Free Daily Podcast Summary
Palaeo After Dark: Daily Summaries Delivered
by James Lamsdell, Amanda Falk, and Curtis Congreve
A group of scientists have biweekly informal discussions about evolutionary biology and palaeontology... over beer.
Latest Episodes
The most recent episodes — sign up to get AI-powered summaries of each one.
- 5 days ago1h 45m
Podcast 333 - Think Big
The gang discusses two papers about fossil cephalopods. The first paper uses new methods to reassess the taxonomy of what was previously considered to be the oldest octopod, and the second paper uses preserved beaks to reconstruct large body sizes of Mesozoic octopods. Meanwhile, Amanda keeps it within Michigan, James brings up THE cephalopod talk, and Curt ascends. Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition): Our friends talk about two papers that look at animals with many arms and a sharp mouth. The first paper looks at some parts of a very old animal with many arms. People thought that it might be an animal with many arms that does not have a hard home to live inside and carry around with it. But this paper looks over that animal and finds that the animal is an animal that lived in a hard home that it carried, but after it died it fell out of that home when it started to fall to pieces. The second paper looks at another animal with many arms and uses the size of the mouth to see how big the animal was. They find that these animals with many arms were very very big. They also say that this means they were really sharp which the friends talk about a lot. References: Clements, Thomas, et al. "Synchrotron data reveal nautiloid characters in Pohlsepia mazonensis, refuting a Palaeozoic origin for octobrachians." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 293.2068 (2026). Ikegami, Shin, et al. "Earliest octopuses were giant top predators in Cretaceous oceans." Science 392.6796 (2026): 406-410.
- 2 weeks ago1h 27m
Podcast 332 - Bird Peepin'
The gang discusses two papers that investigate phenotypic plasticity. The first paper reviews the pathways by which phenotype can be plastic, and the second paper looks at plasticity of breeding times in urban vs rural bird populations. Meanwhile, James manages a basement, Amanda names the papers, and Curt makes allegations. Up-Goer Five (James Edition): Today the group look at two papers that are interested in how animals change because of the type of place they live. The first paper is looking at different ways that animals can be changed, either by being changed as they grow or by changing things so that while the animal does not change right now its babies are different. The paper talks about how important the little bits that escape the brain to tell your body how to grow and what to make are and that many of the changes are caused by the different numbers of things escaping the brain because of the different places that the animal lives. The other paper is looking at small angry animals that fly and seeing when they lay small round quiet babies in different places. They look at when the small round quiet babies first appear in places that are built by people and places that are built by trees and also look at how this time has changed over several years during which it has gotten hotter. They find that most small angry animals that fly have their small round quiet babies earlier in places that are built by people, and also that as things have gotten hotter that also makes them have their small round quiet babies earlier. The further up they are though it seems like the time between having small round quiet babies in place built by people and places built by trees is not as much. References: Seebacher, Frank, and Alexander G. Little. "Mechanisms underlying phenotypic plasticity in response to environmental change." Biological Reviews 101.2 (2026): 713-734. Cuchot, Paul, et al. "Facing rising temperatures in urban environments: the role of phenological plasticity in an urban-dwelling passerine, Parus major." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 293.2068 (2026).
- May 3, 20261h 39m
Podcast 331 - Reef It Up
The gang discusses two papers that investigate ancient bioherms. The first paper looks at the formation of early Phanerozoic reefs, and the second paper investigates patterns of reef building and collapse in the late Devonian. Meanwhile, James is being advertised to, Amanda plans unique roadtrips, and Curt solicits legal advice. Up-Goer Five (Amanda Edition): Today our friends talk about animals that have green friends that make hard bits. These animals that make hard parts are really important today because they make good places for other animals to live. But we don't know all about them and where they first came from and how they first started making hard parts for places to live. So the first paper looks at where these animals that make hard parts for other animals to live in come from. They look at really early animals that make hard parts and show what kinds of places they live in, and also how they stick themselves to the bottom. It looks like different animals got started in different ways, then went out to all sorts of different places and got better at making hard parts for other animals to live in, until that was all they could do. The second paper talks about a bad time when everything died and how animals that make hard parts for other things to live in all died and tiny things we can't see without making them look big took over from them. At this time there were different animals that made hard parts for other animals to live in that lived together to make big areas of hard parts, but then they all died and never came back. But when we look at the rocks we find that tiny things we can't see without making them look big are all over the place while the animals that make hard bits for other animals to live in all die. This paper talks a lot about rocks, but the important thing is that they think the tiny things we can't see without making them look big might be the kind of thing that takes over all the places when times are bad and everything dies, but that might not be the case. References: Zhuravlev, Andrey Yurevich, and Rachel Wood. "On the origin of metazoan reefs." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 293.2068 (2026). Xinsong, Zhang, et al. "How microbes replaced metazoans in reef ecosystem during the Late Devonian mass extinction: new insights from platform facies in South China." Lethaia 58.4 (2025): 1-22.
