Fossil

Despite their somewhat ungainly appearance, Dicynodonts were extraordinarily successful.

Fossils of Lystrosaurus, one of the most common Dicynodonts, have been discovered on nearly every continent, a testament to just how connected and how hospitable, in certain regions, this ancient world could be.

Sharing this landscape were the Gorgonopsians, predators that despite looking something like a cross between a reptile and a large cat, were not dinosaurs, or even true reptiles in the modern sense, but another branch of those same synapsids.

Some Gorgonopsians grew sabre-like teeth, hunting the Dicynodonts and other creatures across the Permian Plains.

There were no ice caps at the poles as we picture them now.

Instead, even the polar regions supported forests and a surprising variety of life.

Adapted to long months of darkness in winter and equally long months of continuous daylight in summer, Fossils found in places like Alaska and Antarctica reveal that dinosaurs lived even in these challenging polar environments.

Their bodies and behaviors adapted to survive the strange rhythms of light and cold that came with living so far from the equator.

We've got three papers that we want to discuss.

And you're going to, even though this is an episode, the topic that I've chosen, I've cheekily asked you... to present this first paper suzy do you want to tell me what it was yeah it was one of our fossil files listeners wasn't it it was it was

i think it was aaron crosley so i think it was you yeah thank you for um recommending this one to us this is um intercontinental evidence of the iconic genus diplodocus marsh 1878 brackets dinosauria comma sauropoda close brackets um and this is a paper that came out in the journal of vertebrate paleontology um about halfway through september and it got a little bit of media coverage didn't it did you see it in the when it was in the media they were saying diplodocus from spain so This is this paper's by Sergio Sanchez Fenollosa, who I know.

Hello, Sergio.

We might get back to this in a later bonus episode.

But, you know, what gets media attention and what doesn't is interesting, isn't it? And I'm a little bit surprised that this received the media attention it did, to be honest, Rob, because it's a relatively straightforward anatomical description, really, isn't it? Yeah.

So, you know, Diplodocus, uh, iconic fossil.

Um, it's from the iconic dinosaur.

It's also Emergency Nurses Day, so we salute them.

It is National Fossil Day today.

I don't believe it's the town of Fossil, by the way.

I think this is about fossils themselves.

But the folks in Fossil would like to celebrate a day for themselves.

They certainly are free to do so.

It is International Top Spinning Day today.

Their eyes open around vierzig days, at which point their bodies start to protrude from the mother's pouch while remaining close to her for care.

Fossil Record Evidence from the geological record suggests that this lineage has a history reaching back to the Pliocene epoch.

Initial discoveries of these ancient remains were documented in Argentina during the early 20th century, specifically in 9105, 9106, and 9107.

Scientists collected jaw fragments in part of a humerus near the city of Parani in the province of Entre Ríos.