Terrible Lizards

In this episode we take a look at the actual identification of dinosaurs. What makes a species a species and how does this apply to fossils that are a hundred million years old? From there we look to how dinosaurs get their names where things can go wrong when it comes to correctly identifying them. Our special guest this time out is Professor Chris Jackson, geologist and science communicator par excellence, who wants to ask Dave a very pertinent question about how dinosaurs are actually defined and so what is, and isn't, a dinosaur. Links: An old blog post of Dave's about why scientific names are important and using them correctly: https://www.theguardian.com/science/lost-worlds/2013/jun/19/dinosaurs-fossils Another old blog post of Dave's about the problem of variation in species and how different is different? https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/intraspecific-variation-and-taxonomy/

This week we have an extended interview and discussion with David Krentz on the public perception of dinosaurs and especially in film. David is a palaeoartist, but also works as a storyboard artist and character designer for Hollywood productions like the Marvel movies and has also produced and directed dinosaur documentaries so has seen things from all sides. So he's the perfect person to bring in to chat about the creative processes and trade-offs between accuracy and realism and dramatic license, storytelling and spectacle. Links: An interview with David Krentz about his dinosaurian artwork by Dave https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/interview-with-david-krentz/ David's Facebook page for his artwork https://www.facebook.com/davidkrentzart

Let's be honest, we've done quite well to have held off until half way through the third series before tackling this one, but there's been a Brachiosaurus in the room since the start of Terrible Lizards and it is very much Jurassic Park-shaped. There's no point dissecting all the details about the film and its depiction of dinosaurs (though we look at a few) but we focus on its appearance at the time and the effect it had on shaping the public's perceptions of dinosaurs (for better and worse) and what that means for science educators. We also talk about other contemporary films and how things translated from books to screen and the difficulty of dealing with the blend of science and fiction. Our guest this week is author, actor and screenwriter Emma Kennedy who wants to know just how (un)likely it is we could resurrect dinosaurs. Links: Emma Kennedy - https://www.emmakennedy.co.uk/ you can preorder her book Never Ending Summer now! Also her lego is amaze. An old blog post by Dave on the problem of people assuming Jurassic Park is accurate: https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2008/07/06/everything-people-ask-me-about-dinosaurs-they-learned-from-jurassic-park/ An article Dave wrote for the Telegraph years ago on the science of Jurassic Park and cloning: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/jurassic-world/truth-facts-science/

Finally, a normal episode that both has a guest an is actually on dinosaurs. This time out we are on to the second dinosaur ever named – Iguanodon. Despite being one of the absolute originals and being known from numerous good specimens, Iguanodon (and its relatives) really doesn't get much of a look in when it comes to artworks and documentaries and even books – it's not a carnivore, not huge like sauropods, and doesn't rock the funky headgear of so many other ornithischians. But it's an important animal, both historically and now and also (inevitably) has a complicated history that means it is well worth talking about. So we do. This week artist, writer and cartoonist Andy Riley joins us and he wants to know specifically about the function of the famous spiky thumb of Iguanodon – just what did they do with it? Links: A piece from the Natural History Museum in London about the Maidstone slab and the initial discovery of Iguanodon - https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/the-discovery-of-iguanodon.html And another by the NHM on the naming of Mantellisaurus and the work to put their skeleton on display - https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/search-for-the-real-iguanodon.html A gallery view of the wonderful collection of Iguanodon in Belgium https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/the-bernissart-iguanodons/fQJiRgnsYJgwIA Andy Riley has a new book in the works and you can find out more about him here: https://misterandyriley.com/

No dinosaurs this week! Shock, horror! It was always going to happen sooner or later as Dave does a lot of work on pterosaurs as well as on dinosaurs and we've had some specific requests for a pterosaur episode so here we go (and they'll return again soon we're sure). These flying reptiles are too often just window dressing in the background of pictures of dinosaurs but they are their own distinct evolutionary group with a fascinating array of weird features and produced the largest flying animals of all time with wingspans over 10 m. The week we make a delayed welcome to a first guest of the series and it is Dr Adam Rutherford, geneticist, author and presenter and general all round science nerd. He wants to know how the sex of dinosaur embryos was determined but mostly we end up talking about Star Wars Easter eggs. Links: This is a website Dave and a group of fellow pterosaur researchers set up as a one stop-shop for all things pterosaur. http://pterosaur.net An essay on the giant azhdarchids by palaeontologist Mark Witton. It's a little old so some things have updated but it's fundamentally a great introduction to them https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiM4Mr__rHuAhUSmVwKHaymCDoQFjACegQIAhAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.markwitton.com%2Fdownload%2Fi%2Fmark_dl%2Fu%2F4009119796%2F4549073080%2FWitton%25202007%2520-%2520Azhdarchids.pdf&usg=AOvVaw0WICVGKJd7VlGpFB3Uoanx A link to Dave's recent paper suggesting baby pterosaurs were flying: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/let.12391 And here's the links for the Star Wars nerdery: https://carnegiemnh.org/dippy-in-star-wars/ https://svpow.com/2013/01/21/confirmed-the-umbraran-starfighter-is-an-apatosaurus-cervical/ Adam Rutherford's new book (that Iszi got for Xmas) is called How To Argue With a Racist paperback out Feb 4th

