Palaeocast

This year the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America was held in Baltimore, Maryland. This is one of the largest conferences that palaeontologists attend, with over 6000 attendees from all fields of Earth Sciences. Caitlin and Laura went along and talked to many of the palaeontology researchers who had come to present their work on posters and in talks.

Direct download: GSA2015.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:33pm UTC

Episode 55: Pterosaurs

Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates to achieve powered flight, and lived in the skies above the dinosaurs during the Mesozoic. They're often mistakenly identified as dinosaurs, but are in fact a separate, closely related group. This group has recently undergone a revival, with more research on pterosaurs happening now than ever before. Where are they found? How diverse was this group? How did they evolve?

Research associate and palaeoartist Dr. Mark Witton from the University of Portsmouth is well-known in the pterosaur community, and answers some of these questions and more in this episode. He's also provided us with a number of spectacular images below, so make sure you check them out! If you want to learn more about pterosaurs, check out Episode 42 with Colin Palmer on Pterosaur Aerodynamics.

Direct download: Ep55.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:32pm UTC

The last part of our coverage from the 75th annual meeting of the society of vertebrate paleonology. In this part Caitlin speaks to Professor Christopher Smith about the history of the society, how it was recorded and archived, and how this information is being collected and maintained into the future.

Direct download: SVP2015P3.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:13pm UTC

In the second part of our SVP coverage we have interviews with some of the researchers on the scientific content of their posters and conference presentations.

Direct download: SVP2015P2.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:33am UTC

The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology annual meeting is the largest conference each year for the world's vertebrate palaeontologists to present their work, network with each other, and find out what everyone else is up to. The first part of our coverage from the 2015 meeting in Dallas Texas includes interviews with palaeontology educators and museum specialists.

Direct download: SVP2015P1.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:20am UTC

The ‘Crystal Palace Dinosaurs’ are a series of sculptures of extinct animals including dinosaurs, other extinct reptiles and mammals, which can be found in the grounds of the Crystal Palace in London. Commissioned in 1852, these are the earliest examples of dinosaur sculptures in the world. In fact, the first dinosaurs had only recently been discovered some 30 years earlier. Why were these models built? And what do they tell us about early scientific hypotheses of dinosaurs and other extinct animals? To answer these questions we talk Joe Cain, Professor of History and Philosophy of Biology at University College London.

Direct download: Ep54.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:36pm UTC

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