There’s a new episode of the LITC podcast! In this one, Marc, Niels and Natee tackle one of Britain’s most well-liked childhood heroes of palaeoart, the late Bernard Robinson. From this innocuous children’s book, we then discuss the worst day in the history of the world with Riley Black, writer of the upcoming The Last Days of the Dinosaurs. It turns out to be a surprisingly personal yet universal book. We discuss the metaphoric resonance of the story of how the Earth witnessed its most rapid mass extinction event and how life managed to move on from catastrophe. Plus: Are there dinosaurs and/or dinosaur fans in Thailand? Is Marc throwing away all his old Amargasaurus toys? Just how nasty was the heat pulse that followed the Chicxulub impact? Have we secretly become witches? That and much more in this wonderful episode.
In the News
- Amargasaurus has recieved an overhaul. Everything old becomes new again, and the old reconstructions of Amargasaurus with a sail might be accurate after all. The paper is here.
- Yuxisaurus kopchicki is the new early Asian thyreophoran in town. A contemporary of Scelidosaurus, it was nevertheless much more solidly built. The open access paper can be read here.
- A new paper has catalogued all palaeofauna from the middle Cretaceous Khok Pha Suam locality of Thailand. Read it here, it’s open access.
Vintage Dinosaur Art
Today’s Vintage Dinosaur Art book is the imaginatively titled “Dinosaurs”, published by Ladybird and illustrated by childhood dinosaur stalwart Bernard Robinson. His work is much-loved across generations, but how does this early effort, orginally from 1974, stack up to his well known later work?
- Marc’s original review is here.
Interview
It takes a wirter of the stature of Riley Black (My Beloved Brontosaurus, Skeleton Keys) to get all three of us to turn up for an interview. We discuss her new book, as well as her influences, her personal journey, her humanitarian work and her future.
Thank you for listening to the podcast! Our music was generously provided by Rohan Long. You can purchase his music at Bandcamp, and follow him at Twitter.
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2 Comments
albertonykus
April 1, 2022 at 5:41 pmA small detail, but it was great to hear Natee saying the names of the Thai localities. I wouldn’t have known how to pronounce them otherwise!
Grant Harding
April 2, 2022 at 5:21 pmGreat interview! With creatures being cooked alive and forests turned to ash, it makes me wonder how the hell anything survived at all. I’ll have to read Riley’s book and find out. I’ve also often wondered how fast the approaching asteroid would have grown in the sky. It’s really freaky to think that the asteroid was already on its way when dinosaurs began.