Podcast 24 - We never should have podcasted about Wiwaxia

It seemed like such a good idea at the time. If only we had known that, despite our best intentions, we weren't prepared for the sheer insanity of trying to podcast about the ambiguous Burgess Shale taxon Wiwaxia. The conversation somehow drifts to the Kama Sutra, seething contempt, giant desserts, vomiting, snot, yiffing, spiny koopas and zoomers, and the evil nature of goats. Thankfully, James manages to summarize everything at the end in a way that EVERYONE can understand. 

Brought to you by the letter W.

Podcast 23 - Pirates and Vikings

In this episode, it becomes painfully obvious that James has been escaping the terrible winter rain by playing a bunch of Assassin's Creed: Black Flag since he somehow manages to take a discussion on macroecological patterns of the tropics and turns it into a discussion on pirates. Also, Amanda forgets Billy Mays's name, Curt tortures James by describing scenes from Final Destination and the podcast stops dead when a bunch of cats decide to throw down. All in all, a pretty normal start to a new year.

Podcast 21 - In Your Box

The gang discusses a paper about scientific error and spin that into a larger discussion on error and reproducibility in science in general. Also, Amanda and Curt start the "Canada Appreciation Moment", James discusses the natural human response to snow, and everyone gets super excited as they come up with the plot to the single greatest movie of all time, "The Time Traveler's German". 

Podcast 20 - Chasing the Red Queen

In this episode of Palaeo After Dark we discuss Van Valen's Red Queen Hypothesis, as well as recent reviews of the concept. Meanwhile, James  freely partakes in historical revisionism to tell us his fictional accounts of the life of Lewis Carroll, Amanda briefly considers leaving the planet, and Curt finds a joke that is so played out he can't bring himself to say it... so James does!

Podcast 18 - 'Live' from GSA!

Having fixed the audio problems from the last podcast, the gang reconvenes at the Denver Geological Society of America Meeting to discuss the cool and exciting new research that was presented at the conference. Meanwhile, James talks about Land Before Time, Amanda misses her cat, and we are briefly joined by Palaeocast's own Dave Marshall to have a thrilling discussion about hamburgers.

 

Also, Curt gets drunk... very drunk. 

 

Day 2 starts at 24:32

Day 3 starts at 1:02:13

Podcast 17 - Jawsome

With everyone scattered across the country, the gang attempts to use the mystery box called the internet to still record a podcast...

Things could have gone better.

Audio glitches and echoes abound, but we'll do better next time.... right?

 

Right?

 

Anyways, in this episode James makes puns, Curt drinks weirdly topical beer, and Amanda visits the fictional city of Lost Vegas as we attempt to discuss a really cool paper about placoderm jaws with surprising consequences for our understanding of the evolution of vertebrates as a whole.

 

 

Oh right, and we have a new recording of the intro. Send your complaints to palaeoafterdark@gmail.com

Podcast 16 - TUBE FEET!!!!!

In this episode of Palaeo After Dark, the group talks about an interesting and enigmatic fossil species from the Burgess Shale called Siphusauctum gregarium, which looks somewhat like a crinoid but is possibly completely unrelated. The group also gets sidetracked into conversations about  echinoderms, the importance of the Burgess Shale, and shipping grandfather clocks on the Oregon Trail.

Podcast 12 - "All" its "Descendents"

In this episode, we discuss two studies that try to piece apart the effects that the ecological niche breadth (i.e. the range of habitats an animal can survive in) of an animal has on its potential to diversify and/or survive over long periods of time. Also, Hell freezes over as James manages to come up with a perfect reference to the band "The Descendents".