Stephen Poropat is a paleontologist with the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum, and Curtin University. He’s a brilliant speaker on all things dinosaurs, and I’ve wanted to have him on the podcast for a long time.

Australian dinosaurs are especially interesting because with the fragmenting geology of the ancient super-continent of Pangaea, Australia was part of a landmass that included for a time New Zealand, Antarctica, India and South America. In this episode we spend a lot of time setting the scene for what this strange land was like when dinosaurs roamed, and how there were forests in Antarctica rather than ice (and presumably, dinosaurs who lived through dark winter nights 24 hours long).

We also discussed evolution, fossilisation, and the inevitable Jurassic Park scenarios of bringing old, dead species back to life, how possible it may be in the future, and whether it’s a good idea. I really enjoyed this discussion, and if you’re interested in any kind of dinosaurs, I think you will too.

Stephen’s personal website can be found at; https://stephenporopat.weebly.com/