Terrible Lizards

What can dinosaur footprints tell us that bones can't?
n this episode of Terrible Lizards, Iszi Lawrence and Dr Dave Hone talk to palaeontologist Brent Breithaupt about the science of trace fossils: the footprints, trackways, nests, bite marks and other evidence left behind by animals millions of years ago. 
You can watch the episode on youtube here: https://youtu.be/puS0gkuTCHY
Brent has spent decades studying dinosaur and pterosaur footprints, particularly in Wyoming, and was at the forefront of using photogrammetry to turn enormous fossil trackways into detailed 3D digital records. He explains how scientists can use footprints to investigate how dinosaurs moved, how fast they travelled, how large they were and even how they may have interacted with one another.
We also discuss: 
🦖 Dinosaur footprints: what they can tell us about individual animals and whole populations.
🦶 Trace fossils vs body fossils: why something an animal did can sometimes tell us more about its behaviour than its bones.
📸 Photogrammetry: how researchers went from stepladders, tripods and remote-control aircraft to modern drones and smartphones. 
🎈 The Great Dinosaur Footprint Blimp: what happens when you try to photograph a tracksite from the air and the Wyoming wind picks up.
🦅 Pterosaur footprints: why they are relatively rare and why Wyoming has some particularly important tracksites.
💃 Dinosaur courtship: the evidence for theropods making display scrapes, and what modern birds can tell us about interpreting these mysterious traces.
🔬 Being sceptical about fossil behaviour: why good palaeontology means considering alternative explanations rather than simply finding evidence that supports your favourite idea.
🦴 Brent also talks about his work on Big Al, Walking with Dinosaurs, modern emus and rheas, and his attempts to track down historic dinosaur quarries from the 19th century. And, naturally, Iszi gets Brent, Dave and herself to make their best guesses at what a dinosaur might sound like while displaying at a lek. Brent Breithaupt is a palaeontologist and ichnologist whose research has included dinosaur and pterosaur trace fossils, fossil trackways, photogrammetry and the history of dinosaur discoveries in Wyoming.
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Terrible Lizards is a dinosaur podcast hosted by Iszi Lawrence and palaeontologist Dr Dave Hone.

How did pterosaurs actually nest? Did they build colonies like seabirds, bury their soft-shelled eggs like crocodiles and turtles, or something stranger?
 In this archive extract, Iszi Lawrence and Dr Dave Hone discuss pterosaur nesting behaviour, what we know about predators that might have eaten pterosaurs and their eggs, and why the fossil evidence is frustratingly limited. They also tackle what might have survived the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction, why some small feathered dinosaurs might have been better placed to survive than larger species, and some of the most mysterious dinosaur fossils still waiting for more attention.
Plus: why Amargasaurus is such a strange sauropod, what "taphonomy" actually means, and whether the fossil record is missing tiny dinosaurs — including dinosaurs as small as hummingbirds. If you'd like to support the podcast and get bonus episodes every month, join us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/terriblelizards 
Watch this episode on youtube: https://youtu.be/elbP8SlWJbk

Link to youtube video: https://youtu.be/VVFicHNMxys
What happens when a palaeontologist goes back to his office and comes home with five boxes of dinosaur casts and fossils?
 In this archive extract from one of our earliest live shows, we look at the contents of Dr Dave Hone's fossil collection including a real ceratopsian skull bone, casts of tiny dinosaurs and Iszi's Lego dinosaur that turns out to be surprisingly anatomically accurate.
In this Dinosaur Bite, Dave explains how a ceratopsian's skull connects to its neck, why some fossils are particularly good for museums and outreach, and why palaeontologists have far more tiny dinosaurs than the public might expect. And just how small could an adult ceratopsian get?
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If you enjoy Terrible Lizards, please like, subscribe, leave a review, and share the podcast with a fellow dinosaur fan. It really helps us keep making new episodes.

Recorded live at DinoCon 2026, Iszi Lawrence and Dr Dave Hone answer audience questions covering everything from Spinosaurus and Tyrannosaurus to fossil auctions, pterosaur wings and the strangest dinosaur names imaginable.
For the free video link and options to support the podcast and get bonus episodes every month, join us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/terriblelizards
Questions in this episode:
Did Spinosaurus hunt by swimming like a crocodile, or stalking prey like a heron?
If you could discover one fossil that would revolutionise our understanding of spinosaurs, what would it be?
Is the famous Coelophysis cannibalism evidence still accepted?
If fossils become rock, how can scientists still use chemical isotopes and other geochemical clues to study them?
What is the one fossil each of you would most like to discover?
Are the waffle-textured Stegosaurus plates shown in Netflix's Life on Our Planet scientifically plausible? 
If you could visit any point in prehistory, where would you go? Has there been any progress understanding the enormous vertebrae from Zhuchengtyrannus?
How has recognising Nanotyrannus as a separate species affected our understanding of Tyrannosaurus growth?
What do you think about the recent paper on T. rex parental care?
Is there any evidence that spinosaurs fought each other or other dinosaurs?
Do we have any evidence that different dinosaur species hybridised?
Did tyrannosaurs hunt in family groups or packs?
Following the record-breaking sale of Gus, should fossils be protected by laws similar to archaeological treasure?
Could high-quality 3D printing help solve the problems surrounding private fossil ownership?
What's the current thinking on the famous sail of Ouranosaurus?
Did pterosaurs tear their wings, and if they did, could they still fly? 
What do the newly described sensitive snouts of spinosaurs tell us, and what do Dave and Iszi think about the latest debate over Suchomimus and Cristatusaurus? 
Plus, Dave reveals the fossil he'd most love to discover, Iszi campaigns for giant prehistoric frogs, and the audience helps bring the episode to a suitably noisy dinosaur conclusion. 
If you enjoy Terrible Lizards, please like, subscribe, leave a review, and share the podcast with a fellow dinosaur fan as it really helps us keep making new episodes.

In this bite from an old live stream, Iszi Lawrence and Dr Dave Hone discuss why claims of the "largest dinosaur ever" are much harder to prove than the headlines suggest. They explore how palaeontologists estimate the size of enormous titanosaurs, why complete skeletons are so rare, and why finding an even bigger individual is always a possibility.
Along the way they also discuss whether dinosaurs ever stopped growing, why weight matters more than length when comparing giant animals, and why every new "biggest dinosaur" announcement should be treated with a healthy dose of scientific scepticism.
Link to the article in Live Science https://www.livescience.com/largest-dinosaur-discovered-in-argentina.html
Watch on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/97pjZ7sDz2Q
If you'd like to support the podcast and get bonus episodes every month, join us on Patreon:
https://patreon.com/terriblelizards
If you enjoy Terrible Lizards, please like, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a fellow dinosaur fan - it really helps us keep making new episodes.