Podcasts about palaeontology

Dr. Sarah Gabbott is a Professor of Palaeontology in the School of Geography, Geology, and the Environment at the University of Leicester. She is also Director of Green Circle Nature Regeneration CIC, a non-profit organization in the UK, and she is co-author of the recently released book Discarded: How Technofossils Will be Our Ultimate Legacy. As a paleontologist, Sarah primarily studies the fossils of creatures that lived millions of years ago to better understand the evolution of life and the ecology of life through time. She examines the remains of ancient organisms in the fossil record to understand what they looked like, how they ate, what they ate, how they moved, and more. Outside of the lab, you can often find Sarah out walking, riding around on her mountain bike, playing squash, birdwatching, or cooking. Sarah completed her undergraduate degree in geology at the University of Southampton and was awarded her PhD in paleobiology from the University of Leicester. Afterwards, she remained at the University of Leicester as a postdoctoral fellow before joining the faculty there. She has received the President's Award of the Geological Society of London, the Paleontological Association's Annual Meeting President's Prize, and numerous grant awards to support her research over the years. In our interview, Sarah shares insights and stories from her life and science.

The gang discusses two papers that look at the evolutionary impact of shifts in habitat occupation. The first paper looks at a clade of sharks moving into the depths, and the second paper investigates habitat shifts in mammals across the Cretaceous and Paleogene. Meanwhile, Amanda has some opinions, James is doing much better, and Curt is easy to amuse.   Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition): The friends talk about two papers that look into how animals change when they move from one type of place to another. The first paper looks at animals with big teeth that has soft parts inside and live in the water. One group of these animals is found in really deep water today, but in the past they were found in water that is not deep. This paper looks at when this move into the deep happened, and what it happened along with. The second paper looks at parts of animals that have hair and how these parts have changed over time. These parts are used for moving around and so they can let us know how these animals were moving in the past. This paper shows that before a really bad thing happened, a lot of these animals were moving in the trees, but after that big thing happened these animals were moving in a lot more different ways with more on the ground.   References: Marion, Alexis FP, Fabien L. Condamine, and Guillaume Guinot. "Bioluminescence and repeated deep-sea colonization shaped the diversification and body size evolution of squaliform sharks." Proceedings B 292.2042 (2025): 20242932. Janis, Christine M., et al. "Down to earth: therian mammals became more terrestrial towards the end of the Cretaceous." Palaeontology 68.2 (2025): e70004.

In this special interview on TWIG, Mike the "Birdman" invites Dr Nathan Barling from Paldeogames for a chat. If you love dinosaurs, and all things anicent and mighty then take a a listen to Birdman get entirely too excited about TTRPGs and dinosaurs!. Make sure to check out their websites for the books and learn about thier most recent successful Kickstarter!Show Notes:https://x.com/palaeofoxhttps://palaeogames.com/https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/palaeogames/professor-primulas-portfolio-of-palaeontologyYour Geekmasters:Mike "The Birdman" - https://bsky.app/profile/birdmanguelph.bsky.socialAlex "The Producer" - https://bsky.app/profile/dethphasetwig.bsky.socialFeedback for the show?:Email: feedback@thisweekingeek.netTwitter: https://twitter.com/thisweekingeekBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thisweekingeek.bsky.socialSubscribe to our feed: https://www.spreaker.com/show/3571037/episodes/feediTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-geek/id215643675Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Lit2bzebJXMTIv7j7fkqqWebsite: https://www.thisweekingeek.netApril 23, 2025

Mike Archer explains how palaeontology helps us form a picture of the past, of what happened when, and so helps us see more clearly the path we are on and what is likely to happen.

John Maytham is joined by Professor Bruce Rubidge, Director of the Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research at the University of the Witwatersrand and former head of the Evolutionary Studies Institute – to talk about the Fossil Museum in Graaf Reinet, which houses the worlds most unique species.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Alexandra Morton-Hayward is using cutting-edge methods to crack the secrets of ancient brains – even as hers betrays her There are more Audio Long Reads here, or search Audio Long Read wherever you listen to your podcasts

Today, we go back many millennia in order to protect ourselves for the coming centuries: Emily Hart speaks to two Colombian scientists, Carlos Jaramillo and Camila Martínez, time-travellers of the smallest imaginable time machines: fossilised pollen and tree cells.    Climate change has been a constant feature of Planet Earth: at points in history, the planet has been both much cooler and much warmer than it is today - if we know which plants occupied an ecosystem the last time the Earth was a certain temperature or had a certain level of CO2 in the atmosphere, we can predict what our ecosystems will look like in the conditions that we will soon be living in.  Using tiny fossilised clues, Carlos and Camila are doing exactly this.  The climate change we are currently living through is unprecedented in speed – and water and rain cycles are a major concern for humanity's continued existence on the planet, so one focus of this work is the Amazon rainforest – both Colombia's slice of it and further afield.  Predictive models currently disagree about where the Amazon is headed as the earth warms – some models predict it will get wetter, others say it will become grasslands or scrub. One way to find out is to work out which plants lived in the area the last time conditions changed in the ways they are currently changing, and look at how that ecosystem and its inhabitants changed and adapted during that time.    Drilling deep into the earth to find fossil records from 12 million years ago, Carlos is now studying the fingerprints left by Amazonian life from that time – particularly pollen. Camila is studying fossilised trees, whose cells – frozen in time – can show us how much water was in the environment.     But pollen and other microscopic clues are in such abundance in places like Colombia that there simply isn't enough time in a human life to study and identify all of the species being found. Luckily, artificial intelligence is opening up huge possibilities – Carlos has been digitalising massive fossil collections and training AI to identify and catalogue samples.   So today, we travel from the microscopic fingerprints of a distant ecological past resting in rocks and trees deep underground through to the futuristic methods made possible by new machine learning and digital processing. Carlos and Camila span multiple disciplines and vast timeframes, all in the hopes of getting us the information we need to survive the climate crisis which will change the face of the planet within our lifetimes.   They'll be telling us how - and why it's so important. Support the podcast: www.patreon.com/colombiacalling 

