Palaeocast

The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology are this year holding their annual conference in the Westin Bonaventure Hotel, Los Angeles. The SVP were formed in 1940 by thirty-four paleontologists, the society now has more than 2,300 members representing professionals, students, artists, preparators and others interested in vertebrate paleontology. It is organised exclusively for educational and scientific purposes, with the object of advancing the science of vertebrate paleontology.

At this event, we’re aiming to continue our daily reports, following on from our coverage of GSA, bringing all those who can't attend a flavour of the conference.

This year sees the GSA celebrate its 125th anniversary, having formed in 1888. It's a massive event with thousands of attendees. There are literally hundreds of talks to hear and posters to see, so we're hoping to bring just a sample of it to you.

Each day we’ll be posting interviews and pictures from the conference, giving you a flavour of what it’s like to attend.

This year sees the GSA celebrate its 125th anniversary, having formed in 1888. It's a massive event with thousands of attendees. There are literally hundreds of talks to hear and posters to see, so we're hoping to bring just a sample of it to you.

Each day we’ll be posting interviews and pictures from the conference, giving you a flavour of what it’s like to attend.

This year sees the GSA celebrate its 125th anniversary, having formed in 1888. It's a massive event with thousands of attendees. There are literally hundreds of talks to hear and posters to see, so we're hoping to bring just a sample of it to you.

Each day we’ll be posting interviews and pictures from the conference, giving you a flavour of what it’s like to attend.

Most people would consider fire to be an entirely destructive process, however given the right circumstances organic materials can be exquisitely preserved by charcoalification. We no doubt all know charcoal from the BBQ, but how many of us stop to consider what it actually is?

Charcoal is formed when organic material is subjected to high temperatures in the absence of oxygen. In this situation oxidation (burning) is not possible, however water and volatiles are driven off leaving behind a carbon-rich residue. This thermochemical alteration not only increases the preservation potential of the material in the fossil record, but can also preserve details down to a cellular level as a 'carbon skeleton'.

In this episode we discuss the importance of this greatly overlooked source of palaeontological information with Professor Andrew C. Scott of the Department of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London.

In this episode we talk to Jørn Hurum, Associate Professor of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Natural History Museum Oslo, Norway. Jørn has varied research interests including dinosaurs and mammals (being one of the team of researchers who described Darwinius masillae, more commonly known as 'Ida'), but perhaps his most productive work has been with the Spitsbergen Jurassic Research Group. The Jurassic sediments of the Svalbard archipelago, north of mainland Norway, are rich in fossils of marine reptiles.

As Palaeocast celebrates it's 1st Birthday, we take the chance to look back over the past year and review our highlights. We also look towards the future and discuss our plans to attend some upcoming palaeontology conferences. We introduce a new member of the Palaeocast team and hear a little about the scientific work of all our members.

The Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event, or 'GOBE', describes one of the most important increases in biodiversity in the history of life on earth. During a relatively short time span of some 25 million years, an explosion of new species, genera and families appeared. This increase in diversity was accompanied by an increase in ecosystem complexity. Plankton and suspension feeding organisms rapidly diversified and became important constituents of the food web. At the same time, large predators, such as the orthoconic nautiloids, evolved to exploit them. This biodiversity 'explosion' coincided with a dynamic period in earth's history during which continents were shifting, mountains were raised and massive volcanism occurred.

Joining us to try and untangle the causes and consequences of this complex and fascinating period is Prof. David Harper of Durham University, UK.

Trilobites are one of the most instantly recognisable groups of fossils. They were present from the very start of the Paleozoic and went on the fill a great number of ecological roles before going extinct at the Permo-Triassic mass extinction event 252 million years ago. They ranged from the very small to the very large, from the most basic appearance to the most elaborately ornamented.

We were lucky enough to get the opportunity to speak to Prof. Richard Fortey of the Natural History Museum, London, all about trilobite morphology and ecology.

Ammonoids are a diverse group of cephalopods, a group of molluscs that include squid, octopuses, cuttlefish and nautiloids. They lived for over 300 million years (from the Early Devonian – the end Cretaceous) and survived multiple mass extinctions. They finally succumbed to the mass extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous, the same event that killed the Dinosaurs. Ammonoid fossils are found abundantly around the world and offer palaeontologists a exceptional opportunity to study the evolution, life history and ecology of these fascinating invertebrates. Today we will be talking to Dr Kenneth De Baets from the Palaeontology Section, GeoZentrum Nordbayern about what we can learn about ammonoid ecology from the study of their fossils, and what this tells us about the evolution of living cephalopods.