Terrible Lizards Iszi Lawrence and David Hone
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- Science
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Terrible Lizards is a podcast about Dinosaurs with Dr David Hone and Iszi Lawrence.
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Coelophysis with Skye McDavid
We don’t often delve into the Triassic since Dave is not well versed in that time and the animals that were around then, but there were some very important animals that we’ve unduly overlooked across the last 9 series. Happily, today we can redress a large part of that with this episode on Coelophysis. Known from hundreds of skeletons, it’s one of the best represented dinosaurs in the fossil record and yet it remains criminally understudied despite the available data. As one of the earliest theropods, it is perhaps archetypal of the lineages came later, but as so often happens, a bunch of questionable taxonomic decisions and referrals over the decades has left the animal in a bit of a mess. Here to help clear that up is Skye McDavid, scientific illustrator and independent researcher who has put far more time into sorting out the problems of Coelophysis than most would deem wise and joins us to share her wealth of knowledge.
Links:
Skye’s hub on her website with links to her art, socials etc. https://www.skyemcdavid.com/links
Please support us on patreon and unlock extra content!
https://www.patreon.com/terriblelizards -
200 years of dinosaurs
The year 2024 is the 200th anniversary of the naming of the first dinosaur, Megalosaurus. While ‘Dinosauria’ wouldn’t be coined till 1842 (so we have a fair wait before that anniversary kicks in, and doubtless will be marked with another major celebration) it is a great time to take stock of where we are in dinosaur palaeontology. So obviously a good idea is this, that the Natural History Museum in London organised a major international meeting for this, and Dave went along. So in this episode of our (yes, really) 12th series, Dave reports back to Iszi on what was going down at the conference and looks back on 200 years of dinosaur-ing and forwards to what’s coming soon of the back of the meeting.
Thank you for your support: www.patreon.com/terriblelizards
Link to our live show on 25/05/2024 at Oxford's Old Fire Station https://oldfirestation.org.uk/whats-on/terrible-lizards-podcast/
Links:
A shot of the original Megalosaurus jaw and some skull bits: https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2010/11/04/more-of-megalosaurus/
And the famous Crystal Palace reconstructions of the first dinosaurs:
https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2011/10/11/crystal-palace-dinosaurs/
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Stegosaurus with Dr Susie Maidment
Stegosaurus with Dr Susie Maidment
THE TIME HAS COME. For ages Dave, for very Dave reasons refused to cover one dinosaur. Now, we find out all about it with an expert in the field.
Last year's mystery xmas present to all of you who support us now for everyone. Patrons will get an video bonus episode.
You can follow Susie Maidment https://twitter.com/Tweetisaurus. -
The Bite Stuff
Longtime listeners will be familiar with the fact that Dave has spent a lot of time looking at and working on various bites marks on dinosaur bones left by the carnivorous theropods. These can tell us an enormous amount about who was doing what to whom and what it can mean for the ecology and behaviour of both the herbivores that were bitten and the carnivores that bit them. However, to date work on this for dinosaurs has almost exclusively focused on the tyrannosaurs with their tendency to bite on bones. But they weren’t the only ones doing this. As Dave explains to Iszi in this episode, he’s got a big new paper out with a plethora of authors assessing what was going on in the famous Morrison Formation that was teeming with giant sauropods but had plenty of theropods around too. What were they up to and can we learn more about their biology from a few bites?
Links:
Matt Wedel’s blog post about the project: https://svpow.com/2023/11/14/new-paper-theropod-bite-marks-on-morrison-sauropod-bones/
Dave’s post about it: https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2023/11/14/theropods-bit-sauropods-too/
And the paper itself: https://peerj.com/articles/16327/ -
Dino Docs! The making of dinosaur media
Dinosaur documentaries are booming again so it’s time to blow the lid on some insider secrets of how these get made. (Alternative description: Dave complains for an hour about being messed around by TV companies and ignored by the very producers and directors who hired him for his advice on the models and scrip they are working on). Dave and Iszi share their stories from behind and in front of the camera and the steps that go into getting a dinosaur doc made and what goes on behind the scenes.
Links:
Dave has a fair old history with the more traditional media and you can see the fury coming out here too: https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2010/03/22/linheraptor-vs-the-international-media/
Some great stuff can come from good documentaries though, check out this interview with the man behind the Walking with Dinosaurs models (and Jabba the Hutt!).
https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2015/03/04/interview-with-jez-gibson-harris/ -
Odd ideas in palaeontology
Odd ideas in palaeontology
Palaeontology as a scientific field is beyond popular in the media and with the public but that also means it draws a lot of attention from those with, let’s call them, questionable ideas. And no group gets more of this stuff than the dinosaurs and the animals of the Mesozoic. This time out, Iszi and Dave discuss the world of paleo cranks, people with outlandish and non-scientific ideas who present them as fully formed research. Rarely does any of this make it into the mainstream, but on occasion it leaks in and this can only cause confusion. So sit back and enjoy, or grind your teeth in quiet and cold fury, as we go over some of the issues that come with unscientific ideas trying to make their way into the mainstream.
Links:
It’s not just palaeontology that gets these people, here’s a neat blog on a physics crank, but the central themes are identical: https://www.skepticblog.org/2012/01/09/cranks-and-physics/
A nice article by Mark Witton on how to spot crankery in palaeontology: http://markwitton-com.blogspot.com/2019/02/how-to-spot-palaeontological-crankery.html
Please do support the show on patreon.com/terriblelizards for extra content.
Customer Reviews
I need to go back round again!
Love it when a new one comes out (or two if you’re a patron) but sad when it’s over. There’s nothing else to do but start all over again.
Richard Worby
Still enjoying this excellent podcast. Informative and pitched at the right level.
Best Dino podcast around
Rawww..... 🦖🦖🦖🦖🦖🦖🦖🦖🦖🦖
Love this show. Easy to listen to and understand and for all ages. Both my kids and I listen loads.