In this episode we finally fulfil a promise from before and talk more about the physiology dinosaurs – how ‘hot’ or ‘cold’ they were and what that might mean for their levels of activity, growth, behaviour and even where they could live given local climates. It’s a horribly complex subject and so come and listen to us grossly oversimplify things and not make things as clear as we’d like. Also on this show we end up at the end of the digestive system as our guest, the Skep-Chick herself, Rebecca ...
Sep 30, 2020•53 min•Season 2Ep. 3
This week we tackle a small dinosaur that should be much better known, a classic contemporary of Velociraptor and the other half of the fighting dinosaurs, Protoceratops . While nothing like as famous as its (much) larger cousin Triceratops, Protoceratops is an interesting and important dinosaur. Thanks to a multitude of fossils, including animals of all different ages, we have a fantastic set of data to work from and as a result a lot of research has been done on this fascinating frilled dinosa...
Sep 23, 2020•1 hr 6 min•Season 2Ep. 2
It is appropriate to kick off the second series of Terrible Lizards with an animal famous for its dangerous feet. Few people had heard of Velociraptor before Jurassic Park, but it is now an A-lister alongside Tyrannosaurus as one of the few dinosaurs almost anyone can name. With fame though has come huge misconceptions about its size, appearance, capabilities and behaviour. The large, scaly, super-intelligent pack-hunter of large prey is likely none of these things and Dave and Iszi work their w...
Sep 15, 2020•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 1
The new series will be starting on Wednesday 16th September 2020. We have a plethora of guests and interesting dinosaur subjects to explore! Guest this series include Penn Jillette, Phil Plait, Robin Ince, Rebecca Watson, Esther Odekunde, Faith Child and Lucy Eckersley. Keep an eye out for our bonus content on Patreon and announcements on Twitter and Facebook. www.patreon.com/terriblelizards www.facebook.com/terriblelizardspodcast/ @iszi_lawrence @dave_hone #TerribleLizards...
Sep 10, 2020•1 min•Season 2Ep. 1
In this last episode of the first season we try to bring a few things up to date. There’s more mistakes and miss-speaks from Dave to repair and correct, and a few things that have come up since shows were recorded or broadcast we want to give updates on. Mostly though, we are answering questions from our Patreons and other commenters that people have sent in. There’s a lot of ground to cover quickly and lots of things that are still coming in future episodes so we don’t always get into the great...
Jul 14, 2020•55 min•Season 1Ep. 8
In this episode, we take a look at the actual process of finding, excavating, preparing and then exhibiting dinosaur fossils. How do palaeontologists know where to find fossils, what do they look for, how do they get them out of the ground? From there we move onto safely transporting fossils out of the field and into the museum and discuss the process of preparing the bones free of the entombing rocks and then getting them arranged back into the form of a full skeleton to go on display in a muse...
Jul 08, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 7
To most eyes, dinosaurs are unusual looking animals but on this week’s show we take a look at some that are weird and wonderful even by the standards of dinosaurs. We start with the huge theropods of Late Cretaceous Mongolia, the sickle-clawed Theirizinosaurs and boat-faced Deinocheirus with a mention of the tiny ant-eating alvarezsaurs. From here, we move to Europe and ancient archipelagos that produced some dwarf species of huge animals and giant weird versions of small ones. We round off with...
Jul 01, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Warning: Our guest Richard Herring (53 mins 50 secs) uses colloquialisms for dinosaur male bits - poss best check before letting kids listen. Reproduction is a fundamental of life but it’s an area of dinosaur biology rarely discussed at any length though this week we will tackle that area of ignorance. Part of the problem is inevitably the lack of data palaeontologists have of, ahem, certain dinosaur parts. However, it’s not an area that has gone unstudied and thanks to the evidence of numerous ...
Jun 24, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 5
This time out it’s another iconic dinosaur and the beautiful Triceratops . These huge animals with their famous three horns and large frill are a major part of so many documentaries and films, if only so they can be seen to be battling with Tyrannosaurus . As with so many of the most famous dinosaurs, Triceratops is actually quite unusual and not really representative of the group to which it belongs. It is the largest of the ceratopsians (or horned dinosaurs) and the only one with a solid frill...
Jun 17, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 4
In this episode we take a look at dinosaur skin and talk about the changing appearances of dinosaurs over the last 150 years. Scientists have been constantly updating their ideas about the look of various species and new evidence unfolds and our understanding improves, from their earliest depictions as lumbering lizards, though to the discovery of feathers in dinosaurs at the close of the 20 th Century. We now know that many dinosaurs, and not just those closes to birds, had feathers and some ve...
Jun 10, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 3
For our second episode we take a look at the archetypal big dinosaur, Diplodocus . It has an important place in dinosaur history as one of the first very complete animals found, and the first to be cast with copies shipped around the world. As a result, Diplodocus had become lodged in the public mind as a ‘typical’ sauropod but it has plenty of features that make it unique and unusual. We cover its name which relates to its unusual whip-tail, and discuss how these huge animals held their tails a...
Jun 01, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 2