No guest this week, just a lot of Dave talking. We've obviously mentioned his research at various times but never really focused on it before, but now a new and big paper has just come out on the famous giant fish-eating Spinosaurus so it was a great opportunity to kick off the new series with a special on it. Many people will know Spinosaurus from Jurassic Park III and it has become (in)famous for various interpretations of its biology which has been hampered by the fact that the fossils are so fragmentary and researchers disagree over the taxonomy of various bits that may or may not belong to it. New discoveries and research has ramped all of this up and now Dave is stepping in with a long paper and a revised idea about how this enigmatic giant might have lived. Links: Here's alink to the actual paper, assuming you really want to wade through it all: https://palaeo-electronica.org/content/2021/3219-the-ecology-of-spinosaurus And here's the first of a series of blogposts Dave is putting up about the research and its implications: https://wordpress.com/post/archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/8723

The new series of Terrible Lizards - a Podcast about Dinosaurs with Dr Dave Hone and Iszi Lawrence is starting on January 27th 2021. Guests include Emma Kennedy, Adam Rutherford, David Krentz, Andy Riley, Sophie Scott and Chris Jackson. Thank you to everyone for spreading the word and supporting on Patreon. Visit www.terriblelizards.co.uk @iszi_lawrence @dave_hone

This is a between-series BONUS that was previous released to Patrons on Patreon. In it a palaeontologist makes up for Dave's inadequacies when dealing with the ornithischians. So welcome Dr Victoria Arbour of the Royal BC Museum of Victoria, Canada to talk with Dave and Iszi about the armoured dinosaurs, the ankylosaurs. She is a world expert on this amazing and unfairly overlooked group and joins us to talk through their origins, evolution and weird features – not just the famous armour and tail clubs, but also their convoluted noses too. Victoria has published numerous papers on these animals including naming several species, first and foremost among them for Terrible Lizards listeners being Zuul, the animal that guest Ralph Attanasia (S1, E4) turned into a life-sized cake. Links: Pseudoplocephalus is Victoria's blog https://pseudoplocephalus.com Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs is a popular dinosaur website where Victoria is an occasional contributor https://chasmosaurs.com/about/ Some photos of the amazing Scleidosaurus specimen that is mentioned during the podcast https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2011/01/28/a-super-scleidosaurus/

It the end of series questions episode. This time Iszi and Dave... well Dave mainly answer Patrons' Dinosaur questions. Including How would dinosaur evolution panned out if the asteroid had missed? Could sauropods swim? Is the Blue Whale REALLY larger than dinosaurs? Were there dinosaur KT extinction survivors in Antarctica? The 'Friends' question... Velociraptor toe functionality... Bird Brains... How do we differentiate species? And if we know anything about how social dinosaurs were? With massive thanks to all out patrons,and especially Geraint Lewis, Shala Howell, Eric Farenger, Gutza1, Joe McLachlan, Javaraptor (G Hancock), Andrew White, Aisling Spain and Richard Bald. Iszi Lawrence's book The Unstoppable Letty Pegg is now available as an Audiobook on Audible www.iszi.com/book Please fill in Dave's Impact Survery: https://www.davehone.co.uk/outreach/impact-survey/

The idea that birds evolved from dinosaurs has actually been around for a century now, though it has perhaps only become relatively common knowledge with the general public in the last couple of decades. Even so, while many people now know this, quite why we know the two groups are linked (aside from the plethora of feathered dinosaurs) is often not understood. There's only so much we can cover in one podcast, but this week we go through some of the features of birds that are seen in dinosaur fossils and so help show the evolutionary links between the two. Our special guest this time is Lucy Eckersley The Punk Biologist who makes the mistake of asking about sexual selection in dinosaurs about which Dave would happily talk for hours if allowed to. A post on the recognition of the importance of Archaeopteryx for bird origins by Darwin: https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2011/03/17/the-historical-impact-of-archaeopteryx/ A blogpost on the dinosaurian furcula: https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2010/02/24/the-furcula/ A long post summarising Dave's work on sexual selection in dinosaurs - https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2020/05/11/sexual-selection-in-dinosaurs-the-story-so-far/

