Ep #89 Brachiopods Deserve Your Love

Ep 89 Paleo Nerds with Susan Butts

LINKS

Younger Dryas could be caused by comet impact
Twelve thousand eight hundred years ago the Earth suddenly plunged back into Ice Age conditions. This article dives into new evidence that a comet exploding in the atmosphere may have triggered the Younger Dryas, a sudden global chill that reshaped ecosystems and helped drive megafauna toward extinction.

What is the Younger Dryas?
This is the background story behind the Younger Dryas itself, a thousand year-long cold snap at the end of the last Ice Age. Here you will find the climate data, the glacial evidence, and the scientific debates about why the planet suddenly turned icy again just when things were warming up.

Susan Butts page at Yale Peabody
Meet Dr. Susan Butts, our guest and the Director of Collections and Research at Yale’s Peabody Museum. This page gives you a look at her role managing one of the largest invertebrate paleontology collections in the world and her career working with the fossils that survived Earth’s great extinctions.

Limnology, the study of inland freshwater ecosystems
Ever wonder about the science of lakes, rivers, and ponds? Limnology is the study of inland waters and the creatures that live there. This page explains how these ecosystems work, from the chemistry of freshwater to the organisms that depend on it.

Brachiopods, the star of this episode
Brachiopods may look like clams, but they are a whole different group of marine animals that have been around for more than 500 million years. This page gives a great introduction to their shells, their way of life, and why they are such a classic fossil in places like Wisconsin.

More Brachiopod info
If you are ready to nerd out, this PDF is loaded with diagrams and details about brachiopod morphology. It is a handy guide for spotting the difference between hinge lines, folds, sulci, and all the little parts that make these fossils so fascinating.

Brachiopod morphology for sedimentologists
Here is a blog post that shows how brachiopods are more than just fossils. Their shell shapes and features help sedimentologists reconstruct ancient environments, proving that even tiny details in fossils can tell big stories about Earth’s past.

The Lingula Brachiopod is the poster child for morphology stasis
Lingula is one of the most famous brachiopods of all, because it looks almost the same today as it did more than 400 million years ago. This page explains why Lingula is often called a living fossil and how it has managed to stay nearly unchanged while most of its relatives disappeared.

The Lophophore in a Brachiopod
Brachiopods and their cousins filter feed with a delicate organ called a lophophore. This article takes you inside that structure, a crown of ciliated tentacles that captures food particles from the water, and shows how it is key to understanding these ancient creatures.

Susan’s abstract on the Arco Hills, ID Brachiopods
This is Susan Butts’s scientific paper describing beautifully silicified Carboniferous brachiopods from Idaho. It is a window into deep time, showing how these fossils preserve intricate details of shells that lived over 300 million years ago.

Image of the very spiny Productus brachiopod fossil
Check out this photo of a spiny brachiopod called Productus. Its dramatic spines helped anchor it in soft seafloor sediment, and seeing one preserved in rock makes you imagine a seafloor bristling with these odd little animals.

Baby Brachiopod is called a Spat
Even brachiopods start small. This link explains the term spat, used for the early stage of shellfish like brachiopods and oysters when they first settle down and attach to the seafloor.

Taphonomic bias or Megabias
Not all fossils get preserved equally. This page explains megabias, the idea that large-scale patterns in the fossil record are influenced by how preservation favors some organisms and environments over others.

Bentonite: An absorbent swelling clay
Bentonite is a clay formed from volcanic ash that can swell with water. It is a geologic curiosity and a practical resource, used in everything from drilling mud to cat litter, and it sometimes forms layers that mark ancient eruptions in the rock record.

George Peabody, the man who started it all
The Peabody Museum exists because of philanthropist George Peabody, a wealthy merchant who funded education and science in the 19th century. This page tells the story of how his generosity laid the foundation for one of the world’s great natural history museums.

George Peabody’s dinosaur hunter Nephew, Othnniel Charles Marsh
Othniel Charles Marsh, Peabody’s nephew, became one of the most famous paleontologists of the 19th century. This link explores his career, his rivalry with Edward Cope, and his role in naming and describing dozens of dinosaur species.

The Bone Wars between March and Cope
The Bone Wars were the legendary fossil hunting feud between Marsh and Cope. This article captures the drama of their race to outdo each other in naming new dinosaurs, a rivalry that gave science many discoveries but also a reputation for chaos and controversy.

The Brontosaurus
Once declared a mistaken name, Brontosaurus has made a comeback thanks to new research. This article explains how scientists re-evaluated old bones and decided that Brontosaurus really does deserve its place as a separate dinosaur genus.

Gastornis the Terror Bird
Gastornis was a giant, flightless bird that lived after the dinosaurs, standing taller than a human. This page shows why paleontologists think it may have been more of a plant-eater than the terrifying predator it was once imagined to be.

Zallinger’s “Age of Reptiles” mural at the Yale Peabody Museum
This blog post celebrates Rudolph Zallinger’s famous mural, The Age of Reptiles, a 110-foot-long panorama of prehistoric life painted inside the Peabody Museum. It remains one of the most iconic pieces of paleo art ever created.

Photos of the scaffolding protecting the 100’ mural
The Peabody Museum’s renovation meant carefully protecting Zallinger’s massive mural. These photos show the ingenious scaffolding and conservation work that went into safeguarding this priceless work of science and art.

YouTube video Guided tour of Zallinger’s Mural
Want a guided walk across 300 million years of life in just a few minutes? This video tour of Zallinger’s Age of Reptiles mural lets you experience the full sweep of prehistoric evolution in paint.

Ray’s Out of the Ooze linocut as he receives his Rasmuson Foundation Award
Ray Troll’s linocut Out of the Ooze captures his unique artistic vision of life rising from the seas. This page shows him honored with the Rasmuson Foundation Award, celebrating his contributions as an artist and storyteller of deep time.

Say Rafinesquina three times really fast
Rafinesquina is a flat, fan-shaped brachiopod common in Ordovician rocks. This page introduces the genus and why it is so abundant in ancient seas, making it a favorite fossil for students and collectors.

Search for cool Brachiopods in the Peabody collections
Dig into the Peabody Museum’s digital collections with this search tool. You can scroll through images and records of brachiopods in the museum’s massive holdings, bringing the drawers of specimens right to your screen.

Details on the Zallinger Mural
This page offers a closer look at Zallinger’s Age of Reptiles mural, breaking down the scenes and the science behind them. It is a guided appreciation of how art and paleontology combined to inspire generations.

Brachiopods vs Bivalves
Brachiopods and bivalves both have two shells, but they are not closely related. This link shows you how to tell them apart and explains the big evolutionary differences that make them separate branches of animal life.

MUSIC
Clove by Patrick Troll
Controls by Patrick Troll
Hump Day Riff by Ray Troll
Karpinsky's Lament by Russell Wodehouse