Podcast 332 - Bird Peepin'

Podcast 332 - Bird Peepin'

Palaeo After Dark

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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 at plasticity of breeding times in urban vs rural bird populations. Meanwhile, James manages a basement, Amanda names the papers, and Curt makes allegations.

Up-Goer Five (James Edition):

Today the group look at two papers that are interested in how animals change because of the type of place they live. The first paper is looking at different ways that animals can be changed, either by being changed as they grow or by changing things so that while the animal does not change right now its babies are different. The paper talks about how important the little bits that escape the brain to tell your body how to grow and what to make are and that many of the changes are caused by the different numbers of things escaping the brain because of the different places that the animal lives.

The other paper is looking at small angry animals that fly and seeing when they lay small round quiet babies in different places. They look at when the small round quiet babies first appear in places that are built by people and places that are built by trees and also look at how this time has changed over several years during which it has gotten hotter. They find that most small angry animals that fly have their small round quiet babies earlier in places that are built by people, and also that as things have gotten hotter that also makes them have their small round quiet babies earlier. The further up they are though it seems like the time between having small round quiet babies in place built by people and places built by trees is not as much.

References:

Seebacher, Frank, and Alexander G. Little. "Mechanisms underlying phenotypic plasticity in response to environmental change." Biological Reviews 101.2 (2026): 713-734.

Cuchot, Paul, et al. "Facing rising temperatures in urban environments: the role of phenological plasticity in an urban-dwelling passerine, Parus major." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 293.2068 (2026).

Podcast 331 - Reef it Up

Podcast 331 - Reef it Up

Palaeo After Dark

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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 patterns of reef building and collapse in the late Devonian. Meanwhile, James is being advertised to, Amanda plans unique roadtrips, and Curt solicits legal advice.

Up-Goer Five (Amanda Edition):

Today our friends talk about animals that have green friends that make hard bits. These animals that make hard parts are really important today because they make good places for other animals to live. But we don't know all about them and where they first came from and how they first started making hard parts for places to live. So the first paper looks at where these animals that make hard parts for other animals to live in come from. They look at really early animals that make hard parts and show what kinds of places they live in, and also how they stick themselves to the bottom. It looks like different animals got started in different ways, then went out to all sorts of different places and got better at making hard parts for other animals to live in, until that was all they could do.

The second paper talks about a bad time when everything died and how animals that make hard parts for other things to live in all died and tiny things we can't see without making them look big took over from them. At this time there were different animals that made hard parts for other animals to live in that lived together to make big areas of hard parts, but then they all died and never came back. But when we look at the rocks we find that tiny things we can't see without making them look big are all over the place while the animals that make hard bits for other animals to live in all die. This paper talks a lot about rocks, but the important thing is that they think the tiny things we can't see without making them look big might be the kind of thing that takes over all the places when times are bad and everything dies, but that might not be the case.

References:

Zhuravlev, Andrey Yurevich, and Rachel Wood. "On the origin of metazoan reefs." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 293.2068 (2026).

Xinsong, Zhang, et al. "How microbes replaced metazoans in reef ecosystem during the Late Devonian mass extinction: new insights from platform facies in South China." Lethaia 58.4 (2025): 1-22.

Podcast 330 - Dinosaur Body Pillow

Podcast 330 - Dinosaur Body Pillow

Palaeo After Dark

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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 taxa have been reconstructed, and the second paper conducts an actualistic experiment of Oviraptor nesting strategies. Meanwhile, Curt gets activated, James doesn’t die, and Amanda relishes in details.

Up-Goer Five (James Edition):

The group look at two papers that focus of understanding how things are long dead lived. The first paper talks about strange things that might have either lived standing up or lying down at the bottom of the water which is big and you can not drink. It is hard to tell how these things lived because there are not any around today and so instead we need to look at their form and how they are found in the rock. Most of the things seem to have lived how we thought but one actually was lying down rather than standing up.

The second paper looks at how big angry animals without hair kept their round babies and helped them grow by making a form in the ground like they used and putting round babies in it. They looked at how the round babies did by themselves and how they did with a warm bag on top like their final big form. They decide that they probably had the final big form covering the round babies when they were growing but that they did not do it the same was a things that fly and do not have hair today.

