Podcast 238 - Fins for Days
Palaeo After Dark
The gang discusses two papers that are united by a fin. The first paper uses a computer algorithms to infer the shape of mosasaur tail fins, and the second paper looks at a new species of Spinosaurus with a crest. Meanwhile, James tastes flavor, Amanda tastes drink, and Curt tastes indifference. Up-Goer Five - SERVER NOT FOUND! HELP! References: Song, Yang, and Johan Lindgren. "Convergence in aquatic locomotion: reconstructing mosasaurian (Squamata: Mosasauria) tail fins from osteological correlates and covariation with extant sharks." Paleobiology 52.1 (2026): 121-130....
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Podcast 327 - Horse or Deer?
Palaeo After Dark
The gang talk about two papers about extraordinary dinosaur fossils and the unique information that can be gleaned from them. The first paper looks at fossil skin data on a Cretaceous iguandodontian, and the second paper uses an exceptionally complete specimen to demonstrate the reality of Nanotyrannus. Meanwhile, James classifies, Amanda imagines T-rex, and Curt brings a unique energy. Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition): The friends look at two papers about big angry animals that everyone loves to talk about. The first paper is about the skin of one of these big angry animals. This skin has...
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Podcast 326 - But What Is It?
Palaeo After Dark
The gang discuss two papers of odd fossils with exceptional preservation. The first paper looks at some Cambrian vertebrates and shows that soft tissue evidence suggests the presence of two sets of camera eyes (four eyes total), and they interpret the additional set of camera eyes as being a homolog to the modern parietal eye in vertebrates. The second paper uses exceptional preservation of the Rhynie Chert to test hypotheses for the taxonomic placement of the enigmatic Prototaxites and finds evidence that suggests it is not, as previously suggested, a fungus. Meanwhile, James is marooned by...
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Podcast 325 - The Curse of the Not Cat
Palaeo After Dark
Listeners, I’m going to level with you. This podcast is cursed. Not because of the content, which is mostly a pretty straight forward discussion about two papers that look into the fossil record of Nimravids (early cats that are not true cats). No, this podcast is cursed because the file refused to be compiled, crashing Audacity 3 times and each time corrupting the save file. The fact that any mp3 file was able to be compiled at all was a minor miracle. I can only assume that this means this podcast data has gained sentience and did not want to be born. I have no control over what happens...
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Podcast 324 - Pick Up the Pieces
Palaeo After Dark
The gang discusses two papers that use fragmentary fossils of animals to investigate the origins of major groups. The first paper describes an Early Ordovician eurypterid, and the second paper looks at mosaic evolutionary patterns in an early squamate. Meanwhile, James has bird opinions, Curt delights in not knowing, and Amanda will definitely be on time. Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition): The friends look at two papers that are using broken bits of things to learn a lot about animals from a long time ago. Both of these papers are looking at old animals that may give us new looks at how big...
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Podcast 323e - "All Sales Final" Part 5 - Another Satisfied Customer
Palaeo After Dark
The crew of the CS Perry struggle to extract themselves from their rapidly deteriorating situation. "Lightless Dawn" , "Spacial Harvest", and "Crypto" from Kevin MacLeod () Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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Podcast 323d - "All Sales Final" Part 4 - The Milk Run
Palaeo After Dark
The crew of the CS Perry, now trapped in a space station run by multiple hostile AI, work to figure out how best to salvage a mission gone very wrong. "Lightless Dawn" and "Crypto" from Kevin MacLeod () Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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Podcast 323c - "All Sales Final" Part 3 - The Hard Sell
Palaeo After Dark
The crew of the CS Perry begin the negotiation process for the CA-chip, but the sales team wants an arm and a leg for the product. "Lightless Dawn" and "Crypto" from Kevin MacLeod () Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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Podcast 323b - "All Sales Final" Part 2 - A Representative Will Be With You Shortly
Palaeo After Dark
The crew of CS Perry were offered the perfect deal, a quick stop at an abandoned spaceport to grab some mothballed tech and they'd be set for life. What could possibly go wrong? "Lightless Dawn" from Kevin MacLeod () Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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Podcast 323a - "All Sales Final" Part 1
Palaeo After Dark
For our holiday episodes this year, James, Curt, Amanda, and Ants get together to play a game of the space horror tabletop RPG Mothership. Join us for our introductory episode where we discuss the setting, rules, and the main characters of our story. "Lightless Dawn" from Kevin MacLeod () Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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.