Terrible Lizards – Details, episodes & analysis

The biggest news in palaeontology this year dropped just in time for us to miss it with last month's episode but we're giving it the full hour this time. The idea that there's a miniature tyrannosaur running around in the Late Cretaceous alongside Tyrannosaurus has long been a contentious one, with most palaeontologists favouring the interpretation that the specimens represented juvenile rexes. But a huge new paper presents a brand-new specimen that shows various unique features and importantly, is an adult animal while still small. Join Dave and Iszi into a deep dive on the history of these ideas ad why people are switching sides to support the idea that Nanotyrannus is real. One of the better articles from the media storm:

 Nanotyrannus isn't a 'mini T. Rex' after all — it's a new species, 'dueling dinosaurs' fossil reveals | Live Science:

https://www.livescience.com/animals/dinosaurs/i-was-wrong-dinosaur-scientists-agree-that-small-tyrannosaur-nanotyrannus-was-real-pivotal-new-study-finds

Please support the podcast and submit questions for our end of year megasode: https://www.patreon.com/terriblelizards

Dave has *another* book coming out and so of course he wants to talk about it a bit on the pod. Happily for the listeners, this time out he has a coauthor and so we get to have palaeontologist and palaeoartist Mark Witton on as well so that Iszi has some support for once. The new book is on that most controversial of dinosaurs, Spinosaurus and its allies, and what we know, and what we don't, and where the research is taking us. Given its insane media profile and the attention it attracts, as well as the back-and-forth in the scientific literature over its bizarre features, this is an animal well overdue a proper popular science book. So here it is, written by Dave and Mark, and with Mark's extensive illustrations throughout. But for now you can enjoy the chat about this animal and how the work came to be.

Links:

For Bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/terriblelizards

Mark's website with links to his blog and other pages

Home | MarkWitton.co.uk

An old blogpost of Dave's which looks at the main controversies of Spinosaurus swimming

The evidence for Spinosaurus being a specialist aquatic predator and good swimmer is weak | Dave Hone's Archosaur Musings

Series 11, eh? We don't think we, or anyone else reading this, expected that.

Nor did we expect issues with Dave's microphone (apologies)… Still, here we are and with more dinosaur goodness coming. We say 'coming' because this episode is far less about dinosaurs and pterosaurs than usual, but more about the mechanisms of science. In this case it's really about Dave's experiences as a science communicator and how things like this are increasingly important for science, but in the UK at least, this can be monitored and measured and so having ways to do that becomes important. And this is the central point of today's show, a call to arms for all those who are involved in sci comms and delight in sharing new knowledge to understand why it's important to credit your sources when new discoveries are made.

Links:

For extra content: patreon.com/terriblelizards

If you want to know a bit more about REF in the UK, here's the main pages for it: https://2029.ref.ac.uk/about/what-is-the-ref/

And if we're talking communication, it seems a good time to say that Iszi and Dave are both now on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/davehone.bsky.social https://bsky.app/profile/iszi.com

It is appropriate to kick off the second series of Terrible Lizards with an animal famous for its dangerous feet. Few people had heard of Velociraptor before Jurassic Park, but it is now an A-lister alongside Tyrannosaurus as one of the few dinosaurs almost anyone can name. With fame though has come huge misconceptions about its size, appearance, capabilities and behaviour. The large, scaly, super-intelligent pack-hunter of large prey is likely none of these things and Dave and Iszi work their way through the myths and realities of this little Mongolian predator. Our first guest of the season is half of Penn & Teller, the juggler and magician Penn Jillette, who wants to know about the longevity of dinosaur lineages and how common they were in the Mesozoic.

Links:

Photos of a famous Velociraptor specimen locked on (possible) mortal combat with a Protoceratops: https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2009/05/22/a-bit-on-the-'fighting-dinosaurs'/

A description of Dave's work on a specimen of Velociraptor that swallowed a large pterosaur bone https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/velociraptor-scavenging-azhdarchid/

Link to the original paper describing quill knobs in Velociraptor that prove the presence of feathers https://science.sciencemag.org/content/317/5845/1721

The new series will be starting on Wednesday 16th September 2020. We have a plethora of guests and interesting dinosaur subjects to explore!

Guest this series include Penn Jillette, Phil Plait, Robin Ince, Rebecca Watson, Esther Odekunde, Faith Child and Lucy Eckersley.

Keep an eye out for our bonus content on Patreon and announcements on Twitter and Facebook.

www.patreon.com/terriblelizards

www.facebook.com/terriblelizardspodcast/

@iszi_lawrence @dave_hone #TerribleLizards

In this last episode of the first season we try to bring a few things up to date. There's more mistakes and miss-speaks from Dave to repair and correct, and a few things that have come up since shows were recorded or broadcast we want to give updates on. Mostly though, we are answering questions from our Patreons and other commenters that people have sent in. There's a lot of ground to cover quickly and lots of things that are still coming in future episodes so we don't always get into the greatest detail but among others, there's bits on Triassic dinosaurs, dinosaur diseases, evidence for dinosaur behaviour, and how can you support palaeontology.

There's no special guest this week and we'll now be taking a break for a while so we can recharge and come back stronger in September (ish). We do though plan to record one or two deep dive episodes during the break that will be available only to our Patreons for now, so if you want to help keep Terrible Lizards going and get some more goodness in advance then please sign up.