The gang discusses two papers that look into the timing of evolution of the “crown group”. The first paper looks at fossil glass sponges, and the second paper looks at the phylogeny of lampreys. Meanwhile, James gives some sound advice, Amanda has ambitious hobby plans, and Curt imagines the perfect media crossover.   Up-Goer Five: (Curt Edition) The friends talk about two papers that look at groups of animals and try to see when the things that we see today in these groups may have first happened in the past and what we can tell us about why those things might have happened. The first paper looks at a group of animals that are made up of many single parts that can all act on their own and these animals get food out of water in a very simple way. This paper finds some very old animals that look a lot like some groups of these animals we see today. This would mean that this group may have been around a lot longer ago than we think. The second paper looks at a group of animals that are long without much going on and a round mouth and live in the water. This group has animals that live in different places that have made people ask why. This paper looks at how all of these animals changed over time and uses that to see when the animals that we see today may have first been around. They find that these animals may have first appeared during a time that was really hot, and that might be why the animals are where they are today.   References: Botting, Joseph P., et al. "Advanced crown‐group Rossellidae (Porifera: Hexactinellida) resembling extant taxa from the Hirnantian (Late Ordovician) Anji Biota." Papers in Palaeontology 11.1 (2025): e70000. Hughes, Lily C., et al. "Phylogenomic resolution of lampreys reveals the recent evolution of an ancient vertebrate lineage." Proceedings B 292.2038 (2025): 20242101.

If you were hunting for some fossilised dinosaur footprints, where would you go? To a remote part of North or South America, perhaps? A deserted wilderness for sure... But how about Oxfordshire? We chat to Dr Duncan Murdock from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History about an incredible discovery made right on our doorstep. Photo © Dr Emma Nicholls / Oxford University Museum of Natural History

Une étude récente, publiée dans la revue Palaeontology, explore comment l'extinction des dinosaures il y a environ 66 millions d'années a influencé l'évolution des fruits et, par conséquent, la survie de nos ancêtres primates. Cette recherche, dirigée par le professeur Christopher Doughty de l'Université de Northern Arizona, apporte des preuves à une théorie de longue date selon laquelle la disparition des grands dinosaures herbivores a conduit à des changements écologiques favorisant le développement de fruits plus gros.Impact des dinosaures sur les écosystèmes préhistoriquesAvant leur extinction, les grands dinosaures herbivores, tels que les sauropodes, jouaient un rôle crucial en tant qu'ingénieurs des écosystèmes. En se nourrissant de vastes quantités de végétation et en abattant des arbres, ils maintenaient des forêts clairsemées, permettant à la lumière du soleil d'atteindre le sol et favorisant la croissance de plantes à petites graines. Cette dynamique limitait la taille des fruits, car les plantes n'avaient pas besoin de produire de grandes graines pour se reproduire efficacement.Conséquences de l'extinction des dinosauresL'extinction massive à la fin du Crétacé, probablement causée par l'impact d'un astéroïde, a entraîné la disparition des dinosaures non aviens. Sans ces grands herbivores pour perturber la végétation, les forêts ont évolué vers des environnements plus denses et fermés. Cette transformation a modifié les conditions de lumière et de compétition au sein des écosystèmes forestiers.Évolution des fruits et des grainesDans ces forêts épaisses, les plantes ont dû adapter leurs stratégies de reproduction. La production de fruits plus gros avec des graines plus volumineuses est devenue avantageuse, car elle permettait une meilleure survie des plantules dans des environnements ombragés. Les fruits plus grands étaient également plus visibles et attrayants pour les animaux frugivores, facilitant ainsi la dispersion des graines sur de plus longues distances.Influence sur l'évolution des primatesParallèlement, les premiers mammifères, notamment les ancêtres des primates, ont évolué pour exploiter cette nouvelle ressource alimentaire. Une alimentation riche en fruits nutritifs a pu favoriser le développement de caractéristiques telles qu'une vision des couleurs améliorée, une dextérité accrue et des capacités cognitives supérieures, traits distinctifs des primates modernes. Ainsi, l'évolution des fruits et celle des primates sont intimement liées, chacune influençant le parcours évolutif de l'autre.Cette étude met en évidence l'importance des interactions entre les espèces et leur environnement dans le façonnement de l'évolution. La disparition des dinosaures a non seulement transformé les écosystèmes terrestres, mais a également déclenché une série d'événements écologiques et évolutifs conduisant à l'émergence de fruits plus gros et à l'adaptation des primates à ces nouvelles ressources, influençant indirectement l'évolution humaine. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

When the palaeontologists of the future search for clues to understand how we lived, what might they find? Two scientists exploring this question have suggested that ‘technofossils' will be our lasting imprint on the Earth. To find out exactly what these are and what they could reveal about our lives, Madeleine Finlay hears from the Guardian's environment editor, Damian Carrington, and from Sarah Gabbott, a professor of palaeontology at the University of Leicester and one of the scientists behind the new book Discarded: How Technofossils Will Be Our Ultimate Legacy. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod

Imagine for a moment that it's a million years in the future.You're walking along a rocky shoreline, when suddenly you notice something jutting out of the cliff face.It's a plastic rectangle with 104 buttons on its face. Each button has a symbol on it that is completely unfamiliar to you.Today, we recognise this object as a computer keyboard, but what will the archaeologists of the far future make of it and what could it tell them about us?Sarah Gabbott is Professor of Palaeontology at the University of Leicester and co-author of ‘Discarded: How Technofossils Will be Our Ultimate Legacy'. She joins Seán to discuss.

