My What Big Eye Sockets You Have

 
To start off the very first season I was able to snag an interview with Dr. Julie Meachen, vertebrate paleontologist specializing in Ice Age carnivores who is an Associate Professor of Anatomy at Des Moines University. Her and her collaborators have been in the news a lot lately. We’ll also get to talk about all the exciting discoveries she and her collaborators are making a little later in the episode. You can follow her on Instagram @sabercatwoman and @DesMoinesUniv
A chance discovery of a deer skull while hiking was exciting because of my love of skulls and bones, but it was also intriguing because later, after the skull was cleaned by dermestid beetles and other insects, I was fascinated by the structure and shape of the skull, particularly the eye sockets. This was the second time I was struck by how big some eye sockets really are. That’s what this show is about (and a whole lot more). By the way, you can see the whole process of the discovery, collection, and processing of the remains of the deer I found on the Wild Connection TV episode called “Bone Collecting” and my friend, fellow scientist and artist’s Instagram page @Omnivoresgratiude. Here’s the deer skull and a few vertebrae she painted for me. 

First, Dr. Meachen and I talk about skulls, what we can learn about animals from their skulls, and why eye sockets are so darn big. All this talk of bones, teeth, skulls, and what we can learn led us to talk about something that’s recently been in the news, a 57,000 year old Beringian wolf puppy discovered by a gold miner in the Yukon. Her name is Zhur and like modern day puppies, this little one with mighty big teeth is garnering a lot of attention and affection. Check out this article which also has a great photo and you can read the original research paper published Dec 21, 2020 here: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdf/S0960-9822(20)31686-9.pdf
Dr. Meachen was featured in one of my Wild Connection TV episodes where she talks about the discovery of Beringian wolves as a new species. Here is the link to that episode: https://youtu.be/lRtlDwC2-UU
Then  I introduce my special segment called “Kids don’t try this at home: the wonder and special talents of other animals” and finally I make the connection between how some skulls of other species, the woodpecker, are changing the way we design the  protective gear for our own fragile heads.
Finally, we hear about Dr. Meachen’s latest research on how the dire wolf isn’t really a wolf at all and is upending much of what scientists have believed about this now extinct carnivore. The change is so drastic that they had to redraw the species itself. The painting by artist and paleontologist Mauricio Antón is stunning and you can see it here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/dire-wolves-werent-wolves-dna-analysis-reveals-180976765/
The original research paper just published is available here  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-03082-x
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Link to the Wall of Skulls:https://www.calacademy.org/skull-stories
https://www.wired.com/2014/05/being-surrounded-by-640-animal-skulls-is-a-strangely-fascinating-experience/
 
Theme Music: Russian Tears by George Nardo: https://lunarecording.com