An ecosystem can be described as all the interactions that occur between organisms and their physical environment. The processes acting within an ecosystem operate on a wide range of spatial and temporal...

Found in the fossil record between the Jurassic and the middle Miocene, Notosuchia was a highly diverse and strange group of crocodylomorphs, most notable for their terrestrial lifestyle. Joining us for...

The field of evolutionary biology has been greatly influenced by the development of modern genetic methodology. The understanding of genes, genomes and the molecular mechanisms key to life on Earth are all...

In 12 years of podcasting, we have never actually taken the time to address the fundamentals of our field. Such questions could include: what is palaeontology, what is a fossil, how does one become a...

It's been two centuries since the first dinosaur, Megalosaurus, was named by William Buckland and to commemorate the date, the Natural History Museum hosted '200 Years of Dinosaurs: Their Rise, Fall, and...

The Middle Jurassic is incredibly important to our understanding of pterosaur evolution; however, the remarkable rarity and incompleteness of Middle Jurassic pterosaurs has long hampered scientific...

Originally mounted in 1907, the Carnegie specimen is the best example of the sauropod dinosaur Diplodocus, and perhaps the most famous dinosaur skeleton in the world. Casts of the specimen, including the...

LOOP 8.4: LOOP Showrunner Dan Tapster returns to give a retrospective on the series and its production. We look at went well and address criticisms; is it possible to keep everyone happy? We finish this...

LOOP 8.3: Episode 8’s producer, Sophie Lanfear, joins us again to describe how difficult it was to wrap the series up, having to balance telling the story of the last ice age with conveying the message of the...

LOOP 8.2: Prof. Danielle Schreve, Royal Holloway University of London, joins us to cover the last 2 million years of Earth’s history. We explore the periodicity of glacials and interglacials and the control...

LOOP 8.1: Dave and Tom introduce episode 8 and round of this special series on Life On Our Planet. We talk about our favourite scenes and reflect on our time working on the documentary and how our...

LOOP 7.3: We’re taken into the field to film snow leopards by episode 7’s Assistant Producer, Darren Williams. He reveals how difficult it is to get just a few minutes of video, both logistically and...

LOOP 7.2: Prof. Christine Janis, University of Bristol, outlines mammalian evolution and focusses on the global events that governs their radiation. We look at why mammals survived the K-Pg mass extinction...

LOOP 7.1: In the introduction to episode 7, Dave and Tom just about keep it together whilst reflecting on the most emotional scene of the show. We also celebrate the inclusion of the Antarctic Circumpolar...

LOOP 6.4: Prof. Anjan Bhullar continues his overview of avian evolution with a look at how the birds fared after the K-Pg mass extinction. What was it that allowed birds to survive when the non-avian...

LOOP 6.3: Documentary research takes you down a lot of unexpected avenues. If you’re recreating something like the Chicxulub impact and the K-Pg mass extinction, then you need to be able to provide answers...

LOOP 6.2: Dr Anjan Bhullar, Yale University, returns to speak further about dinosaurs. He’s pressed on where he’d draw the line between dinosaur and bird, or whether there should even be a distinction between...

LOOP 6.1: Dave and Tom introduce us to episode 6 of Life On Our Planet and the pair touch upon the Chicxulub impact and the radiation of birds into the Cenozoic. Dave curtails the introduction with one of his...

LOOP 5.3: We’re exploring feather evolution with Dr Anjan Bhullar, University of Yale. We trace feathers up the theropod family tree and question whether or not they would be present in ALL dinosaurs. Anjan...

LOOP 5.2: Producer Barny Revill returns to talk about his second episode. With the public spotlight firmly fixated on the dinosaurs, how much effort had to go into their GCI models and does the reputation of...

LOOP 5.1: It’s episode 5 and Dave and Tom are pronouncing dinosaur names all wrong. Does any actually pronounce it “Deinonychus”? Dave reveals why Netflix chose Morgan Freeman as narrator over himself, Tom...

LOOP 4.3: Prof. Peter Falkingham, Liverpool John Moores University, was the consultant biomechanist for the series. He introduces us to the importance of biomechanics in CGI, but more widely in determining...

