Paleo Bites

(image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeoindris ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Stephen Curro discuss Archaeoindris , the lemurs’ answer to Gigantopithecus , if that makes a lick of sense. From the Late Pleistocene, this 6-foot paleopropithecid lived its merry lemur life until roughly 2,000 years ago, dying around the same time as Christ Himself. Where’s the Archaeoindris religi...

(image source: https://images.dinosaurpictures.org/500px-Giraffatitan_3380.jpg ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Laura Owsley discuss Giraffatitan , an African longneck that paleontologists previously confused with Brachiosaurus , which is odd, as its name clearly says it’s a titanic giraffe. From the Late Jurassic, this 70-foot sauropod lays claim to the tallest mounted skeleton in the worl...

(image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichthyostegalia ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Natasha Krech discuss Ichthyostega , one of the first vertebrates to crawl onto land, so if you hate modern things like war, taxes, or reality shows, you can blame this guy. From the Late Devonian, this 5-foot stegocephalian inadvertently paved the path forward for all land vertebrates including hu...

(image source: https://bit.ly/3J7dSSK by James Robbins) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Lexi Ryan discuss Pendraig , a little Welsh dinosaur that’s a bit small and ordinary for a creature named after the legendary King Arthur bloodline, but good on it for having ambition. From the Late Triassic, this 3-foot coelophysid was merely the predecessor of all the great dinosaurs to come, meaning th...

(image source: https://www.pinterest.com/vincelongo0700/prehistoric-animals/ ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Stephen Curro discuss Bos primigenius , the ancestral cattle and progenitor to all those burgers and milkshakes you love, unless you’re vegetarian or lactose intolerant. From the Late Pleistocene to Early Holocene, this 7-foot bovine roamed the Ice Age prairies and survived beyond i...

(image sources: https://bit.ly/3tpvuVj and https://bit.ly/3KTLmoO ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Ben O’Regan discuss Dravidosaurus , a controversial fossil that’s either a stegosaur or a plesiosaur; you know, those two basically identical animals. From the Late Cretaceous, this 10-foot reptile has gone back and forth between identities so much it’s basically a superhero. And like a good s...

(image source: https://bit.ly/34JG3sD )   Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Natasha Krech discuss Postosuchus , the top predator of its habitat that loved to munch on early dinosaurs before its morning coffee. From the Late Triassic, this 20-foot rauisuchian was one of those crocodylomorph archosaurs that ruled before the dinosaurian archosaurs took over after the Triassic-Jurassic extinction....

(image source: https://dinopedia.fandom.com/wiki/Therizinosaurus ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Lexi Ryan discuss Therizinosaurus , a dinosaur that looked like a house-sized goose with claws bigger than your torso, AKA the most terrifying animal ever. From the Late Cretaceous, this 35-foot maniraptoran theropod was initially identified as a giant turtle, because paleontologists are silly...

(image source: https://bit.ly/3AB1CHs ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Stephen Curro discuss Chasmosaurus , a big-headed horned dinosaur with an even bigger head than most other horned dinosaurs; seriously, look at that big head, look at it! From the Late Cretaceous, this 16-foot ceratopsian had a really, really big head. Not like Torosaurus or Pentaceratops big, but bigger than Triceratops...

(image source: https://bit.ly/3r2AJsI ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Lawrence Mack discuss Khaan , a bizarre feathered dinosaur that, much like an aardvark or the Scarlet Letter, has an extra “A” that it really shouldn’t; that was an English major joke, folks. From the Late Cretaceous, this 5-foot oviraptorosaur was found with another individual alongside it, and thus the holotype is info...

(image source: https://dinosaurpictures.org/Iberomesornis-pictures ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Natasha Krech discuss Iberomesornis , a tiny Mesozoic bird with teeth and claws but also a beak and no tailbones, almost like evolution exists or something. From the Early Cretaceous, this 6-inch enantiornithine theropod coexisted with pterosaurs while watching them with sneaky eyes, knowing...

(image source: https://bit.ly/3HcF8iE ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Laura Owsley discuss Platybelodon , a scoop-tusked elephant relative that proves duckbilled creatures aren’t limited to hadrosaurs and platypi… or ducks. From the Miocene epoch, this 6-foot-tall proboscid stripped bark off trees like a giant beaver, and may have also scooped water plants from rivers like a hippo, but tha...

