Episode 172: Rhynchocephalians
Palaeocast
Today, there is only one living species of rhynchocephalian: the tuatara of Aotearoa/New Zealand. Despite today’s paucity of species, this was once a diverse group of reptiles, with a wide range of lifestyles from swimming in the ocean to climbing trees. Once highly abundant around the world, reasons for their decline are still debated and may have had to do with competition from their relatives, the squamates, or changing environments. Rhynchocephalians are related to lizards and snakes within Lepidosauria, but despite their outward appearance, are not lizards themselves and have a number...
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Episode 171: Freshwater Mosasaurs
Palaeocast
We've been given exclusive access to a brand new study examining the chemistry of a mosasaur tooth found within the Late Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation, North Dakota. The remarkable circumstances of how this tooth was discovered meant that multiple lines of chemical evidence could be reliably gathered, each acting as a powerful palaeoenvironmental proxy providing clues as to how and where this giant aquatic predator lived. The results of the study now mean that a revision of mosasaur palaeoecology is required and that food webs in one of the world's most famous fossil deposits might need...
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SVP 2025
Palaeocast
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Episode 170: Cariocecus bocagei
Palaeocast
The iguanodontians were an incredibly successful group within the Cretaceous. They could reach incredible sizes, with the largest species even matching the proportions of some sauropods, and they also had an incredible palaeogeographic range, meaning that their remains are found all over the world today. In the late Jurassic, they were a lot less diverse and much smaller, so the late Jurassic and early Cretaceous are key times for understanding the evolution of this group. Cariocecus bocagei is a newly described iguanodontian from the Early Cretaceous of Praia do Areia do Mastro,...
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Episode 169: Grasslands Pt2
Palaeocast
Grassy biomes, including grasslands, savannahs and crops, cover over 40% of all land on Earth. They play a significant role in carbon and silica cycles and have a large impact upon the climate. Grasslands (grass-dominated ecosystems) have shaped the evolution of numerous groups of organisms, most obviously grazing mammals, and can support a huge amount of biodiversity. Humans evolved in the savannas and through domestication of grasses formed agriculture, leading to a modern diet dominated by grasses such as oats, rice, wheat and corn. As anthropogenic climate change threatens large scale...
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Episode 168: Grasslands Pt1
Palaeocast
Grassy biomes, including grasslands, savannahs and crops, cover over 40% of all land on Earth. They play a significant role in carbon and silica cycles and have a large impact upon the climate. Grasslands (grass-dominated ecosystems) have shaped the evolution of numerous groups of organisms, most obviously grazing mammals, and can support a huge amount of biodiversity. Humans evolved in the savannas and through domestication of grasses formed agriculture, leading to a modern diet dominated by grasses such as oats, rice, wheat and corn. As anthropogenic climate change threatens large scale...
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Episode 167: Origin of Teeth Pt2
Palaeocast
Determining the origin of teeth in vertebrates is an incredibly significant but notoriously difficult problem within palaeontology. Teeth didn’t evolve in the mouths of our ancestors, but are first seen as part of the external skeletons of jawless fish as structures called ‘odontodes’. These would later migrate into the mouth with the evolution of jaws, becoming the teeth we have today, but odontodes still remain present in the skin of modern cartilaginous fish, giving them their rough texture. The oldest known odontodes are from the late Cambrian Period and represent the very first...
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Episode 166: Origin of Teeth Pt1
Palaeocast
Determining the origin of teeth in vertebrates is an incredibly significant but notoriously difficult problem within palaeontology. Teeth didn't evolve in the mouths of our ancestors, but are first seen as part of the external skeletons of jawless fish as structures called 'odontodes'. These would later migrate into the mouth with the evolution of jaws, becoming the teeth we have today, but odontodes still remain present in the skin of modern cartilaginous fish, giving them their rough texture. The oldest known odontodes are from the late Cambrian Period and represent the very first...
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Episode 165: Ants Pt2
Palaeocast
Ants are a hugely successful family of eusocial insects with over 14,000 modern species described. They are known from every continent except Antarctica and show a wide range of ecologies. Whilst many of us are familiar with their highly organised social structures and castes, there still remain a lot of public misconceptions about how their societies function. The evolutionary history of ants is equally as impressive, with roughly as many fossil ant species known as there are of dinosaurs! Since their appearance in the Cretaceous, several early lineages of ants (stem ants) have gone extinct....
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Episode 164: Ants Pt1
Palaeocast
Ants are a hugely successful family of eusocial insects with over 14,000 modern species described. They are known from every continent except Antarctica and show a wide range of ecologies. Whilst many of us are familiar with their highly organised social structures and castes, there still remain a lot of public misconceptions about how their societies function. The evolutionary history of ants is equally as impressive, with roughly as many fossil ant species known as there are of dinosaurs! Since their appearance in the Cretaceous, several early lineages of ants (stem ants) have gone extinct....
info_outlineToday, there is only one living species of rhynchocephalian: the tuatara of Aotearoa/New Zealand. Despite today’s paucity of species, this was once a diverse group of reptiles, with a wide range of lifestyles from swimming in the ocean to climbing trees. Once highly abundant around the world, reasons for their decline are still debated and may have had to do with competition from their relatives, the squamates, or changing environments.
Rhynchocephalians are related to lizards and snakes within Lepidosauria, but despite their outward appearance, are not lizards themselves and have a number of differences that make them distinct. In this interview, we speak to Dr. Victor Beccari, an expert in rhynchocephalians, and discuss this and more about this fascinating group of reptiles.