Early tetrapods include the earliest animals to grow legs, and their closest ancestors. Moving from the water to land required a number of changes within the skeleton and muscular system, related to moving from swimming to crawling, greater pressure on the body after experiencing further effects of gravity without buoyancy, and the difference in feeding with and without water. This transition is commonly referred to as the 'water-to-land' transition. While a significant amount of work has been done on the anatomical changes through this period, there has been less study on the biomechanics. What has been looked at tends to relate to the mechanical changes related to walking on land and the limbs. However, less has been done looking at the skull mechanics and feeding. Early tetrapod work was pioneered by Professor Jenny Clack. She did a lot of early field work and description, understanding this transition better than anyone. Sadly, Professor Clack passed away in March, but has left behind a legacy of other professors, post docs and students around the globe which she inspired. In this episode, we talk to Dr Laura Porro from University College London about her work on early tetrapod feeding and skull mechanics, and how the skull changed over the water-to-land transition, work which was done with and inspired by Jenny.

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Episode 109: Early Tetrapod Feeding Mechanics

Updates about the show and discussion of recent events

04/20 Announcement

Plesiosaurs are some of the most easily recognisable animals in the fossil record. Simply uttering the words ‘Loch Ness Monster’ can conjure a reasonably accurate image of what they look like. Thanks to palaeoart, it’s also fairly easy to envision how they lived: swimming through the open Jurassic seas, picking fish, ammonites and belemnites out of the water. What we don’t imagine are plesiosaurs at the South Pole, nor would we ever picture them swimming amongst icebergs or poking their heads out of holes in the ice to breathe. We’d never think to find them in freshwater either. Even more surprising is that the evidence for this radical vision of polar plesiosaurs is found preserved in the precious mineral opal. In this interview, we’re joined by Dr Benjamin Kear, Curator of Vertebrate Palaeontology at the Museum of Evolution, Uppsala University in Sweden. He paints for us a picture of life at the South Pole and the importance of polar habitats in driving the evolution of the plesiosaurs.

Episode 108: Plesiosaurs

Part 2. Names can provide a large amount of information about the heritage of an individual, the purpose of a product or even the characteristics of an organism. With so much in a name, are there rules governing what you can and can’t name an animal? Can you name an animal after yourself or a celebrity? Can you sell the rights to a name? Which names are forbidden? Every year 2,000 genera and some 15,000 species are added to scientific literature and providing the guidelines as to how these animals are named is the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN). We invited one of the ICZN’s commissioners, Dr Markus Bertling (Universität Münster), on to the show to discuss how the organisation functions and how its code applies to Palaeontology.

Episode 107b: Nomenclature

Names can provide a large amount of information about the heritage of an individual, the purpose of a product or even the characteristics of an organism. With so much in a name, are there rules governing what you can and can’t name an animal? Can you name an animal after yourself or a celebrity? Can you sell the rights to a name? Which names are forbidden? Every year 2,000 genera and some 15,000 species are added to scientific literature and providing the guidelines as to how these animals are named is the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN). We invited one of the ICZN’s commissioners, Dr Markus Bertling (Universität Münster), on to the show to discuss how the organisation functions and how its code applies to Palaeontology.

Episode 107a: Nomenclature

Herpetology is the study of reptiles, amphibians and caecilians. This includes frogs, salamanders, crocodiles, snakes, lizards and tuatara, to name just a few. These cold-blooded tetrapods have an evolutionary history that reaches back to the Carboniferous. For many of these groups, questions remain about their evolutionary relationships and patterns of diversity through major extinction events. New fossil discoveries are helping address some of these outstanding mysteries. Prof. Susan Evans studies the evolution of ‘herps’ at University College London. She joins us in this episode to give an overview of the field, and the research she is carrying out with colleagues around the world. We explore the elusive origins of crown amphibians, and what recent fieldwork in Scotland could reveal about their emergence in the Jurassic.

Episode 106: Herpetology

 Australia has many fossils from all ages, including several dinosaurs known exclusively from this time and place. However, they are not well known for their pterosaur fossils, having only a handful of specimens, and up to now just two named species from this large continent. Last month, the most complete pterosaur from Australia was described, a new species called Ferrodraco lentoni. At the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in Brisbane, Australia, we were able to sit down with Adele Pentland, lead author on the study published in Scientific Reports, to talk about this exciting new find. Adele is a PhD student at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia, and Research Associate at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Natural History Museum. 

Episode 105: Ferrodraco

The Ediacaran Period is host to the first large and complex multicellular organisms known in the fossil record. This 'Ediacaran Biota' has long eluded definitive placement on the tree of life, seemingly falling between even the most fundamental of its branches. At the core of this taxonomic issue are their unique body plans, not seen replicated in any other kingdom. Amongst the researchers trying to unravel the mystery of these organisms is Dr Frances Dunn of the University of Oxford. Frankie has been researching the developmental biology of the Ediacaran Biota in the hope that we can learn more from how these forms grew, as opposed to what they eventually grew into.

