palaeoart that we can visualise some extinct organisms (particularly the vertebrates, and dinosaurs in this instance, whose external tissues are rarely preserved as fossils) and show some of the behaviours they mi...
Episode 132: Burmese Amber Pt1b
December 15, 2021 11:19 - 42 minutes - 58.3 MBBurmese amber is well known for preserving fossils in exquisite details. This amber is dated to around 100 million years old, representing the Albian - Cenomanian ages of the Cretaceous period, so would have been deposited whilst non-avian dinosaurs still walked the land. Fossils preserved in this amber include representatives from numerous different groups including arachnids, insects, vertebrates, and plants. Whilst the amber itself (as fossilised tree sap/resin) is produced in a terrest...
Episode 131: Burmese Amber Pt1
December 02, 2021 21:50 - 45 minutes - 62.3 MBBurmese amber is well known for preserving fossils in exquisite details. This amber is dated to around 100 million years old, representing the Albian - Cenomanian ages of the Cretaceous period, so would have been deposited whilst non-avian dinosaurs still walked the land. Fossils preserved in this amber include representatives from numerous different groups including arachnids, insects, vertebrates, and plants. Whilst the amber itself (as fossilised tree sap/resin) is produced in a terrest...
Episode 130: Bats
October 30, 2021 11:34 - 57 minutes - 79 MBAfter rodents, bats are the second largest group of mammals, representing a staggering 20% of all mammal species. They can be found all over the world, with the exception of cold climates, where they often play incredibly important ecological roles. Their ecologies (ways in which they live) go well beyond the cave-hanging, moth-eating stereotypes and diets can also be based on fruits, nectar or even blood. In fact, some tropical plants rely solely upon bats for pollination! But when did ba...
Episode 129: Penguins
October 01, 2021 17:30 - 1 hour - 101 MBWhether it be because of their unique shape, comical walking or extreme ecology, there can be no denying that penguins are incredibly popular and charismatic animals. But what actually makes a penguin a penguin and how are they different from other birds? Have penguins always been, well, 'penguiny'? Joining us for this interview are Simone Giovanardi and Daniel Thomas who have just described a new species of giant penguin from New Zealand. Together, we explore penguin evolution and how the...
Episode 128: Coprolite Inclusions Pt2
July 31, 2021 18:46 - 50 minutes - 69.3 MBOne of the factors that makes palaeontology such a popular science is its constant ability to surprise us. It seems almost every week that a new study is released that significantly adds to our understanding of ancient life. This could be in relation to a new species, a new analysis or new fossil locality. In this episode, we discuss a new discovery that not only yields a new species, but also provides direct dietary evidence and has us re-evaluating the potential for food to be preserved ...
Episode 127: Coprolite Inclusions
July 19, 2021 13:49 - 37 minutes - 51 MBOne of the factors that makes palaeontology such a popular science is its constant ability to surprise us. It seems almost every week that a new study is released that significantly adds to our understanding of ancient life. This could be in relation to a new species, a new analysis or new fossil locality. In this episode, we discuss a new discovery that not only yields a new species, but also provides direct dietary evidence and has us re-evaluating the potential for food to be preserved i...
Episode 126: Beasts Before Us
June 16, 2021 10:48 - 1 hour - 84.2 MBIn this episode, we talk to our very own Dr Elsa Panciroli about her new book Beasts Before Us. In it, she tells the untold story of mammalian evolution, tracing the origin of synapsids back to the Carboniferous. You’ll be taken to fossil sites around the world to meet some of these pioneering animals and some of the palaeontologists that discovered them. For this interview, we’ll give you an overview of the early evolution of synapsids and dispel many of the misconceptions about what our ...
Episode 125: Crocodylomorph disparity Pt2
April 30, 2021 13:05 - 52 minutes - 72.4 MBCrocodiles are often referred to as “living fossils”, but if we compare modern and ancient species, does that label hold up? What different kind of morphologies (shapes) did past crocs have and how did they live? How quickly did this past diversity arise and why are we left with so few species today? What’s to stop them from diversifying again? In this episode, we speak to Dr Tom Stubbs, University of Bristol, about his recent work analysing changes in crocodylomorph disparity through time...
