The Fossil Files
In “The Fossil Files”, a pair of palaeontologists delve into the latest discoveries from the world of palaeontology and seek to bring fossils to back to life. Each episode, Susie and Rob will discuss an interesting new research paper ranging from topics of what dinosaurs ate, how plesiosaurs swam, where we came from, and the science of de-extinction. Whilst doing so, we peek under the hood of how the science of palaeontology is done and how research gets to see the light of day. It is for anybody interested in palaeontology and past life whether that is students, researchers themselves, or simply the fossil-curious - we laugh as we learn, and hope you will too.
Episode guide at https://fossils.libsyn.com/
- Update frequency
- every 9 days
- Average duration
- 31 minutes
- Episodes
- 10
- Years Active
- 2025
Mirasaura, Triassic Punk
This new discovery is WEIRD. Mirasaura (the 'marvellous lizard') has been described from the Triassic of France, and it has mad projections coming out of its back, far longer than its body. We take a…
SQUID! (bonus episode)
Squid are a really important part of marine ecosystems, but their fossil record is close to non-existent - their squishy bodies are just really unlikely to be fossilised. In this short bonus episode …
Our deep origins and the vertebrate that wasn't
The origin of our own group, the vertebrates, has received quite the shake up. One of the important fossil players has been found to be an invertebrate imposter, and this completely changes our under…
Where did Pterosaurs come from?
Pterosaurs dominated Mesozoic skies but it has always been a mystery where these flying reptiles came from. This week Susie and Rob discuss Pterosaur controveries and a cool new study that attempts t…
Were Neanderthals the first fossil collectors?
Why do we collect fossils and who were the first fossil collectors? Cretaceious fossils have been found in a cave in Northern Spain alongside the Neanderthals that were living there 46,000 years ago.…
Walking with… our Carboniferous ancestors in the rain
Our evolutionary timeline just leapt back an additional 40 million years into the past. Some new fossil trackways from the early Carboniferous of Australia have been interpreted as the first bone-fid…
Is de-extinction a scam?
Can we bring extinct organisms back to life? Colossal Biosciences caused quite the stir earlier this year when claimed they could do just that, and indeed have done with Dire Wolves - an extinct spec…
Dinosaur poos from Poland
How did dinosaurs rise to supremacy? This difficult question is given "fresh" insights from new data from a motherload of fossils from Poland. Over 500 bromalites - fossil vomit, gut contents or poo …
How does your plesiosaur swim?
For our first paper, we look at some exceptional preservation of soft tissue in Jurassic plesiosaur (large marine reptiles). Detailed preservation of soft tissues to the sub-cellular level is very ra…
Introducing the Fossil Files
In “The Fossil Files”, a pair of palaeontologists delve into the latest discoveries from the world of palaeontology and seek to bring fossils to back to life. Each episode, Susie and Rob will discu…