Episode 104: Ediacaran Developmental Biology

Terror birds, or phorusrhacids as they are known scientifically, are a group of large, flightless birds that lived during the Cenozoic, and truly lived up to their name. Known for their large, powerful skulls, and enormous beaks, these birds are unlike the flightless birds we have alive today. Despite their strange appearance and unique morphology, terror birds aren't well known in popular culture. What were they doing? How big did they get? What did they eat? In this episode, we talk to a leading terror bird expert, Dr Federico "Dino" Degrange from the Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra (CICTERRA) in Córdoba, Argentina to get answers to these questions. We discuss some of his recent research, and what we know (and don't know) about phorusrhacids today.

Episode 103: Terror Birds

Between the weird and wonderful rangeomorphs of the Ediacaran Period and the world-famous palaeocommunities of the Burgess Shale, the 'Early Cambrian' is host to a 'waste basket' of fossils untied by their small size and shelly construction. These small shelly fossils (SSFs) aren't just a single group of animals, but represent several different invertebrate phyla. Further compounding the difficulty of their identification, each SSF, termed a 'sclerite', is part of a larger composite skeleton known as a 'sclerotome'. Whilst some complete sclerotomes have been preserved, many SSFs still represent multiple jigsaws thrown together and the pictures lost. Piecing the SSFs back together and building a picture of the Earliest Cambrian is Dr Marissa Betts of the University of New England, Australia. Her work on the SSFs have provided a new framework for the regional stratigraphy of Australia and in this interview, we discuss why this was necessary, how she went about it and finally, what we know about the animals themselves.

Episode 102b: Small Shelly Fossils

 Between the weird and wonderful rangeomorphs of the Ediacaran Period and the world-famous palaeocommunities of the Burgess Shale, the 'Early Cambrian' is host to a 'waste basket' of fossils untied by their small size and shelly construction. These small shelly fossils (SSFs) aren't just a single group of animals, but represent several different invertebrate phyla. Further compounding the difficulty of their identification, each SSF, termed a 'sclerite', is part of a larger composite skeleton known as a 'sclerotome'. Whilst some complete sclerotomes have been preserved, many SSFs still represent multiple jigsaws thrown together and the pictures lost. Piecing the SSFs back together and building a picture of the Earliest Cambrian is Dr Marissa Betts of the University of New England, Australia. Her work on the SSFs have provided a new framework for the regional stratigraphy of Australia and in this interview, we discuss why this was necessary, how she went about it and finally, what we know about the animals themselves. 

Episode 102a: Small Shelly Fossils

 Fossilisation of organic material was long thought to result in the complete loss of original content. However in the last 20 years, several high-profile publications reported the discovery of proteins, blood vessels, blood cells and even DNA. But for as long as these arguments have existed, so too has a counterargument as to the validity of the discoveries. In this episode, we're joined by Dr Evan Saitta of the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, lead author of a recent paper seeking to discover and evaluate the preservation of putative original organic materials within dinosaur bones. 

Episode 101: Organic Preservation of Dinosaur Bone

 One of palaeontology‘s great themes of questioning is the rise of novelty: how new structures and functions arise in specific lineages. In this episode we speak with Neil Shubin, Professor of Organismal Biology at the University of Chicago, who has been studying novelty in the context of the vertebrate transition from water to land. Neil studies the fossil record of early tetrapods, the first vertebrates with limbs, to understand what changes underpinned this great transition. The other half his lab uses molecular techniques on living organisms to see how changes to the development of appendages (and their underlying genetic architecture) effected the shift from a fin to a limb. In this interview, we hear about his fieldwork in the Arctic and Antarctic, how palaeontologists decide where to look for key fossils, why development matters, and about his deep involvement in science communication. 

Episode 100: Tiktaalik

Undoubtedly, Megalodon is the world’s most famous extinct shark is and in this episode, we hear everything we know about this taxon, its ecology and how it got to be so big. Its ultimate extinction is also considered, not in isolation, but placed in the wider context of the entire marine ecosystem. Joining us is Dr Catalina Pimiento of  Swansea University.

Episode 99: Megalodon and Marine Megafauna

From 1:1 scale whales to microfossils scaled up to the size of a house, there are few model-building projects that 10 Tons are afraid to take on. At the helm of this business is Esben Horn and in this episode, he joins us to discuss the process of model building, from concept to museum display. We also talk about some of the exhibitions 10 Tons have led themselves, including the successful ‘Rock Fossils on Tour‘ which showcases some of the different fossils named in honour of rock/metal musicians.

Episode 98: 10 Tons

A free webseries exploring the fossil record and the evolution of life on Earth.

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