Sauropods are a group of magnificent, long-necked dinosaurs that are well known for their gigantism. Existing from the end of the Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous (201 to 66 million years ago), they hold special places in the hearts and imaginations of dinosaur lovers around the world thanks to their unique body shapes and their ability to achieve such vast numbers on the scales. For example, famous genera such as Diplodocus and Brachiosaurus measured up to 26m in length, and weighed 14,800kg and 46,000kg respectively. These colossal sizes have puzzled scientists for years: how had creatu ..read more

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. In our coverage of this event, we speak to many of the leading palaeontologists in the field, as we look back over the last 200 years of research and consider what the next 200 might reveal. It has now been 200 years since th ..read more

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 Silverstone, a Technical Specialist at the University of Bristol who has recently described Ceoptera evansae, a darwinopteran pterosaur from the Isle of Skye. Together, we explore the new specimen, how it fits in to the group, and the insights it can give u ..read more

For over 150 million years, mammals scurried beneath the feet of dinosaurs. Despite being confined to small sizes, they diversified into numerous forms alongside their dinosaurian contemporaries. Although some Cretaceous mammals were about the size of modern badgers, most were not much larger than mice. This all changed 66 million years ago, when a giant meteor collided with Earth, wiped out the terrible reptiles, and set the stage for mammals to reach a new levels of diversity. Some of these post-apocalyptic mammals evolved remarkably high degrees of intelligence and opposable thumbs, others ..read more

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. Although the moulds used to create these casts were lost sometime during the 1960’s, new ones created from the concrete skeleton have allowed second generation casts to be made, with some elements being incorporated in ..read more

Life On Our Planet (LOOP) is a new 8-part series created for Netflix by Silverback Films and Amblin Television. This Steven Spielberg produced series, narrated by Morgan Freeman, is hugely ambitious in its scope, telling the story of life throughout the whole Phanerozoic Eon. Ancient organisms and environments are painstakingly recreated by the supremely talented Industrial Light and Magic, whilst modern natural history scenes add vital context to the story. This show has been worked on for six years, during which time countless papers were read and around 150 different palaeontologists contri ..read more

Whilst the evolution of feathers and flight might be seen as the greatest evolutionary innovation of the birds, the development of their wings precluded their forearms from holding many functions outside of flight. It is widely recognised that beaks are utilised as a ‘surrogate hand’, but if so, then surely the avian neck must function as a ‘surrogate arm’. In this interview, we speak to University College London’s resident “neckspert” Dr Ryan Marek. Ryan introduces us to bird necks detailing their anatomy, how they’re used, and what constrains their form and function. We end by craning our ne ..read more

For the last 10 years, Palaeocast has been generating original palaeontological multimedia. As we look to the next 10 years, we are focussing on diversifying our outputs and ensuring the consistency of our content production. To that end, we are looking for new Palaeocast team members to contribute to any of the following areas: Palaeocast Podcast – audio [New] Palaeocast Podcast – video Palaeocast Blog – written Palaeocast Gaming Network (PGN) If you meet the essential requirements and wish to apply, please send a short CV and cover letter to dave@palaeocast.com stating which projects you’d ..read more

Following up on an initial discovery of ice-age remains in Byron, New York, in the 1950’s, Dr Richard Laub took on the task of systematically excavating the ‘Hiscock Site’ for the Buffalo Museum of Science. Fieldwork commenced in 1983, but as more and more fossils were discovered at the site, the ‘Byron Dig’, as it became known, would continue for almost three decades. In that time, countless numbers of significant Late Pleistocene and Holocene discoveries were made, including those of mastodon, caribou and bird remains, as well as a rich record of Paleoindian tools. The Hiscock site proved to ..read more

A new Ordovician lagerstätte (site of special fossil preservation) has just been described from Llandrindod Wells, Wales. The site contains the remains of well over 150 different species, most of which are entirely new to science. It is dated to around 461 million years old, placing it at a critical point in life’s evolution: the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event. This is even more significant, considering the relative sparsity of lagerstätten of this time. We are joined in this interview by Drs Joe Botting and Lucy Muir, who discovered the Castle Bank site a short walk from their hous ..read more