Prehistoric Planet: The Official Podcast Digging Up The Evidence | 3
May 22, 2023
Tim Walker, series producer who shaped visuals and emotions, Alexander Farnsworth, paleoclimate modeler who rebuilt Maastrichtian weather, and Darren Naish, palaeontologist advising anatomy and behavior. They discuss reconstructing looks, sounds and behavior from fossils and living animals. They cover climate modeling that creates storms and polar cold, designing feathers and pterosaurs, and turning research into believable scenes.
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Living Animals Fill Fossil Gaps
- Reconstructing extinct animals relies heavily on living relatives and the fossil record together.
- Darren Naish argues living animal behavior supplies the missing data fossils can't provide.
Anatomy Allows Confident Reconstructions
- Skeletal and muscle anatomy can be confidently reconstructed from well-preserved fossils.
- Darren Naish stresses muscles follow consistent patterns across reptiles, birds and mammals enabling accurate reconstructions.
Fossil Pigments Reveal Colour Clues
- Melanosomes in exceptional fossils let scientists infer colors for some dinosaurs.
- Mark Witton notes most fossils lack this preservation, so color often comes from ecological inference.