Imagine for a moment that it's a million years in the future.You're walking along a rocky shoreline, when suddenly you notice something jutting out of the cliff face.It's a plastic rectangle with 104 buttons on its face. Each button has a symbol on it that is completely unfamiliar to you.Today, we recognise this object as a computer keyboard, but what will the archaeologists of the far future make of it and what could it tell them about us?Sarah Gabbott is Professor of Palaeontology at the University of Leicester and co-author of ‘Discarded: How Technofossils Will be Our Ultimate Legacy'. She joins Seán to discuss.

Using cutting-edge methods, Alexandra Morton-Hayward is cracking the secrets of ancient brains – even as hers betrays her. By Kermit Pattison. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

fWotD Episode 2752: Atrociraptor Welcome to Featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia’s finest articles.The featured article for Saturday, 16 November 2024 is Atrociraptor.Atrociraptor () is a genus of dromaeosaurid dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous in what is now Alberta, Canada. The first specimen, a partial skull, was discovered in 1995 by the fossil collector Wayne Marshall in the Horseshoe Canyon Formation, about 5 km (3 mi) from the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, where it was brought for preparation. In 2004, the specimen became the holotype of the new genus and species Atrociraptor marshalli; the generic name is Latin for "savage robber", and the specific name references Marshall. The holotype consists of the premaxillae (frontmost bones of the upper jaw), a maxilla (main bone of the upper jaw), the dentaries (tooth-bearing bones of the lower jaw), associated teeth, and other skull fragments. Isolated teeth from the same formation have since been assigned to Atrociraptor. Estimated to have measured about 1.8–2 m (5.9–6.6 ft) in length and weighed 15 kg (33 lb), Atrociraptor was a relatively small dromaeosaurid. As a dromaeosaurid, it would have had a large sickle-claw on the second toe and had pennaceous feathers. Atrociraptor differs from its contemporary relatives in that its face is much deeper, and its teeth are more strongly inclined backwards than in most other dromaeosaurids and are almost all the same size. It also differed from most relatives in details of the skull, such as the part of the premaxilla below the nostril being taller than long, and in that its maxillary fenestra was larger. The fragmentary nature of the holotype has made the exact relations of Atrociraptor uncertain; it was initially thought to be a velociraptorine, but is now considered a saurornitholestine.Atrociraptor is thought to have been specialised for attacking larger prey than other dromaeosaurids, due to its deep snout. Various ideas for how dromaeosaurids used their sickle-claws have been proposed, and 21st century studies suggest they used them to grasp and restrain struggling prey while dismembering them with the mouth. The holotype specimen is known from the Horsethief Member of the Horseshoe Canyon Formation, which dates to the Maastrichtian age, and ranges from around 72.2 – 71.5 million years ago. Assigned teeth from other parts of the formation indicate it survived for over 2 million years and across a wide geographic area.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:30 UTC on Saturday, 16 November 2024.For the full current version of the article, see Atrociraptor on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm generative Olivia.

ABC RN's Science editor Jonathan Webb joined Dom Knight for Nightlife Science. 

The gang discusses two papers that detail interesting findings about the soft tissues of extinct arthropods. The first paper does a detailed study of the limbs attached to the trilobite head. The second paper describes the newly discovered head of the ancient myriapod Arthropluera, and discusses the larger implications this fossil has for the evolution of millipedes. Meanwhile, Curt explores new advertising ventures, Amanda unpacks automotive anxiety, and James has no ethical complications to report concerning this podcast.   Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition): The friends look at two papers that look at parts of dead animals that have lots of parts that repeat over and over again and take off their skin every time they get bigger. The first paper looks at a group of these dead animals that are no longer around but are found a lot in the past. This paper shows that the number of legs in the head is different than we thought it was. They show that there are five legs in the head, and that it was hard to see in a lot of these animals because of the ways that we get these animals in the rocks makes it harder to see. The second paper looks at an animal that we think is a lot like animals we see today with long bodies and two legs on each part. But we never actually found the head of these animals. This paper finds the head and it helps to show us a lot of cool things about not just these animals in the past, but also how these animals have changed over time. This helps us understand why the groups we have today are the way that they are.   References: Lhéritier, Mickaël, et al. "Head anatomy and phylogenomics show the Carboniferous giant Arthropleura belonged to a millipede-centipede group." Science Advances 10.41 (2024): eadp6362. Hou, Jin‐bo, and Melanie J. Hopkins. "New evidence for five cephalic appendages in trilobites and implications for segmentation of the trilobite head." Palaeontology 67.5 (2024): e12723.

In this episode we talk about the magnificent elusive creatures who can hold their breath for over a hundred minutes, who possess a sound-based navigation system that's better military systems, and whose evolution has confounded marine biologists and palaeontologists alike: whales!