- Apr 19, 20261h 29m
Podcast 330 - Dinosaur Body Pillow
The gang discusses two papers about the functional morphology of ancient groups of animals. The first paper is a review of how the life position of rangeomorph ediacaran taxa have been reconstructed, and the second paper conducts an actualistic experiment of Oviraptor nesting strategies. Meanwhile, Curt gets activated, James doesn't die, and Amanda relishes in details. Up-Goer Five (James Edition): The group look at two papers that focus of understanding how things are long dead lived. The first paper talks about strange things that might have either lived standing up or lying down at the bottom of the water which is big and you can not drink. It is hard to tell how these things lived because there are not any around today and so instead we need to look at their form and how they are found in the rock. Most of the things seem to have lived how we thought but one actually was lying down rather than standing up. The second paper looks at how big angry animals without hair kept their round babies and helped them grow by making a form in the ground like they used and putting round babies in it. They looked at how the round babies did by themselves and how they did with a warm bag on top like their final big form. They decide that they probably had the final big form covering the round babies when they were growing but that they did not do it the same was a things that fly and do not have hair today. References: McIlroy, Duncan. "Determining the mode of life of Ediacaran rangeomorphs in deep marine settings of Peri-Gondwanan Avalonia." Assemblage 550.538Ma (2022). Su, Chun-Yu, et al. "Heat transfer in a realistic clutch reveals a lower efficiency in incubation of oviraptorid dinosaurs than of modern birds." Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 14 (2026): 1351288.
- Apr 5, 20261h 27m
Podcast 329 - Boom Shakalaka
The gang discusses two papers that use quantitative methods to investigate the biomechanical limitations of extinct organisms. The first paper models the range of jumping potential for a non-avian theropod dinosaur, and the other paper tests if an extinct bird could have skimmed the ocean for food. Meanwhile, James imagines a better future, Amanda is to blame, and Curt is heating up. Up-Goer Five (Amanda Edition): Today our friends look at two papers that talk about how things do stuff. The first paper looks at how a small one of large animals with thick skin and no hair would jump. It would jump very different than living animals with not thick skin with pieces that come off and have many parts. This is because they have long back parts that would get in the way and so they have to jump different. They could probably jump well, but just very different. The paper has very funny pictures that show this. The paper also has a computer do a pretend living animal with not thick skin with pieces that come off and have many parts, but they do not look at any living animals, just what the computer does. The second paper looks at very big not living animal with not thick skin with pieces that come off and have many parts, that has not real teeth in its mouth and shows that it could not live like some living animals with not thick skin with pieces that come off and have many parts that have very long faces and the bottom part of their mouth is much longer than the top part. They go over water and use their mouth to eat things that live in water. But the not living animal with not thick skin with pieces that come off and have many parts was too big and too bad at flying to do this kind of living. References: Hellyer-Price, Olivia, Chris Venditti, and Stuart Humphries. "The largest extinct volant bird Pelagornis could not meet the energetic demands of skimming." Royal Society Open Science 13.2 (2026). Charles, James P., Delyle T. Polet, and John R. Hutchinson. "Form–function relationships determining optimal jumping performance in an early bipedal dinosaur." Journal of The Royal Society Interface 23.235 (2026).
