Fossils and Fiction

A supermarket tabloid once ran a front page reading "Space Probe Finds Dinosaurs on Mars." That issue ended up pinned to the wall of the Montana dig trailer in Jurassic Park — and it's the starting point for a wander through everything that connects palaeontology and space.Travis and Alyssa cover the 1992 Weekly World News hoax and how it accidentally recreated the founding error of dinosaur science, the supernovae that may have triggered two mass extinctions, the asteroid ejecta you can touch in the Flinders Ranges, the hypothesis that Earth had rings while trilobites were alive, dinosaurs living on the far side of the galaxy, and NASA's carefully-worded potential biosignature on Mars.Plus: 65, Strange New Worlds, Love, Death & Robots, and why every screen dinosaur still says 65 million years when the answer changed in 2012.Recorded on the 60th anniversary of Star Trek.Papers and sourcesQuintana, A.L., Wright, N.J. et al. (2025). "A census of OB stars within 1 kpc and the star formation and core collapse supernova rates of the Milky Way." Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Royal Astronomical Society release: https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/research-highlights/violent-supernovae-triggered-least-two-earth-extinctions Preprint: https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.08286Tomkins, A.G., Martin, E.L. & Cawood, P.A. (2024). "Evidence suggesting that earth had a ring in the Ordovician." Earth and Planetary Science Letters 646: 118991. (Monash University) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2024.118991Fischer-Gödde, M. et al. (2024). "Ruthenium isotopes show the Chicxulub impactor was a carbonaceous-type asteroid." Science 385(6710): 752–756. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adk4868Alvarez, L.W., Alvarez, W., Asaro, F. & Michel, H.V. (1980). "Extraterrestrial cause for the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction." Science 208(4448): 1095–1108.Williams, G.E. & Wallace, M.W. (2003). "The Acraman asteroid impact, South Australia:cmagnitude and implications for the late Vendian environment" Journal of the Geological Society 160: 545–554.Hurowitz, J.A. et al. (2025). "Redox-driven mineral and organic associations in Jezero Crater, Mars." Nature, 10 September 2025. NASA release: https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/perseverance/McKay, D.S. et al. (1996). "Search for past life on Mars: possible relic biogenic activity in Martian meteorite ALH84001." Science 273(5277): 924–930.Schmidt, G.A. & Frank, A. (2019). "The Silurian hypothesis: would it be possible to detect an industrial civilization in the geological record?" International Journal of Astrobiology 18(2): 142–150. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1473550418000095Russell, D.A. & Séguin, R. (1982). Reconstruction of the small Cretaceous theropod Stenonychosaurus inequalis and a hypothetical dinosauroid. Syllogeus 37.Weekly World News, 16 June 1992. Cover: "Space Probe Finds Dinosaurs on Mars." Interior, p. 24: "Dinosaurs on Mars!" Digitised in Google Books.

A three-course food web from the Cretaceous seas of Queensland: a Platypterygius australis ichthyosaur that had been snacking on fish, cephalopods and pterosaurs — before it, in turn, got chewed on by a Kronosaurus queenslandicus. Travis and Alyssa dig into what the bite marks and gut contents tell us about who was eating whom in ancient inland Australia.Then, Travis heads out to Gold Creek to sit down with Shannon Bourke, education and outreach coordinator at the National Dinosaur Museum in Canberra, for a tour through animatronic accuracy (and inaccuracy), seasonally repainted triceratops, and how a small private museum can uietly launch palaeontology careers.To close out: a preview of The End of Oak Street — dinosaurs, suburbia, Ewan McGregor punching things — and the story of the one Chase question Travis really should have known.Paper discussed: White, M. et al., "Beneath the Waves: Extraordinary Dietary Insights from a Dismembered Ichthyosaur from the Lower Cretaceous," Gondwana Research.Fossils and Fiction is ad-free and listener-supported. If you'd like to help us keep it that way, jump onto our Fourthwall store — buy some merch or sign up as a member.

Dr Jake Kotevski didn't become a palaeontologist because of a fossil. He became one because of Sam Neill. In this tribute episode, Travis and Alyssa talk with Jake about Alan Grant's quiet, unglamorous masculinity, the "sense of wonder" the movie chose over the book's horror, and why Grant's evolution across three films (and an unfortunate franchise reboot) still resonates thirty years on.

Compsognathus in a handbag. Microraptor as a pet crow. Sauropod methane energy. You're welcome.We sit down with Professor Amy Brock-Hon from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga — Alyssa's old alma mater — to talk caves, karst, and why a good geology degree might be the most versatile qualification you've never considered. Then we dig into a 2025 paper claiming scientists have found original collagen inside a 66-million-year-old Edmontosaurus hip bone — and ask what that means for the long-running soft tissue debate. Which leads us, naturally, to de-extinction — what we'd bring back, why, and whether Colossal Biosciences hatching chickens from synthetic eggs means we're closer to an answer than we'd like to admit.Tuinstra et al. (2025), "Evidence for Endogenous Collagen in Edmontosaurus Fossil Bone," Analytical Chemistry. DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.4c03115Fossils and Fiction is kept ad-free by our members. Join The Fossil Record via our website, or grab some merch from our Fourthwall store. Fossils and Fiction is a production of Extinction Media.

