Pterosaurs dominated Mesozoic skies but it has always been a mystery where these flying reptiles came from. This week Susie and Rob discuss Pterosaur controveries and a cool new study that attempts to solve the problem of where and how they originated. How can you do this? By looking at the climate and locations of where pterosaurs lived and their closest relatives - the weird looking lagerpetids -, we can make predictions about how pterosaurs lived, thrived, and died. And maybe even where we should be looking for them...

Figure 4 from paper shows the authors predictions where in the Triassic world would have the right climate for Pterosaurs to live (left column) and Lagerpetids to live (right column).

The paper is "Climate drivers and palaeobiogeography of lagerpetids and early pterosaurs" published by Davide Foffa and colleauges in Nature Ecology and Evolution, June 2025.

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02767-8

Widescreen artwork: Gabriel Ugueto

Why do we collect fossils and who were the first fossil collectors? Cretaceious fossils have been found in a cave in Northern Spain alongside the Neanderthals that were living there 46,000 years ago. Were Neanderthals collecting fossils and if so why? This week Susie and Rob examine those claims and discuss fossil collecting and the recent surge in private trade in dinosaur fossils.

Because we are children, we also giggle at possibly one of the earliest fossils collected, the Erfoud Manuport as well as the Makapansgat pebble.

The paper is "Were Neanderthals the First Collectors? First Evidence Recovered in Level 4 of the Prado Vargas Cave, Cornejo, Burgos and Spain" by Marta Navazo Ruiz and colleagues from the University of Burgos. https://doi.org/10.3390/quat7040049

We also go on to discuss the Stegosaur fossil Apex sold, purchased and loaned to the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) and the sale of a Ceratosaurus fossil by Utah's Museum of Ancient life.

Our evolutionary timeline just leapt back an additional 40 million years into the past. Some new fossil trackways from the early Carboniferous of Australia have been interpreted as the first bone-fide "amniotes". This is the group of egg laying vertebrates which we belong to along, with all the other mammals, birds, and reptiles. These fossils are much earlier than previously thought possible and potentially turns our understanding of this event on its head. We take a look at these fossils and the implications, in particular that there could be loads of missing things out there yet to be found, including our own ancestors and distant relatives.

Figure from the study showing the fossil footprints slab, with details of fingers/toes and claws scrapping along the surface, and fossil rain drops.

The paper is "Earliest amniote tracks recalibrate the timeline of tetrapod evolution" by John Long and colleagues, published in Nature in May 2025. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08884-5