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The Fossil Files: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Robert Sansom and Susannah Maidment
In "The Fossil Files", a pair of palaeontologists delve into the latest discoveries from the world of palaeontology and seek to bring fossils to back to life. Each episode, Susie and Rob will discuss an interesting new research paper ranging from topics of what dinosaurs ate, how plesiosaurs swam, where we came from, and the science of de-extinction. Whilst doing so, we peek under the hood of how the science of palaeontology is done and how research gets to see the light of day. It is for anybody interested in palaeontology and past life whether that is students, researchers themselves, or simply the fossil-curious - we laugh as we learn, and hope you will too.Episode guide at https://fossils.libsyn.com/Bonus content at Patreon https://patreon.com/FossilFiles
Latest Episodes
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- 3 days ago33 min
Were Dinosaurs too big to walk? Fake news from Big Palaeo
Were dinosaurs to big to walk? In last episode we looked at some of the science of whether large dinosaurs such as sauropods could cross oceans. This week we look at some of the perhaps… less scientific approaches to dinosaurs swimming; The Aquatic Dinosaur hypothesis contends that dinosaurs would have been too big to walk on land and must have been swimmers. We poor some scorn on this with the help of Dr Darren Naish. We also take a look at some palaeo-drama over interpretations of skin colour in sauropods using fossil melanosomes (i.e. tiny subcellular organelles that contain pigments).The papers discussed this week are "The response to and rejection of Brian Ford's Too Big to Walk, a 21st century effort to reinstate the aquatic dinosaur hypothesis" by Darren Naish published June 2024 in Historical Biology https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2024.2421268 And for the sauropod colour "Fossilized melanosomes reveal colour patterning of a sauropod dinosaur" by Tess Gallagher and colleagues published in Royal Society Open Science December 2025 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.251232 and the response paper by Valentina Rossi and Maria McNamara "The colour of sauropod skin. A comment on: 'Fossilized melanosomes reveal colour patterning of a sauropod dinosaur', (2025) by Gallagher et al." published in September 2026 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.260429 A<span style= "font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial,san
- 1 weeks ago10 min
When Palaeontology Makes the News: How (and how not) to do it [Bonus Preview]
This is a preview of a bonus episode. Full bonus episodes are available to our Patreon members via https://www.patreon.com/cw/FossilFiles Scientists have a responsibility to get their research into the wider world via the media and the press. This is especially true to palaeontologists as we have fortune of working in a field that sparks the imagination of the wider public. But how is this done? In this bonus episode we take a look at the process of how palaeontologists get their work out there, and the relative responsibilities of scientists, press officers and journalists. Along the way we take a look at some remarkable failures of public communication of science and try to learn lessons from them. Some of the news stories we discuss, including the Metro, Daily Mail, and The Telegraph,are linked below https://metro.co.uk/2017/10/11/this-strange-walrus-lizard-dog-pig-may-hold-the-key-to-saving-us-all-scientists-claim-6992095/amp/ https://www.dailymail.com/sciencetech/article-2589969/The-520-million-year-old-gentle-giant-Fossil-reveals-bizarre-new-species-whale-ancestor-filtered-plankton.html<
- 2 weeks ago40 min
Could dinosaurs swim across oceans? Part 1
Dinosaurs were massive. No cap. They spread all over the world, but how did they cross oceans? In this episode we ask the question: how far could a dinosaur swim? This isn't just an esoteric question, but one that has a big impact on how we try to reconstruct palaeobiogeography of the Mesozoic and how diversification happens. To do so we look at some new fossil finds from Spain and some weird maths based on rare footage of ostriches swimming and how much fat was on a sauropod. This week's papers are "Intercontinental evidence of the iconic genus Diplodocus Marsh, 1878 (Dinosauria, Sauropoda)" by Sergio Sánchez-Fenollosa and colleagues published in Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology in Jan 2026 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2026.2718423 and "ENHYDROSS: A New Mechanistic Model Supports the Trans-Oceanic Dispersal Capability of Terrestrial Vertebrates" by Alexandros Pantelides and colleagues published in Ecology and Evolution in March 2026 https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.73280 <span style= "font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-ali
- Oct 6, 202650 min
Cute fossil babies reveal how mammals evolved live birth
How and when did mammals transition from laying eggs to live birth? The fossil record doesn't typically preserve soft tissues like embryos and placentas making this a tough problem. This week we take a look at two new fossil discoveries that begin to answer the question of mammal evolution, and challenge orthodoxy. A cute baby dicynodont fossil from the Triassic of South Africa is the first mammal to be captured 'in ovo' i.e. inside its egg. Secondly, we discuss a new fossil cynodont from the Triassic of Argentina that might have recorded its growth and birth in its bone histology. Using this we begin to piece together our own evolutionary history and estimate when placental mammals 'got cracking'. Along we way we ask if viviparity evolved twice and whether teenagers can be trusted to go to the shops to get eggs. The papers discussed this week are "The first non-mammalian synapsid embryo from the Triassic of South Africa" by Julien Benoit and colleagues published in PLoS One in April 2026 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0345016 and "Early origin of viviparity in the mammalian lineage" by Leandro Carlos Gaetano and colleagues published in Frontiers in Mammal Science https://doi.org/10.3389/fmamm.2026.1845319 Palaeoart by Sophie Vrard.
