Palaeocast

Ceratopsians are some of the most iconic dinosaurs that we recognise today including animals like Triceratops and Styracosaurus, with their big horns and frills. But is that what all 'horned dinosaurs' looked like? In fact, early ceratopsians were small and horn-less, sharing other characteristics with their larger, more derived relatives.

At the The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology 2014 we met up with Dr. Andy Farke from the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology in California and discussed ceratopsian diversity and a new species he was involved with naming and describing.

Theropods are what we would classically recognise as the meat-eating dinosaurs of the Mesozoic Era. They are best known from genera such as Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor but the group is much more diverse and includies herbivores, beaked and ostrich-like forms. It is however the link between theropods and birds that has long-caught the public's attention and perhaps represents one of the most scrutinised evolutionary transitions. As more dinosaurs are discovered with feathers, should we still be asking where the cut-off point is between the two groups and not if there should be a distinction?

We caught up with Dr. Steve Brusatte, University of Edinburgh, at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting, who spoke to us about the relationship between theropods and birds.

Welcome to our coverage of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology annual conference held this year at the Estrel Hotel, Berlin, between the 5th and 9th November.

We're delighted to be back at this event, which is doubtless the biggest dedicated vertebrate palaeontology conference in the world. As per our usual conference coverage, we’re aiming to produce daily multimedia reports to give you an indication of what it's like to attend such an event and also to bring you the latest news in the field.

Welcome to our coverage of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology annual conference held this year at the Estrel Hotel, Berlin, between the 5th and 9th November.

We're delighted to be back at this event, which is doubtless the biggest dedicated vertebrate palaeontology conference in the world. As per our usual conference coverage, we’re aiming to produce daily multimedia reports to give you an indication of what it's like to attend such an event and also to bring you the latest news in the field.

Welcome to our coverage of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology annual conference held this year at the Estrel Hotel, Berlin, between the 5th and 9th November.

We're delighted to be back at this event, which is doubtless the biggest dedicated vertebrate palaeontology conference in the world. As per our usual conference coverage, we’re aiming to produce daily multimedia reports to give you an indication of what it's like to attend such an event and also to bring you the latest news in the field.

Welcome to our coverage of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology annual conference held this year at the Estrel Hotel, Berlin, between the 5th and 9th November.

We're delighted to be back at this event, which is doubtless the biggest dedicated vertebrate palaeontology conference in the world. As per our usual conference coverage, we’re aiming to produce daily multimedia reports to give you an indication of what it's like to attend such an event and also to bring you the latest news in the field.

The Emu Bay shale is a Burgess Shale-type lagerstätte from the Early Cambrian of South Australia. We speak to Dr John Paterson, of the University of New England, all about the locality and the fossils it contains.

Ostracods are tiny crustaceans (relatives of shrimps, crabs and water-fleas), distinguished by having a shell that is easily fossilised. As microfossils, by virtue of a long and rich fossil record, ostracods are extremely useful for determining the age of the sedimentary strata in which they are found, as well as providing clues to the nature of the environments and climates in which those deposits were formed. The first ostracods lived in shallow continental shelf seas during the early Ordovician period nearly 500 million years ago, later spreading and diversifying into deep oceanic as well as continental environments such as lakes and rivers. Today, as living organisms, they are globally widespread and diverse, inhabiting almost every kind of aquatic environment from the abyssal depths of the oceans to freshwater ponds.

Welcome to the final day of our coverage of the 4th International Palaeontological Congress (IPC4) from Mendoza, Argentina.

Welcome to the third day of our coverage of the 4th International Palaeontological Congress (IPC4) from Mendoza, Argentina.