Episode 124: Crocodylomorph disparity
April 15, 2021 17:06 - 35 minutes - 49.6 MBCrocodiles are often referred to as “living fossils”, but if we compare modern and ancient species, does that label hold up? What different kind of morphologies (shapes) did past crocs have and how did they live? How quickly did this past diversity arise and why are we left with so few species today? What’s to stop them from diversifying again? In this episode, we speak to Dr Tom Stubbs, University of Bristol, about his recent work analysing changes in crocodylomorph disparity through time...
Episode 123: Soil
March 16, 2021 17:12 - 50 minutes - 69.8 MBTerrestrial life as we know it couldn’t exist without soil. Soil, as we know it today, is a layer of minerals, organic matter, liquids, gasses and organisms that not only provides a medium for plant growth, but also modifies the atmosphere, provides a habitat for animals and retains and purifies water. This kind of soil hasn’t always existed, so in order to understand early conditions on land, we first need to understand what can be constituted as a soil and when these first appeared. Is t...
Episode 122: Dietary Ecology of Smilodon fatalis pt2
March 01, 2021 14:48 - 37 minutes - 51.8 MBPart two of our interview with Dr Larisa DeSantis of Vanderbilt University on the 'dietary ecology' of Smilodon. Smilodon is probably one of the most iconic mammalian apex predators with its extended upper canines and robustly-built forearms. In fact, when we compare Smilodon to modern cats (felids), we don't see these same characteristics. So what were they used for? Was Smilodon specialised for any particular behaviour? Owing to the unique preservation of the tar seeps at Rancho La Bre...
Episode 121: Dietary Ecology of Smilodon fatalis Pt1
February 15, 2021 20:17 - 36 minutes - 50 MBSmilodon is probably one of the most iconic mammalian apex predators with its extended upper canines and robustly-built forearms. In fact, when we compare Smilodon to modern cats (felids), we don’t see these same characteristics. So what were they used for? Was Smilodon specialised for any particular behaviour? Owing to the unique preservation of the tar seeps at Rancho La Brea, Los Angeles, USA, we can find an overabundance of predators, including Smilodon fatalis, Canis dirus, Panthera a...
Episode 120: Naked Ammonite
February 01, 2021 17:52 - 50 minutes - 69.6 MBIt wouldn’t be outlandish to state that many a fossil collection has started with the acquisition of an ammonite. Their planispiral shells (termed a conch) are instantly recognisable and since that conch was originally composed of the relatively hard mineral aragonite, they better lend themselves to the fossilisation process. But how much do we actually know about the animal that produces the conch? We might be able to make superficial inferences based on comparisons with the modern Nautil...
Episode 119: The Soom Shale
December 18, 2020 17:37 - 59 minutes - 81.8 MBThe Soom Shale is an Ordovician lagerstätte in the Western Cape of South Africa. Whilst it lacks the diversity of organisms seen in other lagerstätten, such as the Burgess Shale or Chengjiang, it more than makes up for it in the fidelity of preservation. The taphonomic pathway to the fantastic preservation in the Soom Shale is long and complex, reliant not only on local conditions, but also ties into global climatic events. It’s vitally important when interpreting fossils to understand the...
Episode 118: South African Sauropodomorphs
December 01, 2020 19:36 - 36 minutes - 50.2 MBPiecing together the early lives of dinosaurs is difficult due to a lack of fossils from juvenile and embryonic stages. In this episode, Elsa Panciroli talks to Dr Kimi Chappelle, a postdoctoral fellow at the Evolutionary Studies Institute, part of the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Chappelle specialises in sauropodomorphs – the precursors of the giant sauropod dinosaurs like Diplodocus. Her recent work is helping build a picture of their growth and development. ...
Episode 117: Decolonising Palaeontology
November 16, 2020 16:22 - 1 hour - 104 MBLack of diversity is one of the major issues in the sciences in recent times. We’ve discussed diversity in palaeontology in previous podcasts, but in this episode Elsa takes a look at the legacy of racism and colonialism in palaeontology and museum collections, and what efforts are being made to address these issues. Colonial attitudes towards people of non-European descent have meant that their natural heritage was often plundered and sent back to Europe and the United States to fill muse...
Episode 116: Ice Age Palaeoecology
November 01, 2020 16:12 - 1 hour - 101 MBWhen we think about the Ice Age or the Pleistocene, we generally think of large animals: wooly mammoths trudging through snow, sabre-tooth tigers taking down their next meal, and big bison out on the steppes. These are really interesting things to think about, but what else can we learn from the Pleistocene other big animals and their extinction? We can also use the Pleistocene (which is relatively similar to the modern world in terms of continental layout, landscapes, and ecological niche...