Have local paleontologists discovered an entirely new dinosaur species? Guest: Derek Larson, Collections Manager and Researcher in Palaeontology at the Royal BC Museum Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Seg 1: Inside the mind-bending Alice and Wonderland Syndrome Guest: Dr. Maximilian Friedrich, Clinician-Scientist in Neurology at the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School  Seg 2: Scott's Thoughts: The most overrated movies in history Guest: Scott Shantz, CKNW Contributor Seg 3: View From Victoria: Neck and Neck going into the election We get a local look at the top political stories with the help of Vancouver Sun columnist Vaughn Palmer. Seg 4: How Diddy's arrest sheds light on sex trafficking in North America Guest: Dr. Kimberly Mehlman-Orozco, Human Trafficking Expert Witness and Author of “Hidden in Plain Sight: America's Slaves of the New Millennium” Seg 5: Can age restrictions actually stop kids from viewing explicit websites? Guest: Elaine Craig, Professor of Law at Dalhousie University and Author of “Mainstreaming Porn: Sexual Integrity and the Law Online” Seg 6: Are KPU students really trying to shut down their school paper? Guest: Claudia Culley, Editor and Chief of Kwantlen Polytechnic University's Student Newspaper “The Runner” Seg 7: Will Instagram's new restrictions be enough to keep teens safe? Guest: Niki Sharma, Attorney General of British Columbia Seg 8: Have local paleontologists discovered an entirely new dinosaur species? Guest: Derek Larson, Collections Manager and Researcher in Palaeontology at the Royal BC Museum Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I have covered this one on History Homos in more detail in an episode I did with William, you can find it on my feed or their feed. So I thought as a way of advertising the Patreon this might be a good one as it gives a little more colour to the episode I did about The Piltdown Man in the past.   You can find me on Patreon here - www.Patreon.com/WorldAroundEwe

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the greatest changes in the history of life on Earth. Around 400 million years ago some of our ancestors, the fish, started to become a little more like humans. At the swampy margins between land and water, some fish were turning their fins into limbs, their swim bladders into lungs and developed necks and eventually they became tetrapods, the group to which we and all animals with backbones and limbs belong. After millions of years of this transition, these tetrapod descendants of fish were now ready to leave the water for a new life of walking on land, and with that came an explosion in the diversity of life on Earth.WithEmily Rayfield Professor of Palaeobiology at the University of BristolMichael Coates Chair and Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of ChicagoAndSteve Brusatte Professor of Palaeontology and Evolution at the University of EdinburghProducer: Simon TillotsonIn Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production

In a week where:Shamima Begum loses final UK court bid over citizenship.Largest UK pension fund sells off Israeli assets amid member anger over Gaza.Brazilian plane with 62 people on board crashes in São Paulo state, no survivors.The 2024 Olympics comes to a close.Ukraine launches an incursion into Russian territory.In Education: (8:11) A story I've wanted to talk about for over a month has been a sect of schools experimenting banning phones during schooltime. Me strongly agreeing might be my most conservative take... (Article By Nora Redmond)In Space: (19:28) One story that I felt went under the radar last week is the fact that two people are stranded in space until 2025. They were only meant to be in space for EIGHT DAYS. So what happened? (Article By Jake Levison)In... Palaeontology: (30:55) I saw recently that some fossils got copped for a King's Ransom. It begs the question: Why are fossils worth so much? (Article By Katherine Laidlaw)Lastly, in Sports: (46:37) The 2024 Olympics are done which means it's time for a little debrief! My favourite moments, TeamGB's overall result and a bit of zooming out as the countdown to LA28 begins in earnest.

The gang discusses two papers that look at functional morphology in extinct groups. The first paper looks at tooth replacement patterns in an Ornithischian dinosaur, and the second paper studies the shell articulation of Rafinesquina to unravel a long-standing mystery. Meanwhile, James has questions about taste, Amanda forgets protocol, and Curt indulges in his fixations.   Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition): The friends talk about two papers that look at how animals did things a long time ago. The first paper looks at a group of big angry animals that are liked a lot and make their way into movies. This paper looks at how the teeth of some of these animals would grow over time. This group of big angry animals also does a lot of cool things with their teeth over a long time because they move from eating animals to eating things that do not move and make their own food from the sun. The big angry animals that they look at have lot of these animals from a lot of different ages so they can see how the teeth get changed as they grew up. What they see is that the way that the teeth grow in changes as the animal grows older. They also find that the number of times that new teeth come in has changed many times in this group of animals. The second paper looks at a group of animals with two hard parts on either side that sits and eats food from the water. This group of animals has really made people confused for a long time because of how the hard parts come together, which could make it so that the animals could not get water inside to eat and would instead get a lot of ground and die. But this group of animals is really good at what it does because it is found all around the world. So how did these things eat? The paper shows that these animals could move their hard parts a lot more than we ever thought. Also, they show that they could move them pretty quick, and could even push out water so quickly that they could maybe move a little bit if they get covered in the ground.   References: Hu, Jinfeng, et al. "Tooth replacement in the early-diverging neornithischian Jeholosaurus shangyuanensis and implications for dental evolution and herbivorous adaptation in Ornithischia." BMC Ecology and Evolution 24.1 (2024): 46. Dattilo, Benjamin F., et al. "Paradox lost: wide gape in the Ordovician brachiopod Rafinesquina explains how unattached filter‐feeding strophomenoids thrived on muddy substrates." Palaeontology 67.2 (2024): e12697.

This podcast finds a way...to ruin your favourite prehistoric lizards for you! Barry and Ben are going fossil-hunting in the company of comedian and podcaster Harry Stachini to pick over the bones of the World's Worst Dinosaur. There are brains in bums, T-Rex's called Sue and dinosaur erotica. Yep. You heard us. You won't want to miss this one. Follow us on Twitter: @worstfoot @bazmcstay @VanderLaugh Follow us on Instagram: @worstfoot  Join us on our Discord server! https://discord.gg/9buWKthgfx Visit www.worstfootforwardpodcast.com for all previous episodes and you can donate to us on Patreon if you'd like to support the show during this whole pandemic thing, and especially as we work on our first book and plan some live shows! https://www.patreon.com/WorstFootForward Worst Foot Forward is part of Podnose: www.podnose.com

