Past Time

Latest Episodes:

Episode 5: Throwing in Human Evolution Aug 02, 2013

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Humans are weird animals. We walk around on two legs, we have big brains...and we like to throw things at each other. Did all this happen in a gradual march to Homo sapiens? In this episode of Past Time, Adam and Matt talk to Dr. Susan Larson, an expert on the anatomy of living and extinct apes. Dr. Larson and Matt will try to convince Adam that mammalian and primate evolution is actually pretty interesting stuff. Dr. Larson's research introduced new wrinkles to the smoth transition from a chimp-like ancestor to us. Her work shows our close bipedal ancestors - like "Lucy" the Australopithecus and "Turkana Boy" the Homo erectus/Homo ergaster - had very different shoulder blades than ours that limited their ability to rotate their arms. This arrangement would have made throwing difficult for Homo erectus and you would have left him on the bench for the playoffs. The evolution of pitching in recent human ancestors shaped our modern anatomy and is part of what makes us human!

Quick Bite: Ocepechelon the Whale Turtle Jul 21, 2013

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Meet Ocepechlon, one of the strangest turtles to ever paddle the open ocean in our first Past Time Quick Bite! This new species was announced a few weeks ago based on a lone, beautifully preserved skull from the Late Cretaceous (end of the Age of Dinosaurs) of Morocco. The gigantic animal had a long, tubular snout that the discoverers have interpreted as an adaptation to suction feeding, a specialized feeding method used by lots of aquatic animals including some types of whales. But this would be the first known suction-feeding sea turtle. Ocepechelon also has its nasal opening placed high on its head, between its widely spaced eyes, just like the spout of a whale. Based on the researcher’s analysis, its closest relatives include the gigantic leatherback sea turtle, a huge, beautiful animal that is critically endangered. In case you were cruising for a new favorite, bizarre sea turtle, look no farther than Ocepechelon! Images and comparisons are up at www.pasttime.org

Episode 4: Giant Dinosaur Mysteries Jul 15, 2013

Show notes

Sauropod dinosaurs, the long necked creatures like Apatasaurus and Brachiosaurus, were the biggest animals to ever leave a footprint on the Earth. They were the size of whales, but didn't have the luxury of water to help them support their bulk! The massive size of sauropod dinosaurs intrigued Dr. Michael D'Emic and he has been scrutinizing their bone structure and relationships to figure out how these saurian giants managed to get around and consume enough food to keep growing.

Episode 3: What is a Reptile? Jun 30, 2013

Show notes

We all know what a reptile is, right? Scaly, sprawling legs, cold blooded. But where did they come from and how are they all related to one another? What makes a lizard different from a crocodile? In this episode Adam teaches Matt about the different lineages of reptiles alive today and some of the mysteries biologists and paleontologists are still wrestling with in the reptile family tree. Spoiler alert: Turtles are the black sheep of the family.

Episode 2: Birds are Dinosaurs! Jun 15, 2013

Show notes

What is a dinosaur? What is a bird? They're related somehow, but how does a paleontologist figure out how close Velociraptors and penguins are in the dinosaur family tree? In this episode of Past Time, Matt and Adam talk to Dr. Alan Turner, an expert on fossils from the dino-bird transition to figure out which animals are most important in sorting out this incredible evolutionary story.

Episode 1: Finding fossils in Madagascar May 25, 2013

Show notes

Are there really new fossils to find out there? How do paleontologists even figure out where to look? In the first episode of Past Time, Adam and Matt talk to Dr. Dave Krause from Stony Brook University about his incredible discoveries from Madagascar. He went to Madagascar to try to find the ancestors of weird animals like lemurs and chameleons. What he found were the even weirder dinosaurs and crocodiles that called Madagascar home 65 million years ago.

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