Paleo Bites

(image source: https://www.darwinsdoor.co.uk/timetour/the-ordovician-period.html ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Natasha Krech discuss Megalograptus , another nope of a creature but this time an ocean-bound nope, so it’s slightly more forgivable. Wait, I’ve just been told they can sometimes go onto land anyway? Nope, nope, NOPE! From the Late Ordovician, this 3-foot eurypterid got its biza...

(image source: https://www.thoughtco.com/things-to-know-protoceratops-1093796)   Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Stephen Curro discuss Protoceratops , a hardy and stocky fellow with a tubby body and a grumpy attitude. I really relate to this creature. From the Late Cretaceous, this 8-foot ceratopsian lived in the desert with the more famous Velociraptor and the two of them really hit it...

(image source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/347129083760903111/ ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Lexi Ryan discuss Appalachiosaurus , a tyrannosaur living on the East Coast like some city slicker sellout. Never forget your Western roots here in Laramidia! Remember who you are! From the Late Cretaceous, this 25-foot theropod dinosaur is the only known dinosaur from its formation, as the fos...

(image source: https://images.dinosaurpictures.org/Ceratosaurus3_1b79.jpg)   Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Allen Brooks discuss Ceratosaurus , an almost-famous dinosaur that often gets overshadowed by Allosaurus , which gets overshadowed by Saurophaganax , which just recently got overshadowed again by Allosaurus because the latter is now unfortunately dubious. At least Ceratosaurus it...

(image source: https://images.dinosaurpictures.org/Saurophaganax-Paul-Heaston1_2121.jpg ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Stephen Curro discuss Allosaurus anax , the new lord of the lizard eaters after supplanting the great and now dubious Saurophaganax after a hard-fought duel. There is truly no mercy sometimes in the battlefield of science. From the Late Jurassic, this 38-foot theropod was...

(image source: https://artpictures.club/autumn-2023.html ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Michele C. Hollow discuss Temnodontosaurus , a rather large marine reptile with potentially the largest eyes of any animal ever at 10 inches wide. Sheesh, my most impressive body part in terms of size is only half that length! From the Early Jurassic, this 30-foot ichthyosaur was discovered by Mary Ann...

(image source: https://dinosaurpictures.org/Hippodraco-pictures)   Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Laura Owsley discuss Hippodraco , a dinosaur with a funny name that makes me think of hippos, horses, dragons, and a shipping portmanteau between Draco Malfoy and the hippogriff he tried to get killed. What a cacophony of emotions this guy brings out, especially for such a boring dinosaur....

(image source: https://fineartamerica.com/featured/styracosaurus-eating-magnolias-with-lambeosaurus-phil-wilson.html ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Natasha Krech discuss Magnolia , another wonderful example of a prehistoric animal we cover on this show in that it is not an animal and is also still around today. It’s okay to break rules if you’re the one who makes them, kids. From the Mid...

(image source: https://www.minizoo.com.au/eofauna-atlasaurus/)   Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Jaymes Buckman discuss Atlasaurus , a lanky and wonky longneck that looks just wrong and quite frankly disgusts me. Look at its proportions, look at it! It’s like if A.I. made a dinosaur. From the Mid Jurassic, this 49 foot sauropod had a shorter neck and more elongated limbs than its cousin...

(image source: https://allthatsinteresting.com/lokiceratops-rangiformis ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Lexi Ryan discuss Lokiceratops , a dinosaur with asymmetrical horns, much like my relationship with my girlfriend where we’re asymmetrical in our horniness for each other. From the Late Cretaceous, this 22-foot centrosaurine ceratopsid is an example of how bilateral symmetry can be varie...

(image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austroraptor by Fred Wierum) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Ben O’Regan discuss Austroraptor , a dromaeosaurid theropod masquerading as a spinosaurid theropod, because that sentence is comprehensible to more than hardcore dino nerds. From the Late Cretaceous, this 18-foot meat-eating dinosaur snapped up fish in the prehistoric jungles of Argentin...

(image source: https://paleontologyworld.com/dinosaurs-%E2%80%93-species-encycolpedia/heterodontosaurus ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Allen Brooks discuss Heterodontosaurus , a very heteronormative dinosaur in that it had heterodont (or “differently-shaped”) teeth. Canceled! You’re canceled by the woke police, Heterodontosaurus ! Love is love! Just ask Caihong , our rainbow-feathered din...

(image source: https://prehistoricpark.fandom.com/wiki/Pulmonoscorpius ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Natasha Krech discuss Pulmonoscorpius , another nope of a nope that crept and crawled and stabbed and stung. Why don't you stay over there and I stay way over here, you big monster? I think that's an arrangement we can all agree on. From the Late Carboniferous, the 2.5-foot scorpion was a...

