Episode description

A new Ordovician lagerstätte (site of special fossil preservation) has just been described from Llandrindod Wells, Wales. The site contains the remains of well over 150 different species, most of which are entirely new to science. It is dated to around 461 million years old, placing it at a critical point in life's evolution: the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event. This is even more significant, considering the relative sparsity of lagerstätten of this time.

We are joined in this interview by Drs Joe Botting and Lucy Muir, who discovered the Castle Bank site a short walk from their house whilst fossil collecting during covid lockdown in 2020. From them, we're able to learn what it's like to discover a new site of international significance and we question why the fossil from this site are so small.