Iszi also goes on a massive rant about human brain evolution which is better discussed in her interview with Clive Gamble on The British Museum Membercast podcast: https://britishmuseummembercast.libsyn.com/episode-002

The film, The Lost world (1925) is available to watch on youtube here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJaXxY3citM

A short blogpost with a nice photo of the unheralded Triassic Herrerasaurus: https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2011/11/26/herrerasaurus/

A long post by Dave on the perenially asked 'how do I become a palaeontologist?': https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2018/07/04/how-do-i-become-a-palaeontologist/

A short post on a diseased sauropod in China: https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2008/07/16/sauropod-caudal-pathology/

 Please support us on patreon. www.terriblelizards.co.uk @iszi_lawrence @dave_hone  #terriblelizards

In this episode, we take a look at the actual process of finding, excavating, preparing and then exhibiting dinosaur fossils. How do palaeontologists know where to find fossils, what do they look for, how do they get them out of the ground? From there we move onto safely transporting fossils out of the field and into the museum and discuss the process of preparing the bones free of the entombing rocks and then getting them arranged back into the form of a full skeleton to go on display in a museum. It's all an odd mix of techniques from the 21st and 18th centuries. To round us off, we are joined by podcaster and QI elf, Dan Schreiber who wants to ask about the best way to go about owning a dinosaur fossil.

Round up post of a huge series on Dave's blog about preparing a tyrannosaur fossil by Darren Tanke https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2011/02/22/darren-tanke%e2%80%99s-gorgosaurus-preparation-final-roundup/

And the resulting paper that Dave and Darren coauthored about using the blogposts as an educational tool https://www.geocurator.org/images/resources/geocurator/vol9/geocurator_9_8.pdf#page=17

A series of photos of the dig in China to excavate Dave's tyrannosaur https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2011/08/22/xinjiang-2011-fieldwork-report/

 Please support us on patreon. www.terriblelizards.co.uk @iszi_lawrence @dave_hone @Schreiberland #terriblelizards

Dan is Host of No Such Thing As A Fish podcast / QI Elf/ Creator of BBC's Museum of Curiosity/ Watch 'Show Us Your Sh*t' live nightly at http://instagram.com/schreiberland

To most eyes, dinosaurs are unusual looking animals but on this week's show we take a look at some that are weird and wonderful even by the standards of dinosaurs. We start with the huge theropods of Late Cretaceous Mongolia, the sickle-clawed Theirizinosaurs and boat-faced Deinocheirus with a mention of the tiny ant-eating alvarezsaurs. From here, we move to Europe and ancient archipelagos that produced some dwarf species of huge animals and giant weird versions of small ones. We round off with some unusual and interesting adaptations that show up in multiple different dinosaurs and show the power of convergent evolution across tens of millions of years. Finally, we are joined by comedian Alice Fraser @aliterative who wants to ask about how dinosaurs might have done if alive today. (You should also check out her many podcasts and watch her special on Amazon Prime.)

An old article of Dave's on the astounding diversity of dinosaurs https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2012/jun/11/dinosaurs-incredible-diverse

A blogpost on the wonderful arctometatarsal https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/what-is-an-acrtometatarsal/

Warning: Our guest Richard Herring (53 mins 50 secs) uses colloquialisms for dinosaur male bits - poss best check before letting kids listen.

Reproduction is a fundamental of life but it's an area of dinosaur biology rarely discussed at any length though this week we will tackle that area of ignorance. Part of the problem is inevitably the lack of data palaeontologists have of, ahem, certain dinosaur parts. However, it's not an area that has gone unstudied and thanks to the evidence of numerous fossils and in particular various nests and eggs, we do know quite a bit more about their reproductive biology than you may imagine. There's good evidence in various linages for parents looking after their young and for some complex nest structures, and in the right circumstances we can tell males from females. Our guest this week is the comedian Richard Herring who lends his unique approach to biology (OK, he says some faintly rude words about male dinosaur bits that you might not want the littlest ones to hear) and has an appropriately (for him) suitable question for Dave about dinosaurs.

An old blogpost of Dave's on dinosaur eggs in a dedicated museum for them in China: https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/xixia-museum-of-dinosaur-fossil-eggs-of-china/

And a post on the famous brooding dinosaur on a nest known as 'big mama' https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/big-mama-%e2%80%93-nesting-dinosaurs/

An article by palaeontologist Elsa Panciroli on sexing animals in the fossil record https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/jan/24/cloacae-sex-arms-and-penis-bones-the-tricky-art-of-fossil-sexing

Please support us on patreon. @iszi_lawrence @dave_hone @Herring1967 richardherring.com #terriblelizards

This time out it's another iconic dinosaur and the beautiful Triceratops. These huge animals with their famous three horns and large frill are a major part of so many documentaries and films, if only so they can be seen to be battling with Tyrannosaurus. As with so many of the most famous dinosaurs, Triceratops is actually quite unusual and not really representative of the group to which it belongs. It is the largest of the ceratopsians (or horned dinosaurs) and the only one with a solid frill, and was also probably rather less gregarious than many of its near relatives. We talk about these features and the possible functions of its amazing headgear, before we are joined by this week's guest - TV's cake-maker and podcaster Ralph Attanasia. He has a specific and challenging question for Dave about dinosaur faces and their cheeks (or lack thereof).

CakeBossRalph

An old blogpost of Dave's looking at the details of a Triceratops skull on display in Oxford: https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2010/06/03/triceratops-skull-in-detail/

A photo of a huge Triceratops skull taken by palaeontologists Matt Wedel and Mike Taylor: https://svpow.com/2016/05/06/sv-pow-endorses-triceratops/

A blogpost on some research led by Dave's PhD student (now Dr) Andy Knapp on  ceratopsian frills and their evolution: https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2018/03/21/ceratopsian-horns-and-frills-what-drove-their-evolution/ and the full research paper is here: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2018.0312