The Cenozoic era, meaning “new life”, is a division of earth’s history spanning from around 66 million years ago to the present. It is subdivided into the Paleogene, Neogene and Quaternary periods. The beginning of the Cenozoic is characterised by a phase of recovery following the end Cretaceous mass extinction, and during which mammals and birds began to diversify.
Published on June 30th, 2017 | by Liz Martin-Silverstone
When thinking of palaeontology in Asia, most people think of Mongolia and China, but there is actually a significant palaeontology community in Japan. Japan has many fossils, starting in the Ordovician, and ranging from everything from [&hellip... Read More →
Published on June 15th, 2017 | by David Marshall
The proboscideans are a group of animals that contains the elephant and mastodont families. Many of us will be well-aware of these groups, but what of some of the lesser-known proboscideans? One such family are the [&hellip... Read More →
Published on August 1st, 2016 | by Laura Soul
The Bighorn Basin in Wyoming has been an important area for research into terrestrial ecosystems for decades. The basin formed as part of the uprising of the Rocky Mountains in the west of North America, and [&hellip... Read More →
Published on June 2nd, 2016 | by Caitlin Colleary
The Southeastern Association of Vertebrate Paleontology (SeAVP) conference took place on May 16 at the Virginia Museum of Natural History (VMNH) in Martinsville, VA. The conference included students and faculty from nearly a dozen institutions from [&hellip... Read More →
Published on April 13th, 2016 | by Liz Martin-Silverstone
Echolocation is an amazing ability that some mammals have evolved. Using sonar frequencies, dolphins and other toothed whales can communicate with each other and hunt prey, making the unique amongst marine mammals at being able to [&hellip... Read More →
Published on January 15th, 2016 | by Liz Martin-Silverstone
One of the most difficult aspects of palaeontology is understanding how extinct animals moved around. It’s one thing to find a fossil and reconstruct it’s morphology, but it’s completely another to put that morphology into action [&hellip... Read More →
Published on November 9th, 2015 | by Liz Martin-Silverstone
Crocodylomorphs today are not thought to be the most diverse group, consisting of all semi-aquatic forms of alligators, crocodiles, and gharials. However, the fossil record shows us that this group has a very long and diverse evolutionary [&hellip... Read More →
Published on October 5th, 2015 | by Liz Martin-Silverstone
The Cenozoic has often been described as the ‘Age of the Mammals’, while the Mesozoic was the ‘Age of the Dinosaurs’ which ended with the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous. Mammals, [&hellip... Read More →
Published on September 16th, 2015 | by Liz Martin-Silverstone
Primate evolution is something that is heavily debated and not very well understood in palaeontology, but it is still heavily studied. In 2009, an amazing primate fossil was found in Messel, dating to approximately 47 million [&hellip... Read More →
Published on June 15th, 2015 | by Liz Martin-Silverstone
The world is currently undergoing a massive biodiversity crisis, and many people have said that we are in the next major mass extinction event, with species going extinct each day. Unfortunately, we don’t currently understand what aspects [&hellip... Read More →
Life On Our Planet
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Episode 156: Bird necks
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Palaeocast team vacancies
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Episode 154/155: The Byron Dig
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Episode 153: Castle Bank
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