Palaeocast

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 important events on any palaeontologist's calendar and so draws in delegates from all corners of the globe. Over the next few days we're going to have a fantastic opportunity to hear about the latest research in the field with more of a focus on the Southern Hemisphere. 

Direct download: IPC4_Day1.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:06am UTC

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 understanding how evolution works.

Direct download: Ep34b.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:45pm UTC

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 understanding how evolution works.

In this episode we talk to Dr Tracy Aze from the University of Leeds about her research using planktonic forams to understand macroevolutionary change, as well as decoding their record to map major climate events and temperatures throughout geological history.

Direct download: Ep34a.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:21pm UTC

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.

Direct download: Ep33.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:29pm UTC

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