Ep #79 Teen Rex and the Triumph of Turtles with Tyler Lyson

Episode 79 Paleo Nerds with Tyler Lyson

LINKS

485 million years of climate tracking
A new Science study reconstructs Earth’s surface temperature across the past 485 million years, providing a long-term context for today’s climate by stitching together many geologic proxies into a single, comparable curve.

THE big T rex find
A short video tease for the Denver Museum of Nature & Science’s “Teen Rex” discovery—introducing the fossil and the team that unearthed it.

T. REX 3D at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Giant-screen documentary at DMNS that blends cutting-edge T. rex science with the real-world excavation and prep of the “Teen Rex” fossil now featured by the museum.

Amazing Teen Rex time-lapse video
A time-lapse of fossil preparation showing the painstaking work that reveals the bones of DMNS’s teenage T. rex from its rocky matrix.

Lindsay Zanno and the “Dueling Dinosaurs”
A talk/overview on the famous T. rex and Triceratops “Dueling Dinosaurs” block and what scientists hope to learn from this exceptional specimen.

Eunotosaurus, an early turtle relative
A Permian reptile from South Africa widely interpreted as a stem-turtle—important to hypotheses about how the turtle shell and skull evolved (with debate ongoing).

Odontochelys, a key early turtle relative (~220 Ma)
This Late Triassic species has teeth and a well-formed plastron but only a partially developed carapace—classic transitional anatomy for early turtle evolution.

Turtles brumate—did you know that?
A clear explainer on brumation (a hibernation-like dormancy) in turtles and tortoises—what it is, when it happens, and how it differs from mammal hibernation.

Evolution of the Turtle Shell (video)
A concise primer on how ribs broadened and fused, and how plastron and carapace structures arose, tying fossils like Eunotosaurus, Pappochelys, and Odontochelys into the story.

Proganochelys, an ancient turtle with a full shell
Among the oldest turtles known from the Late Triassic; it had a fully developed shell but couldn’t retract its head, preserving an early stage of turtle defense anatomy.

Odontochelys, the “missing link” in turtle evolution
More on this pivotal fossil: its plastron-first condition supports the idea that different parts of the shell evolved in steps rather than all at once.

Basilemys, a Grand Staircase–Escalante turtle (with eggs!)
A large, terrestrial Cretaceous turtle known from Grand Staircase–Escalante; a Kaiparowits bonebed has yielded multiple Basilemys—several gravid with eggs—offering rare reproductive insights.

Parthenogenesis: reproduction without sex
A quick reference on asexual reproduction in which embryos develop without fertilization—rare in vertebrates but documented in several lineages.

Carrier’s constraint: can you breathe while you run?
Why many side-to-side-running tetrapods struggle to breathe and sprint simultaneously—lateral body flexion shunts air between lungs instead of ventilating efficiently.

Hibernation in turtles: brumation basics
Veterinary guidance on recognizing and safely managing brumation in captive turtles and tortoises.

Stupendemys: one of the largest turtles ever
A giant freshwater turtle from the Miocene–Pliocene of South America; with a carapace approaching 3 meters, it ranks among the largest turtles known.

TURTLES!
A fast, fun video celebrating turtle diversity and the extraordinary biology that sets chelonians apart.

Terrestrial K/Pg boundary at Mud Buttes (figure)
A stratigraphic figure showing the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary exposure at Mud Buttes, North Dakota—complete with boundary clay and section context.

The “Tanis” site: the day the dinosaurs died?
BBC coverage of the North Dakota site whose spectacular fossils have been interpreted as recording the impact day itself—an attention-grabbing claim still under active scrutiny.

Corral Bluffs fossils at the Denver Museum
Explore DMNS coverage of the Corral Bluffs discovery near Colorado Springs and the “Rise of the Mammals/After the Asteroid” research documenting recovery after the K/Pg extinction.

The earliest primates: plesiadapiforms
A readable overview of primate origins and the plesiadapiforms—early relatives that illuminate how key primate traits emerged after the end-Cretaceous extinction.

MUSIC

Taxi by the Amish Robots
Jurassic Park 3 DVD Theme MCA Universal
I’m Afraid by Whiskey Class
Drippy by Patrick Troll