Brachiopods are some of the most common fossils to be found in rocks worldwide. Their thick, hard and (often) calcareous shells make them preferentially preserved in the fossil record. We probably all have found one, but how many of us overlooked them at the time? What can a brachiopod tell us? How big a role have they played throughout geological time? In this second part of a two-part episode we continue our interview with Prof. Lars Holmer, University Uppsala, Sweden, all about the humble bra...
Feb 15, 2015•34 min
Brachiopods are some of the most common fossils to be found in rocks worldwide. Their thick, hard and (often) calcareous shells make them preferentially preserved in the fossil record. We probably all have found one, but how many of us overlooked them at the time? What can a brachiopod tell us? How big a role have they played throughout geological time? In this two-part episode we speak to Prof. Lars Holmer, University Uppsala, Sweden, all about the humble brachiopod.
Feb 01, 2015•26 min
Alberta, Canada is one of the world’s richest areas for dinosaur fossils, and especially fossils from the Late Cretaceous. Iconic dinosaurs like T. rex , Triceratops , and Parasaurolophus , as well as numerous other dinosaurs and fossils can all be found in this region.We had a chance to chat with Professor Phil Currie of the University of Alberta at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting where we talked about Alberta and why it is such a fantastic place for dinosaur fossils....
Jan 01, 2015•1 hr 3 min
Ceratopsians are some of the most iconic dinosaurs that we recognise today including animals like Triceratops and Styracosaurus , with their big horns and frills. But is that what all 'horned dinosaurs' looked like? In fact, early ceratopsians were small and horn-less, sharing other characteristics with their larger, more derived relatives. At the The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology 2014 we met up with Dr. Andy Farke from the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology in California and discussed c...
Dec 10, 2014•28 min
Theropods are what we would classically recognise as the meat-eating dinosaurs of the Mesozoic Era. They are best known from genera such as Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor but the group is much more diverse and includies herbivores, beaked and ostrich-like forms. It is however the link between theropods and birds that has long-caught the public's attention and perhaps represents one of the most scrutinised evolutionary transitions. As more dinosaurs are discovered with feathers, should we still b...
Dec 01, 2014•45 min
Welcome to our coverage of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology annual conference held this year at the Estrel Hotel, Berlin, between the 5th and 9th November. We're delighted to be back at this event, which is doubtless the biggest dedicated vertebrate palaeontology conference in the world. As per our usual conference coverage, we’re aiming to produce daily multimedia reports to give you an indication of what it's like to attend such an event and also to bring you the latest news in the field...
Nov 10, 2014•39 min
Welcome to our coverage of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology annual conference held this year at the Estrel Hotel, Berlin, between the 5th and 9th November. We're delighted to be back at this event, which is doubtless the biggest dedicated vertebrate palaeontology conference in the world. As per our usual conference coverage, we’re aiming to produce daily multimedia reports to give you an indication of what it's like to attend such an event and also to bring you the latest news in the field...
Nov 07, 2014•41 min
Welcome to our coverage of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology annual conference held this year at the Estrel Hotel, Berlin, between the 5th and 9th November. We're delighted to be back at this event, which is doubtless the biggest dedicated vertebrate palaeontology conference in the world. As per our usual conference coverage, we’re aiming to produce daily multimedia reports to give you an indication of what it's like to attend such an event and also to bring you the latest news in the field...
Nov 06, 2014•33 min
Welcome to our coverage of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology annual conference held this year at the Estrel Hotel, Berlin, between the 5th and 9th November. We're delighted to be back at this event, which is doubtless the biggest dedicated vertebrate palaeontology conference in the world. As per our usual conference coverage, we’re aiming to produce daily multimedia reports to give you an indication of what it's like to attend such an event and also to bring you the latest news in the field...
Nov 06, 2014•30 min
The Emu Bay shale is a Burgess Shale-type lagerstätte from the Early Cambrian of South Australia. We speak to Dr John Paterson, of the University of New England, all about the locality and the fossils it contains.
Nov 01, 2014•37 min
Ostracods are tiny crustaceans (relatives of shrimps, crabs and water-fleas), distinguished by having a shell that is easily fossilised. As microfossils, by virtue of a long and rich fossil record, ostracods are extremely useful for determining the age of the sedimentary strata in which they are found, as well as providing clues to the nature of the environments and climates in which those deposits were formed. The first ostracods lived in shallow continental shelf seas during the early Ordovici...
Oct 16, 2014•38 min
Welcome to the final day of our coverage of the 4th International Palaeontological Congress (IPC4) from Mendoza, Argentina.
Oct 07, 2014•20 min
Welcome to the third day of our coverage of the 4th International Palaeontological Congress (IPC4) from Mendoza, Argentina.
Oct 06, 2014•44 min
Welcome to the second day of our coverage of the 4th International Palaeontological Congress (IPC4) from Mendoza, Argentina.
Oct 01, 2014•27 min
Welcome to our coverage of the 4th International Palaeontological Congress (IPC4) from Mendoza, Argentina. The International Palaeontological Congress is a global meeting devoted to Palaeontology throughout the world. It convenes every four years under the aegis of the International Palaeontological Association. Following tree previous editions in Sydney (2002), Beijing (2006) and London (2010), it now comes to the American continent for the first time. This conference is one of the most importa...
Sep 30, 2014•40 min
Planktonic foraminifera are single celled organisms that are highly abundant in modern oceans and a hugely important part of the Earth’s carbon cycle. Each cell builds a hard calcite ‘test’ around itself in a huge variety of shapes. These tests continuously rain down on to the ocean floor leaving continuous records of how these organisms have changed over millions of years. They form the most complete fossil record we have, and are a very useful tool in everything from the oil industry to unders...