The ocean had apex predators long before sharks — and this week, we're diving into the extraordinary world of ichthyosaurs with one of the world's leading experts on them.Alyssa sat down with Dr Dean Lomax — palaeontologist, author, broadcaster, and all-round ichthyosaur evangelist — ahead of his first-ever visit to Australia for Queensland Dinosaur Week (4–10 May 2026). It's a conversation about science, storytelling, and what it really takes to build a career in palaeontology when nobody in your family has ever been to university.Plus: Travis is flying up to Brisbane for Dino Week himself, we make some big announcements about the future of the show, and we reveal what kookaburras have in common with Jurassic Park.-- Dr Dean Lomax's website: deanrlomax.co.ukLocked in Time — Dean Lomax and Bob NichollsThe Secret Lives of Dinosaurs — Dean Lomax and Bob NichollsWhy Dinosaurs documentary — [available free on YouTube]Queensland Dinosaur WeekFossils and Fiction membership and merchFossils and Fiction is kept ad-free by our members. Fossils and Fiction is a production of Extinction Media.

We're road tripping across Queensland for Queensland Dinosaur Week. Featuring interviews with experts from the Queensland Museum, Eromanga Natural History Museum, Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum (Winton), and Kronosaurus Korner (Richmond), we find out what's happening across the state from May 4-10, 2026. For more info, check out https://dinosaurexperiences.com/queensland-dinosaur-week-2026/

Travis just spent three weeks galavanting around the museums of Europe, and he's here to tell you all about it. From Naturalis in Leiden, to Oslo, Oxford, London and Lyme Regis, you'll get the low down on the visitor experience at museums across the continent. __ More info: Australia Post's 'creatures of the palaeozoic' https://collectables.auspost.com.au/stamp-issues/view-all-stamp-issues/creatures-of-the-palaeozoic ABC Coverage of Dinosaur Dreaming https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-11/dinosaur-dig-at-inverloch-finds-bones-and-fossils/105904132

Travis went to Europe and Alyssa went to Chattanooga. All to find out more about your favourite fossils. We bring you some news on extraordinary palaeo discoveries, a fascinating interview with Dr Indrani Mukherjee about the state of geoscience in Australia and her research into Earth's earliest life, and Alyssa ranks 2025's big hits (come at her).__ Tess Gallagher, Dan Folkes, Michael Pittman, Tom G. Kaye, Glenn W. Storrs, Jason Schein; Fossilized melanosomes reveal colour patterning of a sauropod dinosaur. R Soc Open Sci. 1 December 2025; 12 (12): 251232. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.251232Delclòs, X., Peñalver, E., Jaramillo, C. et al. Cretaceous amber of Ecuador unveils new insights into South America’s Gondwanan forests. Commun Earth Environ 6, 745 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02625-2

Dinosaur mating? Two new tyrannosaurs? We discuss a couple of groundbreaking papers followed by a trip to Wellington Caves, the site of some of Australia's earliest and greatest palaeontological discoveries. More info:Join us in Adelaide for Fossils and Fiction live on November 29! https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/1964100016020?aff=oddtdtcreatorVisit Wellington Caves https://www.wellingtoncaves.com.au/ Bertozzo, F., Tanke, D. H., Conti, S., Manucci, F., Arnott, G., Godefroit, P., Ruffell, A., Fowler, D., Freedman Fowler, E. A., Bolotsky, I. Y., Bolotsky, Y. L., & Murphy, E. (2025). Deciphering causes and behaviors: A recurrent pattern of tail injuries in hadrosaurid dinosaurs. iScience, 113739. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2025.113739Zanno, L. E., & Napoli, J. G. (2025). Nanotyrannus and Tyrannosaurus coexisted at the close of the Cretaceous. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09801-6

Seals. What do they know? Do they know things? Let's find out. Dr James Rule gives lets us in on the secrets of the seals, covering their evolution, fossil history, and some challenges with modern marine mammal research. James tells us the best and worst seal and lays down the terms to the whales. Also, it's Halloween, so we take a look at some creepy museum exhibitions. __Flynn, A. G., Brusatte, S. L., Chiarenza, A. A., García, J., Davis, A. J., Secord, R., Shelley, S., Weil, A., Heizler, M. T., Williamson, T. E., & Peppe, D. J. (2025). Late-surviving New Mexican dinosaurs illuminate high end-Cretaceous diversity and provinciality.Sereno, P. C., Saitta, E. T., Vidal, D., Myhrvold, N., Real, M. C., Baumgart, S. L., Bop, L. L., Keillor, T. M., Eriksen, M., & Derstler, K. (2025). Duck-billed dinosaur fleshy midline and hooves reveal terrestrial clay-template “mummification.” Science, science.adw3536. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adw3536