{"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":"Fossil Fails: Weird ideas about how and when Mammoths were \"Snuffed Out\"","slug":"fossil-fails-weird-ideas-about-how-and-when-mammoths-were-snuffed-out","published_at":"2026-04-07T04:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-fossil-files-7375611/fossil-fails-weird-ideas-about-how-and-when-mammoths-were-snuffed-out","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-fossil-files-7375611","url":"https://a94020de-22e2-432b-af22-019fdb3026ee.libsyn.com/fossil-fails-weird-ideas-about-how-and-when-mammoths-were-snuffed-out","audio_url":"https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/a94020de-22e2-432b-af22-019fdb3026ee/episode_27_mammoths_edited.mp3?dest-id=5062010","summary":"How and when did mammoths go extinct? This week we take a look at two bizarre mammoth related \"fossil fails\". The first is some unexpected results from from the \"adopt-a-mammoth\" scheme, a fascinating citizen science project trying to find the youngest mammoth fossil to date their extinction. In the second, we take some time to consider the most bizarre hypothesis of mammoth extinction yet: did they sneeze themselves to death as a result of horrible allergies and then get \"snuffed out\"? Get your skepticism at the ready. The papers we discuss this week are \"Adopted mammoths from Alaska turn out to be a whale's tale\" by Matthew Wooller and colleagues published in the Journal of Quaternary Science in December 2025 https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.70040 and \"Sense of smell reduction as factor for mammoth's and other mammals extinction\" by Gleb Zilberstein and colleagues published in Earth History and Biodiversity in September 2024 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hisbio.2024.100008 . Relevant past episodes of The Fossil Files are #10 \"Fossil Fails: A Precambrian beehive and dinosaurs on the moon\" and #3 \"Is de-extinction a scam?\". Wide screen art by James Havens.","meta_description":"How and when did mammoths go extinct? This week we take a look at two bizarre mammoth related \"fossil fails\". The first is some unexpected results from fr…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2304,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-fossil-files-7375611/episodes/fossil-fails-weird-ideas-about-how-and-when-mammoths-were-snuffed-out/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/fossil-fails-weird-ideas-about-how-and-when-mammoths-were-snuffed-out.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}