Fossils and Fiction

Fossils and Fiction

By Travis Holland and Alyssa Fjeld.ScienceNatural Sciences
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Fossils and Fiction episodes

  • Garret Knows Dinosaurs

    From a dino-themed wedding to running the world’s biggest dinosaur podcast, it’s Garret from I Know Dino! Garret joins Fossils and Fiction to chat about the lessons he and Sabrina have learned while covering new dinosaur discoveries every week for the past decade. 

    Check out I Know Dino on their website or your favourite podcasting app: https://iknowdino.com/ 

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    Stuff mentioned: 

    Clements, T., Atterby, J., Cleary, T., Richard P. Dearden, & Rossi, V. (2022). The perception of palaeontology in commercial off-the-shelf video games and an assessment of their potential as educational tools. Geoscience Communication, 5, 289–306. https://doi.org/10.5194/gc-5-289-2022 

    Common Descent Podcast: https://commondescentpodcast.com/

    Noble, B. (2016). Articulating Dinosaurs: A Political Anthropology. University of Toronto Press. https://utorontopress.com/9781442621329/articulating-dinosaurs/ 

    Plotnick, R. E., Anderson, B. M., Carlson, S. J., Jukar, A. M., Kimming, J., & Petsios, E. (n.d.). Paleontology Is Far More Than New Fossil Discoveries. Scientific American. Retrieved September 15, 2023, from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/paleontology-is-far-more-than-new-fossil-discoveries1/ 

    Terrible Lizards Podcast with Dave Hone and Iszi Lawrence https://terriblelizards.libsyn.com/ 

    28 min
  • Dinosaurs will always be awesome

    Jimmy Waldron once told Conan O’Brien he looked like a therizinosaurus. He also founded a non-profit called Dinosaurs Will Always Be Awesome that takes dinosaur experiences out to those who might not otherwise access them. After you’ve listened to the episode, check out more info on DWABA: https://dwaba.org/

    Check out Jimmy's research on teaching evolution to school students:

    Nadelson, L., Culp, R., Bunn, S., Burkhart, R., Shetlar, R., Nixon, K., & Waldron, J. (2009). Teaching Evolution Concepts to Early Elementary School Students. Evolution: Education and Outreach, 2(3), 458–473. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12052-009-0148-x

    27 min
  • Age of Mammals with Dr Chris Manias

    Dinotherium, diprotodon, mastodon and more! Dr Chris Manias discusses his book The Age of Mammals: Nature, Development and Paleontology in the Long Nineteenth Century. Chris is Senior Lecturer in the History of Science & Technology at Kings College London.

    Books mentioned:

    • Manias, C. (2023). The Age of Mammals: Nature, Development and Paleontology in the Long Nineteenth Century. University of Pittsburgh Press. https://upittpress.org/books/9780822947806/
    • Ashby, J. (2022). Platypus Matters: The Extraordinary Lives of Australian Mammals. HarperCollins. https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9780008431440/platypus-matters/
    • Douglas, K. (2010). Pictures of Time Beneath: Science, Heritage and the Uses of the Deep Past. CSIRO Publishing. https://www.publish.csiro.au/book/6342/
    • Panciroli, E. (2021). Beasts Before Us: The Untold Story of Mammal Origins and Evolution. Bloomsbury. https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/beasts-before-us-9781472983978/
      • 51 min
    • 'Dig Up Stupid' - Adele Pentland Talks Pals in Palaeo

      Palaeontologist Adele Pentland makes her second appearance on Fossils and Fiction to talk about... The Simpsons? Oh, and also her podcast Pals in Palaeo and her tips for science communication.

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      Find out more about Adele's work and Pals and Palaeo here:

      • Adele's website https://www.adelepentland.com/
      • Pals in Palaeo Instagram https://www.instagram.com/palsinpalaeo/
      • Pals in Palaeo links https://linktr.ee/palsinpalaeo
        • 29 min
      • Travis talks Jurassic

        I've been writing, thinking, and talking about Jurassic Park *a lot* lately. It's time to wrap all that work up into something listenable for Fossils and Fiction.