LOOP 4.2: We get down to details with Producer Barny Revill and analyse some of the different elements of episode 4: What were the challenges of working in such inhospitable environments? How do you recreate...

LOOP 4.1: Against the odds, we’ve all made it through the PTME. It’s now time to focus on episode 4, with the reptiles and their adaptation to different environments. We touch upon biomechanics and crank up...

LOOP 3.4: With researcher Ida-May Jones, we explore the Venn diagram of academic and documentary research. She introduces us to the strawberry dart frogs and the extraordinary lengths that mothers will go to...

LOOP 3.2: Producer Sophie Lanfear gives us our first insights into how documentaries are shaped. She tells us about the enormous scope of episode three and the difficulty of trying to fit in so many...

LOOP 3.1: We introduce episode three of Life On Our Planet and discuss one of the most significant stories in the series. We’re in agreement that lichens are the unsung heroes of the whole series and that...

LOOP 2.4: Silverback researcher Edd Dyer joins us to introduce us to his part in the creation of the series. The title ‘researcher’ really doesn’t do justice to the incredible scope of his role which includes...

LOOP 2.3: Hydrodynamicist Dr Tom Fletcher, Silverback Films, returns to explore the science behind Dunkleosteus. How much of the fossil is known? How does the model compare to the latest reconstruction of the...

LOOP 2.2: Prof. Christian Klug, University of Zurich, is our first academic guest. He introduces us to the Cambrian explosion, the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event and the Late Ordovician Mass...

LOOP 2.1: We introduce episode two of Life On Our Planet and discuss our roles in its creation. We’re down deep in the geological time with all the “crunchy and squishy” organisms. We talk about our favourite...

In LOOP 1.2 we are joined by showrunner Dan Tapster. He’s the one responsible for pulling everything together, designing the story and creating the best production team. We learn about how LOOP first got...

Life On Our Planet (LOOP) is a new 8-part series created for Netflix by Silverback Films and Amblin Television. This Steven Spielberg produced series, narrated by Morgan Freeman, is hugely ambitious in its...

Following up on an initial discovery of ice-age remains in Byron, New York, in the 1950's, Dr Richard Laub took on the task of systematically excavating the 'Hiscock Site' for the Buffalo Museum of Science....

Following up on an initial discovery of ice-age remains in Byron, New York, in the 1950's, Dr Richard Laub took on the task of systematically excavating the 'Hiscock Site' for the Buffalo Museum of Science....

A new Ordovician lagerstätte (site of special fossil preservation) has just been described from Llandrindod Wells, Wales. The site contains the remains of well over 150 different species, most of which are...

Part 2. Caecilians, sometimes known as ‘blind worms’, are a lesser-known group of lissamphibians (all living amphibians). Most modern caecilians are all fossorial (burrowing) and are restricted to the moist...

Caecilians, sometimes known as ‘blind worms’, are a lesser-known group of lissamphibians (all living amphibians). Most modern caecilians are all fossorial (burrowing) and are restricted to the moist soils and...

Palaeontology (dinosaurs in particular) are incredibly well represented in nearly all forms of popular media today. From documentaries and films to computer games and even specialist podcasts. But where did...

Palaeontology (dinosaurs in particular) are incredibly well represented in nearly all forms of popular media today. From documentaries and films to computer games and even specialist podcasts. But where did...

Computer games are a colossal industry, eclipsing those of both film and music combined. With so many people playing games, and with so many titles focussing on palaeontological themes, should we be concerned...

Computer games are a colossal industry, eclipsing those of both film and music combined. With so many people playing games, and with so many titles focussing on palaeontological themes, should we be concerned...

Scleromochlus is an animal that has been known for over 100 years, and has been frequently suggested as being an ancestor to pterosaurs. It hails from the Late Triassic of Scotland, and there are fewer than...

This year marks the 175th anniversary of The Palaeontographical Society. Having been established in 1847, PalSoc is the world’s oldest Society devoted specifically to the advancement of palaeontological...