From where pterosaurs dwell

07/25/24 • 30 min

In this episode of Palaeo Jam, host Michael Mills begins the conversation with Dr Natalia Jagielska, Engagement & Collections Curator at the Lyme Regis Museum by chatting about palaeontology pioneer Mary Anning, and what it means to be working in the very space Mary’s home in Lyme Regis once occupied. As the conversation continues, we learn about the first pterosaur ever found in Scotland, Dearc sgiathanach, and what it tells us about pterosaur evolution. In so doing, we reflect on the unique connection between Natalia and Mary, given Mary’s discovery of the first known pterosaur in England, Dimorphodon macronyx. The two also discuss a subject central to both Natalia and Michael’s professional working life, the connection between art and science.

This is the first episode of Palaeo Jam to feature a guest from beyond the shores of Australia. May there be many more!

Head to Natalia’s website to see links to her research, public outreach, and awesome palaeo art...

https://natalia-jagielska.weebly.com/

You can find Natalia on Twitter at... @wrycritic

https://x.com/WryCritic

To access the original paper, authored by Natalia et al on the Scottish pterosaur Dearc sgiathanach, head to...

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096098222200135X

For links to the Lyme Regis Museum, check out...

https://linktr.ee/lymemuseum

There’s a song about pterosaurs on the Professor Flint/Gemma Dandie album, “These Curious Things”, and you can watch a video of the song here... https://youtu.be/_ZJzRVO8ZK4?si=w2r39cTFVmiRijTo

You can find links to the album, and more information about Mary Anning, here... https://linktr.ee/thesecuriousthings

Michael occasionally pops in to the strange place that is Twitter at @heapsgood https://twitter.com/Heapsgood

To connect with Dinosaur University on Facebook, follow us at https://www.facebook.com/DinosaurUniversity

At Palaeo Jam, we now have an Instagram account at https://www.instagram.com/palaeo_jam

This is the second episode in Season 3 in which pterosaurs feature. Check out Episode 3 in which Michael chats with vertebrate Palaeontologist and expert in Australian pterosaurs Adele Pentland of the “Pals in Palaeo” podcast about Australian pterosaurs, about each of their podcasts, and about science heroes...

https://palaeojam.podbean.com/e/me-and-my-palaeo-pal/

This is the first episode of Palaeo Jam to feature a guest from beyond the shores of Australia. May there be many more!

Head to Natalia’s website to see links to her research, public outreach, and awesome palaeo art...

https://natalia-jagielska.weebly.com/

You can find Natalia on Twitter at... @wrycritic

https://x.com/WryCritic

To access the original paper, authored by Natalia et al on the Scottish pterosaur Dearc sgiathanach, head to...

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096098222200135X

For links to the Lyme Regis Museum, check out...

https://linktr.ee/lymemuseum

There’s a song about pterosaurs on the Professor Flint/Gemma Dandie album, “These Curious Things”, and you can watch a video of the song here... https://youtu.be/_ZJzRVO8ZK4?si=w2r39cTFVmiRijTo

You can find links to the album, and more information about Mary Anning, here... https://linktr.ee/thesecuriousthings

Michael occasionally pops in to the strange place that is Twitter at @heapsgood https://twitter.com/Heapsgood

To connect with Dinosaur University on Facebook, follow us at https://www.facebook.com/DinosaurUniversity

At Palaeo Jam, we now have an Instagram account at https://www.instagram.com/palaeo_jam

https://palaeojam.podbean.com/e/me-and-my-palaeo-pal/

Previous Episode

Lake of the Dead

Tens of thousands of years ago, in and around what is known as Lake Callabonna, in outback South Australia, all manner of now extinct Australian animals dwelt. But whether they walked, or slithered, or crawled, or hopped, or flew, or swam in that place, it was soon to become what has been described in an ABC Australia documentary series as the “Lake of the Dead”.

In this episode of Palaeo Jam we travel back in time with host Michael Mills, and Dr Aaron Camens and Dr Phoebe McInerney of Flinders University to find who it was that once lived in and around this “Lake of the Dead”, and what it might have been like had we the ability to transport ourselves, and take a stroll along the banks of what was once a heathy, freshwater ecosystem.

You can hear more from both Aaron and Phoebe, and several other past Palaeo Jam guests in the remarkable two-part series, from ABC Australia’s Catalyst, in “Megafauna: What Killed Australia’s Giants?”. Head to the ABC iView site at https://iview.abc.net.au/ and search for the series there.

You can follow Aaron on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DiprotoRon, and check out his Flinders University profile at https://sites.flinders.edu.au/palaeontology/home/people/academics/aaron-camens/

Amongst his extensive research work, Aaron co-authored a paper that gave us a more complete picture of the largest marsupial predator known, and a former resident of the area, Thylacoleo carnifex...

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0208020

Phoebe is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Phoebyornis

Check out her recent article in The Conversation about the skull of Genyornis, discussed in this episode...

https://theconversation.com/new-fossils-show-what-australias-giant-prehistoric-thunder-birds-looked-like-and-offer-clues-about-how-they-died-out-221599

You can find host Michael Mills on Twitter at @heapsgood https://twitter.com/Heapsgood

To connect with Dinosaur University on Facebook, follow us at https://www.facebook.com/DinosaurUniversity

At Palaeo Jam, you can also follow our Instagram account at https://www.instagram.com/palaeo_jam

Next Episode

So, you want to become a fossil?

2 Recommendations

So, you want to become a fossil? Good luck with that! There’s a whole sequence of things that need to take place in order for that to happen, and in this episode of Palaeo Jam, we explore those steps, and how unlikely it is that you will be able to complete all of them.

Recorded underground in Blanch Cave, in the Naracoorte Caves, South Australia, this episode sees host Michael Mills in conversation with PhD candidate Nerita Turner. Nerita’s work focuses on the modes of accumulation of large animal remains in caves, and we explore the unlikelihood becoming a fossil through the lens of her work. In order to become a fossil in a cave, you need to get into a cave in the first place. How does this impact on the size and kinds of animals that might then become fossils within a cave?

During the conversation Nerita describes the fossil record as “Infamously incomplete”. So, how incomplete is it? Consider the following... There are 1400 dinosaur species of dinosaurs that have been discovered and named across the entire Mesozoic, while right now there are around 11 000 species of living dinosaurs, in birds. How many dinosaur species lived across the entire 186 million year period of the Mesozoic? We will never know.

Of course, what we do know, is truly remarkable, and a testament to the work of so many. Palaeontology is able to provide us with some remarkable insights into past lives. to uncover past lives. It is important, however, to understand, that we get to see will only ever be a tiny glimpse of the extraordinary natural history, of this most astonishing planet.

Nerita Turner is a PhD Candidate at the University of Adelaide. Her research focuses on the modes of accumulation of large animal remains in caves, with a particular focus on fossil sites within the Naracoorte Caves region.

You can find Nerita on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nerita_turner

Check out the following article, by Nerita and Dr Elizabeth Reed...

“Using historical research to constrain the provenance and age of the first recorded collection of extinct Pleistocene large mammal fossils from the Naracoorte Caves, South Australia.”

https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/M7JARRBWBXBWDCFDGIIY/full?target=10.1080/03721426.2023.2188442

Michael occasionally pops in to the strange place that is Twitter at @heapsgood https://twitter.com/Heapsgood

To connect with Dinosaur University on Facebook, follow us at https://www.facebook.com/DinosaurUniversity

At Palaeo Jam, we now have an Instagram account at https://www.instagram.com/palaeo_jam