Fossil science, patiently brought into focus.
Palaeocast is a science interview show built around fossils, extinct life, and the methods used to study them. Episodes move from dinosaurs and mosasaurs to petrified forests, Triassic reptiles, museum context, field seasons, and new papers.
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Palaeocast is a paleontology show with a scholarly center and an unusually broad fossil range. It is comfortable with dinosaurs, but it does not treat them as the whole story. Episodes move through Petrified Forest National Park, rhynchocephalians, freshwater mosasaurs, Scleromoclus, conference research, and the long arc of a local dig. The show’s strength is patience. A guest can explain why petrified wood may have been buried quickly in geologic time, how Triassic climate shifted from semi-tropical to drier conditions, or why complete three-dimensional specimens matter for understanding obscure reptile groups. That depth gives the episodes a working-scientist feel. It is not just what was found. It is how the evidence was preserved, scanned, compared, argued over, and sometimes left unresolved. Palaeocast also has a strong sense of place. Arizona, the Hell Creek formation, Solnhofen, the Fundy Basin, Birmingham, and museum settings all become part of the story. The interviews often follow the career path of the person speaking, which makes the science feel embedded in field seasons, PhD work, publications, grants, and collections. The register is accessible but not simplified into trivia. Technical words are allowed to stay technical, with enough surrounding explanation to keep the thread clear. The show is especially good when a new study arrives with public attention, as in the freshwater mosasaur episode, and the conversation slows the headline down into evolutionary possibilities, habitats, and competing interpretations. It also values supplementary images and archive material, so the audio often points beyond itself. For listeners who want fossil science with context, uncertainty, and professional texture, Palaeocast offers a steady route through the evidence.
Made for: Palaeocast is for curious science listeners, fossil enthusiasts, students, museum-minded audiences, and anyone who enjoys detailed conversations about extinct life. It works best for people who want research context rather than quick prehistoric facts.
What sets it apart: The show stands out by giving paleontologists enough time to explain field sites, methods, specimens, publications, and unresolved questions in detail. It combines accessible hosting with research-level specificity and frequent links to visual supplementary material.
A free webseries exploring the fossil record and the evolution of life on Earth.
Freshwater mosasaurs get the full research-paper treatment, right down to salt-sneezing iguanas you will remember.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A fossil-led tour of dinosaur research, with Archaeopteryx as the episode's defining case study.
Palaeocast uses Professor Paul Barrett's A History of Dinosaurs in 50 Fossils as a guided route through the changing story of dinosaur research and where the field might head next.
A grounded look at how Petrified Forest's Triassic trees became a geological record.
Petrified Forest keeps its attention on the geology of a place where traces of a Triassic world were preserved in stone. Emily Keeble's tie to the Arizona park gives the discussion a grounded sense of setting, while lead paleontologist Adam Marsh explains how river-moved logs, a…
A careful, fossil-led look at how one surviving lineage can reopen a much larger evolutionary story.
Rhynchocephalians turn out to be a surprisingly strong lens on extinction, survival, and the slow work of reconstructing ancient lives. The episode follows Dr Victor Beccari through a group that was once diverse but now has a single living representative, the tuatara of Aotearoa…
A patient interview on freshwater mosasaurs, saltwater adaptation, and evolutionary possibility.
PaleoCast takes the freshwater mosasaur study from the late Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation and turns it into a patient look at how animals associated with salt water might have made sense of inland habitats. Dave Marshall's interview with Nathan van Vranken and Dr.
A Birmingham conference report where paleontology, fieldwork, museum plans, and Nova Scotia's tides all meet.
PaleoCast's 2025 SVP coverage works as a Birmingham field report on vertebrate paleontology as a living research community. Dave Marshall frames the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting as a rare gathering outside North America and sets up a simple aim: talk to the people…
Particle accelerators, compost piles and Queen's guitarist, all explained.
Steven Novella and a rotating panel dissect weekly science news and debunk pseudoscience claims.
APA's Kim Mills interviews psychology researchers on tipping, crying, and extremism.
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Edd Dyer discusses the challenges of researching the impact of a giant asteroid for the series Life On Our Planet.
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An interview with Professor Paul Barrett about his book 'A History of Dinosaurs in 50 Fossils', covering dinosaur research past, present, and future.
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An interview with Dr Victor Beccari about the history and decline of Rhynchocephalians, a group of reptiles with only one living species, the Tuatara.
An interview with researchers about a new study confirming freshwater mosasaurs in the late Cretaceous Hell Creek formation.
A preview of PaleoCast's coverage of the 2025 SVP meeting in Birmingham, featuring interviews and conference atmosphere.
Palaeocast host Dave Marshall interviews Filippo Bertoso about Cariocecus bocagei, a newly described iguanodontian from Portugal’s Early Cretaceous.
Paleocast episode 169 examines how grasslands evolved, using fossil evidence to trace changes across continents.
Caroline Stromberg says grasslands cover over 40% of Earth's land surface, and wheat, rice, and maize are all grasses.
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