Episode 115b: Diatoms of Lake Baikal
October 15, 2020 16:23 - 54 minutes - 74.5 MBPart 2. Diatoms are a major group of algae found in waters all around the world. As photosynthetic phytoplankton, they are hugely important ‘primary producers’, integral to nearly every aquatic food chain. They are responsible for a large proportion of the world’s oxygen production, with estimates ranging between 20 and 50%. Diatoms are unicellular plants that produce their cell walls, termed frustules, out of silica. These intricate frustules are what we find preserved in the fossil rec...
Episode 115a: Diatoms of Lake Baikal
October 01, 2020 16:17 - 42 minutes - 58.6 MBDiatoms are a major group of algae found in waters all around the world. As photosynthetic phytoplankton, they are hugely important ‘primary producers’, integral to nearly every aquatic food chain. They are responsible for a large proportion of the world’s oxygen production, with estimates ranging between 20 and 50%. Diatoms are unicellular plants that produce their cell walls, termed frustules, out of silica. These intricate frustules are what we find preserved in the fossil record and th...
Episode 114b: Horseshoe Crabs
August 14, 2020 18:18 - 1 hour - 83.2 MBPart 2 of 2. The horseshoe crabs (Xiphosura) are a group of large aquatic arthropods known from the East coast of the USA, and the Southern and Eastern coasts of Asia. Despite their name, they are not actually crabs at all, but are chelicerates (the group containing spiders and scorpions). As a group, the horseshoe crabs possess an extremely long fossil record, reaching as far back as the Ordovician Period, some 480 million years ago. Since that time, they would appear to have undergone ve...
Ep114b: Horseshoe Crabs
August 14, 2020 18:18 - 1 hour - 83.2 MBPart 2 of 2. The horseshoe crabs (Xiphosura) are a group of large aquatic arthropods known from the East coast of the USA, and the Southern and Eastern coasts of Asia. Despite their name, they are not actually crabs at all, but are chelicerates (the group containing spiders and scorpions). As a group, the horseshoe crabs possess an extremely long fossil record, reaching as far back as the Ordovician Period, some 480 million years ago. Since that time, they would appear to have undergone ve...
Episode 114a: Horseshoe Crabs
July 31, 2020 16:36 - 48 minutes - 67.3 MBThe horseshoe crabs (Xiphosura) are a group of large aquatic arthropods known from the East coast of the USA, and the Southern and Eastern coasts of Asia. Despite their name, they are not actually crabs at all, but are chelicerates (the group containing spiders and scorpions). As a group, the horseshoe crabs possess an extremely long fossil record, reaching as far back as the Ordovician Period, some 480 million years ago. Since that time, they would appear to have undergone very little chang...
Ep114a: Horseshoe Crabs
July 31, 2020 16:36 - 48 minutes - 67.3 MBThe horseshoe crabs (Xiphosura) are a group of large aquatic arthropods known from the East coast of the USA, and the Southern and Eastern coasts of Asia. Despite their name, they are not actually crabs at all, but are chelicerates (the group containing spiders and scorpions). As a group, the horseshoe crabs possess an extremely long fossil record, reaching as far back as the Ordovician Period, some 480 million years ago. Since that time, they would appear to have undergone very little chang...
Episode 113: PBS Eons
July 15, 2020 13:33 - 1 hour - 91.6 MBWith palaeontology as popular as it is you will never be short of content online, whether that be articles, blogs, podcasts (of which there are now many others you should also be listening to) or videos. This allows you, the public, to enjoy learning about past life on demand and in a format that best suits you. The only issue with having so many sources of information/entertainment is that the quality can be highly variable and it can be difficult to determine whether any given outlet/chan...
Episode 112: Extinction of the dinosaurs
June 29, 2020 20:00 - 37 minutes - 51.9 MBThe end-Cretaceous (or K-Pg) extinction is one of the best known mass extinctions in Earth's history, primarily because that is when non-avian dinosaurs disappeared. Although the popular idea is that an asteroid impact was what caused the extinction, the science hasn't actually been that clear. More recently, a second hypothesis has challenged the idea asteroid as the main culprit, suggesting that huge volcanic eruptions in what is now India called the Deccan Traps was responsible. It has al...
