Palaeo Jam Dinosaur University

What happens when two people who create palaeontology podcasts get together for a chat? Tune in to find out!
 
In this episode of Palaeo Jam, host Michael Mills chats with vertebrate Palaeontologist and expert in Australian pterosaurs Adele Pentland of the “Pals in Palaeo” podcast about Australian pterosaurs, about each of their podcasts, and about science heroes.
 
Along the way we get an insight into where Australian pterosaurs fit within the global pterosaur community, come to understand why science communication matters, and how it is that their palaeontology podcasts are a thing!
 
You can find Adele’s awesome podcast, “Pals in Palaeo” through the following link… https://linktr.ee/palsinpalaeo
 
Be sure to follow the podcast on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/palsinpalaeo/
 
You can also head to the Pals in Palaeo website at https://palsinpalaeo.com/
 
Here’s a link to an article by Adele about Ferrodraco lentoni… the pterosaur that Adele named, and that we discuss in the podcast…
https://theconversation.com/4-metre-flying-reptile-unearthed-in-queensland-is-our-best-pterosaur-fossil-yet-124581
 
And here’s a link to another article by Adele of the fascinating pterosaurs that are being discovered in Australia… https://theconversation.com/these-magnificent-107-million-year-old-pterosaur-bones-are-the-oldest-ever-found-in-australia-206501
 
Speaking of pterosaurs, there’s a song about pterosaurs on the Professor Flint/Gemma Dandie album, “These Curious Things”, and you can watch a video of the song here… https://youtu.be/_ZJzRVO8ZK4?si=w2r39cTFVmiRijTo
 
You can find links to the album, and more information about Michael’s science hero Mary Anning, here… https://linktr.ee/thesecuriousthings
 
You can find Michael on Twitter at @heapsgood https://twitter.com/Heapsgood
 
To connect with Dinosaur University on Facebook, follow us at https://www.facebook.com/DinosaurUniversity
 
At Palaeo Jam, we now have an Instagram account at https://www.instagram.com/palaeo_jam

May 7th has come to be known as Australia’s National Dinosaur Day! A day in which Australians are being asked to celebrate the remarkable dinosaurs that once walked where we now walk. Or as we like to call them, the Dinosaurs Down Under!
 
What is the significance of May 7th? And how did this date, in particular, become the day now known as Australia’s National Dinosaur Day?
 
Phil Hore has worked in a lot of cool places, including the Smithsonian, the Field Museum and the Australian Dinosaur Museum! He’s also written lots, including as a regular writer for The Prehistoric Times. In this special edition of Palaeo Jam to celebrate Australia’s National Dinosaur Day, host Michael Mills chats with Phil about where the idea for the day came from, how it has grown in recent years, why Australian dinosaurs matter, and what his key role has been in making this a day to remember!
 
You can find Australia’s National Dinosaur Day on Facebook at…
https://www.facebook.com/Australiannationaldinosaurday
 
If you’re ever in Rockhampton, be sure to check out Phil’s Time Safaris Walking Tours…
https://www.timesafaris.com.au/
 
https://www.facebook.com/timesafaris
 
Phil has been known to Tweet now and again at https://twitter.com/Phil_Hore
 
Here’s a link to The Prehistoric Times magazine…
https://pocketmags.com/au/prehistoric-times-magazine
 
Michael Mills’ alter ego, singing palaeontologist Professor Flint, released a brand new version of the “Dinosaurs Down Under” album, earlier this year. You can find it, and other Prof Flint things, here…
https://linktr.ee/ProfessorFlint
 
You can find Michael at @heapsgood https://twitter.com/Heapsgood
 
To connect with Dinosaur University on Facebook, follow us at https://www.facebook.com/DinosaurUniversity
 
At Palaeo Jam, we have an Instagram account at https://www.instagram.com/palaeo_jam

