12 March 2020: An ancient bird trapped in amber, and life beneath the ocean floor

This week, a newly discovered bird species from the time of the dinosaurs, and microbes hundreds of metres below the ocean floor.

In this episode:

00:44 A tiny, toothy, ancient bird

Researchers have found a perfectly preserved bird fossil trapped in amber, with some rather unusual features.

The paper covered in this podcast has been retracted. New evidence suggests that the specimen might actually be a lizard, and not a bird-like dinosaur.

Read more in this article. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02214-7

The retracted paper can be found here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2068-4

08:09 Research Highlights

Dental hygiene in the time of the Vikings, and wildebeest bones feed an African ecosystem. Research Article: Bertilsson et al; Research Article: Subalusky et al.

10:21 Deep sea life

Scientists have uncovered traces of life 750m below the ocean’s surface. Research article: Li et al.

17:31 News Chat

Updates on the Coronavirus outbreak, and peer review in predatory journals. News: Coronavirus: latest news on spreading infection; News: Labs rush to study coronavirus in transgenic animals — some are in short supply

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