Science Friday

Utah Dino Bones, Salt Lake Migrations, Tree Canopies. Sept. 21, 2018, Part 1

21 Sep 2018

Audio

Description

If you stood in southeastern Utah over 200 million years ago, you’d be overlooking the ocean. The landlocked state wasn’t quite the same landscape of scarlet plateaus and canyons you might see today, but a coastal desert where sand dunes butted up right against the sea. And it was home to some of the earliest dinosaurs. In this region of Utah, today known as Indian Creek in Bears Ears National Monument, the remains of dinosaur relatives, known as protodinosaurs or “dinosaur aunts and uncles,” are buried in the Earth. Their bones tell the stories about the dawn of dinosaurs, prehistoric Utah, and a much warmer Earth. In the northern reaches of Utah’s Great Salt Lake sits Gunnison Island, a narrow strip of land just a mile long and half a mile wide. Despite its small size, the island hosts the world’s second largest white pelican rookery, with an average of 20,000 birds and 6,000 nests. Biologist Jaimi Butler of Westminster College’s Great Salt Lake Institute calls the birds the “polar bears” of Great Salt Lake—because as lake waters drop, the birds’ island refuge is now threatened by humans, coyotes, and other predators. Butler and her team have installed cameras on the island, and citizen scientists can now use these “PELIcam” images to help Butler and her colleagues catalog the white pelican population on the island—and the appearance of predators, too. Forest ecologist Nalini Nadkarni pioneered the exploration of tree canopies—the “new frontiers” of the forest, using hot air balloons, rock climbing gear, and cranes. There, high in the trees, she found soil coating the branches, much like the soil on the forest floor—and unique adaptations, like the water-gathering abilities of spiky bromeliads. In this segment, recorded live at the Eccles Theater in Salt Lake City, Nadkarni takes Ira on a tour of the forest canopy, talks about how fashion can be a tool for science communication, and describes her work communicating science to underserved populations, like inmates in prisons around the nation—from minimum security to Supermax. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Transcription

This episode hasn't been transcribed yet

Help us prioritize this episode for transcription by upvoting it.

0 upvotes

🗳️ Sign in to Upvote

Popular episodes get transcribed faster

Other episodes from Science Friday

Transcribed and ready to explore now

Bizarre exoplanet clouds + Counting insects with weather radar

26 May 2026

Science Friday

A trailblazing geneticist reflects on her life and work

25 May 2026

Science Friday

Is that spooky old house full of ghosts, or just infrasound?

22 May 2026

Science Friday

How do clinical trials work, and who can participate?

21 May 2026

Science Friday

Use of herbicide linked to Parkinson's is on the rise in the US

20 May 2026

Science Friday

Who are the musicians composing for my washing machine?

13 May 2026

Science Friday

View all episodes from Science Friday

Comments

There are no comments yet.

Please log in to write the first comment.

Report any issue

Science Friday

Utah Dino Bones, Salt Lake Migrations, Tree Canopies. Sept. 21, 2018, Part 1

This episode hasn't been transcribed yet

Other episodes from Science Friday

Bizarre exoplanet clouds + Counting insects with weather radar

A trailblazing geneticist reflects on her life and work

Is that spooky old house full of ghosts, or just infrasound?

How do clinical trials work, and who can participate?

Use of herbicide linked to Parkinson's is on the rise in the US

Who are the musicians composing for my washing machine?

Sign in to Audioscrape

Share this moment