Podcast 330 - Dinosaur Body Pillow
Palaeo After Dark
The gang discusses two papers about the functional morphology of ancient groups of animals. The first paper is a review of how the life position of rangeomorph ediacaran taxa have been reconstructed, and the second paper conducts an actualistic experiment of Oviraptor nesting strategies. Meanwhile, Curt gets activated, James doesn’t die, and Amanda relishes in details. Up-Goer Five (James Edition): The group look at two papers that focus of understanding how things are long dead lived. The first paper talks about strange things that might have either lived standing up or lying down...
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Podcast 329 - Boom Shakalaka
Palaeo After Dark
The gang discusses two papers that use quantitative methods to investigate the biomechanical limitations of extinct organisms. The first paper models the range of jumping potential for a non-avian theropod dinosaur, and the other paper tests if an extinct bird could have skimmed the ocean for food. Meanwhile, James imagines a better future, Amanda is to blame, and Curt is heating up. Up-Goer Five (Amanda Edition): Today our friends look at two papers that talk about how things do stuff. The first paper looks at how a small one of large animals with thick skin and no hair would jump. It...
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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
info_outlineThe 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 that they sort of talk about is about big angry animals that fly and are no longer around. This paper looks at one group of these big angry animals and finds that they have bits and pieces of things that are found in green things that make their own food from the sun. They do a lot of things to make sure that these bits are found inside these animals and they use this to say that this one group of big angry animals probably ate these green things.
The second paper looks at how big angry animals moved and how fast they could move in air or in water. This is because some big angry animals that are in all of the movies are said to maybe not be as fast as the things they would eat. This paper says maybe they chased food into water where they would be faster. The friends point out that other animals today do not have to be faster than the animals they eat, but sure... go off.
References:
Blanco, R. Ernesto. "Tyrannosaurus rex runs again: a theoretical analysis of the hypothesis that full-grown large theropods had a locomotory advantage to hunt in a shallow-water environment." Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 198.1 (2023): 202-219.
Jiang, Shunxing, et al. "First occurrence of phytoliths in pterosaurs-evidence for herbivory." Science bulletin (2025): S2095-9273.