{"podcast":{"title":"The Fossil Files","slug":"the-fossil-files-7375611","podcast_index_feed_id":7375611,"rss_url":"https://feeds.libsyn.com/583670/rss","website_url":"https://sites.libsyn.com/Fossils","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/9/9/f/3/99f352ecbfc60de0d959afa2a1bf1c87/logo4-20250704-h86q14pd0t.jpg","author":"Robert Sansom","episode_count":40,"summary":"In \"The Fossil Files\", a pair of palaeontologists delve into the latest discoveries from the world of palaeontology and seek to bring fossils to back to life. Each episode, Susie and Rob will discuss an interesting new research paper ranging from topics of what dinosaurs ate, how plesiosaurs swam, where we came from, and the science of de-extinction. Whilst doing so, we peek under the hood of how the science of palaeontology is done and how research gets to see the light of day. It is for anybody interested in palaeontology and past life whether that is students, researchers themselves, or simply the fossil-curious - we laugh as we learn, and hope you will too. Episode guide at https://fossils.libsyn.com/ Bonus content at Patreon https://patreon.com/FossilFiles","last_synced_at":"2026-07-21T12:18:38.080077+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-fossil-files-7375611"},"episode":{"title":"25. A dinosaur covered in porcupine spines & the earliest fossil cloaca","slug":"25-a-dinosaur-covered-in-porcupine-spines-the-earliest-fossil-cloaca","published_at":"2026-03-23T03:45:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-fossil-files-7375611/25-a-dinosaur-covered-in-porcupine-spines-the-earliest-fossil-cloaca","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-fossil-files-7375611","url":"https://a94020de-22e2-432b-af22-019fdb3026ee.libsyn.com/25-a-dinosaur-covered-in-porcupine-spines-the-earliest-fossil-cloaca","audio_url":"https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/a94020de-22e2-432b-af22-019fdb3026ee/episode_25_spikes_and_cloaca_Cleaned_all.mp3?dest-id=5062010","summary":"The idea that dinosaurs were all scaley beasts got a massive challenge in 2000s when a variety of feather-like structures were found in fossils in China and other places. An even greater diversity of weird coverings have been found since then, most recently an iguanodontian covered in spines. This week we take a look at the porcupine looking Haolong dongi and what this means for dinosaur evolution. We also take a look some amazing trace fossils from the Permian of Germany, so detailed they even show the scales of an early reptile, including its cloaca. That's right, an improbable fossil butthole. Two tales of suprising scales. This week's papers are \"Cellular-level preservation of cutaneous spikes in an Early Cretaceous iguanodontian dinosaur\" by Jiandong Huang and colleagues published in Nature Ecology & Evolution in February 2026 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02960-9 and \"The earliest reptile body impressions with scaly skin\" by Lorenzo Marchetti and colleagues published in Current Biology in March 2026. Wide screen artwork by Fabio Manucci.","meta_description":"The idea that dinosaurs were all scaley beasts got a massive challenge in 2000s when a variety of feather-like structures were found in fossils in China a…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1891,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-fossil-files-7375611/episodes/25-a-dinosaur-covered-in-porcupine-spines-the-earliest-fossil-cloaca/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-fossil-files-7375611/25-a-dinosaur-covered-in-porcupine-spines-the-earliest-fossil-cloaca.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}