Episode 111: Diversity in Palaeontology
June 17, 2020 15:56 - 1 hour - 85.1 MBIn this episode, in conjunction with the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP), we investigate issues of diversity in palaeontology, through interviews with Jann Nassif (PhD student at Ohio University, USA) on being transgender in palaeontology; Professor Taissa Rodrigues (Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Brazil) and Dr Femke Holwerda (Dr Betsy Nicholls Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, Canada) about women in palaeontology; and Gabriel-Phili...
Episode 110: The Fin-Limb Transition and Early Tetrapod Biodiversity
May 31, 2020 17:36 - 1 hour - 97.5 MBOne of the great themes in palaeobiology is the water-land transition, or how and when the ancestors of today’s four-legged terrestrial animals moved to land. Lines of questioning have included understanding the anatomy and biomechanics of the axial skeleton- head and vertebrae (focusing on biting and swallowing) and the appendicular skeleton (focusing on how the earliest tetrapods walked or swam). Our picture of this story has drastically changed in the last three decades, as new fossils ha...
Episode 109: Early Tetrapod Feeding Mechanics
May 01, 2020 11:05 - 45 minutes - 62.8 MBEarly tetrapods include the earliest animals to grow legs, and their closest ancestors. Moving from the water to land required a number of changes within the skeleton and muscular system, related to moving from swimming to crawling, greater pressure on the body after experiencing further effects of gravity without buoyancy, and the difference in feeding with and without water. This transition is commonly referred to as the 'water-to-land' transition. While a significant amount of work has be...
04/20 Announcement
April 18, 2020 17:39 - 2 minutes - 3.31 MBUpdates about the show and discussion of recent events
Episode 108: Plesiosaurs
March 01, 2020 20:26 - 53 minutes - 74.1 MBPlesiosaurs are some of the most easily recognisable animals in the fossil record. Simply uttering the words ‘Loch Ness Monster’ can conjure a reasonably accurate image of what they look like. Thanks to palaeoart, it’s also fairly easy to envision how they lived: swimming through the open Jurassic seas, picking fish, ammonites and belemnites out of the water. What we don’t imagine are plesiosaurs at the South Pole, nor would we ever picture them swimming amongst icebergs or poking their he...
Episode 107b: Nomenclature
February 02, 2020 12:30 - 35 minutes - 49.2 MBPart 2. Names can provide a large amount of information about the heritage of an individual, the purpose of a product or even the characteristics of an organism. With so much in a name, are there rules governing what you can and can’t name an animal? Can you name an animal after yourself or a celebrity? Can you sell the rights to a name? Which names are forbidden? Every year 2,000 genera and some 15,000 species are added to scientific literature and providing the guidelines as to how the...
Episode 107a: Nomenclature
January 20, 2020 15:28 - 39 minutes - 53.8 MBNames can provide a large amount of information about the heritage of an individual, the purpose of a product or even the characteristics of an organism. With so much in a name, are there rules governing what you can and can’t name an animal? Can you name an animal after yourself or a celebrity? Can you sell the rights to a name? Which names are forbidden? Every year 2,000 genera and some 15,000 species are added to scientific literature and providing the guidelines as to how these animals...
Episode 106: Herpetology
January 01, 2020 16:23 - 57 minutes - 79.5 MBHerpetology is the study of reptiles, amphibians and caecilians. This includes frogs, salamanders, crocodiles, snakes, lizards and tuatara, to name just a few. These cold-blooded tetrapods have an evolutionary history that reaches back to the Carboniferous. For many of these groups, questions remain about their evolutionary relationships and patterns of diversity through major extinction events. New fossil discoveries are helping address some of these outstanding mysteries. Prof. Susan Eva...
Episode 106: Herpetology
January 01, 2020 16:23Herpetology is the study of reptiles, amphibians and caecilians. This includes frogs, salamanders, crocodiles, snakes, lizards and tuatara, to name just a few. These cold-blooded tetrapods have an evolutionary history that reaches back to the Carboniferous. For many of these groups, questions remain about their evolutionary relationships and patterns of diversity through major extinction events. New fossil discoveries are helping address some of these outstanding mysteries. Prof. Susan Eva...