Imagine an alien world where a creature could create a sonic boom simply by whipping its tail. Look no further as such creatures once roamed the Earth. This is just one remarkable discovery made by the world renowned Paleontologist Philip J. Currie -- the man whose worked inspire Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park. In this episode, I speak with Philip J. Currie about feathered dinosaurs, long necked giants, his fascinating career and ongoing work. More info: Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum Philip J. Currie Bio: Philip J. Currie, born in Brampton, Ontario on March 13th, 1949, is a leading Canadian palaeontologist and museum curator who helped found the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology. He is now a professor at the University of Alberta. Inspired as a child by a toy dinosaur in a cereal box, Currie went on to study zoology at the University of Toronto, and then vertebrate palaeontology at McGill, under the tutelage of Robert Carroll, himself a major figure in the study of extinct animals. After receiving his doctorate, Currie became the curator of earth sciences at the Provincial Museum of Alberta in Edmonton in 1976. In 1981, this department became the nucleus of the new Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology (now the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology), in Drumheller, Alberta, where Currie is curator of dinosaurs. Currie is an important figure in dinosaur science, and has specialized in fossils from Alberta's Dinosaur Provincial Park as well as other Cretaceous sites (dating from the latter part of the dinosaur age) around the world. He is particularly interested in the evolution and classification of carnivorous dinosaurs (theropods) and their living descendants, birds. He has painstakingly investigated the skeletal anatomy of many of these, including the recently discovered feathered theropods (Protarchaeopteryx and Caudipteryx) of China. The find was considered clear evidence of the relationship between birds and dinosaurs. Other research has focused on dinosaur footprints, as well as dinosaur growth and variation, including description of embryonic duck-billed dinosaur bones discovered inside their fossilized crushed eggshells at Devil's Coulee in southern Alberta. Courtesy of Canadian Encyclopedia, Encyclopedia Historica http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/   Music: Pixabay This episode is sponsored by World History Encyclopedia, one of the top history websites on the internet. I love the fact that they're not a Wiki: Every article they publish is reviewed by their editorial team, not only for being accurate but also for being interesting to read. The website is run as a non-profit organization, so you won't be bombarded by annoying ads and it's completely free. It's a great site, and don't just take my word for it they've been recommended by many academic institutions including Oxford University. Go check them out at WorldHistory.org or follow this link: World History Encyclopedia.

The body of 27-year-old mother of two, Samantha Bodsworth, was found in Noosa, surrounded by wattle trees. The killer thinks it's the perfect crime, but what they underestimated was the power of the tiny, silent witnesses clinging to almost everything they touched – pollen. In this episode, Dr Lynne Milne, the scientist at the forefront of forensic palynology, reveals how, for the first time in an Australian criminal case, pollen helped unmask a murderer. This episode references men's violence against women. If you or someone you know is experiencing, or at risk of experiencing, domestic, family or sexual violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732, text 0458 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au for online chat and video call services. The number for Life Line is 13 11 14.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For our four year anniversary (!!!!) we're talking about the ground sloth, as well as making a bittersweet announcement. Listen to learn more about the many species of ground sloth that existed not so long ago, and to hear an important update. If you'd like to support the show please check out our Patreon to make a monthly donation and receive stickers and prints in the mail each month! And you can take a look at our merch store over on Etsy where we sell adorable animal stickers and postcards.  Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a rating and review. To stay up to date and see our weekly episode illustrations, make sure to follow us on Instagram and TikTok! Beyond Blathers is hosted and produced by Olivia deBourcier and Sofia Osborne, with art by Olivia deBourcier and music by Max Hoosier. This podcast is not associated with Animal Crossing or Nintendo, we just love this game.

When you think of fossils, you probably imagine dinosaurs. But did you know that soft body parts, like the brain, can become fossils too?  In this episode, forensic anthropologist Alexandra Morton-Hayward explores the science of brain fossilisation. Skeletons have been found in wells, Incan temples, salt mines and many other unusual locations, often with no other organs, hair or skin preserved. With only a brain nested in the skull, we are asking … how can this happen? Listen now to find out and discover how this research is unravelling ancient human history!

This week we're talking about an amazing (and terrifying!) Ice Age animal, the sabertooth tiger! Listen to learn more about their iconic saber teeth, the environment they lived in, and why they went extinct! If you'd like to support the show please check out our Patreon to make a monthly donation and receive stickers and prints in the mail each month! And you can take a look at our merch store over on Etsy where we sell adorable animal stickers and postcards.  Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a rating and review. To stay up to date and see our weekly episode illustrations, make sure to follow us on Instagram and TikTok! Beyond Blathers is hosted and produced by Olivia deBourcier and Sofia Osborne, with art by Olivia deBourcier and music by Max Hoosier. This podcast is not associated with Animal Crossing or Nintendo, we just love this game.