There are a few animals that are basically motionless for part or even most of their lives (like barnacles) but the average animal is one that moves. Dinosaurs obviously did so, but things inevitably get complicated quickly when trying to work out exactly how well they could run, jump and climb, how fast they were and what they could and couldn't do to get around. This time out we tackle these issues and the information we have to work from, especially footprints. We are then joined by Dr Esther Odekunle who has a very pertinent question about dinosaurs in water. A piece by Dr Pete Falkingham on sauropod hand prints https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/guest-post-tracking-the-hand-prints-of-sauropods/ A piece on one of the rare tail drag marks for a dinosaur: https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2010/01/04/sauropod-tails-up-or-down/#more-2946 A piece by Dr Darren Naish at Tetrapod Zoology on dinosaur climbing https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/claws-climbing-in-birds-other-dinosaurs/

It's commonly known that Tyrannosaurus carnivorous, but this is perhaps as far as most people would be prepared to go. Other than the most obvious points (the ones in its mouth for starters) though, what do we actually know about dinosaur diets and how do we know it? In this episode Dave and Iszi dive into the guts of dinosaurs and look at their teeth, jaws, stomachs and yes, coprolites are back again. From microscopic scratches on the enamel of their teeth through to the last meals that they ate, dinosaur fossils provide a surprising range of information on what they ate, and how. After digesting this gastronomic information, we are joined by Robin Ince for an aperitif of dinosaur cannibalism and egg thievery. An old blogpost by Dave on an early herbivorous theropod he helped to name and describe https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2009/07/07/a-last-bit-of-limusaurus-–-theropod-diets-and-herbivory/ One of Dave's blogposts on the feeding behaviour of giant Mongolian tyrannosaurs: https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2010/07/14/selective-feeding-by-tyrannosaurs/ A piece on a baby Diplodocus getting chewed up: https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2018/04/22/non-tyrannosaurs-biting-like-tyrannosaurs/ Find out more about Robin Ince here: http://robinince.com/mainpage/ and buy his books.

If there's one thing that everyone knows about dinosaurs it is that they are extinct. And of course this is to a degree quite wrong since birds are dinosaurs and are very much alive. Still, that Tyrannosaurus, Diplodocus, Stegosaurus and the rest are long gone is well known but the scientific (and often very unscientific) arguments about exactly what killed them off have been a source of discussion for over a century. Here we have a quick stroll through some of those ideas and deal with the prime suspect of the last 30 years an impact from outer space. Happily, we have the Bad Astronomer himself, Phil Plait, as our guest so the questions go both ways on dinosaurs and asteroids. We hope you enjoy the cold open. A short National Geographic article on the issue of asteroids vs volcanoes: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/prehistoric-world/dinosaur-extinction/ A piece by Professor Mike Benton on mass extinctions: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiKnrO6tKDsAhVHTsAKHe0OCPwQFjABegQIDBAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fbenton.blogs.bristol.ac.uk%2Ffiles%2F2019%2F07%2F2013Princeton.pdf&usg=AOvVaw0-67nK9sjE7cWteYZ5Usal The American Museum of Natural History goes through some of the wonkier ideas for dinosaur extinction: https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/dinosaurs-ancient-fossils/extinction/discarded-theories Phil's Blog is here syfy.com/badastronomy @badastronomer

In this episode we finally fulfil a promise from before and talk more about the physiology dinosaurs – how 'hot' or 'cold' they were and what that might mean for their levels of activity, growth, behaviour and even where they could live given local climates. It's a horribly complex subject and so come and listen to us grossly oversimplify things and not make things as clear as we'd like. Also on this show we end up at the end of the digestive system as our guest, the Skep-Chick herself, Rebecca Watson asks about the second most famous bit of Jurassic Park and just how much waste would be coming out of a dinosaur. Don't say we never tackle the critical questions. A recent paper on the possibility of feathers in some of the earliest dinosaurs https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0223872 A very recent paper on the growth rate and maturity of one of the abelisaurs https://peerj.com/articles/9771/ Rebecca Watson's patreon with links to all her videos: patreon.com/rebecca