(image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludodactylus by FunkMonk) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Lawrence Mack discuss Ludodactylus , a pterosaur that’s been accidentally depicted in toys of Pteranodon for decades due to having the crest of Pteranodon as well as teeth which Pteranodon lacked. From the Early Cretaceous, this 20-foot-wingspan anhanguerid proves that nature can sometimes...

(image source: https://ideas.fandom.com/wiki/Epicyon_(SciiFii) ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Stephen Curro discuss  Epicyon , a bone-crushing dog that looks a lot like Zuul; the Ghostbusters hellhound, not the ankylosaur Zuul we’ll surely cover someday. From the Miocene epoch, this 6-foot canid has the audacity to say it’s more than a dog, rather than just accepting that it is still in f...

(image source: http://animaladay.blogspot.com/2012/06/proailurus.html ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Lexi Ryan discuss Proailurus , the first cat in the fossil record, followed shortly by the first hairball and the first shock from petting after rubbing your socks on the carpet. From the Oligocene epoch, this 3-foot felid predated humans and hominids in general by millions of years, which...

(image source: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/kD5D20  by Giorgio Rizzo) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Natasha Krech discuss Camarasaurus , a huge thunderous longneck that still somehow managed to be boring. From the Late Jurassic, this 70-foot sauropod wasn’t the biggest, tallest, or longest dinosaur of its time, so most documentaries tend to ignore it for the cooler, more striking spe...

(image source: https://novum-terram.fandom.com/wiki/Sivatherium_giganteum_(SciiFii) ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Laura Owsley discuss Sivatherium , a hoofed mammal that might have lived both before and a little after the Ice Age, which is impressive, since I can barely make it through winter in my apartment. From the Miocene to the Pleistocene, this 12-foot-tall giraffid looked like an...

(image source: https://bit.ly/3sOeVlW ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Lawrence Mack discuss Triceratops , the last of the big four of five dinosaurs any witless schmuck can name to cover on this show. From the Late Cretaceous, this 30-foot chasmosaurine ceratopsian was identified after being uncovered by a cowboy in Wyoming, making it by default the most interesting thing to ever happen in...

(image source: https://dinopedia.fandom.com/wiki/Opabinia ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Stephen Curro discuss Opabinia , a freakish alien bugger that looks like it stepped straight out of a Doctor Who set. From the Mid Cambrian, this 3-inch stem arthropod had a digestive system in the shape of a U, which as a recovering bulimic, I can relate. Is that too dark of a joke? Eh, who cares, I...

(image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yi_(dinosaur) by Emily Willoughby) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Lexi Ryan discuss Yi , a tiny flying dinosaur before flying dinosaurs were cool, as in evolving-into-birds cool. From the Late Jurassic, this 2-foot scansoriopterygid had the shortest genus name of any dinosaur, and with its full scientific name Yi qi had the shortest binomial name...

(image source: https://bit.ly/3d8sZhj ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Natasha Krech discuss Nanjinganthus , an organism that really stretches the definition of “prehistoric animal” in that it flat-out breaks it by not being an animal at all. From the Mid Jurassic, this ancient plant might have been the first flower known to science, pushing the date of their origin back nearly 60 million y...

(image source: https://dinopedia.fandom.com/wiki/Incisivosaurus ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Laura Owsley discuss Incisivosaurus , one of the dumbest looking dinosaurs, which is a crime, because dinosaurs are supposed to be cool. From the Early Cretaceous, this 12-foot oviraptorosaur was one of the only members in its family to have teeth, and what teeth! Seriously, buck-teeth?! What is...

(image source: https://bit.ly/3wKqJ8P ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Stephen Curro discuss Gamerabaena , a turtle named after the Japanese movie monster that hasn’t fought Kong… at least not yet. From the Late Cretaceous, this 1.5-foot turtle had nothing noteworthy about it whatsoever other than its name, so naturally we have a lot of banter to fill a half-hour episode on it. Oh, you don’...

(image source: https://www.deviantart.com/ladalbarran2000/art/Eremotherium-laurillardi-869911522 ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Lexi Ryan discuss Eremotherium , a giant ground sloth that hopefully moved faster than a regular sloth, otherwise its territory would be like a few hundred square feet. From the Late Pleistocene, this 20-foot megatherid lived all the way up to the dawn of human c...

(image source: https://paleo-media.fandom.com/wiki/Arctodus ) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Natasha Krech discuss Arctodus , a big, scary bear that would have wiped out humanity had it invented guns first, so thank God it didn’t. From the Late Pleistocene, this 12-foot bear was actually closely related to the modern spectacled bear, which is not the relative I would have expected. I would...