S12E03 Crocs

Were pachycephalosaurs really headbutting each other? Could they have been covered in fuzzy filaments? And does the evidence for scaly skin mean that T. rex was definitely not feathered? Youtube link: https://youtu.be/Km8CWetEnxI In this Dinosaur Bite, Iszi Lawrence and Dr Dave Hone get into the details of dinosaur skin, from the healed injuries on thick-skulled pachycephalosaurs to the mysterious patterns preserved in tyrannosaur fossils. Dave explains why what looks like a scale is not necessarily a scale, and why we still have a lot to learn about the coverings of many dinosaurs. We also hear about the challenges of preserving delicate fossil evidence. Sometimes palaeontologists have to make difficult decisions about what to save, and occasionally that means deliberately breaking bones to get a fossil out of the ground in one piece. It's a reminder that the fossil record is shaped not only by what nature preserves, but also by what researchers can recover. Support Terrible Lizards and get access to bonus episodes and other extra content on Patreon: https://patreon.com/terriblelizards RAWR!

Was Torosaurus REALLY a Male Triceratops? | Dinosaur Bites Terrible Lizards Dinosaur Bites – bite-sized extracts from old episodes and live streams to keep you going. Was Torosaurus actually just a male Triceratops? Can we tell whether pterosaurs had emotions? And could the surprisingly dexterous feet of modern birds give us clues about dinosaur behaviour? In this Dinosaur Bite, Iszi Lawrence and Dr Dave Hone tackle some wonderfully difficult questions about what we can and can't know about dinosaur behaviour and biology. They discuss whether pterosaurs and dinosaurs had emotions. We can see emotional responses in living reptiles and birds, but how far can we push that comparison when the animals in question have been extinct for millions of years? Is the long-running Triceratops vs Torosaurus debate. Could the two dinosaurs actually be different sexes of the same species? Dave explains why the idea is tempting, but why the fossil record makes him very sceptical — including the strange distribution of Triceratops and Torosaurus fossils and the mysterious specimen nicknamed "Tiny".

Could a pair of Quetzalcoatlus really harass a T. rex away from a carcass? And did dinosaurs have forked tongues like snakes and Komodo dragons? In this Dinosaur Bite, Iszi Lawrence and Dr Dave Hone tackle both questions - starting with the Prehistoric Planet scene in which two enormous azhdarchid pterosaurs hassle a T. rex over a carcass. Dave explains why the basic idea is perfectly plausible, drawing comparisons with modern animals such as hyenas, lions and vultures. But there's one part of the scene he isn't convinced by: with a huge carcass available, would the T. rex really bother wasting energy chasing the pterosaurs away? They then turn to the surprisingly complicated question of forked tongues. What does the fossil record tell us about dinosaur tongues? Why do snakes and some lizards have them? Could pterosaurs or marine reptiles have had them? And what can evolutionary relationships tell us when the soft tissue itself has completely disappeared? Along the way, we get into how animals use smell, how sharks detect things in water, electroreception, and one of the fundamental problems of biology: where exactly do we draw the boundaries between species when evolution is a continuum? Watch the video on YouTube: Watch Terrible Lizards on YouTube https://youtu.be/56vlTGVTCOY Support Terrible Lizards and get bonus episodes and other extra content: https://patreon.com/terriblelizards Terrible Lizards is a dinosaur podcast hosted by Iszi Lawrence and palaeontologist Dr Dave Hone. RAWR!

What can dinosaur footprints tell us that bones can't? n this episode of Terrible Lizards, Iszi Lawrence and Dr Dave Hone talk to palaeontologist Brent Breithaupt about the science of trace fossils: the footprints, trackways, nests, bite marks and other evidence left behind by animals millions of years ago. You can watch the episode on youtube here: https://youtu.be/puS0gkuTCHY Brent has spent decades studying dinosaur and pterosaur footprints, particularly in Wyoming, and was at the forefront of using photogrammetry to turn enormous fossil trackways into detailed 3D digital records. He explains how scientists can use footprints to investigate how dinosaurs moved, how fast they travelled, how large they were and even how they may have interacted with one another. We also discuss: 🦖 Dinosaur footprints: what they can tell us about individual animals and whole populations. 🦶 Trace fossils vs body fossils: why something an animal did can sometimes tell us more about its behaviour than its bones. 📸 Photogrammetry: how researchers went from stepladders, tripods and remote-control aircraft to modern drones and smartphones. 🎈 The Great Dinosaur Footprint Blimp: what happens when you try to photograph a tracksite from the air and the Wyoming wind picks up. 🦅 Pterosaur footprints: why they are relatively rare and why Wyoming has some particularly important tracksites. 💃 Dinosaur courtship: the evidence for theropods making display scrapes, and what modern birds can tell us about interpreting these mysterious traces. 🔬 Being sceptical about fossil behaviour: why good palaeontology means considering alternative explanations rather than simply finding evidence that supports your favourite idea. 🦴 Brent also talks about his work on Big Al, Walking with Dinosaurs, modern emus and rheas, and his attempts to track down historic dinosaur quarries from the 19th century. And, naturally, Iszi gets Brent, Dave and herself to make their best guesses at what a dinosaur might sound like while displaying at a lek. Brent Breithaupt is a palaeontologist and ichnologist whose research has included dinosaur and pterosaur trace fossils, fossil trackways, photogrammetry and the history of dinosaur discoveries in Wyoming. Support Terrible Lizards and get bonus episodes and other extra content: https://patreon.com/terriblelizards If you enjoy the podcast, please subscribe on YouTube, follow the podcast in your favourite podcast app, leave a review and share it with another dinosaur fan. Terrible Lizards is a dinosaur podcast hosted by Iszi Lawrence and palaeontologist Dr Dave Hone.

How did pterosaurs actually nest? Did they build colonies like seabirds, bury their soft-shelled eggs like crocodiles and turtles, or something stranger? In this archive extract, Iszi Lawrence and Dr Dave Hone discuss pterosaur nesting behaviour, what we know about predators that might have eaten pterosaurs and their eggs, and why the fossil evidence is frustratingly limited. They also tackle what might have survived the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction, why some small feathered dinosaurs might have been better placed to survive than larger species, and some of the most mysterious dinosaur fossils still waiting for more attention. Plus: why Amargasaurus is such a strange sauropod, what "taphonomy" actually means, and whether the fossil record is missing tiny dinosaurs — including dinosaurs as small as hummingbirds. If you'd like to support the podcast and get bonus episodes every month, join us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/terriblelizards Watch this episode on youtube: https://youtu.be/elbP8SlWJbk