This week we tackle a small dinosaur that should be much better known, a classic contemporary of Velociraptor and the other half of the fighting dinosaurs, Protoceratops. While nothing like as famous as its (much) larger cousin Triceratops, Protoceratops is an interesting and important dinosaur. Thanks to a multitude of fossils, including animals of all different ages, we have a fantastic set of data to work from and as a result a lot of research has been done on this fascinating frilled dinosaur. This week our guest is singer Faith Child who wants to know just how close (or indeed far) humans are to dinosaurs evolutionarily. Things rapidly descend into developmental biology (not Dave's forte) but happily we have an excerpt from Faith's new track "Near Era, feat. Faith Child and KB and Ty Brasel" to play us out. Links: A link to Dave's paper on Protoceratops forming groups including the specimen of four juveniles https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0113306 Photos of a wonderful Protoceratops on display in the Carnegie Museum https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2011/12/06/protoceratops-2/ A link to Dave's paper on social and sexual signalling in Protoceratops https://palaeo-electronica.org/content/2016/1369-sexual-selection-in-ceratopsia A link to Faith Child's Official Site https://www.faithchildmusic.com/

It is appropriate to kick off the second series of Terrible Lizards with an animal famous for its dangerous feet. Few people had heard of Velociraptor before Jurassic Park, but it is now an A-lister alongside Tyrannosaurus as one of the few dinosaurs almost anyone can name. With fame though has come huge misconceptions about its size, appearance, capabilities and behaviour. The large, scaly, super-intelligent pack-hunter of large prey is likely none of these things and Dave and Iszi work their way through the myths and realities of this little Mongolian predator. Our first guest of the season is half of Penn & Teller, the juggler and magician Penn Jillette, who wants to know about the longevity of dinosaur lineages and how common they were in the Mesozoic. Links: Photos of a famous Velociraptor specimen locked on (possible) mortal combat with a Protoceratops: https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2009/05/22/a-bit-on-the-'fighting-dinosaurs'/ A description of Dave's work on a specimen of Velociraptor that swallowed a large pterosaur bone https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/velociraptor-scavenging-azhdarchid/ Link to the original paper describing quill knobs in Velociraptor that prove the presence of feathers https://science.sciencemag.org/content/317/5845/1721

The new series will be starting on Wednesday 16th September 2020. We have a plethora of guests and interesting dinosaur subjects to explore! Guest this series include Penn Jillette, Phil Plait, Robin Ince, Rebecca Watson, Esther Odekunde, Faith Child and Lucy Eckersley. Keep an eye out for our bonus content on Patreon and announcements on Twitter and Facebook. www.patreon.com/terriblelizards www.facebook.com/terriblelizardspodcast/ @iszi_lawrence @dave_hone #TerribleLizards

In this last episode of the first season we try to bring a few things up to date. There's more mistakes and miss-speaks from Dave to repair and correct, and a few things that have come up since shows were recorded or broadcast we want to give updates on. Mostly though, we are answering questions from our Patreons and other commenters that people have sent in. There's a lot of ground to cover quickly and lots of things that are still coming in future episodes so we don't always get into the greatest detail but among others, there's bits on Triassic dinosaurs, dinosaur diseases, evidence for dinosaur behaviour, and how can you support palaeontology. There's no special guest this week and we'll now be taking a break for a while so we can recharge and come back stronger in September (ish). We do though plan to record one or two deep dive episodes during the break that will be available only to our Patreons for now, so if you want to help keep Terrible Lizards going and get some more goodness in advance then please sign up. Iszi also goes on a massive rant about human brain evolution which is better discussed in her interview with Clive Gamble on The British Museum Membercast podcast: https://britishmuseummembercast.libsyn.com/episode-002 The film, The Lost world (1925) is available to watch on youtube here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJaXxY3citM A short blogpost with a nice photo of the unheralded Triassic Herrerasaurus: https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2011/11/26/herrerasaurus/ A long post by Dave on the perenially asked 'how do I become a palaeontologist?': https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2018/07/04/how-do-i-become-a-palaeontologist/ A short post on a diseased sauropod in China: https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2008/07/16/sauropod-caudal-pathology/ Please support us on patreon. www.terriblelizards.co.uk @iszi_lawrence @dave_hone #terriblelizards

