Jehol Biota: The Mesozoic Pompeii (Part 1)

In our last episode for Season 1, we get trapped at the World Heritage Site, Naracoorte Caves in southeast Australia!  We'll learn about Australia's weird megafauna like the not-tapir-like-Marsupial Tapir and the hypercarnivore, Marsupial Lion, Thylacoleo, and why so many of their bones are found in these caves.

We saw the environment now let's see the animals!  Jehol has an amazing collection of animals including feathered tyrannosaurs, toothy birds, dinosaur-eating mammals, and more!  Let's learn about all the weird citizens that lived in this Cretaceous paradise.

The last thirty years has seen of flurry of amazing fossils of feathered birds and dinosaurs from Early Cretaceous China.  The Jehol Biota has influenced our understanding on the evolution of birds from dinosaurs.  For part 1, we'll explore the history of it, look at the earliest flowering plants, and learn why Jehol has been nicknamed the "Mesozoic Pompeii."

Step back into the Miocene and traverse the jungles of ancient Hispaniola!  We'll look at the Dominican Amber and all its weird and wonderful inclusions including parasites, luckless stingless bees, wandering spiders, and a salamander that had a real bad day.

Welcome to a crash course on amber!  We answer crucial amber questions such as where does it come from?  What's the difference between amber and copal?  And can it preserve DNA??  And stay tuned next time cause we'll look at the Dominican Amber in all its golden glory.

Take a cruise on the Tethys Sea in Jurassic Germany!  We explore the wonderful Posidonia Shale and learn about embryonic ichthyosaurs, hitchhiking crinoids, and hungry squids.  And learn how one man changed the name of the fish-lizard game.The theme song, "Fossils," and interlude "Aquarium" by Saint-Saëns, and "Gymnopédie"  and "Gnossienne" by Satie were provided by MusOpen.

Our first Fossil-Lagerstätte takes us to New York where a seemingly unremarkable layer of shale shelters a remarkable group of fossils; pyritized trilobites.  Uncover the truth of how these golden critters formed and why one man searched for 8 years of his life looking for them.The theme song, "Fossils," and interlude "Aquarium" by Saint-Saëns and "Gymnopédie" by Satie were provided by MusOpen.

Hello and welcome to Fossil Bonanza!  This episode serves as the introduction to the series and will go over what the podcast is about, what are Fossil-Lagerstätten, and who I am.  We'll look at "tongue stones," discuss who gets fossilized and who doesn't, and understand why some fossil sites are so fantastic they reshape our perceptions of the ancient world.The theme song, "Fossils," and interlude "Aquarium" by Saint-Saëns and "Autumn" by Vivaldi are provided by MusOpen.