The Mesozoic era, meaning “middle life”, is a division of earth’s history spanning from around 252 to 66 million years ago. It is subdivided into the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. The beginning of the Mesozoic is characterised by a long phase of recovery following the end Permian mass extinction. The end of the Mesozoic is marked by the Cretaceous/Paleogene extinction event which wiped out the dinosaurs among other groups.
Published on March 16th, 2016 | by Caitlin Colleary
Dr. Larry Witmer’s lab at Ohio University studies the anatomy of modern animals to make interpretations regarding the functional morphology of extinct vertebrates. WitmerLab incorporates anatomical studies with cutting-edge technology, allowing for the reconstructions of soft-tissue [&hellip... Read More →
Published on March 15th, 2016 | by Liz Martin-Silverstone
Archosauriforms are some of the most well studied fossils in existence, including birds, crocodiles, dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and their ancestors, first originating in the early Triassic. While this group has always been well studied, our understanding of [&hellip... Read More →
Published on March 4th, 2016 | by Joe Keating
Diet is perhaps the most important aspect of ecology. As such, understanding the diet of extinct animals is crucial if we wish to reconstruct the ecosystems of the past. However, determining what was on the menu [&hellip... Read More →
Published on January 18th, 2016 | by Liz Martin-Silverstone
Juvenile dinosaurs are less common than adults, and typically not as well preserved due to the fact that their bones are often not fully formed (many of them are still cartilaginous) or fused (sutures are still [&hellip... Read More →
Published on January 15th, 2016 | by Liz Martin-Silverstone
One of the most difficult aspects of palaeontology is understanding how extinct animals moved around. It’s one thing to find a fossil and reconstruct it’s morphology, but it’s completely another to put that morphology into action [&hellip... Read More →
Published on January 1st, 2016 | by Liz Martin-Silverstone
The Wealden Supergroup of southern England is known for it’s Cretaceous fossils, particularly of dinosaurs, but also crocodilians, pterosaurs, lizards, invertebrates, and plants. The group represents the Lower Cretaceous, and is well known for showing us the [&hellip... Read More →
Published on November 17th, 2015 | by David Marshall
A new fossil from Lebanon is named today in BMC Evolutionary Biology as Rollinschaeta myoplena. We spoke to lead author Luke Parry about this interesting fossil and its unusual namesake. “Due to their soft bodies polychaete annelids (the marine relatives [&hellip... Read More →
Published on November 15th, 2015 | by Liz Martin-Silverstone
Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates to achieve powered flight, and lived in the skies above the dinosaurs during the Mesozoic. They’re often mistakenly identified as dinosaurs, but are in fact a separate, closely related group. This [&hellip... Read More →
Published on November 9th, 2015 | by Liz Martin-Silverstone
Crocodylomorphs today are not thought to be the most diverse group, consisting of all semi-aquatic forms of alligators, crocodiles, and gharials. However, the fossil record shows us that this group has a very long and diverse evolutionary [&hellip... Read More →
Published on November 2nd, 2015 | by Liz Martin-Silverstone
For some time now, we’ve known that most (if not all) theropod dinosaurs were feathered, but we’re still filling in the blanks of feather colouration, types of feathers, and how the feathers were distributed on the [&hellip... Read More →
A new species of notosuchian expands our understanding of stem-croc diversity: Epoidesuchus tavaresae
November 4th | by
Langebaanweg Part 2 – Geology and Palaeoecology
September 5th | by
Episode 162: Cerney Wick
July 23rd | by
Langebaanweg – A Cenozoic treasure trove in South Africa
June 30th | by
Episode 161: Notosuchians
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