Palaeo Jam
Palaeo Jam is a podcast exploring a range of issues in science and the community, using the multidisciplinary aspects of, and public fascination with, palaeontology. Palaeo Jam uses fossils, and other objects from palaeontology, to explore a range of scientific and social issues, and incorporate key research and discoveries into its content. that fancy description aside, it’s really an opportunity for host Michael Mills to chat with palaeontologists and learn some cool things!. Each episode is restricted to a strict, 30-minute timeframe. Each episode has a panel of up to three guests, and is hosted by award-winning science communicator Michael Mills. You can but a Palaeo Jam mug, and eventually others Palaeo Jam merch from the Dinosaur University shop!
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Episodes
Friday Sep 02, 2022
Friday Sep 02, 2022
Matrescence has been defined as “the physical, emotional, hormonal and social transition to becoming a mother.”
In a recent blog titled “Palaeo-matrescence”, Dr Alice Clement noted the following…
“I wanted to seek advice from colleagues who had navigated the same journey as me, but it was difficult to find people in the same boat. I could see plenty of “parents in palaeo”, but looking for mothers (in the traditional, biological sense) was a harder task. Where are they all?”
In this episode of Palaeo Jam, host Michael Mills is joined by Alice, and Dr Vera Weisbecker, to discuss the impact and challenges having children has had on the careers of women in palaeontology, and whether or not things have changed over the years.
To Alice’s full blog, head to… https://draliceclement.com/2022/07/06/palaeo-matrescence/
For more of Alice’s blog posts, check out https://draliceclement.com, and follow Alice on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DrAliceClement.
Dr Vera Weisbecker is an evolutionary developmental morphologist, which is a fancy way of saying she likes to study the diversity of Australian land vertebrates in all their glory. You can follow Vera on Twitter at https://twitter.com/WeisbeckerLab
Vera has just finished developing a game to transmit her team’s love for Australian present and past biodiversity and the evolutionary process behind it. It’s called “Go Extinct! Megafauna edition”. It can be downloaded for free through the Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage… https://epicaustralia.org.au/resource/goextinctmegafauna/
Friday Aug 26, 2022
Friday Aug 26, 2022
Palaeontology is often seen as one of the cool sciences, if not the coolest, because, of course, it’s the one with dinosaurs!
Is there more to it, though?
Don’t get us wrong… dinosaurs are awesome!
Does palaeontology have any practical use to the community? Is there any real value beyond thinking it’s cool, that palaeontology brings to the table?
In this episode of Palaeo Jam, host Michael Mills is joined by Dr Aaron Camens, (lecturer in palaeontology at Flinders University), and Pheobe McInerney, (PhD Candidate at Flinders University) to discuss all the things, and what they think makes palaeontology such a valuable science.
In pondering this very issue, Aaron recently said…
“The fossil record records diversity but it is much more than that. It contains abundant data about how past ecosystems have functioned, the kinds of habitats extinct organisms used to live in and their environmental tolerances. Without the fossil record we wouldn’t understand nearly as much as we do about how today’s ecosystems will respond to change going into the future…”
You can follow Aaron on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DiprotoRon, and check out his Flinders University profile at https://sites.flinders.edu.au/palaeontology/home/people/academics/aaron-camens/
Amongst his extensive research work, Aaron co-authored a paper that gave us a more complete picture of the largest marsupial predator known, Thylacoleo carnifex. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0208020
Phoebe is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Phoebyornis Check out her recent article in The Conversation about disease in giant prehistoric birds, and how we know about it.
https://theconversation.com/fossil-find-reveals-giant-prehistoric-thunder-birds-were-riddled-with-bone-disease-173745
About Palaeo Jam
Palaeo Jam is a podcast exploring a range of issues in science and the community, using the multidisciplinary aspects of, and public fascination with, palaeontology. It is an Australian-based palaeo podcast, which launched at a publicly accessible live event at Flinders University, where the first two episodes were recorded in front of an audience.
The format for Palaeo Jam is as follows
- Palaeo Jam uses fossils and other objects from palaeontology to explore a range of scientific and social issues, and incorporate key research and discoveries into its content. Each guest brings an object.
- Each episode has a theme.
- Each episode is strictly 30 minutes in length. There is always a timer present, and visible to the audience in live records.
- Each episode has a panel of up to four, including Michael Mills as the host. We aim to give voice to researchers who don’t often get the opportunity to participate in such forums.
- Palaeo Jam is discussion, curiosity, and exploration, rather than being a collection of presentations. Through pondering connections between items, we hope to uncover insights and delve into unusual and interesting corners of palaeontology.
- Show notes for people to dive deeper are uploaded to this website, with the work of each panelist being highlighted.