Sep 25, 2014•32 min
Planktonic foraminifera are single celled organisms that are highly abundant in modern oceans and a hugely important part of the Earth's carbon cycle. Each cell builds a hard calcite 'test' around itself in a huge variety of shapes. These tests continuously rain down on to the ocean floor leaving continuous records of how these organisms have changed over millions of years. They form the most complete fossil record we have, and are a very useful tool in everything from the oil industry to unders...
Sep 15, 2014•32 min
We now find ourselves embarking upon our third year, but before we do so, we're going to take a look back at last year and see what we've all been up to.
Sep 01, 2014•59 min
We’re all familiar with canines (dogs, wolves, jackals, foxes, etc), but these are just only one of three sub-families of the larger canid family to survive to the present day. There were also the Hesperocyoninae and Borophaginae, but what did these other canids look like and why did they go extinct? The canid family also falls within the larger suborder Caniformia which includes skunks, bears and seals, but how are all these related?
Aug 15, 2014•38 min
We're all familiar with canines (dogs, wolves, jackals, foxs, etc), but these are just only one of three sub-families of the larger canid family to survive to the present day. There were also the Hesperocyoninae and Borophaginae, but what did these other canids look like and why did they go extinct? The canid family also falls within the larger suborder Caniformia which includes skunks, bears and seals, but how are all these related? We've therefore quite a lot of history of the group to cover b...
Aug 05, 2014•38 min
Anomalocaridids are iconic Cambrian animals, originally found in the Burgess Shale deposits in Canada. From the Genus Anomalocaris , their name translates as 'strange shrimp' owing to their initial misidentification from incomplete remains. In fact, it took until 1985 to realise that three different animals were all actually disarticulated parts of the same animal! Our knowledge of these enigmatic creatures has increased exponentially in recent years owing to many exciting new fossil discoveries...
Jul 15, 2014•42 min
The celebrate the launch of 'The Paleoart of Julius Csotonyi' from Titan Books we take a look at the field of palaeoart. In this episode, we're joined by Julius himself and ask how his images are produced, why they're produced and to discuss the value of palaeoart. We also run our first competition, please follow using #palaeocastart
Jul 01, 2014•51 min
One of the longest-ranging and outwardly primitive-looking groups of animals on the planet are the Medusozoa. In consisting of around 95% water, it may be surprising to know that there is a fossil record of jellyfish, however how does one differentiate their fossils from other abiotic sedimentary structures when both look like sub-spherical blobs? In this episode we speak to Graham Young, Curator of Geology and Paleontology at The Manitoba Museum, Canada, who addressed the identification of jell...
Jun 15, 2014•41 min
One of the longest-ranging and outwardly primitive-looking groups of animals on the planet are the Medusozoa. In consisting of around 95% water, it may be surprising to know that there is a fossil record of jellyfish, however how does one differentiate their fossils from other abiotic sedimentary structures when both look like sub-spherical blobs? In this episode we speak to Graham Young, Curator of Geology and Paleontology at The Manitoba Museum, Canada, who addressed the identification of jell...
Jun 01, 2014•27 min
Echinoderms are characterised by a mineralised skeleton, specialised water vascular system and five-fold symmetry. It is this unusual body plane symmetry that gives the starfish its star-shape. None of these features, however, are possessed by the closest living relatives of echinoderms – the hemichordates. Palaeontology offers a unique perspective into the early evolution of echinoderms, revealing that echinoderm characteristics were acquired in a step-wise fashion from a bilaterally symmetrica...
May 01, 2014•35 min
One of the most iconic animals to ever have gone extinct is the dodo, Raphus cucullatus . Endemic to Mauritius, this flightless bird was last seen around 1662 and is thought to have been driven to extinction by invasive species brought along by humans. Despite their relatively recent extinction, few dodo specimens remain. Discovering new material is therefore vital for our better understanding of this bird. One dodo-bearing locality is the 'Mare aux Songes', a marsh on the South-East of the isla...
Mar 15, 2014•34 min
Mammals are an incredibly diverse and highly successful group of animals. They include some of the tallest, heaviest and fastest animals around today, as well as our own species. For over 100 years, biologists have attempted to build mammal evolutionary trees using anatomical data. This work has provided the basis for our understanding of mammal relationships. Within the last 30 years, new technologies have enabled scientists to cheaply sequence molecular data (e.g. DNA and amino acid sequences)...
Feb 01, 2014•44 min
Continuing our look at Australia's marsupials, we speak to Dr. Karen Black, also of the University of New South Wales. Here, we discuss Riversleigh fossil site, what fossils it contains, how they preserved and what's it takes to excavate them.
Jan 16, 2014•32 min
Marsupials are a group of mammals best known from Australia, but are also present in South America and up to the southern and eastern parts of the USA. Despite their current geographical distribution, metatherians (the group containing marsupials and other marsupial-like mammals) were once much more cosmopolitan; the earliest fossil evidence being from the Cretaceous of China, in the Northern Hemisphere. The story of marsupial evolution is therefore much more complex than is first apparent: When...
Jan 01, 2014•1 hr 4 min
What are Mass extinctions, how are they quantified, what are the driving forces behind them, how bad were the ones in the past and will we have more in the future? To answer these questions we are joined by mass extinctions specialist Prof. Paul Wignall of the University of Leeds, UK.
Dec 01, 2013•1 hr