We’re back for Season 3, and we begin in the palaeo lab at Flinders University!
We’re delighted that in this first episode of the new season, Palaeo Jam host Michael Mills chats with Dr Isaac Kerr about a remarkable research paper, just published, that seeks to more clearly define what is and what isn’t a Protemnodon… AKA a giant, prehistoric kangaroo!
During the course of the conversation, we hear from Isaac about the features that define this particular group of giant, prehistoric marsupials, but also, the fascinating differences amongst them. We talk about about who’s in, and who’s out of the genus, and along the way, we hear about the fascinating ways in which these extraordinary kangaroos lived their lives, depending upon where they lived. As a bonus, we also hear about how Isaac and his team were able to ditch a previously described species by none other than Sir Richard Owen!
You can follow Dr Isaac Kerr on Twitter at @isaacarkerr https://twitter.com/IsaacARKerr
You can read the full 250 plus pages of this remarkable paper, here…
https://mapress.com/mt/article/view/megataxa.11.1.1
Check out the following article by Isaac in The Conversation…
https://theconversation.com/we-found-three-new-species-of-extinct-giant-kangaroo-and-we-dont-know-why-they-died-out-when-their-cousins-survived-227857
Here’s a link to the Flinders University palaeo team…
https://sites.flinders.edu.au/palaeontology/
And here’s an article on the ABC about this amazing paper…
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-15/three-unique-extinct-kangaroo-species-discovered-flinders-uni/103699606
You can find Michael Mills at @heapsgood https://twitter.com/Heapsgood
To connect with Dinosaur University on Facebook, follow us at https://www.facebook.com/DinosaurUniversity
At Palaeo Jam, we now have an Instagram account at https://www.instagram.com/palaeo_jam

There’s something quite delightful about seeing the skeleton of a prehistoric animal move in a way that it might have moved when the bones were covered in flesh, and the animal was alive. Jack O Conner is a PhD candidate at Monash University, and that’s exactly what he's doing at the Evans EvoMorph Lab.
 
In this episode of Palaeo Jam, host Michael Mills chats with Jack about how he came to be doing what he does, explores the process of creating the models, and what it’s like to see such creatures brought to life in this way. Such work, of course, fits well into the science communication field for which Michael has built a career, and both Michael and Jack discuss some of the important elements of science communication, and why it matters.
 
You can find Jack’s models of Thylacoleo carnifex, Zygomaturus trilobus, Siderops kehli, and Perucetus colossus on Sketchfab at…
https://skfb.ly/oPsJs
 
We think it’s well worth checking out the models before you listen to the podcast if you can, or even while you’re listening to it.
 
Be sure, too, to check out our episode on the Virtual Australian Museum of Palaeontology (VAMP), at https://palaeojam.podbean.com/e/vamp-it-up/ to hear about where some of the source material come from for Jack’s work. It is an absolutely brilliant resource.
 
You can follow Jack O’Conner on Instagram at @jackodesign
https://www.instagram.com/jackocdesign/
 
And follow Monash Science at @monash_science
https://www.instagram.com/monash_science/
 
The Evans EvoMorph Lab is on Twitter at @EvansEvoMorph
https://twitter.com/evansevomorph
 
You can find Palaeo Jam host Michael Mills on Twitter at @heapsgood https://twitter.com/Heapsgood
 
To connect with Dinosaur University on Facebook, follow us at
https://www.facebook.com/DinosaurUniversity
 
On Instagram at @dinosauruniversity
https://www.instagram.com/dinosauruniversity/
 
And on Twitter at @DinosaurUni
https://twitter.com/DinosaurUni
 
Palaeo Jam also now has its own Instagram account at @palaeo_jam
https://www.instagram.com/palaeo_jam

Australia is currently home to 17 species of hawks and eagles. Tens of thousands of years ago, however, there were more. What were they like? What happened to them? And what can we learn about past ecosystems and the extinction that wiped out the Australian mega-fauna, in studying such prehistoric birds?
 
