Pals in Palaeo

Join Adele on a wild ride through the Cambrian (510-500 million years ago) as we discuss the ancient apex predator Anomalocaris (a weird shrimpy boy with face fangs).
 
We also touch on trilobite cannibalism, the advantages of compound eyes, building your own armour with biomineralisation and the first evolutionary arms race. Hold onto your butts!
 
Links:
Random Fossil Fact
Healed injuries in Early Cambrian...

Meet Koolasuchus cleelandi, a giant amphibian from the Cretaceous of Victoria, Australia (~125 million years ago) with the body of a salamander and a head as big as a wheelie bin lid. An animal that by all rights, SHOULD have gone extinct millions of years ago and chosen by the people as the state fossil emblem for Victoria.
 
We hear from two of the brilliant paleontologists who worked on the holotype, fossil preparator Le...

Introducing VAMP! The Virtual Australian Museum of Palaeontology is a digital collection spanning 600 million years of evolution. On this episode, Adele has a yarn with the three palaeontologists behind VAMP: Dr Aaron Camens, Dr Alice Clement and PhD candidate Jacob van Zoelen.   

VAMP includes Earth's earliest multicellular organisms, giant marsupials, fossil footprints and everything in between.

It's a...

Adele talks about the species of pterosaur she named: Ferrodraco lentoni affectionately known as Butch, or the Iron Dragon a winged reptile with a wingspan of 4m (just over 13 feet!)
 
Plus insight from fossil preparator Ali Calvey and discoverer of the Ferrodraco holotype specimen, Bob Elliott.
 
 And a quick detour to talk about weird marine microfossils trapped in amber from the Cretaceous of southwestern France,...

Introducing Glossopteris! A prolific fossil plant from the swamps of the southern supercontinent, Gondwana during the Permian period.

We hear from Dr Anne-Marie Tosolini, a palaeontologist and palaeobotanist about this incredible fossil, and how Glossopteris helped piece together the theory of plate tectonics.

Plus info on some interesting scrape marks made by dancing theropod dinosaurs from the Cretaceous of Colo...

Join Adele and guest Dr Nathan Smith on an adventure through the Jurassic forests of Antarctica (180 million years ago) as we talk about one of the coolest dinosaurs, Cryolophosaurus (the overlooked cousin of Dilophosaurus).

We also touch on pterosaurs from Madagascar, fieldwork in frozen lands, the advantages of a pompadour and why this theropod is nicknamed Elvis!

Links:
A Crested Theropod Dinosaur from An...

Adele dives into the Devonian oceans to talk about the colossal armoured fish Dunkleosteus. An ancient apex predator about as big as a shark, with bone-crushing jaws. You're gonna need a bigger boat!

Plus tangents on coprolites and the accidental discovery of an ancient species of beetle from Triassic poop from Poland.

Links:
How Dinosaur Poop Got Its Name
What is a coprolite?

Dunkleosteus

Adele chats with Australian Museum palaeontologist Lachlan Hart about the new Triassic temnospondyl species he named, Arenaerpeton supinatus! A fossil discovered in a sandstone block by a retired chicken farmer, that went on display as part of the Dinosaur World Tour in 1997. 

We discuss the shocking secret world of these extinct animals, including cannibalism in amphbians, horns, tusks, and toxins. Just when you thought i...

Join palaeontologists Adele Pentland and Dr Martin Smith on a fossil fever dream through the Cambrian! 

This episode we discuss the spicy noodle Hallucigenia (an inch long worm with spikes, claws and Cthulhu tentacles), family ties to the velvet worms and frolic through the famous Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rockies. 

Plus de-extinction of 32,000 year old Pleistocene plants from Siberia, revived by raiding a pre...

Adele is joined by sauropod expert Dr Stephen Poropat to about talk Savannasaurus elliottorum, the species he names in 2016! Recorded after a big day of dinosaur digging, we explore the Cretaceous of Queensland and get the facts on one of Australia's chonkiest titanosaurs. 

