Palaeocast

Today, there is only one living species of rhynchocephalian: the tuatara of Aotearoa/New Zealand. Despite today's paucity of species, this was once a diverse group of reptiles, with a wide range of lifestyles from swimming in the ocean to climbing trees. Once highly abundant around the world, reasons for their decline are still debated and may have had to do with competition from their relatives, the squamates, or changing environments. Rhynchocephalians are related to lizards and snakes within Lepidosauria, but despite their outward appearance, are not lizards themselves and have a number of differences that make them distinct. In this interview, we speak to Dr. Victor Beccari, an expert in rhynchocephalians, and discuss this and more about this fascinating group of reptiles.

We've been given exclusive access to a brand new study examining the chemistry of a mosasaur tooth found within the Late Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation, North Dakota. The remarkable circumstances of how this tooth was discovered meant that multiple lines of chemical evidence could be reliably gathered, each acting as a powerful palaeoenvironmental proxy providing clues as to how and where this giant aquatic predator lived. The results of the study now mean that a revision of mosasaur palaeoecology is required and that food webs in one of the world's most famous fossil deposits might need redrawing. Joining us in this episode are the lead authors Nathan Van Vranken (Eastern West Virginia Community and Technical College) and Melanie During (Uppsala University & Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam). Their study "King of the Riverside", a multi-proxy approach offers a new perspective on mosasaurs before their extinction is open access and available in BMC Zoology now!  

The iguanodontians were an incredibly successful group within the Cretaceous. They could reach incredible sizes, with the largest species even matching the proportions of some sauropods, and they also had an incredible palaeogeographic range, meaning that their remains are found all over the world today. In the late Jurassic, they were a lot less diverse and much smaller, so the late Jurassic and early Cretaceous are key times for understanding the evolution of this group. Cariocecus bocagei is a newly described iguanodontian from the Early Cretaceous of Praia do Areia do Mastro, Portugal. Whilst it is only know from a partial skull, there are numerous useful characteristics that help identify it as a new species and fill in our understanding of iguanodontians in this important time in their evolution. Joining us in this episode is Dr Filippo Bertozzo of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences.

Grassy biomes, including grasslands, savannahs and crops, cover over 40% of all land on Earth. They play a significant role in carbon and silica cycles and have a large impact upon the climate. Grasslands (grass-dominated ecosystems) have shaped the evolution of numerous groups of organisms, most obviously grazing mammals, and can support a huge amount of biodiversity. Humans evolved in the savannas and through domestication of grasses formed agriculture, leading to a modern diet dominated by grasses such as oats, rice, wheat and corn. As anthropogenic climate change threatens large scale uncertainty, it’s vital that we understand the controls that govern the success of this fundamentally important group. It is only by studying the evolutionary history of grasses that we might be able to predict how they will fare in future. Joining us in this episode to speak about the challenges of piecing together the evolutionary history of grasses from a relatively poor fossil record is Prof. Caroline Strömberg of the Un

Grassy biomes, including grasslands, savannahs and crops, cover over 40% of all land on Earth. They play a significant role in carbon and silica cycles and have a large impact upon the climate. Grasslands (grass-dominated ecosystems) have shaped the evolution of numerous groups of organisms, most obviously grazing mammals, and can support a huge amount of biodiversity. Humans evolved in the savannas and through domestication of grasses formed agriculture, leading to a modern diet dominated by grasses such as oats, rice, wheat and corn. As anthropogenic climate change threatens large scale uncertainty, it’s vital that we understand the controls that govern the success of this fundamentally important group. It is only by studying the evolutionary history of grasses that we might be able to predict how they will fare in future. Joining us in this episode to speak about the challenges of piecing together the evolutionary history of grasses from a relatively poor fossil record is Prof. Caroline Stromberg of the Un

Determining the origin of teeth in vertebrates is an incredibly significant but notoriously difficult problem within palaeontology. Teeth didn’t evolve in the mouths of our ancestors, but are first seen as part of the external skeletons of jawless fish as structures called ‘odontodes’. These would later migrate into the mouth with the evolution of jaws, becoming the teeth we have today, but odontodes still remain present in the skin of modern cartilaginous fish, giving them their rough texture. The oldest known odontodes are from the late Cambrian Period and represent the very first evidence for vertebrates in the fossil record. Unfortunately, they are only ever found as part of fragmentary pieces of exoskeleton, however, given that their specific construction is only known in vertebrates, there is little else they could possibly be… Joining us for this episode is Dr Yara Haridy, University of Chicago, who set out to use modern new scanning techniques to better understand the nature of these first teeth and w

Determining the origin of teeth in vertebrates is an incredibly significant but notoriously difficult problem within palaeontology. Teeth didn't evolve in the mouths of our ancestors, but are first seen as part of the external skeletons of jawless fish as structures called 'odontodes'. These would later migrate into the mouth with the evolution of jaws, becoming the teeth we have today, but odontodes still remain present in the skin of modern cartilaginous fish, giving them their rough texture. The oldest known odontodes are from the late Cambrian Period and represent the very first evidence for vertebrates in the fossil record. Unfortunately, they are only ever found as part of fragmentary pieces of exoskeleton, however, given that their specific construction is only known in vertebrates, there is little else they could possibly be... Joining us for this episode is Dr Yara Haridy, University of Chicago, who set out to use modern new scanning techniques to better understand the nature of these first teet

