Podcast 315 - Final Transmission from the Black Lodge
Palaeo After Dark
The gang ends “Wet Hot Archosaur Summer” with the final podcast recorded from our undisclosed location in the woods. For this podcast, we indulge Amanda by talking about birds and trace fossils. The first paper looks at the remains of nesting sites that date back to the Cretaceous, and the second paper investigates sources of error in estimates of avian maximum speeds from trace fossils. Meanwhile, Amanda has a message for the bears, James proposes an alliance with the crows, and Curt does an “homage”. Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition): The friends talks about two papers that will...
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Podcast 314 - Weird Archosaur Summer
Palaeo After Dark
The gang is all back together in one place again as they unite in an undisclosed cabin in the woods to record the last two podcasts for Wet Hot Archosaur Summer. For this episode, the gang talks about herbivorous pterosaurs and wadding T-rex. Meanwhile, James experiences relative sobriety, Curt welcomes everyone to the Great Northern, Amanda is fueled by spite, and we all get completely off track. Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition): The friends are together for the first time in a long time and so they have a lot of fun together and sometimes they talk about a paper or two. The first paper...
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Podcast 313 - Ooooo Banana
Palaeo After Dark
Wet Hot Archosaur Summer continues as the gang discusses two papers that look at the evolution and biogeography of early archosaurs. Specifically, one paper describes new material from an early dinosaur group, and the other paper looks at the niche preferences of early pterosaurs and their closest sister group, the lagerpetids. Also, James tries out a new flavor, Curt likes consistency, and Amanda provides some ASMR. Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition): The friends look at two papers about the early types of animals that would give us lots of different types of big angry animals like the big...
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Podcast 312 - Sick Skateboard Tricks
Palaeo After Dark
The gang discusses two papers about the ecology of sauropods. The first paper investigates the biomechanics of the Plateosaurus tail, and the second paper looks at direct evidence of sauropod diet from gut contents. Meanwhile, James “makes it interesting”, Amanda may have recorded on the wrong microphone, Curt makes a bold rebrand, and everyone vaguely remembers “Denver: The Last Dinosaur”. Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition): The friends talk about two papers that look at animals with along necks from a long time ago that kids love and were in a movie where one of them called Little...
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Podcast 311 - On a Wing and a Trace
Palaeo After Dark
The gang continues “Wet Hot Archosaur Summer” with a discussion about pterosaur trace fossils. The first paper tests a method for assigning pterosaur traces to potential trace makers, and the second paper is a case study of actually assigning traces to a species. Meanwhile, Amanda herds cats (figuratively and literally), James can only accomplish three things, Curt keeps it light, and everyone upholds their “journalistic integrity”. Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition): The friends talk about two papers that look at the marks that animals leave on the ground. These marks are made by...
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Podcast 310 - This Podcast Is Two Darth Vaders Tall
Palaeo After Dark
Wet Hot Archosaur Summer continues as the gang discusses two papers about crocodylomorph evolution. The first paper looks at the impact mass extinctions had on disparity within the group, and the second paper uses new phylogenetic data to revise our understanding of size trends and biogeography of crocodylomorphs during the Cenozoic. Meanwhile, Curt invents a measurement, James invents a new way of eating, and Amanda invents a new phobia for herself. Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition): The friends talk about two papers that look at big angry animals that you should never smile at, again! This...
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Podcast 309 - Wet Hot Archosaur Summer Begins
Palaeo After Dark
The gang kicks off a summer of archosaurs by talking about crocodyliforms. The first paper describes an early Cenozoic large notosuchian, and the second paper investigates how cryptic species impacts divergence times within the clade. Meanwhile, Curt diagnoses a problem, James tries to “help”, and Amanda does not care. Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition): The friends talk about two papers that look at animals that today most of the time live in water and grab food from the edge of the water and you should never smile at. The first paper a really big one of these animals that lived a long...
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Podcast 308 - Failing to Talk About the K/Pg Mass Extinction
Palaeo After Dark
The gang tries to discuss two papers that look at the evolutionary impacts of the K-Pg mass extinction. Specifically, they look at one paper that estimates sampling probability throughout the late Cretaceous to determine if record bias influences our understanding of the extinction, and another paper that looks at species area relationships to investigate ecological shifts in response to the event. However, the gang gets completely lost and sidetracked throughout. They starting talking about the papers around 18 minutes in… and very quickly lose track again. It’s going to be one of those...
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Podcast 307 - Glow in the Dark Shrew Jorts
Palaeo After Dark
The gang discusses two papers that look at the evolutionary impact of shifts in habitat occupation. The first paper looks at a clade of sharks moving into the depths, and the second paper investigates habitat shifts in mammals across the Cretaceous and Paleogene. Meanwhile, Amanda has some opinions, James is doing much better, and Curt is easy to amuse. Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition): The friends talk about two papers that look into how animals change when they move from one type of place to another. The first paper looks at animals with big teeth that has soft parts inside and live in...
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Podcast 306 - Birbs Grinding on the Edge of the Pareto Front
Palaeo After Dark
The gang discusses two papers that use morphometrics to investigate patterns of selection on bird morphology. The first paper looks at the morphology of feathers, while the second paper looks more broadly at various parts of the avian body. Meanwhile, James breathes new life into a classic, Amanda is passionate about formatting, and Curt exposes “the truth”. Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition): The friends talk about two papers that look at animals that move in the air. Both of these papers look at how these animals look and try to find out why these animals look the way they do. The first...
info_outlineWet Hot Archosaur Summer continues as the gang discusses two papers that look at the evolution and biogeography of early archosaurs. Specifically, one paper describes new material from an early dinosaur group, and the other paper looks at the niche preferences of early pterosaurs and their closest sister group, the lagerpetids. Also, James tries out a new flavor, Curt likes consistency, and Amanda provides some ASMR.
Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition):
The friends look at two papers about the early types of animals that would give us lots of different types of big angry animals like the big ones that everyone thinks of and the ones that can fly. The first paper looks at one of these early animals which we don't know much about because there is not a lot of it left. This paper talks about some new stuff that was found which helps us better know what this animals is. We first thought that maybe it was one of the earliest animals, but this paper says that it may be more like some of the big animals that we talk about all the time because they are in big movies like the one that came out this year.
The second paper looks at two groups of animals that are close to each other, one of them can fly and one that does not fly. These two groups were around at the same time. This paper looks to see where they lived and what types of places they wanted to live in. They find that these two groups did live sort of the same place, but places where the things that fly would like to live were also places that the other group that did not fly did not like to live as much. The other thing they find is that, even though the group that did not fly was not as long lived as the group that did fly, during the time they are looking at it lived in a lot of places and did very well. A big bad thing happened at the end of this time that is probably why this group went away and the group that could fly was able to do better.
References:
Müller, Rodrigo Temp. "A new “silesaurid” from the oldest dinosauromorph-bearing beds of South America provides insights into the early evolution of bird-line archosaurs." Gondwana Research 137 (2025): 13-28.
Foffa, Davide, et al. "Climate drivers and palaeobiogeography of lagerpetids and early pterosaurs." Nature Ecology & Evolution (2025): 1-14.