Tag: dinosaur
Episode 33 – The Story of the Sloth
PAST TIME RETURNS! After three and a half months of discovering how insanely busy a museum curator can be, I (Adam) am back to past times with a brand new episode of Past Time! Join me on a journey back to the Smithsonian Institution to learn about the whole history of sloths. We’ll also meet RYAN HAUPT, an ally in sloth paleontology and science podcasting! Ryan Haupt: Master of Sloth A Ph. D. can …
Filed under: Cenozoic, Dinosaurs, Ecology, Mammals, North America, Paleontologists, South America, conservation, dinosaur, ecosystem, mammal, paleontologist, sloth, sloths
Episode 32 – The Changing Face of Crocodiles
Episode 32 – The Changing Face of Crocodiles INTRODUCTION TO GROWING UP – Every living thing grows up, and this episode of “Past Time” explores the evolution of the growing process. Specifically, we explore the evolution of growth in crocodiles, and how changes to the growing process at the earliest stages of crocodile development help produce the wide array of crocodile snout shapes we see today …
Filed under: Biology, Paleontology, alligator, biologist, bird, caiman, chicken, crocodile, crocodylia, development, dinosaur, embryo, fossil, paleontologist, skeleton, skull
Episode 31 – The First Frogs of the Age of Dinosaurs!
THE FIRST FROGS OF NORTH AMERICA Every discovery we make in natural history happens thanks to specimens. Fossil bones, shells, footprints, coprolites, tissue samples—even field notes and photograms—are the building blocks scientists use to tell the story of life on our planet. On Past Time, we talk a LOT about the contributions of museums and scientists to the story of life. However, we don’t ofte …
Filed under: Arizona, Dallas, Dinosaurs, Fossils, Frog, Mesozoic, Museum, Paleontologists, Petrified Forest, Phytosaur, Triassic, amphibian, amphibians, collections, dinosaur, fossil, frogs, paleontologist, phytosaurs
Episode 29 – First of the Four-Footed Giant Dinosaurs!
Ledumahadi and the first dinosaur giants The sauropod dinosaurs—the classic long-necks—included the largest land animal species that have ever lived. Throughout the Jurassic and Cretaceous, multiple families of sauropods achieved body masses over 50 tons: greater than any modern elephant and even exceeding the colossal indricothere rhinoceroses. Despite their incredible sizes, the sauropod dinosau …
Filed under: Africa, Giant, Jurassic, South Africa, dinosaur, prosauropod, sauropod
Episode 26 – Colobops: the tiny reptile with a big bite!
Big bites come in small skulls This episode tells a story of one of Adam Pritchard’s favorite projects from Yale University, describing the skull of a teeny reptile from the early days of the Age of Reptiles. Hailing from the eastern coast of North America (present-day Connecticut), Colobops noviportensis had a skull only an inch long. However, intensive research and three-dimensional modeling rev …
Filed under: Connecticut, Triassic, dinosaur, fossil, reptile
Episode 25 – Ceratosaurs: Story of a Predatory Dinosaur Dynasty!
Masters of horns and teeth Throughout the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods, dinosaurs were top dogs on every continent and in every sort of environment. The ceratosaurs were some of the classic predators that ruled the tops of the food chains for much of that time. Including classic predators such as Ceratosaurus, Carnotaurus, and Majungasaurus—as well as oddballs like Masiakasaurus, Limusaurus, an …
Filed under: Carnotaurus, Ceratosaurus, Cretaceous, Dinosaurs, Jurassic, ceratosaur, dinosaur
Episode 24 – Dinosaurs and crocodiles in the Land Before Egypt!
Egyptian paleontology has a long and storied history, although much of it is focused on discoveries from the Cenozoic Era. Incredible fossils of early whales, primates, and other mammals have been discovered in Egypt since the beginning of the twentieth century, work that continues to this day. However, fossils from the Age of Reptiles are much harder to come by. Indeed, most of the fossils record …
Filed under: Africa, Cretaceous, Dinosaurs, Egypt, Paleontologists, crocodile, crocodyliform, dinosaur
Episode 22: Matheronodon, a new dinosaur with a different kind of bite!
Matheronodon is certainly a dinosaur worthy of a bigger bite. With proportionally giant teeth strikingly different from the standard-issue ornithopod dinosaur, it is certainly one of the most important dino discoveries out of Europe this year. Better yet, the original scientific paper by Pascal Godefroit and colleagues is free to read in the journal Scientific Reports! If you’d like to learn more …
Filed under: Cretaceous, Dinosaurs, Fossils, France, Ornithischia, dinosaur, feeding, jaws, ornithopod