Ants are a hugely successful family of eusocial insects with over 14,000 modern species described. They are known from every continent except Antarctica and show a wide range of ecologies. Whilst many of us are familiar with their highly organised social structures and castes, there still remain a lot of public misconceptions about how their societies function. The evolutionary history of ants is equally as impressive, with roughly as many fossil ant species known as there are of dinosaurs! Since their appearance in the Cretaceous, several early lineages of ants (stem ants) have gone extinct. In this episode, we’re joined by Dr Christine Sosiak of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology as we explore what some of these stem ants were like and ask how the different groups of ants fared over geological time.

An ecosystem can be described as all the interactions that occur between organisms and their physical environment. The processes acting within an ecosystem operate on a wide range of spatial and temporal scales and include both biotic and abiotic factors. Ecosystem engineers are those species that have a significant impact on the availability of resources to other species and can be responsible for the creation, maintenance, modification or destruction of an ecosystem. The introduction, or even removal, of such a species can have profound effects on both physical and biological elements of an ecosystem. Whilst we can recognise the impact of ecosystem engineers in modern systems (e.g. the introduction of an invasive species), we don’t fully understand what happens when an entirely new ecosystem engineering behaviour evolves. This has undoubtedly happened numerous times throughout geological time with the Great Oxygenation Event and the Cambrian Substrate Revolution being notable examples. Joining us for this e

Found in the fossil record between the Jurassic and the middle Miocene, Notosuchia was a highly diverse and strange group of crocodylomorphs, most notable for their terrestrial lifestyle. Joining us for today’s episode is Dr Yohan Pochat-Cottilloux from the Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon, who specialises in the study of crocodylomorphs. Together, we will explore the wide range of scientific methodologies that have so far been used to study the lives of these strange reptiles and discuss how they may have looked and behaved.

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 b

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.

It's been two centuries since the first dinosaur, Megalosaurus, was named by William Buckland and to commemorate the date, the Natural History Museum hosted '200 Years of Dinosaurs: Their Rise, Fall, and Rebirth'. This international conference provides a snapshot of dinosaur research in 2024, demonstrating just how far our understanding of this group has come since 1824. In our coverage of this event, we speak to many of the leading palaeontologists in the field, as we look back over the last 200 years of research and consider what the next 200 might reveal.

The Middle Jurassic is incredibly important to our understanding of pterosaur evolution; however, the remarkable rarity and incompleteness of Middle Jurassic pterosaurs has long hampered scientific understanding of the lineage. Joining us this episode on the other side of the microphone is one of Palaeocast’s own team members, Dr Liz Martin Silverstone, a Technical Specialist at the University of Bristol who has recently described Ceoptera evansae, a darwinopteran pterosaur from the Isle of Skye. Together, we explore the new specimen, how it fits in to the group, and the insights it can give us in to pterosaur evolution.

Originally mounted in 1907, the Carnegie specimen is the best example of the sauropod dinosaur Diplodocus, and perhaps the most famous dinosaur skeleton in the world. Casts of the specimen, including the London example known as “Dippy”, were distributed around the world during the early 1900s, and a final concrete cast was even created in 1957 for the Utah Field House at Vernal. Although the moulds used to create these casts were lost sometime during the 1960’s, new ones created from the concrete skeleton have allowed second generation casts to be made, with some elements being incorporated into other iconic mounts.

LOOP 8.4: LOOP Showrunner Dan Tapster returns to give a retrospective on the series and its production. We look at went well and address criticisms; is it possible to keep everyone happy? We finish this series by discussing the show’s take-home messages and Dan’s hopes for Life On Our Planet’s legacy. Life On Our Planet (LOOP) is a new 8-part series created for Netflix by Silverback Films and Amblin Television. This Steven Spielberg produced series, narrated by Morgan Freeman, is hugely ambitious in its scope, telling the story of life throughout the whole Phanerozoic Eon. Ancient organisms and environments are painstakingly recreated by the supremely talented Industrial Light and Magic, whilst modern natural history scenes add vital context to the story. This show has been worked on for six years, during which time countless papers were read and around 150 different palaeontologists contributed their time and knowledge. The whole production had culture of letting the scientific rese arch dictate scenes, resu

LOOP 8.3: Episode 8’s producer, Sophie Lanfear, joins us again to describe how difficult it was to wrap the series up, having to balance telling the story of the last ice age with conveying the message of the series. We speak about climate change and the 6th mass extinction and try to find any positives. Ultimately, if documentaries keep having to make this point, is the message really getting through? Life On Our Planet (LOOP) is a new 8-part series created for Netflix by Silverback Films and Amblin Television. This Steven Spielberg produced series, narrated by Morgan Freeman, is hugely ambitious in its scope, telling the story of life throughout the whole Phanerozoic Eon. Ancient organisms and environments are painstakingly recreated by the supremely talented Industrial Light and Magic, whilst modern natural history scenes add vital context to the story. This show has been worked on for six years, during which time countless papers were read and around 150 different palaeontologists contributed their time a