Blog Archive
Episode 5 Field Guide: Throwing in Human Evolution
Humans are weird animals. We walk around on two legs, we have big brains…and we like to throw things at each other. When did all this happen in a gradual march to Homo sapiens? In this episode of Past Time, Adam and Matt talk to Dr. Susan Larson, an expert on the anatomy of living and extinct apes. Dr. Larson’s work shows our close bipedal ancestors had very different shoulder blades than ours t …
Filed under: Homo erectus, baseball, evolution, human
Quick Bite Field Guide: Ocepechelon the Whale Turtle
Meet Ocepechlon, one of the strangest turtles to ever paddle the open ocean in our first Past Time Quick Bite! This post is the visual companion to our podcast episode “Quick Bite: Ocepechelon the Whale Turtle.” To listen to the episode you can subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, download the episode here, or stream the podcast on your computer or phone by going here. However you listen, brace you …
Filed under: Africa, Cretaceous, Marine, New species, Turtle, ocean, sea turtle
Episode 4 Field Guide: Giant Dinosaur Mysteries
This episode of Past Time explores the biggest animals ever to stand upon the Earth: the sauropod dinosaurs. Sauropods were the biggest animals to ever leave a footprint on the Earth. They were the size of whales, but didn’t have the luxury of water to help them support their bulk! The massive size of sauropod dinosaurs intrigued Dr. Michael D’Emic and he has been scrutinizing their bone structure …
Filed under: dinosaur, giant dinosaur, long neck, sauropod
Episode 3 Field Guide: What’s a Reptile?
When you read the word “Reptile” what do you think of? A lizard? A snake? A crocodile? A turtle? All of these animals fit the loose definition of reptiles: covered in scales, unable to regulate their body temperature, and sprawling. But in Episode 2, we explored the close relationship between birds and dinosaurs, so are birds reptiles, too? The feathers and warm-blooded-ness of birds messes with o …
Filed under: Diapsids, Dinosaurs, Lizards, Reptiles, Snakes, Synapsids, Systematics, Turtles, anatomy, mammal, tuatara
Episode 2 Field Guide: Birds are dinosaurs!
What is a dinosaur? What is a bird? They’re related somehow, but how do paleontologists figure out how close Velociraptor and penguins are in the dinosaur family tree? In this episode of Past Time, Matt and Adam talk to Dr. Alan Turner, an expert on fossils from the dino-bird transition to figure out which animals are most important in sorting out this incredible evolutionary story. Listen to this …
Filed under: Archaeopteryx, Cretaceous, Jurassic, Mesozoic, Systematics, Velociraptor, bird, dinosaur, raptor
