Terrible Lizards

S01E06 Weird and Wonderful Dinosaurs


Listen Later

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/

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Terrible LizardsBy Iszi Lawrence and David Hone

  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9

4.9

181 ratings


More shows like Terrible Lizards

View all
In Our Time by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time

5,455 Listeners

In Our Time: Science by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Science

730 Listeners

Palaeocast by Palaeocast

Palaeocast

158 Listeners

Origin Stories by The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories

505 Listeners

I Know Dino: The Big Dinosaur Podcast by I KNOW DINO, LLC

I Know Dino: The Big Dinosaur Podcast

519 Listeners

Dan Snow's History Hit by History Hit

Dan Snow's History Hit

4,796 Listeners

The Common Descent Podcast by Common Descent

The Common Descent Podcast

738 Listeners

Tides of History by Wondery /  Patrick Wyman

Tides of History

6,307 Listeners

The Supermassive Podcast by The Royal Astronomical Society

The Supermassive Podcast

331 Listeners

The Ancients by History Hit

The Ancients

3,292 Listeners

Paleo Nerds by paleonerds

Paleo Nerds

160 Listeners

Geology Bites by Oliver Strimpel

Geology Bites

149 Listeners

The Rest Is History by Goalhanger

The Rest Is History

15,474 Listeners

Gone Medieval by History Hit

Gone Medieval

1,865 Listeners

Lateral with Tom Scott by Tom Scott and David Bodycombe

Lateral with Tom Scott

478 Listeners