- Mar 22, 20261h 52m
Podcast 238 - Fins for Days
The gang discusses two papers that are united by a fin. The first paper uses a computer algorithms to infer the shape of mosasaur tail fins, and the second paper looks at a new species of Spinosaurus with a crest. Meanwhile, James tastes flavor, Amanda tastes drink, and Curt tastes indifference. Up-Goer Five - SERVER NOT FOUND! HELP! References: Song, Yang, and Johan Lindgren. "Convergence in aquatic locomotion: reconstructing mosasaurian (Squamata: Mosasauria) tail fins from osteological correlates and covariation with extant sharks." Paleobiology 52.1 (2026): 121-130. Sereno, Paul C., et al. "Scimitar-crested Spinosaurus species from the Sahara caps stepwise spinosaurid radiation." Science 391.6787 (2026): eadx5486.
- Mar 8, 20261h 25m
Podcast 327 - Horse or Deer?
The gang talk about two papers about extraordinary dinosaur fossils and the unique information that can be gleaned from them. The first paper looks at fossil skin data on a Cretaceous iguandodontian, and the second paper uses an exceptionally complete specimen to demonstrate the reality of Nanotyrannus. Meanwhile, James classifies, Amanda imagines T-rex, and Curt brings a unique energy. Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition): The friends look at two papers about big angry animals that everyone loves to talk about. The first paper is about the skin of one of these big angry animals. This skin has weird bits on it that are not like the weird bits we see in a lot of other animals that are close to these big angry animals. These bits do not look like the bits that would be used to stay warm or to move into the air. These bits look like they might hurt. The second paper looks at a lot of stuff from one big angry animal that has been said by people in the past is just a young one of another big angry animal. The paper looks at the parts of this animal, how this animal grew, and a lot of other things to show that, no, this animal is not this other animal. This animal is its own type of animal. References: Huang, Jiandong, et al. "Cellular-level preservation of cutaneous spikes in an Early Cretaceous iguanodontian dinosaur." Nature Ecology & Evolution (2026): 1-8. Zanno, Lindsay E., and James G. Napoli. "Nanotyrannus and Tyrannosaurus coexisted at the close of the Cretaceous." Nature (2025): 1-3.
- Feb 22, 20261h 42m
Podcast 326 - But What Is It?
The gang discuss two papers of odd fossils with exceptional preservation. The first paper looks at some Cambrian vertebrates and shows that soft tissue evidence suggests the presence of two sets of camera eyes (four eyes total), and they interpret the additional set of camera eyes as being a homolog to the modern parietal eye in vertebrates. The second paper uses exceptional preservation of the Rhynie Chert to test hypotheses for the taxonomic placement of the enigmatic Prototaxites and finds evidence that suggests it is not, as previously suggested, a fungus. Meanwhile, James is marooned by weather, Amanda accidentally traumatizes her cat, and Curt imagines the flesh trees. Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition): The friends talk about things that are weird. The first paper looks at a thing that is part of the big group that we are all a part of but is from a long long time ago and lived in the big blue wet thing. This thing has four eyes. Two of those eyes might be the things that become a part of the brain that is not the eyes today. But this shows that, early on, some of these animals could have had four eyes. This also means some animals we see later could have had parts of these other eyes that we have thought were other things. The second paper looks at a thing that is weird that people thought was from a group that is not an animal but has some animal like things like eating other things but has walls in the cells. These weird things are from a long time ago and come from a place where the parts were saved from breaking down by glass getting inside the cells. This means you can see lots of cell stuff, and you can also break down the glass to get at some of the cell bits. This paper looks at a lot of this weird thing and they say that it is not part of the group people thought it was from. In fact, it is so weird that it is not like any group we have today. It is maybe something that is not around today that we did not know about. References: Loron, Corentin C., et al. "Prototaxites fossils are structurally and chemically distinct from extinct and extant Fungi." Science advances 12.4 (2026): eaec6277. Lei, Xiangtong, et al. "Four camera-type eyes in the earliest vertebrates from the Cambrian Period." Nature (2026): 1-6.
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A group of scientists have biweekly informal discussions about evolutionary biology and palaeontology... over beer.
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