Palaeo After Dark

Podcast 339 - Back on Our Bullshit

The gang discusses two papers that use fossils to understand ecological interactions in the past. The first paper reports predation patterns on fossil blastoids, and the

Podcast 338 - Trilobite and Terror Bird

The gang discusses two papers that describe fossils which provide glimpses into the evolution and ecology of animals that were "late editions" to their clade. In other wo

Podcast 337 - Smol Beeg Animals

The gang discusses two papers that look at early tetrapods. The first paper investigates the transition to terrestrial environments in early tetrapods, and the second pap

Podcast 336 - Who Needs a Jaw?

The gang discusses two papers about jawless fishes. The first paper looks at some soft tissue preservation of early vertebrates which include preserving evidence of an an

Podcast 335 - I Like Turtles

The gang discusses two papers that use fossil material to assess the origin of animal groups. The first paper describes a new Early Devonian fish and its implications for

Podcast 334 - Stuck on You

The gang discusses two papers about encrusting organisms. The first paper looks at evolutionary patterns of bryozoans to infer environmental triggers for shifts in the wa

Podcast 333 - Think Big

The gang discusses two papers about fossil cephalopods. The first paper uses new methods to reassess the taxonomy of what was previously considered to be the oldest octop

Podcast 332 - Bird Peepin'

The gang discusses two papers that investigate phenotypic plasticity. The first paper reviews the pathways by which phenotype can be plastic, and the second paper looks a

Podcast 331 - Reef It Up

The gang discusses two papers that investigate ancient bioherms. The first paper looks at the formation of early Phanerozoic reefs, and the second paper investigates patt

Podcast 330 - Dinosaur Body Pillow

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

Podcast 329 - Boom Shakalaka

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

Podcast 238 - Fins for Days

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

Podcast 327 - Horse or Deer?

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

Podcast 326 - But What Is It?

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

Podcast 325 - The Curse of the Not Cat

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 loo

Podcast 324 - Pick Up the Pieces

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

Podcast 323e - "All Sales Final" Part 5 - Another Satisfied Customer

The crew of the CS Perry struggle to extract themselves from their rapidly deteriorating situation. "Lightless Dawn" , "Spacial Harvest", and "Crypto" from Kevin MacLeo

Podcast 323d - "All Sales Final" Part 4 - The Milk Run

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 Da

Podcast 323c - "All Sales Final" Part 3 - The Hard Sell

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" fro

Podcast 323b - "All Sales Final" Part 2 - A Representative Will Be With You Shortly

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