- Sep 29, 202613 min
Are we failing the next generation of palaeontologists? The future of fieldwork [Bonus Preview]
New finds in palaeontology are dependent on people getting out in the field and digging up fossils, but are the next generation of palaeontologists getting to do that? Opportunities for fieldwork and fieldwork training have become more expensive, which means students might not be getting the training they need. What happens next? In this week's bonus episode, Susie and Rob discuss the importance of fieldwork and whether the next generation of palaeontologists are facing 'an extinction of experience'. We focus on the views of students and early career researchers and ponder what happens to palaeontology if we focus on large scale studies of existing data to the exclusion of digging up new stuff. This is a preview of the full episode available to our Patreon members https://www.patreon.com/cw/FossilFiles The main paper discuss in this episode is "#Yourpalaeolife: Interrogating the Status of Fieldwork Among Early Career Palaeontology Researchers" by Harriett Nuttall published in Ecology and Evolution in July 2026 https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.74032 We need your support to be able to continue creating The Fossil Files. To get access to exclusive bonus episodes, you can find us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/cw/FossilFiles
- Sep 22, 202636 min
The sound of a Jurassic forest, recreated using fossils and AI
Sounds play such an important ecological role, but palaeontologists have always had to use their imagination when reconstructing the sound of extinct landscapes: Until now! For the first time a team of scientists have reconstructed the sound of a whole palaeo-community. Using fossil insect wings and some technological approaches to modern animals, the team were able to use physics and AI models to reconstruct the acoustic landscape of a Jurassic forest peppered with the calls of insects. Were the animals avoiding predators or just talking to each other? Listen in and find out. This week's paper is "Reconstruction of an extinct soundscape reveals ultrasonic communication in the Jurassic" by Jun-Jie Gu, Fernando Montealegre-Zapata and colleagues published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in August 2026 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2615107123 We also provide some updates from previous episodes: #5 "Were Neanderthals the first fossil collectors" updated with Roman findings https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068113X26100749 #30 "How can we reconstruct the smell of extinct organisms" smells different using new data from fishes https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2025.3277<span style= "font-size:
- Sep 8, 202647 min
Where did turtles come from?
The origin of turtles has long been a scientific mystery. Not only do they have super weird things going on with their ribs, head, and teeth, but also its unclear if they were more closely related to birds and crocodiles, or snakes and lizards, or something else. This week we take a deep dive into the origin of turtles, terrapins and tortoises, and the process of "turtleization". New data from the important Permian critter Eunotosaurus of South Africa might have now solved that problem of the question: Where did turtles come from? This weeks's paper is "The phylogenetic origin of turtles" by Xavier Jenkins and colleagues published in Current Biology in June 2026 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2026.04.070 Wide screen art by Gabriel Ugeuto.
- Aug 28, 202619 min
Fake Fossil Fails [Bonus]
What happens when fossils that have been faked or 'enhanced' end up being used in scientific studies? Why does it happen? How can we spot them? How do researchers, preparators, publishers and museums deal with it? In this bonus episode Susie and Rob take a look at three nightmarish examples of faked fossils that ended up in the scientific literature, and what happened after they were spotted. Our first story is the discovery that the exceptional soft tissues of a famous Permian reptile had actually been painted on, the second of a dinosaur that had been stitched together from multiple fossils that ended up being far more interesting than the fake, and finally a cheetah that was stitched together from fossil, plastic, and plaster, yet still got published. This is a preview of our bonus episode. The full episode is available on our Patreon along with lots of other bonus content https://www.patreon.com/cw/FossilFiles The papers and sources discussed this week are: "Forged soft tissues revealed in the oldest fossil reptile from the early Permian of the Alps" by Valentina Rossi and colleagues published in Palaeontology in February 2024 https://doi.org/10.1111/pala.12690 "The Archaeoraptor forgery" by Timothy Rowe and colleagues published in Nature in 2001 <span style= "font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #1155cc; background-color: transparent; font-weight
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About The Fossil Files
In "The Fossil Files", a pair of palaeontologists delve into the latest discoveries from the world of palaeontology and seek to bring fossils to back to life. Each episode, Susie and Rob will discuss an interesting new research paper ranging from topics of what dinosaurs ate, how plesiosaurs swam, where we came from, and the science of de-extinction. Whilst doing so, we peek under the hood of how the science of palaeontology is done and how research gets to see the light of day. It is for anybody interested in palaeontology and past life whether that is students, researchers themselves, or simply the fossil-curious - we laugh as we learn, and hope you will too.Episode guide at https://fossils.libsyn.com/Bonus content at Patreon https://patreon.com/FossilFiles
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