The Fossil Files

Robert Sansom and Susannah Maidment 43 - Were dinosaurs eating fruit? Cretaceous Plant Power

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

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Episodes

18 Aug 2026

04 Aug 2026

28 Jul 2026

21 Jul 2026

14 Jul 2026

30 Jun 2026

23 Jun 2026

16 Jun 2026

09 Jun 2026

26 May 2026

12 May 2026

05 May 2026

21 Apr 2026

14 Apr 2026

07 Apr 2026

31 Mar 2026

23 Mar 2026

11 Mar 2026

24 Feb 2026

10 Feb 2026

27 Jan 2026

13 Jan 2026

23 Dec 2025

16 Dec 2025

02 Dec 2025

21 Nov 2025

15 Nov 2025

13 Nov 2025

03 Nov 2025

21 Oct 2025

07 Oct 2025

23 Sep 2025

08 Sep 2025

02 Sep 2025

25 Aug 2025

19 Aug 2025

05 Aug 2025

22 Jul 2025

09 Jul 2025

01 Jul 2025

24 Jun 2025

13 Jun 2025

The Fossil Files

Episodes

Were dinosaurs eating fruit? Cretaceous Plant Power

The weird case of a whale necropolis, sat at the bottom of an ocean trench for 5 million years

How to become a palaeontologist: Finding and applying for PhDs

The hunt for the first-ever animals, with Emily Mitchell

Did a lack of sex hold back the evolution of the first animals?

Why did T. rex have such small arms? Revealed

Digging for dinosaurs and the battle against poaching: Susie reports from the field [Preview]

The Fossil Files is one year old: The best bits so far

The Mysterious Devonian Giant that may be an unknown branch of life

Were giant super intelligent octopuses the top predators of the Cretaceous?

Aliens burning coal? [bonus preview]

How can we reconstruct the sense of smell of extinct organisms?

The First Fossil Puke: What It Reveals About Permian Predators

How to get a Species of Human Named after you [Preview]

Fossil Fails: Weird ideas about how and when Mammoths were "Snuffed Out"

How to become a palaeontologist [Preview]

25. A dinosaur covered in porcupine spines & the earliest fossil cloaca

24. How and when did animals first appear? Extraordinary new fossils from China

23. Squishy fishies and horned Hungarian dinosaurs: Fossils hidden in plain sight

22. The dawn of dangerous seas in the Triassic

21. Lead Poisoned Apes and Our Human Origins

20. Back-breaking and baby making, the disturbing bedroom habits of hadrosaurs

19. Dinosaurs were doing fine (before the asteroid), with Steve Brusatte. part 2

18. Dinosaurs were doing fine (before the asteroid), with Steve Brusatte. part 1

17. Will palaeontologists go extinct? AI & the future of palaeo

16. Rotting crocs, the dino bus, and engineering skulls: Day 3 at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology

15. Swimming robots and walking fish: Day 2 at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology

14. Nanotyrannus and vertebrate origins: day 1 at the society of vertebrate paleontology

A new head banging dinosaur

Cretaceous zombie ants

Fossil Fails: The tiny dino with a massive flaw

Fossil Fails: A Precambrian beehive and dinosaurs on the moon

The Spicomellus Special

Mirasaura, Triassic Punk

SQUID! (bonus episode)

Our deep origins and the vertebrate that wasn't

Where did Pterosaurs come from?

Were Neanderthals the first fossil collectors?

Walking with… our Carboniferous ancestors in the rain

Is de-extinction a scam?

Dinosaur poos from Poland

How does your plesiosaur swim?

Introducing the Fossil Files