It's time for another trip around the solar system on the BIGGER and BETTER Science Weekly!  This episode of the Fun Kids Science Weekly we continue our bigger and better podcast where we put YOUR questions to our team of experts, have scientists battle it out for which science is the best & learn all about why some hedgehogs in Gloucestershire have 'ballooned? Dan starts with the latest science news, where we learn about NASA's Voyager One resuming sending updates back down to earth, why the sun's damage on Antarctica's wildlife has increased & Emily Harper from Wild Hogs Hedgehog Rescue explains why some have been found to have 'ballooned' in Gloucestershire, England. Then we delve into your questions where Dan answers Kitty's question on how touch screens work and we pose Harry's question on what molecules are made of to Dr Catherine Walsh from the University of Leeds. Dangerous Dan continues and we learn all about the Giant Water bug causing chaos across the world more commonly known as the 'Toe Biter'The Battle of the Sciences continues where Dan chats to Jimmy Waldron from Dinosaurs Will Always Be Awesome about why Palaeontology is the best! What do we learn about? - The return of NASA's Voyager One - Why the Sun is causing damage to Antarctica's wildlife? - What's causing Gloucestershire's hedgehogs to 'balloon'? - What are molecules made of? - Is Palaeontology the best type of science? All on this week's episode of Science Weekly!Join Fun Kids Podcasts+: https://funkidslive.com/plusSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What we're talking about: 2:50 Don't assume you know what you can study in Bachelor Science I did all maths and science subjects in VCE, and never even considered a Bachelor of Science. Why? Because I felt like I wasn't that good at Chemistry or Physics, and I didn't realise that I could do a Bachelor of Science and major in Maths or something similar (which was clearly my strength and something I loved to explore). Don't make assumptions - check the majors so you know what a course is actually about so you can make an informed decision. 5:23 What types of majors can you study in a Bachelor of Science If you're considering a Bachelor of Science, you really want to check what majors are offered at the university you're looking at to see if they focus on the types of areas you're interested in. Start by asking yourself questions about what you already know you like. What science subject at school do you like best? What topics do you like within that subject? If you're not sure, hop onto the websites for the different unis and read through the majors offered to see which one has a couple of majors that you could see yourself studying, and then explore them in your first year before you choose which one to focus on. Links mentioned: My website: https://www.roadmapeducation.com Previous episodes related to Science: Laboratory Medicine - https://www.roadmapeducation.com/podcast/61 Laboratory Assistant - https://www.roadmapeducation.com/podcast/55 Food Science - https://www.roadmapeducation.com/podcast/50 Science and Baking - https://www.roadmapeducation.com/podcast/48 Science Advanced - Global Challenges and Palaeontology - https://www.roadmapeducation.com/podcast/47 Science and Global Studies - https://www.roadmapeducation.com/podcast/31 Forensic Science - https://www.roadmapeducation.com/podcast/28 Pharmaceutical Science - https://www.roadmapeducation.com/podcast/23 Science, Arts, Sustainability and Meteorology - https://www.roadmapeducation.com/podcast/22 Pharmacy and Audiology - https://www.roadmapeducation.com/podcast/20 Geology and Scientific Research - https://www.roadmapeducation.com/podcast/18 Science and Veterinary Medicine - https://www.roadmapeducation.com/podcast/13

The gang talks about two papers that look through existing museum collections to discover some fascinating new discoveries. Meanwhile, Curt may be haunted, James may be losing energy, and Amanda may not be real.   Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition): The friends look at two papers about new things that found when going through the stuff stored in a big building where you keep things so that people can look at them later. The first paper finds some really cool new small things that live in water that had been found before and put in a big building to keep things, but no one saw that these small things were not the same as the other small things. These small things are part of a group that lives in fast moving water that we usually do not get a lot of them in the ground. The second paper finds that a thing that was put in a big building a long time ago was actually a lie. This thing is not what everyone thinks it is and the paper looks into what it really is, which is that it is a painting on rock. The paper talks about how it could have ended up this way.   References: Godunko, Roman J., and Pavel Sroka. "A  new mayfly subfamily sheds light on the early evolution and Pangean  origin of Baetiscidae (Insecta: Ephemeroptera)." Scientific Reports 14.1 (2024): 1599. Rossi, Valentina, et al. "Forged soft tissues revealed in the oldest fossil reptile from the early Permian of the Alps." Palaeontology 67.1 (2024): e12690.

The field of evolutionary biology has been greatly influenced by the development of modern genetic methodology. The understanding of genes, genomes and the molecular mechanisms key to life on Earth are all goals of evolutionary biology in the 21st century, yet its potential applications seem to be near limitless. Palaeontology and evolutionary biology continue to be closely related and both, with their deeply rooted origins, have been essential to our understanding of macroevolution (major evolutionary change over long periods of time) ever since the major development of the theory in the 19th century. In this episode, Prof. Erica Bree Rosenblum introduces us to this diverse and constantly evolving field. We cover fundamental questions such as: what are genes and genomes and why does understanding them matter; which evolutionary roles do environmental and genetic mechanisms play; and what ultimately causes the rise and fall of species. In order to better understand life on Earth, we show how evolutionary biology brings together the fields of genetics, biochemistry, ecology, palaeontology and more.

The gang discusses two papers that investigate evidence of symbiosis in the fossil record. The first paper looks at wormy organisms living inside Cambrian vetulicolians, and the second paper shows potential evidence of hydroids growing in mollusc shells. Meanwhile, Amanda is haunted, James's computer is totally cooperating, and Curt may or may not have had to stitch this podcast together from other sources.   Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition): The friends look at two papers that look at animals that live inside of other animals. Sometimes these things live inside other things and both of the things do well because of it. Sometimes, these things live inside other things and they cause problems for the thing they live in. These two papers look at the ways we can see old bits of things that used to live in other things and how we can try and figure out why they might have lived inside other things. The first paper looks long animals living inside a weird animal from a long long time ago. These long animals are all in a small part of these animals that looks like where these weird animals would breathe. Many long animals live inside one of these weird animals. The second paper looks at how hard parts of animals grow over things trying to live on them and we can use use the way these things grow to get an idea of what could have been living on them.   References: Li, Yujing, et al. "Symbiotic fouling of Vetulicola, an early Cambrian nektonic animal." Communications Biology 3.1 (2020): 517. Wisshak, Max, et al. "Putative hydroid  symbionts recorded by bioclaustrations in fossil molluscan shells: a  revision and reinterpretation of the cecidogenus Rodocanalis." Papers in Palaeontology 9.2 (2023): e1484.

In 12 years of podcasting, we have never actually taken the time to address the fundamentals of our field. Such questions could include: what is palaeontology, what is a fossil, how does one become a palaeontologist, and why is palaeontology important? For what should have been our very first episode, we've invited Prof. Roy Plotnick, University of Illinois Chicago, to help us outline everything you need to know about the field of palaeontology. Roy has had a long and varied palaeontological career, he maintains a blog all about the field, and he is author of the book Explorers of Deep Time.