References:

McIlroy, Duncan. "Determining the mode of life of Ediacaran rangeomorphs in deep marine settings of Peri-Gondwanan Avalonia." Assemblage 550.538Ma (2022).

Su, Chun-Yu, et al. "Heat transfer in a realistic clutch reveals a lower efficiency in incubation of oviraptorid dinosaurs than of modern birds." Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 14 (2026): 1351288.

Podcast 329 - Boom Shakalaka

Podcast 329 - Boom Shakalaka

Palaeo After Dark

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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 potential for a non-avian theropod dinosaur, and the other paper tests if an extinct bird could have skimmed the ocean for food. Meanwhile, James imagines a better future, Amanda is to blame, and Curt is heating up.

Up-Goer Five (Amanda Edition):

Today our friends look at two papers that talk about how things do stuff. The first paper looks at how a small one of large animals with thick skin and no hair would jump. It would jump very different than living animals with not thick skin with pieces that come off and have many parts. This is because they have long back parts that would get in the way and so they have to jump different. They could probably jump well, but just very different. The paper has very funny pictures that show this. The paper also has a computer do a pretend living animal with not thick skin with pieces that come off and have many parts, but they do not look at any living animals, just what the computer does.

The second paper looks at very big not living animal with not thick skin with pieces that come off and have many parts, that has not real teeth in its mouth and shows that it could not live like some living animals with not thick skin with pieces that come off and have many parts that have very long faces and the bottom part of their mouth is much longer than the top part. They go over water and use their mouth to eat things that live in water. But the not living animal with not thick skin with pieces that come off and have many parts was too big and too bad at flying to do this kind of living.

References:

Hellyer-Price, Olivia, Chris Venditti, and Stuart Humphries. "The largest extinct volant bird Pelagornis could not meet the energetic demands of skimming." Royal Society Open Science 13.2 (2026).

Charles, James P., Delyle T. Polet, and John R. Hutchinson. "Form–function relationships determining optimal jumping performance in an early bipedal dinosaur." Journal of The Royal Society Interface 23.235 (2026).

Podcast 238 - Fins for Days

Podcast 238 - Fins for Days

Palaeo After Dark

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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 a new species of Spinosaurus with a crest. Meanwhile, James tastes flavor, Amanda tastes drink, and Curt tastes indifference.

Up-Goer Five - SERVER NOT FOUND! HELP!

References:

Song, Yang, and Johan Lindgren. "Convergence in aquatic locomotion: reconstructing mosasaurian (Squamata: Mosasauria) tail fins from osteological correlates and covariation with extant sharks." Paleobiology 52.1 (2026): 121-130.

Sereno, Paul C., et al. "Scimitar-crested Spinosaurus species from the Sahara caps stepwise spinosaurid radiation." Science 391.6787 (2026): eadx5486.

Podcast 327 - Horse or Deer?

Podcast 327 - Horse or Deer?

Palaeo After Dark

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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 a Cretaceous iguandodontian, and the second paper uses an exceptionally complete specimen to demonstrate the reality of Nanotyrannus. Meanwhile, James classifies, Amanda imagines T-rex, and Curt brings a unique energy.

Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition):

The friends look at two papers about big angry animals that everyone loves to talk about. The first paper is about the skin of one of these big angry animals. This skin has weird bits on it that are not like the weird bits we see in a lot of other animals that are close to these big angry animals. These bits do not look like the bits that would be used to stay warm or to move into the air. These bits look like they might hurt.
The second paper looks at a lot of stuff from one big angry animal that has been said by people in the past is just a young one of another big angry animal. The paper looks at the parts of this animal, how this animal grew, and a lot of other things to show that, no, this animal is not this other animal. This animal is its own type of animal.

References:

Huang, Jiandong, et al. "Cellular-level preservation of cutaneous spikes in an Early Cretaceous iguanodontian dinosaur." Nature Ecology & Evolution (2026): 1-8.

Zanno, Lindsay E., and James G. Napoli. "Nanotyrannus and Tyrannosaurus coexisted at the close of the Cretaceous." Nature (2025): 1-3.

Podcast 326 - But What Is It?

Podcast 326 - But What Is It?

