Paleo Bites

(image source: https://naturerules1.fandom.com/wiki/Lythronax) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Allen Brooks discuss Lythronax, a potential contender for one of the edgiest genus names of any dinosaur, right up there with Dynamoterror and Atrociraptor. It’s not enough for these dinosaurs to be scary in appearance; their names have to sound scary too! Gore King! Aaagh! From the Late Cretaceous, this 25-foot tyrannosaurid’s biggest appearance in pop-culture is probably the Nintendo DS game Fossil Fighters, a Pokémon rip-off involving dinosaurs that’s not DInosaur King. Have you played it? It’s pretty good. I mean, I assume; I’ve never played it. Want to further support the show? Sign up to our Patreon for exclusive bonus content at Patreon.com/MatthewDonald. Also, you can get links to follow Matthew Donald and purchase his books at https://linktr.ee/matthewdonald.

(image source: https://www.pteros.com/pterosaurs/dsungaripterus.html) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Ben O’Regan discuss Dsungaripterus, a pterosaur that by God Almighty looks like a mouthful to pronounce. SUN-ga-RIP-turr-US. There, I just saved you a lot of time and energy. You’re welcome. From the Early Cretaceous, this 16-foot ornithocheiroid had a really rocking piece of headgear and a mouth that pointed upward, kind of like me when getting mead poured in my mouth by the tavern maids at the Renaissance Festival while in my wizard costume. Side question, have those festivals always been that horny, or did that just happen in the last couple of years? I should really stop by there more often. Want to further support the show? Sign up to our Patreon for exclusive bonus content at Patreon.com/MatthewDonald. Also, you can get links to follow Matthew Donald and purchase his books at https://linktr.ee/matthewdonald.

(image source: https://dinopedia.fandom.com/wiki/Sarcosuchus) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Laura Owsley discuss Sarcosuchus, one of the biggest crocodilians in the fossil record that lived alongside some big hitters like Spinosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, and Suchomimus. Oh, and also a giant sawshark. A truly terrifying swamp, that was. From the Mid Cretaceous, this 38-foot crocodylomorph ate any poor herbivorous dinosaurs that dared to trespass its swamp. Hey, Ouranosaurus, wanna cross the river? You gotta pay the toll… IN BLOOD. Nomnomnomnomnomnomnom. Want to further support the show? Sign up to our Patreon for exclusive bonus content at Patreon.com/MatthewDonald. Also, you can get links to follow Matthew Donald and purchase his books at https://linktr.ee/matthewdonald.

 (image source: https://dinopedia.fandom.com/wiki/Glacialisaurus) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Lawrence Mack discuss Glacialisaurus, another dinosaur from Antarctica that lived alongside Cryolophosaurus and ate ferns and such. It’s a basic leaf-eating dinosaur, what more do you want from it? From the Early Jurassic, this 20-foot sauropodomorph lived millions of years before its hot and lush homeland became a frozen wasteland. How would you react if the land you lived in was only millions of years away from becoming a hellish landscape? Probably the same, honestly, seeing as the sun is gonna explode and Earth is gonna get scorched and entropy’s gonna tear apart protons and Hawking radiation is going to deteriorate black holes and the universe is going to be dead forever and… wait, we’re talking about some boring dinosaur, right? Where did my brain go? Existentialism…Want to further support the show? Sign up to our Patreon for exclusive bonus content at Patreon.com/MatthewDonald. Also, you can get links to follow Matthew Donald and purchase his books at https://linktr.ee/matthewdonald.

(image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrannasorus_rex)Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Allen Brooks discuss Tyrannasorus rex, a real PUNK’d of an animal by being just a plain-ass beetle named after the most fearsome dinosaur ever. Paleontologists have too much fun sometimes. Someone should rein them in. From the Miocene epoch, this 1-inch beetle was, well, a beetle. You ever seen a beetle? Then you’ve seen Tyrannasorus rex. They’re all the same. You don’t make up over half of all species in the biosphere of the planet by being distinctive.Want to further support the show? Sign up to our Patreon for exclusive bonus content at Patreon.com/MatthewDonald. Also, you can get links to follow Matthew Donald and purchase his books at https://linktr.ee/matthewdonald.

(image source: https://jurassicpark.fandom.com/wiki/Sauroposeidon) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Stephen Curro discuss Sauroposeidon, an abso-giganto-freaking-mongus dinosaur and the state dinosaur of Texas, because they like everything big down there. They ain't compensatin' for nuthin’, those durn cowboys. From the Early Cretaceous, this 70-foot macronarian sauropod lived alongside some heavy hitters like Acrocanthosaurus, Deinonychus, and Sauropelta, all of which we’ve covered on this show before, so they must be famous, right? Right? This show’s good exposure for these critters, I know it. Want to further support the show? Sign up to our Patreon for exclusive bonus content at Patreon.com/MatthewDonald. Also, you can get links to follow Matthew Donald and purchase his books at https://linktr.ee/matthewdonald.

(image source: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/triassic-bites-and-a-carnivore-conundrum) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Ben O’Regan discuss Fasolasuchus, the biggest terrestrial non-dinosaur predator of all time. What a hyper-specific superlative. I bet I’m the biggest human named Matthew that wrote a dinosaur sci-fi series called Megazoic. Except probably not, there’s a lot of Matthews out there. From the Mid Triassic, this 35-foot rauisuchian got a big bit of cinema exposure as the climactic boss fight in the recent Adam Driver movie where he’s an alien who fights dinosaurs, which sounds like the most awesome movie ever, but alas, ‘twas mid at best. No shame if you liked it, though. Want to further support the show? Sign up to our Patreon for exclusive bonus content at Patreon.com/MatthewDonald. Also, you can get links to follow Matthew Donald and purchase his books at https://linktr.ee/matthewdonald.

(image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaskacephale)Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Lawrence Mack discuss Alaskacephale, a northern dinosaur that somehow had enough minor differences to escape being lumped into the genus Pachycephalosaurus, but the wildly different and far more spiky Dracorex and Stygimoloch didn’t. Yeah, I’m never letting that go. From the Late Cretaceous, this 8-foot pachycephalosaurid lived alongside the other arctic dinosaurs like Pachyrhinosaurus and Nanuqsaurus, meaning they either had feathers to keep warm in the winter or they just used their inherent size as a form of gigantothermy. But that’s far too advanced of a topic for this dumb podcast, so who knows?Want to further support the show? Sign up to our Patreon for exclusive bonus content at Patreon.com/MatthewDonald. Also, you can get links to follow Matthew Donald and purchase his books at https://linktr.ee/matthewdonald.

(image source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/583708801714650808/) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Laura Owsley discuss Simosuchus, an adorable little burrowing critter that despite its herbivory and cuddly appearance was actually an ancient crocodylomorph. I bet its death rolls would be so cute. From the Late Cretaceous, this 3-foot notosuchian lived alongside some big frogs and mammals as well as dinosaurs in their Madagascar home, which sounds nice. I wager they all got along and there were no killings or predation at all. They just all snuggled each other. That’s my theory, I’ll publish a paper on it shortly. Want to further support the show? Sign up to our Patreon for exclusive bonus content at Patreon.com/MatthewDonald. Also, you can get links to follow Matthew Donald and purchase his books at https://linktr.ee/matthewdonald.