It may not have happened in lakes but it certainly did happen – so how? Let’s dive into fossilized cloacas, theoretical g******s, and the impracticalities of sexing a dinosaur. CW: sexual content, genitalia, brief discussions of nonconsensual sex between animals, Nanotyrannus, making fun of old white men

From friends to enemies to roommates (to lovers??), we discuss classic examples of animals found fossilized together, how that happens, and how some of the interpretations are… a stretch. CW: Animal death, dead babies, lubed holes, incest, cursing

500 some million years ago the world was full of ‘abnormal shrimp’ and ‘blunt feet’ and other animals that defy comprehensible definitions. In this episode we talk all about the mind-boggling biology and bizarre geology of the Cambrian. CW: Drug references, cursing, dead animals, cavalier jokes at the expense of white men, dick jokes

Bones are sick – and this time, we mean it literally. From infected bite marks to the ever-prevalent markings of tuberculosis, we’re talking about the signs of illnesses and injuries in fossils and what they tell us about the lives (and deaths) of these animals. CW: Cancer, infections and pus, injuries, animal suffering

Did Diplodocus have a trunk? Did T. rex have a wobbly turkey neck? This week’s episode is all about fleshy face flaps and their uses, and how to detect them in the fossil record. CW: Animal death, cursing, making fun of dinosaurs, urine

There were dinosaurs in Antarctica and Alaska – but what did it look like when they lived there? Was it cold? Was it dark? Did they stay there year round? Also, Meaghan learns how magnets work (finally). CW: cursing, death of people and animals

Sometimes boners have actual bones! This episode is all about the evolution, use, and occasional loss of/damage to genital bones in both male and female animals. CW: Cursing, genitalia, brief mention of non-consensual sexual behavior in animals

How much do we really know about the brains of ancient animals? In this episode we dive into the fantastic world of endocasts, aka, brain impressions! CW: soft tissue, cursing, Nanotyrannus, brief mention of the Nazis in regards to Tilly Edinger

Today we’re answering the big questions, like why do whales have hips when they don’t have legs? And why did Tyrannosaurus rex have such tiny tiny arms? CW: Genitalia, cursing, discussion of unwanted sexual contact in whales

From the anal chimneys of crinoids to the tushy lungs of turtles, this episode covers all the weird things that buttholes can do… but shouldn’t.  CW: Buttholes, cursing, poop, tobacco use, alien abduction

On this podcast we dish the details on the wildest stories that 500 million years of evolution have to offer. The grosser, the better! That said, this podcast is not intended for kids and is rated E for strong language and crude senses of humor. Season 2 begins 6-19-2024!

For our final episode of season 1 we go into detail on how the two of us met, how we got into paleontology, and the various twists and turns that have made up our two careers. CW: Cursing. Yep, that’s all this time – we were surprised too!

From dinosaurs to rhinos to bugs, things used to get a whole lot bigger than they seem to today. In this episode we talk all about evolutionary constraints, the narrow set of bumper bars enforced on us by biology. CW: Body fluids. Using the term bug incorrectly (sorry entomologists). Cursing.

…and then some. From the eggs of the platypus to the eggs of dinosaurs, we’ll talk about how eggs are formed, why humans don’t lay them, and of course, why the egg definitely came before the chicken. CW: Placentas and afterbirth, body fluids, cursing

It’s time to be more afraid of seals, everyone. And hyenas. And tigers. And… birds? And big crocodiles. Really, the deeper you go into human history, the longer that list of fears gets – and on this episode, we go real, real deep.  CW: death, dead bodies, being hunted, cannibalism.

Trace fossils are an incredible resource to understand behavior… even behavior those animals wish maybe there wasn’t a record of. From the results of terrible food poisoning to the fossil equivalent of a xeroxed buttocks, trace fossils record some animals’ most humiliating moments. CW: Everything in the title, cursing, stomach stones (bezoars)

Did you know that technically, the name ‘dinosaur’ is a rebrand? The original name was a lot more… wrinkly. In this episode we discuss how to name fossils and bring up the funniest fossil names we could find.  CW: Cursing. Discussion of European colonization and Native Americans. Many references to genitalia.

Asteroids, volcanoes, and sex lakes – in this episode we discuss the varied and sometimes hilarious hypotheses of why animals have gone extinct. CW: Extinctions/animal death, toxic shock syndrome, menstruation, serial killers, suicide in reference to having to do geochronology. Referring to non-avian dinosaurs as just dinosaurs.

While usually it’s just the hard bits that fossilize, occasionally the fossil record can preserve things like skin, organs, blood and more. This episode talks about what happens when soft tissue fossilizes, and what weird things scientists have done upon finding it. CW: Dead animals/babies, eating gross things, blood and gushy body bits, placentas.

Sometimes paleontology is awe-inspiring. Sometimes it’s gross and hilarious. This episode is at the weird epicenter of all of those things, because it turns out the best preserved fossil sturgeons are found up the rear end of duck-billed dinosaurs. CONTENT WARNINGS: Hemorrhoids, butt jokes, maligning archeologists, misinterpreting a cloaca as a butthole for the purposes […]

Throughout time we find evidence that animals made it to other continents seemingly by crossing vast oceans. In this episode we talk all about how animals can survive these strange events of accidental seafaring, and how the odds are always stacked against them. CW: Cruel research methods (not ours!), inbreeding, death.

In this episode of Backyard Geology, Serena takes you to the Jack Hills in western Australia to peer 4.39 billion years into the past. Detrital zircon grains found in the rocks of the Jack Hills are the oldest known materials existing on Earth today. Their chemical makeup preserves Earth’s oldest and most elusive Eon, the […]

In this episode of Backyard Geology, Serena takes you to the Semail Ophiolite. The small mountains on the northern coast of Oman once resided at the bottom of an ocean, before being uplifted onto land. Here, the igneous stratigraphy of the ocean crust is perfectly preserved, proving a standard for geologists to study. A special […]

In this episode of Backyard Geology, Serena takes you to the Galapagos Islands. Here, helium isotopes and the observations of Charles Darwin tell the tales of evolution, both in terms of geology and ecology respectively. As an isolated group of ocean islands, the Galapagos became the perfect place to observe the fine details of evolution. […]