        ___


        Articles/interviews mentioned:

        • Shaye Ganam, 770 CHQR/630 CHED Edmonton and Toronto, Thirty years after Jurassic Park hit movie screens, its impact on science and culture remains as strong as ever, https://open.spotify.com/episode/1DXM7ooNyFpIQmBAIBktuK?si=v6dMHMZXQquZG7VZrQpTIQ
        • Nahal el-Hadi, The Conversation Weekly, Thirty years after Jurassic Park hit movie screens, its impact on science and culture remains as strong as ever — podcast, https://theconversation.com/thirty-years-after-jurassic-park-hit-movie-screens-its-impact-on-science-and-culture-remains-as-strong-as-ever-podcast-210110
        • Suzanne Hill, ABC Nightlife, https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/nightlife/jurassicpark-dinosaurs-movies/102492598
          • Travis Holland and Lisa Watt, The Conversation, Toss Aside Those High Heels: How Jurassic World's Claire Dearing lights a path for women in action films, https://theconversation.com/toss-aside-those-high-heels-how-jurassic-worlds-claire-dearing-lights-a-path-for-women-in-action-films-182334
            • Travis Holland, The Conversation,
              • How Jurassic Park changed film-making and our view of dinosaurs, https://theconversation.com/how-jurassic-park-changed-film-making-and-our-view-of-dinosaurs-203147
            • Travis Holland, Fossils and Fiction, Making Sarah Harding, https://www.fossilsfiction.co/2022/05/02/making-sarah-harding/
            • Holland, T., & Watt, L. (2023). Sexism in survival situations: Reconsidering gender in Jurassic Park. In S. Gerrard, & R. Middlemost (Eds.), Gender and action films 1980-2000: Beauty in motion (1st ed., pp. 123-136). (Emerald Studies in Popular Culture and Gender). Emerald Group Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80117-506-720221009
              • 25 min
            • Teaching Dinosaurs!

              If there's one thing that will spark an interest in palaeontology, it might just be finding 450 million-year-old fossil as a child. That's exactly what happened to Dr Nic Campione. Nic is originally from Canada but is now a Senior Lecturer in Earth Sciences (Palaeontology) at the University of New England in Australia. Nic tells the story of his childhood fossil find and talks about his approach to teaching troublesome palaeontology students like your host, Dr Travis Holland.

              __

              Dr Nic Campione's UNE profile: https://www.une.edu.au/staff-profiles/ers/dr-nicolas-campione

              Dr Nic Campione's research publications https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=DIilDo0AAAAJ&hl=en

              UNE's Undergraduate Certificate in Palaeontology https://www.une.edu.au/study/courses/undergraduate-certificate-in-palaeontology


              20 min
            • Littlefoot's Family Ties

              Packed with emotion and pulling the nostalgia heartstrings, how does The Land Before Time (1988) hold up today? Clemson University English Lecturer Peter Cullen Bryan takes us through the links between Don Bluth's classic film and other palaeomedia.

              _______________

              Follow Dr Peter Cullen Bryan on Twitter @pfxbryan

              Don Bluth. Somewhere Out There: My Animated Life.  SmartPop, 2022. 

              1988 Pizza Hut puppets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce17QquyL8s 

              Forgotten Disney: Essays on the Lesser-Known Productions.   https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/forgotten-disney/

              29 min
            • 'Seven years of very chill nerds' - Lucas Zellers talks Book of Extinction
              Creative all-rounder Lucas Zellers recently worked on a D&D handbook that presents the real-life stories of extinct animals, and then twists them into D&D-suitable monsters.
              ____
              Check out Lucas' work:
              Scintilla Studio https://scintilla.studio/
              Book of Extinction https://magehandpress.com/extinction
              Making a Monster podcast https://scintilla.studio/monster/
              35 min
            • Dinosaur safari with Tom Jurassic
              Dino-obsessed content creator Tom Jurassic joins me for a visit to Prehistoric Domain, an immersive dinosaur wildlife park that can be viewed in a web browser or in virtual reality.
              __
              Prehistoric Domain https://www.prehistoricdomain.com/
              Check out Tom Jurassic's 'Tales from a Jurassic World' https://www.youtube.com/@talesfromajurassicworld
              45 min

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