In this episode, we take a look at the actual process of finding, excavating, preparing and then exhibiting dinosaur fossils. How do palaeontologists know where to find fossils, what do they look for, how do they get them out of the ground? From there we move onto safely transporting fossils out of the field and into the museum and discuss the process of preparing the bones free of the entombing rocks and then getting them arranged back into the form of a full skeleton to go on display in a museum. It's all an odd mix of techniques from the 21st and 18th centuries. To round us off, we are joined by podcaster and QI elf, Dan Schreiber who wants to ask about the best way to go about owning a dinosaur fossil. Round up post of a huge series on Dave's blog about preparing a tyrannosaur fossil by Darren Tanke https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2011/02/22/darren-tanke%e2%80%99s-gorgosaurus-preparation-final-roundup/ And the resulting paper that Dave and Darren coauthored about using the blogposts as an educational tool https://www.geocurator.org/images/resources/geocurator/vol9/geocurator_9_8.pdf#page=17 A series of photos of the dig in China to excavate Dave's tyrannosaur https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2011/08/22/xinjiang-2011-fieldwork-report/ Please support us on patreon. www.terriblelizards.co.uk @iszi_lawrence @dave_hone @Schreiberland #terriblelizards Dan is Host of No Such Thing As A Fish podcast / QI Elf/ Creator of BBC's Museum of Curiosity/ Watch 'Show Us Your Sh*t' live nightly at http://instagram.com/schreiberland

To most eyes, dinosaurs are unusual looking animals but on this week's show we take a look at some that are weird and wonderful even by the standards of dinosaurs. We start with the huge theropods of Late Cretaceous Mongolia, the sickle-clawed Theirizinosaurs and boat-faced Deinocheirus with a mention of the tiny ant-eating alvarezsaurs. From here, we move to Europe and ancient archipelagos that produced some dwarf species of huge animals and giant weird versions of small ones. We round off with some unusual and interesting adaptations that show up in multiple different dinosaurs and show the power of convergent evolution across tens of millions of years. Finally, we are joined by comedian Alice Fraser @aliterative who wants to ask about how dinosaurs might have done if alive today. (You should also check out her many podcasts and watch her special on Amazon Prime.) An old article of Dave's on the astounding diversity of dinosaurs https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2012/jun/11/dinosaurs-incredible-diverse A blogpost on the wonderful arctometatarsal https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/what-is-an-acrtometatarsal/

Warning: Our guest Richard Herring (53 mins 50 secs) uses colloquialisms for dinosaur male bits - poss best check before letting kids listen. Reproduction is a fundamental of life but it's an area of dinosaur biology rarely discussed at any length though this week we will tackle that area of ignorance. Part of the problem is inevitably the lack of data palaeontologists have of, ahem, certain dinosaur parts. However, it's not an area that has gone unstudied and thanks to the evidence of numerous fossils and in particular various nests and eggs, we do know quite a bit more about their reproductive biology than you may imagine. There's good evidence in various linages for parents looking after their young and for some complex nest structures, and in the right circumstances we can tell males from females. Our guest this week is the comedian Richard Herring who lends his unique approach to biology (OK, he says some faintly rude words about male dinosaur bits that you might not want the littlest ones to hear) and has an appropriately (for him) suitable question for Dave about dinosaurs. An old blogpost of Dave's on dinosaur eggs in a dedicated museum for them in China: https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/xixia-museum-of-dinosaur-fossil-eggs-of-china/ And a post on the famous brooding dinosaur on a nest known as 'big mama' https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/big-mama-%e2%80%93-nesting-dinosaurs/ An article by palaeontologist Elsa Panciroli on sexing animals in the fossil record https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/jan/24/cloacae-sex-arms-and-penis-bones-the-tricky-art-of-fossil-sexing Please support us on patreon. @iszi_lawrence @dave_hone @Herring1967 richardherring.com #terriblelizards

This time out it's another iconic dinosaur and the beautiful Triceratops. These huge animals with their famous three horns and large frill are a major part of so many documentaries and films, if only so they can be seen to be battling with Tyrannosaurus. As with so many of the most famous dinosaurs, Triceratops is actually quite unusual and not really representative of the group to which it belongs. It is the largest of the ceratopsians (or horned dinosaurs) and the only one with a solid frill, and was also probably rather less gregarious than many of its near relatives. We talk about these features and the possible functions of its amazing headgear, before we are joined by this week's guest - TV's cake-maker and podcaster Ralph Attanasia. He has a specific and challenging question for Dave about dinosaur faces and their cheeks (or lack thereof). CakeBossRalph An old blogpost of Dave's looking at the details of a Triceratops skull on display in Oxford: https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2010/06/03/triceratops-skull-in-detail/ A photo of a huge Triceratops skull taken by palaeontologists Matt Wedel and Mike Taylor: https://svpow.com/2016/05/06/sv-pow-endorses-triceratops/ A blogpost on some research led by Dave's PhD student (now Dr) Andy Knapp on ceratopsian frills and their evolution: https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2018/03/21/ceratopsian-horns-and-frills-what-drove-their-evolution/ and the full research paper is here: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2018.0312

