Episode #015: Taphonomy: How Fossils are Found - Younger Dryas Catastrophe

Summary

In this episode, Randall Carlson explores the devastating impact of the 'Great Five' extinction events on Earth’s biodiversity. He discusses how certain Pleistocene megafauna remains have been found in unique taphonomic circumstances, raising questions about their extinction. The conversation reveals insights from scientific literature that could reshape our understanding of Earth's history.

Key takeaways

• 1The 'Great Five' extinction events detail critical phases of biodiversity loss in Earth's history.
• 2Pleistocene megafauna remains have been discovered in contexts suggesting they were burned and buried in flood deposits.
• 3Importance of taphonomy in understanding how species became extinct and their remains were preserved.
• 4Randall Carlson emphasizes the need for a deeper investigation into scientific literature related to these extinction events.

Glossary terms

Source

Transcript excerpt

That's ancientnutrition.com, code protein. This is Cosmographia, the Randall Carlson Podcast. All right, welcome back everyone to Cosmographia Podcast with Randall Carlson. We are the Snake Brothers, Russ and Kyle. We're here with Mike and Brad and Randall. How are y'all doing out there? Excellent. I'm doing better this week than I was last week. I was, well, here I go again. I just had a little bit of a hoarse throat last week left over from a cold. I had my November cold that I seemed to get like clockwork every year. It must be something about the latitude of North Georgia. Just in time to go to Little Rock. Just in time to go to Little Rock, exactly. And have to speak. And have to speak, exactly. But, yeah, much better now. Well, Mike, you're there in Georgia, too. How are you feeling? I'm fine. I actually am getting over a bout of pneumonia. I had pneumonia a couple of weeks ago. Oh, man. Oh, that's where I got it from. Well, thanks, Mike. Yeah. Good job, Mike. I appreciate that, man. Much better now. Thank you. All right. Yeah. So, Mike, so, yeah. You were dealing with something probably the same time I was. Yeah. Okay. All right. Well, we're really looking forward to getting back into the Younger Dryas. That period, we were talking about the megafaunal extinction events and various sites where they had discovered something. We've been talking a bit about the circumstances under which the fossilized carcasses are being found. Now, Kyle, do you remember the term? Taphonomy. Very good. Nice. Hey. Nicely done. You get an attaboy for that. All right. Yeah. I was going to be deeply disappointed if you didn't remember that, Kyle. I would have been, too. ...

Excerpt from Kosmographia, Jan 28, 2020. Rights remain with the original creators. Hear the full episode at the source.