Palaeo After Dark

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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 the presence of two sets of camera eyes (four eyes total), and they interpret the additional set of camera eyes as being a homolog to the modern parietal eye in vertebrates. The second paper uses exceptional preservation of the Rhynie Chert to test hypotheses for the taxonomic placement of the enigmatic Prototaxites and finds evidence that suggests it is not, as previously suggested, a fungus. Meanwhile, James is marooned by weather, Amanda accidentally traumatizes her cat, and Curt imagines the flesh trees.

Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition):

The friends talk about things that are weird. The first paper looks at a thing that is part of the big group that we are all a part of but is from a long long time ago and lived in the big blue wet thing. This thing has four eyes. Two of those eyes might be the things that become a part of the brain that is not the eyes today. But this shows that, early on, some of these animals could have had four eyes. This also means some animals we see later could have had parts of these other eyes that we have thought were other things.

The second paper looks at a thing that is weird that people thought was from a group that is not an animal but has some animal like things like eating other things but has walls in the cells. These weird things are from a long time ago and come from a place where the parts were saved from breaking down by glass getting inside the cells. This means you can see lots of cell stuff, and you can also break down the glass to get at some of the cell bits. This paper looks at a lot of this weird thing and they say that it is not part of the group people thought it was from. In fact, it is so weird that it is not like any group we have today. It is maybe something that is not around today that we did not know about.

References:

Loron, Corentin C., et al. "Prototaxites fossils are structurally and chemically distinct from extinct and extant Fungi." Science advances 12.4 (2026): eaec6277.

Lei, Xiangtong, et al. "Four camera-type eyes in the earliest vertebrates from the Cambrian Period." Nature (2026): 1-6.

Podcast 325 - The Curse of the Not Cat

Podcast 325 - The Curse of the Not Cat

Palaeo After Dark

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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 look into the fossil record of Nimravids (early cats that are not true cats). No, this podcast is cursed because the file refused to be compiled, crashing Audacity 3 times and each time corrupting the save file. The fact that any mp3 file was able to be compiled at all was a minor miracle. I can only assume that this means this podcast data has gained sentience and did not want to be born. I have no control over what happens when this mp3 file gets released into the internet… so anyways enjoy the episode!

Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition):

The friends talk about two papers that both look at things we can see in the hard parts of animals that are like cats but are not cats and use those hard parts to figure out what these not cats are doing. These papers looks at different not cats and try and see what types of food they would eat and how they would get that food. Turns out that many of these not cats were doing things that are not the same as the cats we have today.

References:

Castellanos, Miguel. "Hunting types in North American Eocene–Oligocene carnivores and implications for the ‘cat-gap’." Journal of Mammalian Evolution 32.2 (2025): 25.

Jiangzuo, Qigao, et al. "A new ecomorph of Nimravidae, and the early macrocarnivorous niche exploration in Carnivora." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 292.2059 (2025).

Podcast 324 - Pick Up the Pieces

Podcast 324 - Pick Up the Pieces

Palaeo After Dark

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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, and the second paper looks at mosaic evolutionary patterns in an early squamate. Meanwhile, James has bird opinions, Curt delights in not knowing, and Amanda will definitely be on time.

Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition):

The friends look at two papers that are using broken bits of things to learn a lot about animals from a long time ago. Both of these papers are looking at old animals that may give us new looks at how big groups of animals changed over time. These animals may be some of the first animals in these groups, or at least let us know what kinds of things those early animals could have been doing. The first paper looks at a group of animals that lived in the big blue wet thing a long time ago and are part of a group that today has animals that make homes that they use to catch food. The new parts this paper finds shows that this group may have come around a lot earlier than we thought. The second paper looks at parts from an animal that is in a group that is cold and has hard skin, some with legs and some without legs. These parts show that the early animals in this group had a lot of changes going on in their hard parts, maybe they changed more early on then they do today.

References:

Benson, Roger BJ, et al. "Mosaic anatomy in an early fossil squamate." Nature (2025): 1-7.

Van Roy, Peter, Jared C. Richards, and Javier Ortega-Hernández. "Early Ordovician sea scorpions from Morocco suggest Cambrian origins and main diversification of Eurypterida." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 292.2058 (2025).

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

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

Palaeo After Dark

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The crew of the CS Perry struggle to extract themselves from their rapidly deteriorating situation.

"Lightless Dawn" , "Spacial Harvest", and "Crypto" from Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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

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

Palaeo After Dark

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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 Dawn" and "Crypto" from Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/