Palaeocast

After 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 ev...

Whether 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...

One 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 pro...

One 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 pro...

In 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 over...

Crocodiles 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, Universit...

Crocodiles 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, Universit...

Terrestrial 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...

Part 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...

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 Brea, Los Angeles,...

It 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 conc...

The 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 i...

Piecing 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 dinosaur...

Lack 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 n...

When 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 relativel...

Part 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 frus...

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, o...

Part 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 Ordovici...

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, so...

With 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 qu...

The 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...

In 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 th...

One 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)...

Early 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 c...

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