In this episode of Palaeo Jam, host Michael Mills chats with Dr Ellen Mather, Adjunct Associate lecturer at Flinders University discuss all of these things and more, as they talk about several extinct species of eagle, including a much somewhat “chunky” eagle that could have plucked koalas from the tree!
 
You can read more in The Conversation article authored by Ellen, Professor Mike Lee, and Associate Professor Trevor Worthy…
“Giant eagles and scavenging vultures shared the skies of ancient Australia”
https://theconversation.com/giant-eagles-and-scavenging-vultures-shared-the-skies-of-ancient-australia-216358
 
Here’s a direct link to the research…
“Pleistocene raptors from cave deposits of South Australia, with a description of a new species of Dynatoaetus (Accipitridae: Aves): morphology, systematics and palaeoecological implications”
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03115518.2023.2268780
 
A great article examining Ellen’s recent work on the discovery of vultures in Australia can be found here…
 
https://theconversation.com/it-was-long-thought-these-fossils-came-from-an-eagle-turns-out-they-belong-to-the-only-known-vulture-species-from-australia-187017
 
Ellen was also co-author for an article on a prehistoric species of eagle…  https://theconversation.com/meet-the-prehistoric-eagle-that-ruled-australian-forests-25-million-years-ago-168249
 
You can find Ellen on Twitter at @Ellenaetus
 https://twitter.com/Ellenaetus
 
Ellen previously spoke to us on Palaeo Jam in the following episode…
Season 1, Episode 5
“Vultures and flamingoes Down Under?
https://palaeojam.podbean.com/e/vultures-and-flamingoes-down-under/
 
You can find Palaeo Jam host Michael Mills on Twitter at @heapsgood https://twitter.com/Heapsgood
 
To connect with Dinosaur University on Facebook, follow us at
https://www.facebook.com/DinosaurUniversity
 
On Instagram at @dinosauruniversity
https://www.instagram.com/dinosauruniversity/
 
And on Twitter at @DinosaurUni
https://twitter.com/DinosaurUni
 
Palaeo Jam also now has its own Instagram account at @palaeo_jam
https://www.instagram.com/palaeo_jam

The fossil record of Theropod dinosaurs in Australia is sparse, and our understanding of them is poor. In a recent publication of the first chapter of his PhD, PhD Candidate Jake Kotevski is on his way to changing that.
 
In this episode of Palaeo Jam, host Michael Mills chats with Jake about the recent identification of the oldest-known Megaraptorid skull fragment, found on an Eastern Victorian beach in Australia, nearly 20 years ago. What does this unique and important fragment tell us about Australian Theropods and their place in the world? In just one of the concepts they discuss, it supports the theory that Megaraptorids originated in Australia. Tune in for more!
 
To read the paper, “A megaraptorid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) frontal from the upper Strzelecki Group (Lower Cretaceous) of Victoria, Australia”, head to… https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195667123002975#sec7
 
You can find Jake on Twitter at @Dinoman_Jake
https://twitter.com/Dinoman_Jake
 
And on Instagram at @theropods_down_under
https://www.instagram.com/theropods_down_under/
 
The Evans EvoMorph Lab where Jake is based for his PhD is on Twitter at @EvansEvoMorph
https://twitter.com/evansevomorph
 
For information on visiting the Dinosaur Dreaming site mentioned in the podcast, head to…
https://www.visitgippsland.com.au/do-and-see/arts-culture-and-heritage/historical-towns-attractions/dinosaur-dreaming
 
And also Bunurong Coast Education at http://sgcs.org.au/programs.php
 
You can find Palaeo Jam host Michael Mills on Twitter at @heapsgood https://twitter.com/Heapsgood
 
To connect with Dinosaur University on Facebook, follow us at
https://www.facebook.com/DinosaurUniversity
 
On Instagram at @dinosauruniversity
https://www.instagram.com/dinosauruniversity/
 
And on Twitter at @DinosaurUni
https://twitter.com/DinosaurUni
 
Palaeo Jam also now has its own Instagram account at @palaeo_jam
https://www.instagram.com/palaeo_jam