In this episode we take a look at dinosaur skin and talk about the changing appearances of dinosaurs over the last 150 years. Scientists have been constantly updating their ideas about the look of various species and new evidence unfolds and our understanding improves, from their earliest depictions as lumbering lizards, though to the discovery of feathers in dinosaurs at the close of the 20th Century. We now know that many dinosaurs, and not just those closes to birds, had feathers and some very distantly related groups also had filamentous structures which could even be true feathers. However, gaps in the fossil record means that for many lineages it is uncertain quite what species had in terms of scales, feathers or both. On the upside, the discovery of many exceptionally preserved fossils has now allowed palaeontologists to being to investigate some incredible details of dinosaur appearances, including their patterns and even colours. We are joined by historian (and dinosaur aficionado) Tom Holland, who wants to know more about the dinosaur-bird link and whether or not the study of living birds can tell us something about dinosaurs. Dave's Guardian article on which dinosaurs had feathers https://www.theguardian.com/science/lost-worlds/2013/jun/10/dinosaurs-fossils A paper Dave co-authored on feathers and 'dandruff' in dinosaurs https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-04443-x.

For our second episode we take a look at the archetypal big dinosaur, Diplodocus. It has an important place in dinosaur history as one of the first very complete animals found, and the first to be cast with copies shipped around the world. As a result, Diplodocus had become lodged in the public mind as a 'typical' sauropod but it has plenty of features that make it unique and unusual. We cover its name which relates to its unusual whip-tail, and discuss how these huge animals held their tails and what they used them for. At the other end we talk about their long necks and remarkably little heads with their ususual feeding strategy. Then we dive into their amazing air-filled skeletons and discuss how even these 25 m and 30 m long animals are much lighter than you might think. Finally, we are joined by special guest comedian Jo Caulfield, who asks Dave about why dinosaurs like Diplodocus got so big. Dave's Guardian article about the removal of 'Dippy' from the Natural History Museum in London https://www.theguardian.com/science/lost-worlds/2015/jan/30/diplodocus-starts-a-long-goodbye Dave's blogpost on the original specimen on display at the Carnegie Museum. https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2011/11/11/a-pair-of-giants/ If you want to get ultra-nerdy about sauropods, check out this blog dedicated to sauropod vertebrae: https://svpow.com/

For our first ever episode of Terrible Lizards we start, perhaps inevitably, with the most famous and iconic dinosaur ever – Tyrannosaurus. (Actually I wanted to do Nqwebasaurus but Iszi wouldn't let me). The king is an absolute cultural icon and appears in pretty much every dinosaur movie and documentary of the last 50 years. As science progresses though, that mostly means that the public perception of this animal has got more and more out of tune with our modern understanding. So in this episode we talk about their giant heads and weird teeth, famously small arms, super-senses and tackle the vexed question of were they predators or scavengers? We round off with the issues of the mystery dwarf tyrannosaur Nanotyrannus and whether it is, or isn't just a juvenile rex. Then the brilliant natural history broadcaster Chris Packham joins us to share his love of Tyrannosaurus and to ask Dave what he thinks a Tyrannosaurus would look like in real life. Links: Dave's Royal Institution lecture on the evolution of tyrannosaurs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-jD7kQvyPs Guardian article by Dave & Chris Packham on the making of their Tyrannosaurus documentary: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/jan/02/the-real-t-rex-with-chris-packham-an-attempt-at-a-truthful-tyrannosaurus-bbc Series of blogposts by Dave on the wonderful collection of Tyrannosaurus specimens at the Carnegie Museum: https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2011/11/14/carnegie-tyrannosaurus-pt-1/

A peak at the upcoming series of Terrible Lizards, a podcast about dinosaurs with Dr David Hone and Iszi Lawrence. Guest this series include Chris Packham, Jo Caulfield, Alice Fraser, Richard Herring, Tom Holland and Ralph Attanasia. Please subscribe so you never miss an episode. Please support the show via our Patreon and find us on Facebook.