Terrible Lizards

Pterosaur soft tissues It’s a double new paper episode this time as thanks to the magic of almost random review and publication times, Dave has two papers out on the same subject in the same month! So strap in for some absolute minutiae on pterosaur hands, feet, scales, and the oddly overlooked wing membrane that sits between their legs. Pterosaurs in general are not very common fossils and so it should be no surprise that we don’t have a great many examples of their soft tissues, from skin, to beaks and claws and other bits. So, having new examples, and synthesising the limited information we have, is really important for building an understanding of these incredible animals. It’s deep dive time.       A link to Dave’s blogpost on the new hand and foot scale papers: https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2025/06/10/new-data-on-pterosaurian-soft-tissues/ [https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2025/06/10/new-data-on-pterosaurian-soft-tissues/]   A link to a very old blogpost about pterosaur soft tissues generally: https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2008/07/25/pterosaur-soft-tissues/ [https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2008/07/25/pterosaur-soft-tissues/]   Iszi'a new book - featuring a pterosaur and perfect for 6-9 year olds is out on 28th August in the UK: https://amzn.eu/d/9kFiniD [https://amzn.eu/d/9kFiniD] (message her on iszi.com if you want international posting).

June, rather incredibly, marks the fifth anniversary of the launch of series 1, episode 1 of the podcast. As a rather fortuitous bit of timing, we were invited to host a live Terrible Lizards event at Lyme Regis (home of Mary Anning) for their Fossil Festival. We could hardly say ‘no’, so here is a recording of that hour long session where we fielded a ton of questions from the audience (that was overflowing out of the room!) and even included a few professional palaeontologists in the audience to put a bit more pressure on Dave’s answers. A good time was apparently had by all, maybe this will happen again next year?   A link to the Fossil Festival website. Stay tuned for next year’s details: https://fossilfestival.com/ [https://fossilfestival.com/]   For extra content go to patreon.com/terriblelizards [https://www.patreon.com/terriblelizards]

Curating Dinosaurs II Curate Harder! On this episode we welcome Jordan Mallon, a long-time collaborator of Dave’s and, against the odds, a long-time listener of Terrible Lizards. While we talk about Jordan’s research and career in this pod, and his work on dinosaur sizes and ecology, this one also serves as something of a sequel to our previous episode. That’s because he is also the curator of the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, the national natural history museum of Canada. It’s a much more typical collection than the one we talked about last time out, so join us to learn more about how museum’s work, the importance of the behind-the-scenes jobs that people do, and   Links:   Support us and get extra content: https://www.patreon.com/terriblelizards [https://www.patreon.com/terriblelizards]   A short interview Jordan did with Dave years ago: https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2017/03/06/buried-treasure-jordan-mallon/ [https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2017/03/06/buried-treasure-jordan-mallon/]   A blogpost by Dave on his paper with Jordan on giant T. rex. https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2024/07/24/on-the-trail-of-giant-tyrannosaurus-rex/ [https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2024/07/24/on-the-trail-of-giant-tyrannosaurus-rex/]   Jordan’s webpage at the Canadian Museum of Nature https://nature.ca/en/our-science/science-experts/jordan-mallon/ [https://nature.ca/en/our-science/science-experts/jordan-mallon/]

We have talked about all manner of fundamentals of research on fossils over the years here on Terrible Lizards, including finding and excavating fossils, writing and publishing papers, reconstructing animals from fragments and more. But we’ve somehow really glossed over the role of museums that store and protect fossils and make them available for research, as well as carrying out their own work too. In order to correct this oversight, today we welcome ReBecca Hunt-Foster who is the curator on the legendary Dinosaur National Monument in Utah. Here she takes us through her background and research and the challenges of looking after one of the most famous and important dinosaur sites in the world.   Links:   https://www.patreon.com/terriblelizards [https://www.patreon.com/terriblelizards] ReBecca on Bluesky: @dinochick.bsky.social Here’s the link to the US National Parks website about Dinosaur National Monument: https://www.nps.gov/dino/index.htm [https://www.nps.gov/dino/index.htm] An old blogpost of Dave’s about the bitten baby Diplodocus femur: https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2018/04/22/non-tyrannosaurs-biting-like-tyrannosaurs/

This time out we are joined by palaeontologist Andre Rowe to talk about his research into the skulls of giant carnivorous dinosaurs and what this means for their biology. This turns into a debate with Dave about how evidence can be interpreted in different ways and trying to piece together the often limited data we have to work out what these animals might have been doing. Though with her media-trained eye, Iszi wants to badge this as a heated fight over just how awesome Tyrannosaurus was (see previous episode for details). Andre takes us through the process of scanning skulls, restoring the bits and then testing ideas about bite force and skull strength and how the different giant theropod differed in their habits. Links: Support us on patreon and get extra content: www.patreon.com/terriblelizards [https://www.patreon.com/terriblelizards] Here’s an article Andre wrote on his T. rex bite research: https://theconversation.com/tyrannosaurus-rex-didnt-get-its-ferocious-bite-until-it-was-an-adult-new-research-156668 Here is Andre’s Instagram handle: @tyrannosaurrowe