21: Paleontologist Evelyn Vollmer, Figuring out the Age of the Earth, and What Defines a Dinosaur

Episode notes

How old did Aristotle think the Earth was? What makes a dinosaur a dinosaur? And how did our guest get into paleontology?

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We also learn about: getting started in paleontology, shooting lasers at fossils, artistotle thought the earth was infinitely old, getting the 6,000 number from bible family tree math, it’s infinitely old because because, melting rocks is science, Lord Kevlin’s real name was William Thompson??? every big name in science wanted to answer this question, Darwin was embaressed and deleted his tweet about the age of the Earth, “there’s so much we don’t know, it’s hilarious”, the rock cycle, Patteron fought for lead safety, thousands millions and billions, it took 4 billion years for a species to know the age of the Earth, what is a dinosaur? “cladistics is confusing as hell”, we were naming dinosaursas as we were discovering them, rebranding dinosaurs, aquatic and flying reptiles aren’t dinosaurs, Taphonomy, who hasn’t fused their vertebra during a mating ritual, coprolite, this poop is going to inspire the shit out of someone, being okay with not using absolutes on tiktok, the new jurassic parks are trash.

Sources:

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Aristotle’s Age of the Earth

Kevlin’s Age of the Earth

Clair Patterson And The Age Of The Earth

How to Calculate the Age of the Earth

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Evelyn’s TikTok Recommendations

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