Terrible Lizards
Education & Explainer
About
Terrible Lizards is a podcast about Dinosaurs with Dr David Hone and Iszi Lawrence.
Episodes
- S12DB10 Could dinosaurs hear you whistle?
Could a dinosaur hear you whistle? Did giant dinosaurs have gigantic feathers? And would a head-butting dinosaur really scrape the ground like a bull before charging? In this Dinosaur Bite episode, palaeontologist Dr Dave Hone and Iszi Law…
- Enigmacursor: Small Dinosaurs, Big Impact
https://www.patreon.com/terriblelizards Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/giB-id1iEZE When people think of dinosaurs, it's usually the giants that come to mind—but most dinosaur groups began with much smaller, often overlooked species…
- S12DB09 Planet of the Dinosaurs 1977
Dr Dave Hone and Iszi react to an old dinosaur movie from the seventees. We recommend watching this as a video, available on our patreon (as well as on Spotify) so you can see what we are reacting to. https://www.patreon.com/terriblelizard…
- S12DB08 Dinosaur Cuckoos?
Did dinosaurs raise each other's young like modern cuckoos do? Dr Dave Hone and Iszi Lawrence discuss how we would know if brood parasitism existed millions of years ago. To get more bonus material and keep the podcast ad free go to: https…
- S12E03 Crocs
Please support the show, grab extra content and keep the podcast ad free: https://www.patreon.com/terriblelizards You can watch this as a video on youtube here: https://youtu.be/z0y9N1bPmGY Having recently caught up with the much-overlooke…
- S12DB07 Netflix: The Dinosaurs. Trailer Review
Iszi and Dave briefly discuss the new Netflix series "Dinosaurs". Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/ejpMkrDDsWw They analyse the accuracy of the trailer including the opening with Spinosaurus's hunting technique, neck musculature, and…
- S12DB06 Frost Bite
Dinosaurs in the Arctic and Antarctic likely survived cold conditions by using similar strategies to extant species. The discovery of a new T. rex femur, nicknamed Goliath, potentially validates predictions about the maximum size of these…
- S12E02 Writing with Dinosaurs
This is available to watch on youtube here: https://youtu.be/R-GgkboCjA8 Support the podcast (keep it advert free) and get exclusive content: https://www.patreon.com/terriblelizards We have talked plenty about dinosaurs in pop culture, inc…
- S12DB05 Spinosaurus Mirabilis and Ajkaceratops
Little Dinosaur bite for you! Support us for extra bonus episodes here: https://www.patreon.com/terriblelizards Covering two new papers: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2026/february/new-sabre-crested-spinosaurus-species-named-from-des…
- S12DB04 Why are pterosaurs bigger than birds?
You can watch this episode on youtube here: https://youtu.be/QI_nmQPADcE Support the podcast and get extra content by going to: https://www.patreon.com/terriblelizards In this episode from 2022, we delve into an incident that occurred in a…
- S12DB03 Where are the Australian Dinosaurs?
Dinosaur Bites is taken from a live we did back in 2024. We ask where are the Australian Dinosaurs? What was the first ever Dinosaur? Why are only small dinosaurs feathered? (or are they...) You can watch this as a video here: https://yout…
- S12E01 African Prosauropods
You can watch this episode as a video on youtube: https://youtu.be/C2atVWsvkS0 To support the show/get bonus content: www.patreon.com/terriblelizards We've barely mentioned African dinosaurs (apart from you-know-what) over the years and ha…
- S12DB02 Colours and Compsognathus bites
Dinosaur Bites 002 Terrible Lizards Podcast returns with a discussion on dinosaur colours, and Compsognathus, from a 2021 live session. We talk about the preservation of dinosaur colours is limited to certain pigments and while some colour…
- S12DB01 Spinosaur Bites
A short extract from a live we did back in 2021 about these two new #spinosaur species: Riparovenator and Ceratosuchops. If you want to find out more about these animals please listen to the free full episode on youtube: https://youtu.be/j…
- S11E12 Questions Megasode
Thanks to our wonderful Patrons we are planning video as well as audio versions of the podcast from now on! Just as we have for the Bonus Episodes. (N.B. Sometimes video may not be possible but we are hoping it will be! We are still a two-…
- Nanotyrannus or not?
