Megalosaurus … the dinosaur with a story … today on the wireless

Who doesn’t like dinosaurs?

Or perhaps less like and more fascinated.

All of which is a lead into this week’s In Our Time on BBC Radio 4 which is all about Megalosaurus which the accompanying notes to the programme tells me was “The first dinosaur to ever be scientifically named, almost 20 years before we even had the word ‘dinosaur’. 

In 1824, the geologist and priest William Buckland (1784-1856) stood before the Geological Society of London and announced something that would kickstart two centuries of dinosaur science. 

He’d been studying large, fossilised bones which didn’t resemble those of any living animal - and, as he told his rapt audience at that meeting, he had a new name for this mysterious and unusual creature: Megalosaurus. 

Misha Glenny and his guests discuss why the 19th century was such profound period of theological and scientific change, and how our understanding of mid Jurassic dinosaurs has changed since. 

This In Our Time episode examines the story of a dinosaur that led to palaeontology as we know it today. 

The discussion explores the influential roles of William and Mary Buckland, how we learn about animals from over 160 million years ago, and why you’d never have seen a Megalosaurus and a Tyrannosaurus Rex together.

With Emily Rayfield, Professor of Palaeobiology at the University of Bristol, Emma Nicholls, Vertebrate Palaeontologist and Collections Manager at Oxford University Museum of Natural History and Steve Brusatte, Professor of Palaeontology and Evolution at the University of Edinburgh

Producer: Martha Owen

In Our Time is a BBC Studios production”

Location;  In Our Time, BBC Radio 4

Pictures; In Our Time logo, courtesy of  the BBC and Doris the Dinosaur, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Megalosaurus: the first dinosaur to ever be scientifically named, In Our Time, BBC Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0032fqb

Feathered Dinosaurs ..... on the wireless today

Now this is one I enjoyed listening to today.*

It is from the In Our Time series and was first broadcast on October 26th in 2017.

"After 27 years, Melvyn Bragg has decided to step down from the In Our Time presenter’s chair. With over a thousand episodes to choose from, he has selected just six that capture the huge range and depth of the subjects he and his experts have tackled. In this sixth of his choices, we hear Melvyn Bragg and his guests in 2017 discussing new discoveries about dinosaurs.

Their topic is the development of theories about dinosaur feathers, following discoveries of fossils which show evidence of those feathers. 

All dinosaurs were originally thought to be related to lizards (the word 'dinosaur' was created from the Greek for 'terrible lizard') but that now appears false. 

In the last century, discoveries of fossils with feathers established that at least some dinosaurs were feathered and that some of those survived the great extinctions and evolved into the birds we see today. 

There are still many outstanding areas for study, such as what sorts of feathers they were, where on the body they were found, what their purpose was and which dinosaurs had them.

With Mike Benton, Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Bristol, Steve Brusatte, Reader and Chancellor's Fellow in Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Edinburgh, and, Maria McNamara, Senior Lecturer in Geology at University College, Cork

Producer: Simon Tillotson"

Picture; Doris the Dinosaur, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Feathered Dinosaurs, BBC Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b099v33p