Hear how a dinosaur obsessed kid who brought his Apatosaurus to the nativity became an expert in palaeontology. Plus how to spot the difference be...

Join Adele and special guest Cella Siegelman aka Gummmydragon for a review of Jurassic World Dominion!

We compare the dinosaurs from Dominion with Prehistoric Planet, talk Therizinosaurus claws, hype up the importance of palaeoart, plus the impact of the Jurassic Park series.

Hold onto your butts!

GummmyDragon Instagram
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Links
Functional ...

Adele’s joined by special guest and theropod fanboy Jake Kotevski to talk about megaraptors! We talk about pursuing palaeontology after genetics, T rex tattoos, digging with Dinosaur Dreaming and building the Bass Coast Dinosaur Trail. Plus weird Jurassic Park trivia involving Arnold Schwarzenegger, the controversy surrounding Nanotyrannus and info on the Cretaceous dinosaurs Australovenator and Maip macrothorax.

This episode is bro...

Join Adele and Dr Kailah Thorn, the Australian lizard queen on an odyssey through the fossil skink record! We discuss the indestructible shingleback lizards, fieldwork at Lake Frome, lizards bulldozing through fields of flowers and the biggest skink from Australia, Tiliqua frangens aka the mega chonk.

Plus facts on Proegernia mikebulli, the the oldest skink ever found in Australia and an ancestor to the modern bluetongue f...

Crikey! Adele takes a trip in time to the Late Oligocene to Middle Miocene (25 - 13.5 million years ago) to explore fossil crocs with special guest Dr Jorgo Ristevski. We hear about the adorable but extinct Trilophosuchus, other fossils from the Riversleigh World Heritage Site, as well as Quinkana. Plus a tangent on Gunggamarandu aka the river boss and largest extinct croc ever discovered in Australia 

Pals in Palaeo @pals...

Adele's partner in crime is the palaeo formerly known as Samantha Rigby and fellow Australian Age of Dinosaurs alumni! We revisit Winton in outback Australia to chat about sauropods, bones behaving like bubble wrap, bounding baby dinosaurs, and the advantages of 3D scanning.   

Plus a quick random fossil fact on Dippy the Diplodocus starring as a Krayt dragon on Tatooine in Star Wars. 

This episode is brought to you by...

Join Adele and special guest Lucas Canejo to talk about the toothless pterosaur Caiuajara!

We take a trip through an ancient animal graveyard, discover dinosaurs in the desert, discuss bizarre head shapes and about the secret life of winged reptiles. Plus thoughts on fieldwork, trading teaching for fossils and volunteer work with Museu Nacional, the National Museum of Brazil.

This episode is brought to you by Dino...

Adele’s chats with special guest, Dr Travis Holland about Jurassic Park! 

We talk about the film 30 years on, how it changed the public perception of dinosaurs, especially theropods like Tyrannosaurus, Velociraptor and Dilophosaurus (for better or worse), and how JP made terrible lizards into movie monsters. 

 Plus the secret ingredient to good science fiction, Spielberg and Crichton's representation of women...

Adele’s joined by special guest from Flinders Palaeo Lab Phoebe McInerney to talk about magnificent mihirungs and the giant flightless bird Genyornis! We chat about pivoting to paleontology after physiotherapy and dance, falling in love with birds and fieldwork at Lake Callabonna.  We get the gossip on killer cassowary kicks, stomach stones and why Genyornis is the original horrible goose and earned the nickname demon duck of doom!...

Adele chats with expert Dr Ellen Mather about ancient aves from Australia, and her work on extinct eagles and vultures from the Pleistocene period!
 
We also touch on the pecking order of scavenging birds, crawling through caves to collect fossils, the hunting tactics of avian apex predators and how straighter wing bones let an animal soar above the competition.

This episode of Pals in Paleo uses a sound effect t...