The biggest news in palaeontology this year dropped just in time for us to miss it with last month's episode but we're giving it the full hour this time. The idea that there's a miniature tyrannosaur running around in the Late Cretaceous a…
- S11E10 Spinosaur Tales oo woo oo
Dave has *another* book coming out and so of course he wants to talk about it a bit on the pod. Happily for the listeners, this time out he has a coauthor and so we get to have palaeontologist and palaeoartist Mark Witton on as well so tha…
- TLS11E09 Ancient Sea Reptiles
Long time listener and second time guest Darren Naish joins us to talk about marine reptiles. While Darren is best known for his work on dinosaurs and pterosaurs, he has fingers in a huge number of vertebrate pies, and he has a new edition…
- TLS11E08 Sauropodcast Spectacular!
Disaster with the recording this episode! Sorry if it is hard to hear in places we were forced to use the emergency back up! Disaster with the recording this episode! Sorry if it is hard to hear in places we were forced to use the emergenc…
- TLS11E07 Flappy Flap Bum Flaps
Pterosaur soft tissues It's a double new paper episode this time as thanks to the magic of almost random review and publication times, Dave has two papers out on the same subject in the same month! So strap in for some absolute minutiae on…
- TLS11E06 LIVE AT FOSSIL FESTIVAL
June, rather incredibly, marks the fifth anniversary of the launch of series 1, episode 1 of the podcast. As a rather fortuitous bit of timing, we were invited to host a live Terrible Lizards event at Lyme Regis (home of Mary Anning) for t…
- TLS11E05 Curating Dinosaurs II Curate Harder
Curating Dinosaurs II Curate Harder! On this episode we welcome Jordan Mallon, a long-time collaborator of Dave's and, against the odds, a long-time listener of Terrible Lizards. While we talk about Jordan's research and career in this pod…
- TLS11E04 Curating Dinosaurs
We have talked about all manner of fundamentals of research on fossils over the years here on Terrible Lizards, including finding and excavating fossils, writing and publishing papers, reconstructing animals from fragments and more. But we…
- TLS11E03 T. rex slugfest!
This time out we are joined by palaeontologist Andre Rowe to talk about his research into the skulls of giant carnivorous dinosaurs and what this means for their biology. This turns into a debate with Dave about how evidence can be interpr…
- TLS11E02 Dinos and Dragons
This month's episode is a sort of follow-up to that from the start of the year, looking at some of the more problematic areas of dinosaurs and palaeontology when it comes to online discussions. There is an online fandom of dinosaurs that t…
- TLS11E01 Say My Name
Series 11, eh? We don't think we, or anyone else reading this, expected that. Nor did we expect issues with Dave's microphone (apologies)… Still, here we are and with more dinosaur goodness coming. We say 'coming' because this episode is f…
- TLS10E12 End of Year Megasode!
Thanks to Kyle, Tom, Ashley, Aurous, Wayne, Paleo Pete, Tyler, Will, Israel, Charles, James and Edward Support us on patreon.com/terriblelizards and be rewarded with extra content! We are planning on going live on isztube at 16:00 GMT on F…
- TLS10E11 Skiphosoura - the pterosaur of the gaps
Skiphosoura – the pterosaur of the gaps So last week Dave had a new paper out and this time it's a new pterosaur, named Skiphosoura bavarica (the sword tail of Bavaria) and it is both really interesting and really important for pterosaur r…
- TLS10E10 Uncovering Dinosaur Behaviour
Dave has a new book out next week and it's the culmination of several years work. Longtime listeners will know the major themes already from the episode title – a lot of stuff in the literature on dinosaur behaviour is badly framed, overst…
- TLS10E09 Mike Benton
Last month we mentioned that legendary palaeontologist Mike Benton had announced his retirement, but with a few quick emails, Dave was able to grab him for this month's episode. So, join Dave and Iszi as we have celebration of Mike's caree…
- TlS10E08 Sauropods couldn't lick
We've made plenty of jokes over the years about the general lack of sauropod skulls and the frustrations of trying to work out what these animals were doing when it came to things like feeding when the most important bit is missing. Happil…
- TLS10E07 The Megalosauroids
The spinosaurs get all the love (OK, mostly hate) and attention when it comes to the megalosauroids, but they are but one weird branch of this group of theropods. Sadly they have a similar problem to the spinosaurs in that there are annoyi…
- TLS10E06 The Death of The Dinosaurs