Dr Kira Westaway has been on a ten-year mission to solve the mystery of how, why and when a giant ape called Gigantopithecus Blacki became extinct, and why nothing remains of this beast but thousands and thousands of teeth

Throughout time we find evidence that certain animals made it across vast oceans to other continents, seemingly by crossing the seas. In this episode we talk all about how animals can survive these strange events of accidental seafaring, and how the odds are always stacked against them.CONTENT WARNINGS: Discussion of cruel research methods (not ours!), […]

This week on Our Changing World RNZ podcast producer, and occasional dinosaur correspondent William Ray visits Ngā Taniwha o Rūpapa Dinosaurs of Patagonia, a special exhibition at Te Papa Museum to discover the surprising link between the giant dinosaurs of Patagonia, and prehistoric New Zealand.

The gang discusses two papers that look at... well... let's be honest here... we really didn't have much of a hook. You see, James was slammed with bureaucratic work, Curt was knee deep in grading hell, and Amanda was traveling for the holidays. So we made... this; a podcast about a worm and a lamprey.    We're sorry.   Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition): The friends look at two papers about animals that are long with no legs. The first  paper looks at a small long animal that is actually pretty big for the  kind of animal that it is. It is very old and is found in a very cold  place. This is an important animal to find from a long time ago because  there are not a lot of these animals found at this time, and not a lot  of them in the cold. The fact that it is big could be a part of  something we see a lot where some animals get big to live in the cold.  The second paper looks at a long animals that moves through water and  some of them will eat parts of other animals while they are still  living. This paper is looking at two new animals from a long time ago  that have not been seen before and seeing how it changes our ideas of  where these things come from and how they lived. And it does!   References: Angst, Delphine, et al. "A new method for estimating locomotion type in large ground birds." Palaeontology (2015). Degrange, Federico J. "Hind limb morphometry of terror birds (Aves, Cariamiformes, Phorusrhacidae): functional implications for substrate preferences and locomotor lifestyle." Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh 106.4 (2017): 257-276.

On this episode we welcome back Charlotte and talk bison basics. This is part 1 of 2 of our American Bison series. Give it a listen and share with your friends!Find us on all the things: http://linktr.ee/bearsandbrewspodcast Sources Cited:Coffey, Rebecca. “Bison versus Mammoths: New Culprit in the Disappearance of North America's Giants.” Scientific American, 1 Mar. 2011. Dekel, Yaron, et al. “Dispersal of an ancient retroposon in the TP53 promoter of Bovidae: Phylogeny, novel mechanisms, and potential implications for cow milk persistency.” BMC Genomics, vol. 16, no. 1, 2015, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-015-1235-8. Harington, C.R. “Mammoths, Bison and time in North America.” Developments in Palaeontology and Stratigraphy, 1984, pp. 299–309, https://doi.org/10.1016/s0920-5446(08)70078-5. Mintoo, Abdul Awal, et al. “Draft genome of the River Water Buffalo.” Ecology and Evolution, vol. 9, no. 6, 2019, pp. 3378–3388, https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4965. “Plains Bison (BISON BISON BISON.” U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, www.fws.gov/species/plains-bison-bison-bison-bison. White, P.J, and Katrina L. Auttelet. Yellowstone Bison Conserving an American Icon in Modern Society. Yellowstone Association, 2015. “Wood Bison Restoration in Alaska.” Alaska Department of Fish and Game, 2023, www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=woodbisonrestoration.herdupdates#:~:text=With%20the%20addition%20of%2028,150%20in%20November%20of%202022. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The gang discusses two papers about taphonomy and its influence on our understanding of the fossil record. The first paper looks at how taphonomic processes can blur our understanding of cause and effect, while the second paper looks at the impacts of collector and size biases on our understanding of the ecology of an ancient plant. Meanwhile, James deals with spirits, Curt gets philosophical, and Amanda smartly ignores things.   Up-Goer Five (Curt): The friends talk about two papers that look at the ways in which the things we know can be changed because of other problems that we do not always know are there to make things look like one thing but actually be another thing. The first paper looks at how not getting things to be saved over time could mean that you might not see the reason something happens until it looks like it is after that thing has happened. The paper uses a time in the past when it got very cold and looks at what could have made this happen. There are lots of talk about the growing of big things that make their own food from the sun on land, but this paper shows that what we can see might not be the real time when big things started really doing well. While it sounds strange, it might be best to look at something that we see in the rocks after the time that it gets cold, since the thing that changed probably changed before we can see it in the rocks. The second paper looks at another thing that makes its own food from the sun. This old thing could have lived in a lot of different ways and there are lots of people who think one way or another. Some think these things need to burn as part of their life, and some people think that these things would live near water and might get burned only sometimes. The people who wrote this paper looked at how people found these things, if they picked up ones that were big or small, and also went out to find more of these things. What they find is that some of the reasons people have not known how these things lived is because we grab big parts to save but most of the things are found as small parts that have burned. This means that it seems that burning was an important part of the lives of these things.   References: Blanco‐Moreno, Candela, Hugo  Martín‐Abad, and Ángela D. Buscalioni. "Quantitative plant taphonomy:  the cosmopolitan Mesozoic fern Weichselia reticulata as a case study." Palaeontology 65.6 (2022): e12627. D'Antonio, Michael P., Daniel E. Ibarra, and C. Kevin Boyce. "The preservation of cause and effect in the rock record." Paleobiology 49.2 (2023): 204-214.

