{"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":"The hunt for the first-ever animals, with Emily Mitchell","slug":"the-hunt-for-the-first-ever-animals-with-emily-mitchell","published_at":"2026-07-21T02:27:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-fossil-files-7375611/the-hunt-for-the-first-ever-animals-with-emily-mitchell","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-fossil-files-7375611","url":"https://a94020de-22e2-432b-af22-019fdb3026ee.libsyn.com/the-hunt-for-the-first-ever-animals-with-emily-mitchell","audio_url":"https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/a94020de-22e2-432b-af22-019fdb3026ee/Episode_38_Ediacaran_2_with_Emily.mp3?dest-id=5062010","summary":"Where, when, and how did the animals first appear? The fossil record holds some tantalising insights from well-preserved sites in Canada, Australia, Russia (and Leicester). This week we are joined by Dr Emily Mitchell of the University of Cambridge to discuss how to find these fascinating Ediacaran fossils, what they mean, and how they evolved. Did they move? Were they left-handed? Did they have sex? Where are they hiding? This is a story that includes lasers, school children, lichens, and bees. The papers discussed this week are \"Earliest evidence of behavioural handedness in the Ediacaran motile bilaterian Spriggina floundersi \" by Scott Evans and colleagues published in Science Reports in July 2026 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-53857-x , and \"Discovery of White Sea assemblage fossils from Laurentia\" by Scott Evans and colleagues published in Science Advances in May 2026 https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aed9916 We also continue of our discussion of last episodes's paper, \"The influence of reproductive mode on resource competition and diversity patterns in Ediacaran early animal communities\" by Emily Mitchell and Andrea Manica published in Nature Ecology and Evolution in June 2026 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-026-03094-2","meta_description":"Where, when, and how did the animals first appear? The fossil record holds some tantalising insights from well-preserved sites in Canada, Australia, Russi…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2237,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-fossil-files-7375611/episodes/the-hunt-for-the-first-ever-animals-with-emily-mitchell/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/the-hunt-for-the-first-ever-animals-with-emily-mitchell.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}