We have touched on the extinction that killed the dinosaurs plenty of times before over the various seasons of TL, but we have never really tackled it fully before. Finally, we are joined by a real expert on this subject, Melanie During wh…
- TLS10E05 Live Dinosaur Questions
Live edited recording at The Oxford Fire Station on 25/05/2024. Live Anniversary Q&A for the Oxford Podcast Festival It's the 4th (!) anniversary of the launch of Terrible Lizards and this came at a perfect time as Iszi and Dave got invite…
- TLS10E04 Dinosaurs of the Antarctic
We all know about how common dinosaurs can be in places like Europe, Argentina, the US, China and Mongolia, but they have turned up in dozens and dozens of countries and on every continent, including Antarctica. Unsurprisingly, it's a very…
- TLS10E03 Dinosaur footprints
Dinosaur footprints with Peter Falkingham Footprints and trackways are an amazing source of data on how dinosaurs moved and what they did. But interpreting these can be a real nightmare since it's hard to work out the interactions between…
- TLs10E02 Coelophysis
We don't often delve into the Triassic since Dave is not well versed in that time and the animals that were around then, but there were some very important animals that we've unduly overlooked across the last 9 series. Happily, today we ca…
- TLS10E01 200 years of dinosaurs
The year 2024 is the 200th anniversary of the naming of the first dinosaur, Megalosaurus . While 'Dinosauria' wouldn't be coined till 1842 (so we have a fair wait before that anniversary kicks in, and doubtless will be marked with another…
- TLS09E12 The Dinosaur who must not be named!
Stegosaurus with Dr Susie Maidment THE TIME HAS COME. For ages Dave, for very Dave reasons refused to cover one dinosaur. Now, we find out all about it with an expert in the field. Last year's mystery xmas present to all of you who support…
- TLS09E11 The Bite Stuff
Longtime listeners will be familiar with the fact that Dave has spent a lot of time looking at and working on various bites marks on dinosaur bones left by the carnivorous theropods. These can tell us an enormous amount about who was doing…
- TLS09E10 Dino Docs!
Dinosaur documentaries are booming again so it's time to blow the lid on some insider secrets of how these get made. (Alternative description: Dave complains for an hour about being messed around by TV companies and ignored by the very pro…
- TLS09E09 Odd ideas in palaeontology
Odd ideas in palaeontology Palaeontology as a scientific field is beyond popular in the media and with the public but that also means it draws a lot of attention from those with, let's call them, questionable ideas. And no group gets more…
- TLS09E08 Mega Questions Episode
It is the mega questions episode! Due to Dave etch-a-sketching everything in his life, making things like access to the internet an unusual hurdle, we decided to do answer as many questions we could in an hour. We didn't manage to run out…
- TLS09E07 Elvis is extinct!
Petrodactyle and Pterosaur Growth Dave has had a productive year for pterosaur papers and now two are out in quick succession(!) so get ready for a double-whammy podcast of him rolling his eyes when Iszi mentions flappy-flaps and he's tryi…
- TLS09E06 Utah Rapture
This week a 'what I did on my holidays' from Dave, though it wasn't a holiday and he dug a hole in Utah and looked at a ton of museums and quarries. The Morrison Formation is a legendary slice of dinosaur history with a huge number of famo…
- TLS09E05 A Sternum talking to
Pterosaurs flew! No big shock there, but obviously flight places major constraints and selective pressures on the skeleton. This should mean all pterosaurs have standard, not-that-varied flight anatomy (in the same way most walking animals…
- TLs09E04 Don't Mamention the neck
Sauropods in general don't get the love they should on Terrible Lizards because, well, Dave doesn't know that much about them (and everyone knows theropods are best anyways). However, there's more than a couple that are both well-known eno…
- TLS09E03 Dinosaur Displays
This is an area we have definitely covered before but it's one of perennial interest and keeps coming round with new studies, how can we tell what ancient animals were doing with weird features. More specifically, how do claims that this f…
- TLS09E02 Dinosaurs News
Dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals have been a hit in the media for about as long as palaeontologists have been digging them up. But even in the modern age of digital communication, there is almost always an intermediate (and often se…
- TLS09E01 Displaying Dinosaurs
We are into series 9 now and still going, though starting with this episode, in a bid to be more consistent and less panicked about completing series and the gaps between, we're moving to being a monthly podcast. So no end in sight yet for…