This week, we're talking about one of Olivia's favourite dinosaurs: the parasaurolophus! Listen to learn more about their iconic cranial crest and what they used it for! If you'd like to support the show please check out our Patreon to make a monthly donation and receive stickers and prints in the mail each month! And you can take a look at our merch store over on Etsy where we sell adorable animal stickers and postcards.  Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a rating and review. To stay up to date and see our weekly episode illustrations, make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter. And don't forget to check out our TikTok! Beyond Blathers is hosted and produced by Olivia deBourcier and Sofia Osborne, with art by Olivia deBourcier and music by Max Hoosier. This podcast is not associated with Animal Crossing or Nintendo, we just love this game.

Giant penguins weighing up to 150 kilograms once roamed the waters around New Zealand. Claire Concannon speaks to a palaeontologist and learns about penguin evolution, extinct species that dwarfed today's emperors, and why Aotearoa is such a great place to study these birds that 'fly' through the water. 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the remarkable diversity of the animals that dominated life on land in the Triassic, before the rise of the dinosaurs in the Jurassic, and whose descendants are often described wrongly as 'living fossils'. For tens of millions of years, the ancestors of alligators and Nile crocodiles included some as large as a bus, some running on two legs like a T Rex and some that lived like whales. They survived and rebounded from a series of extinction events but, while the range of habitats of the dinosaur descendants such as birds covers much of the globe, those of the crocodiles have contracted, even if the animals themselves continue to evolve today as quickly as they ever have. With Anjali Goswami Research Leader in Life Sciences and Dean of Postgraduate Education at the Natural History Museum Philip Mannion Lecturer in the Department of Earth Sciences at University College London And Steve Brusatte Professor of Palaeontology and Evolution at the University of Edinburgh Producer Simon Tillotson

Odd ideas in palaeontology Palaeontology as a scientific field is beyond popular in the media and with the public but that also means it draws a lot of attention from those with, let's call them, questionable ideas. And no group gets more of this stuff than the dinosaurs and the animals of the Mesozoic. This time out, Iszi and Dave discuss the world of paleo cranks, people with outlandish and non-scientific ideas who present them as fully formed research. Rarely does any of this make it into the mainstream, but on occasion it leaks in and this can only cause confusion. So sit back and enjoy, or grind your teeth in quiet and cold fury, as we go over some of the issues that come with unscientific ideas trying to make their way into the mainstream. Links: It's not just palaeontology that gets these people, here's a neat blog on a physics crank, but the central themes are identical: https://www.skepticblog.org/2012/01/09/cranks-and-physics/   A nice article by Mark Witton on how to spot crankery in palaeontology: http://markwitton-com.blogspot.com/2019/02/how-to-spot-palaeontological-crankery.html   Please do support the show on patreon.com/terriblelizards for extra content.

This week we're back with the conclusion to our T. rex series! Listen to hear the rest of the story surrounding Sue the T. rex, and to learn more about tyrannosaurus rex as animals! If you'd like to support the show please check out our Patreon to make a monthly donation and receive stickers and prints in the mail each month! And you can take a look at our merch store over on Etsy where we sell adorable animal stickers and postcards. Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a rating and review. To stay up to date and see our weekly episode illustrations, make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter. And don't forget to check out our TikTok! Beyond Blathers is hosted and produced by Olivia deBourcier and Sofia Osborne, with art by Olivia deBourcier and music by Max Hoosier. This podcast is not associated with Animal Crossing or Nintendo, we just love this game.

If you listened to last week's episode on the T. rex, we're sorry to leave you on a gigantic dinosaur sized cliffhanger for another week, but Olivia got unexpectedly swamped out in the field and we thought we'd take this opportunity to celebrate our 150th episode and look back on one of first dinosaur episodes. But don't worry, we'll be back ASAP with the rest of the T. rex story! For now we hope you enjoy the brachiosaurus episode, which we originally recorded in 2021.  If you'd like to support the show please check out our Patreon to make a monthly donation and receive stickers and prints in the mail each month! And you can take a look at our merch store over on Etsy where we sell adorable animal stickers and postcards. Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a rating and review. To stay up to date and see our weekly episode illustrations, make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter. And don't forget to check out our TikTok! Beyond Blathers is hosted and produced by Olivia deBourcier and Sofia Osborne, with art by Olivia deBourcier and music by Max Hoosier. This podcast is not associated with Animal Crossing or Nintendo, we just love this game.

Holly, not from a farming background as a youngster had a fascination with fossils and saw a future in the sector however younger teenage years saw her direction change and the goal was set as being a vet. She chased the dream and caught it after years of weekend, holiday and uni dedication she was qualified. Holly worked at a few practises and loved the role, almost too much really taking the job home with her, a nice evening read for Holly would be a nice disease case to research. Focussing both on large animal and small she got a comprehensive coverage of business acumen and various species. During her time as a vet one farmer in particular, Adam asked her on a date, a boundary Holly questioned breaking at first, fast forward to today and they have 2 kids and run an organic 700 cow Friesian x Jersey herd where Holly is in charge of heifer replacements from calves. She now posts on instagram to promote the sector and show what happens on the ground on farm as Cups.On.Cows! Enjoy!

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the greatest changes in the history of life on Earth. Around 400 million years ago some of our ancestors, the fish, started to become a little more like humans. At the swampy margins between land and water, some fish were turning their fins into limbs, their swim bladders into lungs and developed necks and eventually they became tetrapods, the group to which we and all animals with backbones and limbs belong. After millions of years of this transition, these tetrapod descendants of fish were now ready to leave the water for a new life of walking on land, and with that came an explosion in the diversity of life on Earth. The image above is a representation of Tiktaalik Roseae, a fish with some features of a tetrapod but not one yet, based on a fossil collected in the Canadian Arctic. With Emily Rayfield Professor of Palaeobiology at the University of Bristol Michael Coates Chair and Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago And Steve Brusatte Professor of Palaeontology and Evolution at the University of Edinburgh Producer: Simon Tillotson