Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs

Spring has sprung and episode 40 of the LITC podcast arrives! Today, famous palaeontologist, artist and all-around international fabulous guy Mark Witton returns to the show as he geeks out with our own Marc Vincent about Tyrannosaurus rex! Mark's upcoming new book, King Tyrant, is all about the toothy star from Hell Creek. For Vintage Dinosaur Art, Marc, Gemma and Natee go back to 1950's Denmark and discuss a rare treat from illus...

Just in time to make sure it's not an April Fools joke comes episode 39 of the world-famous Chasmosaurs podcast! It's time once again to talk about that Grand Signeur of palaeoart, his Lordship John Sibbick, King of the Isle of Wight (maybe). This time, we're looking at the lesser-known followup to the classic Normanpedia, the grandly-titled WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH!!! After that, Marc has a chat with Swiss author and histori...

After months of technical mishaps, we finally managed to get the podcast back up and running! Marc, Gemma and Natee start off by having a little moan about terrible dinosaur movies before moving into a fun German book Gemma found at a school! We got some typical late 80s fare, with some very unusual depictions of dinosaurs... Then, Gemma and Marc interview Yasmin Grooters, head of the dinosaur lab at Naturalis Leiden, who recently ...

As every year, Marc, Natee and Gemma visited TetZooCon, Darren Naish’ big annual London event about animals, palaeontology, palaeoart and all things tetrapod. And this was a special edition indeed. Not only has this been the last ever edition of the Tetrapod Zoology Conference in its current form (more on which on the show) but we actually gave a talk this time! And what’s more, the talk has been recorded and is included in full on...

Rise and shine, the LITC podcast is here again! We have some colourful and pretty gnarly palaeoart to show you from the spectacularly-named Tudor Humphries. For the interview, Marc and Natee discuss the lovely - and somewhat controversial - book The Iguanodon's Horn, with its author and illustrator, the award-winning Sean Rubin. Is making fun of outdated palaeoart tropes fair game? Will we keep comparing dinosaurs to fish? Why is t...

We've had a month off, but the famous LITC podcast is back in full strength with more fresh news, nostalgic art reviews and exciting interviews! After discussing the new films and documentaries that are coming our way, we review some very English palaeoart from the late 1970s by the unsung Peter Snowball. After that, Natee and Marc interview the Golden Boys of Dromaeosaurs, 3D sculptor Ruadhrí Brennan and returning LITC interviewee...

Happy days, all! Even moreso than usual, our newest podcast episode dives into the phenomenon of stylized dinosaurs, as we discuss whimsical works from the early 70s by Maurice Wilson, whose work is all but forgotten but holds up a treat, and talk to the esteemed Johan Egerkrans whose angular, dynamic dinosaur art has captured the hearts of the palaeo world. Featuring forgotten Disney movies, exciting board games, pleasing shapes a...

Happy Easter! Lots of cool stuff on episode 33 of the Chasmosaurs podcast. Natee can finally show some exciting stuff they’ve been working on, for a museum in Switzerland no less! Meanwhile, Marc scares all the kids away imitating a posh dinosaur from the Isle of Wight. For our Vintage Dinosaur Art, the crew takes a peek Inside Dinosaurs with a very unusual book about dinosaur anatomy, and Gemma realizes a long held wish as Ellinor...

Spring has come early, and episode 32 has come late! In this one, Marc, Natee and Gemma discuss the unusual, singular and slightly deranged dinosaurs from the swinging 60s by cult palaeoartist George Solonevic, as it appears in a book called Dinosaurs and More Dinosaurs. Marc interviews the esteemed Stavros Svenson Kulindadromaeus Kundromichalis on his fabulous book on the dinosaurs of the Triassic. Have we polished up our Swedish?...

Our tremendous trio is back for 2024, but not all things are as they were... mostly they are, though. We get back into the swing of Vintage Dinosaur art, or is that Nostalgic Dinosaur Art? We explore the work of Mark Hallett, the man Marc once declared his Favourite Palaeoartist Ever, as it appears in Stephen and Sylvia Czerkas' Dinosaurs: A Global View, also featuring works by John Sibbick and Douglas Henderson. Then, Marc and Nat...

TetZooCon 2023 is in the bag, and of course, we were there. Join Marc, Natee and Niels as they relay their adventures, the talks, the vendors, the people, the experiences and the catastrophes of the legendary London extravaganza of zoology, palaeontology and palaeoart as it grows ever bigger. Did we all make it to the end? Who was our favourite cosplayer? Have all the Crystal Palace dinosaurs been scanned? Are we finally going to t...

Niels, Natee and Marc look forward to TetZooCon, chat about recent museum visits, and continue to shamelessly plug the new merchandise designed by The Founder, David Orr. Then, in lieu of Vintage Dinosaur Art, they – and special guest Agata Stachowiak – discuss the Netflix series Life On Our Planet, in which Morgan Freeman gravels his way through an intriguing mix of modern-day wildlife footage and CGI recreations of creatures from...

Marc, Niels and Natee essay a new and improved, that is, much more informal, news section, as we follow up on previous items and comment on two new palaeo media releases. This month's Vintage Dinosaur Art is illustrated with the sculptures of Arthur Hayward and others and is an approach that we at least would very much enjoy seeing a return of in newer publications. Finally, our Lord and Blogmaster, David Orr, makes another very we...

As the summer fades and the leaves start falling, nothing better but to sit and listen to the latest episode of the LITC podcast. Marc, Niels and Natee discuss a favourite from the early 90's: Donna Braginetz' brilliant Dinosaurium, the dream museum in book form. In a not dissimilar vein, Marc and Niels interview Matt Dempsey, whose musculoskeletal dinosaur reconstructions are a great help to palaeoartists everywhere. Lots of discu...

For episode 26, we’re crossing a big one from our list: The work of the legendary Zdeněk Burian, as it appears in 1972’s Life Before Man. Surely, this book is worth an entire episode, so we’re foregoing the interview this month. Niels, Natee and Marc discuss not only the art of the Czech master, but also his life, his beliefs and his enormous legacy. How did Burian get around reconstructing dinosaurs when he had no access to any fo...

Our guest this episode is Emiliano Troco, a modern 'old master' whose traditional paintings evoke the imagery of the flowering of early 20th century palaeontology. Our Vintage Dinosaur Art title is Dorling Kindersley's The Ultimate Dinosaur Book, another of those formative publications released in the same year as Jurassic Park, and one which can quite justly claim to have then lived up to its name. Can Niels resist making a Slam D...

Our first episode of 2023 celebrates classics of two different kinds: the masterly palaeoart of the Queen of #DrawDinovember, Rebecca Dart, which surely merits the stamp of ‘modern classic’; and, in what Niels has determined is a one-off for us and not the beginning of a foray into collectibles, the enduring charm of the Invicta dinosaur toys commissioned by London’s Natural History Museum, beginning in 1974. How does Rebecca work ...

Episode 22 closes off the year 2022. Here is the yearly postcard from TetZooCon, in podcast form! The UK's biggest event of Our People, organized by that man Naish and presumably other people, was held early December at the Bush House in London. It was a palaeo-heavy conference, with lots of dinosaur and especially pterosaur talks, the yearly palaeoart workshop, lots of attention for the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs and the launches (o...