Podcast 238 - Fins for Days

The gang discusses two papers that are united by a fin. The first paper uses a computer algorithms to infer the shape of mosasaur tail fins, and the second paper looks at a new species of Spinosaurus with a crest. Meanwhile, James tastes flavor, Amanda tastes drink, and Curt tastes indifference.   Up-Goer Five - SERVER NOT FOUND! HELP!   References: Song, Yang, and Johan Lindgren. "Convergence in aquatic locomotion: reconstructing mosasaurian (Squamata: Mosasauria) tail fins from osteological correlates and covariation with extant sharks." Paleobiology 52.1 (2026): 121-130. Sereno, Paul C., et al. "Scimitar-crested Spinosaurus species from the Sahara caps stepwise spinosaurid radiation." Science 391.6787 (2026): eadx5486.

The gang talk about two papers about extraordinary dinosaur fossils and the unique information that can be gleaned from them. The first paper looks at fossil skin data on a Cretaceous iguandodontian, and the second paper uses an exceptionally complete specimen to demonstrate the reality of Nanotyrannus. Meanwhile, James classifies, Amanda imagines T-rex, and Curt brings a unique energy.   Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition): The friends look at two papers about big angry animals that everyone loves to talk about. The first paper is about the skin of one of these big angry animals. This skin has weird bits on it that are not like the weird bits we see in a lot of other animals that are close to these big angry animals. These bits do not look like the bits that would be used to stay warm or to move into the air. These bits look like they might hurt. The second paper looks at a lot of stuff from one big angry animal that has been said by people in the past is just a young one of another big angry animal. The paper looks at the parts of this animal, how this animal grew, and a lot of other things to show that, no, this animal is not this other animal. This animal is its own type of animal.   References: Huang, Jiandong, et al. "Cellular-level preservation of cutaneous spikes in an Early Cretaceous iguanodontian dinosaur." Nature Ecology & Evolution (2026): 1-8. Zanno, Lindsay E., and James G. Napoli. "Nanotyrannus and Tyrannosaurus coexisted at the close of the Cretaceous." Nature (2025): 1-3.

The gang discuss two papers of odd fossils with exceptional preservation. The first paper looks at some Cambrian vertebrates and shows that soft tissue evidence suggests the presence of two sets of camera eyes (four eyes total), and they interpret the additional set of camera eyes as being a homolog to the modern parietal eye in vertebrates. The second paper uses exceptional preservation of the Rhynie Chert to test hypotheses for the taxonomic placement of the enigmatic Prototaxites and finds evidence that suggests it is not, as previously suggested, a fungus. Meanwhile, James is marooned by weather, Amanda accidentally traumatizes her cat, and Curt imagines the flesh trees.   Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition): The friends talk about things that are weird. The first paper looks at a thing that is part of the big group that we are all a part of but is from a long long time ago and lived in the big blue wet thing. This thing has four eyes. Two of those eyes might be the things that become a part of the brain that is not the eyes today. But this shows that, early on, some of these animals could have had four eyes. This also means some animals we see later could have had parts of these other eyes that we have thought were other things. The second paper looks at a thing that is weird that people thought was from a group that is not an animal but has some animal like things like eating other things but has walls in the cells. These weird things are from a long time ago and come from a place where the parts were saved from breaking down by glass getting inside the cells. This means you can see lots of cell stuff, and you can also break down the glass to get at some of the cell bits. This paper looks at a lot of this weird thing and they say that it is not part of the group people thought it was from. In fact, it is so weird that it is not like any group we have today. It is maybe something that is not around today that we did not know about.   References: Loron, Corentin C., et al. "Prototaxites fossils are structurally and chemically distinct from extinct and extant Fungi." Science advances 12.4 (2026): eaec6277. Lei, Xiangtong, et al. "Four camera-type eyes in the earliest vertebrates from the Cambrian Period." Nature (2026): 1-6.

Listeners, I'm going to level with you. This podcast is cursed. Not because of the content, which is mostly a pretty straight forward discussion about two papers that look into the fossil record of Nimravids (early cats that are not true cats). No, this podcast is cursed because the file refused to be compiled, crashing Audacity 3 times and each time corrupting the save file. The fact that any mp3 file was able to be compiled at all was a minor miracle. I can only assume that this means this podcast data has gained sentience and did not want to be born. I have no control over what happens when this mp3 file gets released into the internet… so anyways enjoy the episode!   Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition): The friends talk about two papers that both look at things we can see in the hard parts of animals that are like cats but are not cats and use those hard parts to figure out what these not cats are doing. These papers looks at different not cats and try and see what types of food they would eat and how they would get that food. Turns out that many of these not cats were doing things that are not the same as the cats we have today.   References: Castellanos, Miguel. "Hunting types in North American Eocene–Oligocene carnivores and implications for the 'cat-gap'." Journal of Mammalian Evolution 32.2 (2025): 25. Jiangzuo, Qigao, et al. "A new ecomorph of Nimravidae, and the early macrocarnivorous niche exploration in Carnivora." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 292.2059 (2025).

The gang discusses two papers that use fragmentary fossils of animals to investigate the origins of major groups. The first paper describes an Early Ordovician eurypterid, and the second paper looks at mosaic evolutionary patterns in an early squamate. Meanwhile, James has bird opinions, Curt delights in not knowing, and Amanda will definitely be on time.   Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition): The friends look at two papers that are using broken bits of things to learn a lot about animals from a long time ago. Both of these papers are looking at old animals that may give us new looks at how big groups of animals changed over time. These animals may be some of the first animals in these groups, or at least let us know what kinds of things those early animals could have been doing. The first paper looks at a group of animals that lived in the big blue wet thing a long time ago and are part of a group that today has animals that make homes that they use to catch food. The new parts this paper finds shows that this group may have come around a lot earlier than we thought. The second paper looks at parts from an animal that is in a group that is cold and has hard skin, some with legs and some without legs. These parts show that the early animals in this group had a lot of changes going on in their hard parts, maybe they changed more early on then they do today.   References: Benson, Roger BJ, et al. "Mosaic anatomy in an early fossil squamate." Nature (2025): 1-7. Van Roy, Peter, Jared C. Richards, and Javier Ortega-Hernández. "Early Ordovician sea scorpions from Morocco suggest Cambrian origins and main diversification of Eurypterida." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 292.2058 (2025).

The crew of the CS Perry struggle to extract themselves from their rapidly deteriorating situation. "Lightless Dawn" , "Spacial Harvest", and "Crypto" from Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

The crew of the CS Perry, now trapped in a space station run by multiple hostile AI, work to figure out how best to salvage a mission gone very wrong.   "Lightless Dawn" and "Crypto" from Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

The crew of the CS Perry begin the negotiation process for the CA-chip, but the sales team wants an arm and a leg for the product.   "Lightless Dawn" and "Crypto" from Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

The crew of CS Perry were offered the perfect deal, a quick stop at an abandoned spaceport to grab some mothballed tech and they'd be set for life. What could possibly go wrong?   "Lightless Dawn" from Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

For our holiday episodes this year, James, Curt, Amanda, and Ants get together to play a game of the space horror tabletop RPG Mothership. Join us for our introductory episode where we discuss the setting, rules, and the main characters of our story.   "Lightless Dawn" from Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/