Episode 105: Ferrodraco
November 15, 2019 00:00 - 31 minutes - 44.2 MBAustralia has many fossils from all ages, including several dinosaurs known exclusively from this time and place. However, they are not well known for their pterosaur fossils, having only a handful of specimens, and up to now just two named species from this large continent. Last month, the most complete pterosaur from Australia was described, a new species called Ferrodraco lentoni. At the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in Brisbane, Australia, we were able to sit down with Adele Pentl...
Episode 104: Ediacaran Developmental Biology
October 15, 2019 19:14 - 55 minutes - 76.5 MBThe Ediacaran Period is host to the first large and complex multicellular organisms known in the fossil record. This 'Ediacaran Biota' has long eluded definitive placement on the tree of life, seemingly falling between even the most fundamental of its branches. At the core of this taxonomic issue are their unique body plans, not seen replicated in any other kingdom. Amongst the researchers trying to unravel the mystery of these organisms is Dr Frances Dunn of the University of Oxford. Fran...
Episode 103: Terror Birds
September 15, 2019 11:06 - 41 minutes - 56.9 MBTerror birds, or phorusrhacids as they are known scientifically, are a group of large, flightless birds that lived during the Cenozoic, and truly lived up to their name. Known for their large, powerful skulls, and enormous beaks, these birds are unlike the flightless birds we have alive today. Despite their strange appearance and unique morphology, terror birds aren't well known in popular culture. What were they doing? How big did they get? What did they eat? In this episode, we talk to a...
Episode 102b: Small Shelly Fossils
September 01, 2019 17:11 - 33 minutes - 46.4 MBBetween the weird and wonderful rangeomorphs of the Ediacaran Period and the world-famous palaeocommunities of the Burgess Shale, the 'Early Cambrian' is host to a 'waste basket' of fossils untied by their small size and shelly construction. These small shelly fossils (SSFs) aren't just a single group of animals, but represent several different invertebrate phyla. Further compounding the difficulty of their identification, each SSF, termed a 'sclerite', is part of a larger composite skelet...
Episode 102a: Small Shelly Fossils
August 14, 2019 10:07 - 42 minutes - 58.3 MBBetween the weird and wonderful rangeomorphs of the Ediacaran Period and the world-famous palaeocommunities of the Burgess Shale, the 'Early Cambrian' is host to a 'waste basket' of fossils untied by their small size and shelly construction. These small shelly fossils (SSFs) aren't just a single group of animals, but represent several different invertebrate phyla. Further compounding the difficulty of their identification, each SSF, termed a 'sclerite', is part of a larger composite skelet...
Episode 101: Organic Preservation of Dinosaur Bone
July 01, 2019 19:58 - 1 hour - 96 MBFossilisation of organic material was long thought to result in the complete loss of original content. However in the last 20 years, several high-profile publications reported the discovery of proteins, blood vessels, blood cells and even DNA. But for as long as these arguments have existed, so too has a counterargument as to the validity of the discoveries. In this episode, we're joined by Dr Evan Saitta of the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, lead author of a recent paper seekin...
Episode 100: Tiktaalik
May 24, 2019 17:20 - 39 minutes - 54.7 MBOne of palaeontology‘s great themes of questioning is the rise of novelty: how new structures and functions arise in specific lineages. In this episode we speak with Neil Shubin, Professor of Organismal Biology at the University of Chicago, who has been studying novelty in the context of the vertebrate transition from water to land. Neil studies the fossil record of early tetrapods, the first vertebrates with limbs, to understand what changes underpinned this great transition. The other ha...
Episode 99: Megalodon and Marine Megafauna
April 15, 2019 15:37 - 40 minutes - 55.7 MBUndoubtedly, Megalodon is the world’s most famous extinct shark is and in this episode, we hear everything we know about this taxon, its ecology and how it got to be so big. Its ultimate extinction is also considered, not in isolation, but placed in the wider context of the entire marine ecosystem. Joining us is Dr Catalina Pimiento of Swansea University.
Episode 98: 10 Tons
March 15, 2019 00:00 - 45 minutes - 62.8 MBFrom 1:1 scale whales to microfossils scaled up to the size of a house, there are few model-building projects that 10 Tons are afraid to take on. At the helm of this business is Esben Horn and in this episode, he joins us to discuss the process of model building, from concept to museum display. We also talk about some of the exhibitions 10 Tons have led themselves, including the successful ‘Rock Fossils on Tour‘ which showcases some of the different fossils named in honour of rock/metal mu...