(image source: https://www.thoughtco.com/uintatherium-profile-1093289 ) Merry Christmas! Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host and one of Santa’s elves Snowdrop Jimjam Jollypie discuss Uintatherium , a big hoofed mammal kind of like a rhino but with these weird antler-things on its head like a reindeer on crack. That’s the Christmas connection I’m making, anyway. From the Eocene epoch, this 14-foo...

(image source: https://alchetron.com/Capromeryx-minor ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Stephen Curro discuss Capromeryx , a teeny-tiny pronghorn with a teeny-tiny amount of information available, perfect for another teeny-tiny bite-sized episode. Dawww. From the Late Pliocene to the Early Holocene, this 2-foot hoofed mammal was among the smallest artiodactyl of all time, being no bigger tha...

(image source: https://www.deviantart.com/lucas-attwell/art/Psittacosaurus-meileyingensis-752628599 ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Lexi Ryan discuss Psittacosaurus , an early representative of the dinosaurs that would later become Triceratops and Styracosaurus and the like despite looking almost nothing like one. It has the parrot-like beak I guess. Oh wait, that’s how it got its name! I’...

(image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domeykodactylus by FunkMonk (Michael B. H.)) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Ben O’Regan discuss Domeykodactylus , a pterosaur with a fabulous piece of artwork for it that was the whole inspiration for this episode. We’re nothing if not easily motivated, folks. But seriously, look at that feathery coat! So fly. Haha, get it, “fly,” like pterosaurs...

(image source: https://www.everythingdinosaur.com/product/haolonggood-pentaceratops-lioutang/ ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Allen Brooks discuss Pentaceratops , a large horned dinosaur just had to one-up Triceratops in the horn quantity department, or technically two-up I guess, since five is two more than three. I’m mathing! From the Late Cretaceous, this 20-foot chasmosaurine ceratopsi...

(image source: https://www.deviantart.com/willemsvdmerwe/art/Notharctus-tenebrosus-948425598 ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Stephen Curro discuss Notharctus , a lemur-like creature that wasn’t actually a lemur nor was it a bear, but then again it is called “false” bear so it’s not technically misleading anyone. I just wonder who was dumb enough to think this was a bear to require clarific...

(image source: Art by Gabriel Ugueto) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Laura Owsley discuss Caihong , a beautiful rainbow-feathered ally and one of the premiere examples of the evidence of dinosaur coloration. Slay, queen! From the Late Jurassic, this 1-foot anchiornithid theropod flew its glittering body over its Chinese forest home and spread its love all over like a sparkling fairy. Step a...

(image source: https://dinosaurpictures.org/Thalassodromeus-pictures ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Ben O’Regan discuss Thalassodromeus , a medium-sized pterosaur with a really, really big crest for its size; in fact potentially the biggest cranial crests of any vertebrate! Damn, you didn’t need to go that hard, Mr. Thalass! From the Early Cretaceous, this 15-foot pterodactyloid is highly...

(image source: https://www.deviantart.com/nagrandia/art/Diabloceratops-574079826) Happy Halloween! Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host/demon lord Morazmolochgallothagon discuss Diabloceratops , a dinosaur with literal devil horns and a ferocious attitude, making it a perfect new monster to enact further suffering upon Matthew’s soul. Mwuahaha. Wait, what? Who’s writing this?! From the Late Creta...

(image source: Art by Joschua Knüppe) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Allen Brooks discuss Alpkarakush , a medium-sized predatory dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic at the geographic midpoint of its family. A lot of mid, this guy. Maybe he isn’t that great. He’s mid, this one. From the Mid Jurassic, this 23-foot metriacanthosaurid was very closely related to my boy Sinraptor , the star of Mat...

(image source: https://dinosauralive.fandom.com/wiki/Gillicus ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Natasha Krech discuss Gillicus , a fish with gills… you know, like literally all fish. You ain’t special, Gillicus . We see you for who you are. From the Late Cretaceous, this 6-foot ichthyodectiform is most famous for the “fish-within-a-fish” skeleton, where it’s the vore victim of the much coole...

(image source: https://dinosaurpictures.org/Udanoceratops-pictures ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Laura Owsley discuss Udanoceratops , a fat ugly beast with a really big head. Between this, last week’s Anteosaurus , and the Eryops episode a bit ago, there seems to be a recurring theme of creatures here. See you at the Cotylorhynchus episode where we start talking about small heads. From t...