TLS12E09 Dinosaur Tracks and photogrammetry

What can dinosaur footprints tell us that bones can't?

n this episode of Terrible Lizards, Iszi Lawrence and Dr Dave Hone talk to palaeontologist Brent Breithaupt about the science of trace fossils: the footprints, trackways, nests, bite marks and other evidence left behind by animals millions of years ago.

You can watch the episode on youtube here: https://youtu.be/puS0gkuTCHY

Brent has spent decades studying dinosaur and pterosaur footprints, particularly in Wyoming, and was at the forefront of using photogrammetry to turn enormous fossil trackways into detailed 3D digital records. He explains how scientists can use footprints to investigate how dinosaurs moved, how fast they travelled, how large they were and even how they may have interacted with one another.

We also discuss:

🦖 Dinosaur footprints: what they can tell us about individual animals and whole populations.

🦶 Trace fossils vs body fossils: why something an animal did can sometimes tell us more about its behaviour than its bones.

📸 Photogrammetry: how researchers went from stepladders, tripods and remote-control aircraft to modern drones and smartphones.

🎈 The Great Dinosaur Footprint Blimp: what happens when you try to photograph a tracksite from the air and the Wyoming wind picks up.

🦅 Pterosaur footprints: why they are relatively rare and why Wyoming has some particularly important tracksites.

💃 Dinosaur courtship: the evidence for theropods making display scrapes, and what modern birds can tell us about interpreting these mysterious traces.

🔬 Being sceptical about fossil behaviour: why good palaeontology means considering alternative explanations rather than simply finding evidence that supports your favourite idea.

🦴 Brent also talks about his work on Big Al, Walking with Dinosaurs, modern emus and rheas, and his attempts to track down historic dinosaur quarries from the 19th century. And, naturally, Iszi gets Brent, Dave and herself to make their best guesses at what a dinosaur might sound like while displaying at a lek. Brent Breithaupt is a palaeontologist and ichnologist whose research has included dinosaur and pterosaur trace fossils, fossil trackways, photogrammetry and the history of dinosaur discoveries in Wyoming.

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Terrible Lizards is a dinosaur podcast hosted by Iszi Lawrence and palaeontologist Dr Dave Hone.