A free webseries exploring the fossil record and the evolution of life on Earth.
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 ...
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 gra...
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 gra...
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 ski...
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 rem...
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...
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...
An ecosystem can be described as all the interactions that occur between organisms and their physical environment. The processes acting within an ecosystem operate on a wide range of spatial and temporal scales and include both biotic and abiotic factors.
Ecosystem engineers are those species that have a significant impact on the availability of resources to other species and can be respons...
Found in the fossil record between the Jurassic and the middle Miocene, Notosuchia was a highly diverse and strange group of crocodylomorphs, most notable for their terrestrial lifestyle.
Joining us for today’s episode is Dr Yohan Pochat-Cottilloux from the Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon, who specialises in the study of crocodylomorphs. Together, we will explore the wide range of scientific methodologies that have so far been used...
The field of evolutionary biology has been greatly influenced by the development of modern genetic methodology. The understanding of genes, genomes and the molecular mechanisms key to life on Earth are all goals of evolutionary biology in the 21st century, yet its potential applications seem to be near limitless. Palaeontology and evolutionary biology continue to be closely related and both, with th...
In 12 years of podcasting, we have never actually taken the time to address the fundamentals of our field. Such questions could include: what is palaeontology, what is a fossil, how does one become a palaeontologist, and why is palaeontology important?
For what should have been our very first episode, we've invited Prof. Roy Plotnick, University of Illinois Chicago,...
It's been two centuries since the first dinosaur, Megalosaurus, was named by William Buckland and to commemorate the date, the Natural History Museum hosted '200 Years of Dinosaurs: Their Rise, Fall, and Rebirth'. This international conference provides a snapshot of dinosaur research in 2024, demonstrating just how far our understanding of this group has come since 1824.
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The Middle Jurassic is incredibly important to our understanding of pterosaur evolution; however, the remarkable rarity and incompleteness of Middle Jurassic pterosaurs has long hampered scientific understanding of the lineage.
Joining us this episode on the other side of the microphone is one of Palaeocast’s own team members, Dr Liz Martin Silv...
Originally mounted in 1907, the Carnegie specimen is the best example of the sauropod dinosaur Diplodocus, and perhaps the most famous dinosaur skeleton in the world. Casts of the specimen, including the London example known as “Dippy”, were distributed around the world during the early 1900s, and a final concrete cast was even created in 1957 for the Utah Field House at Vernal.
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LOOP 8.4: LOOP Showrunner Dan Tapster returns to give a retrospective on the series and its production. We look at went well and address criticisms; is it possible to keep everyone happy? We finish this series by discussing the show’s take-home messages and Dan’s hopes for Life On Our Planet’s legacy.
Life On Our Planet (LOOP) is a new 8-part series created for Netflix by Silverback Films a...
LOOP 8.3: Episode 8’s producer, Sophie Lanfear, joins us again to describe how difficult it was to wrap the series up, having to balance telling the story of the last ice age with conveying the message of the series. We speak about climate change and the 6th mass extinction and try to find any positives. Ultimately, if documentaries keep having to make this point, is the message really getting throug...
LOOP 8.2: Prof. Danielle Schreve, Royal Holloway University of London, joins us to cover the last 2 million years of Earth’s history. We explore the periodicity of glacials and interglacials and the control Earth’s orbit around the sun has on climate. She then places the Holocene’s megafaunal extinctions and major palaeobiogeograpical events within this climatic context. We finally look at the impact of human r...
LOOP 8.1: Dave and Tom introduce episode 8 and round of this special series on Life On Our Planet. We talk about our favourite scenes and reflect on our time working on the documentary and how our perspectives of documentary making has changed. We’d love your feedback on this podcast series.
Life On Our Planet (LOOP) is a new 8-part series created for Netflix by Silverback Films and Amblin ...
LOOP 7.3: We’re taken into the field to film snow leopards by episode 7’s Assistant Producer, Darren Williams. He reveals how difficult it is to get just a few minutes of video, both logistically and practically. We get to know the ‘old male’ snow leopard, trace his movements, and learn of his importance to the community. Darren then speaks about the emotional conflict of capturing his final moments on film.
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.