The Paleozoic era, meaning “ancient life”, is a division of earth’s history spanning from around 541 to 252 million years ago. It is subdivided into the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous and Permian periods. The beginning of the Paleozoic is characterised by the sudden appearance of animal ecosystems following the extinction of the Precambrian Ediacaran fauna. The end of the Paleozoic is marked by the greatest mass extinction in earth’s history, following which global ecosystems were radically reorganised.
Published on March 16th, 2021 | by Elsa Panciroli
Terrestrial life as we know it couldn’t exist without soil. Soil is a layer of minerals, organic matter, liquids, gasses and organisms that not only provides a medium for plant growth, but also modifies the atmosphere, [&hellip... Read More →
Published on December 18th, 2020 | by David Marshall
We consider the unique taphonomy of the Soom Shale biota with Prof. Sarah Gabbott... Read More →
Published on July 31st, 2020 | by David Marshall
Dr Russell Bicknell joins to examine the evolutionary history of the horseshoe crabs... Read More →
Published on May 31st, 2020 | by Vishruth Venkat
Prof. Mike Coates and Ben Otoo both join to discuss Jenny Clack's Legacy... Read More →
Published on May 1st, 2020 | by Liz Martin-Silverstone
Early tetrapods include the earliest animals to grow legs, and their closest ancestors. Moving from the water to land required a number of changes within the skeleton and muscular system, related to moving from swimming to [&hellip... Read More →
Published on January 1st, 2020 | by Elsa Panciroli
Herpetology is the study of reptiles, amphibians and caecilians. This includes frogs, salamanders, crocodiles, snakes, lizards and tuatara, to name just a few. These cold-blooded tetrapods have an evolutionary history that reaches back to the Carboniferous. [&hellip... Read More →
Published on August 14th, 2019 | by David Marshall
Between the weird and wonderful rangeomorphs of the Ediacaran Period and the world-famous palaeocommunities of the Burgess Shale, the ‘Early Cambrian’ is host to a ‘waste basket’ of fossils untied by their small size and shelly [&hellip... Read More →
Published on May 24th, 2019 | by Vishruth Venkat
One of palaeontology‘s great themes of questioning is the rise of novelty: how new structures and functions arise in specific lineages. In this episode we speak with Neil Shubin, Professor of Organismal Biology at the University [&hellip... Read More →
Published on March 1st, 2019 | by David Marshall
We explore opsins and the evolution of colour vision in ecdysozoans... Read More →
Published on January 1st, 2019 | by David Marshall
Decapods are a group of crustaceans that include such well-known families as crabs, lobsters and shrimp. Whilst crustaceans are known from as early as the Cambrian, we don’t see the first decapods until Devonian. Over the [&hellip... Read More →
Episode 124: Crocodylomorph Disparity
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Episode 123: Soil
March 16th | by
Episode 121/122: Dietary ecology of Smilodon fatalis
February 15th | by
Episode 120: Naked Ammonite
February 1st | by
Episode 119: The Soom Shale
December 18th | by
