How do paleontologists know when they've found a new species of dinosaur, or any other extinct life? I have no idea but thankfully I've got a few scientists on speed-dial that comes in pretty handy for such questions.

In today's episode we caught up with Gabriella Rossetto at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science to hear her story about a particularly eventful field season, and Dr. Ken Angielczyk, Associate Curator at the Field Museum comes back to share his experience being one of only a handful of world experts uncovering and studying Dicynodonts; tusked mammal-like animals that lived around 290-251 million years ago. 

Oh, and here's the xkcd comic about spider paleontology Ken and I talk about.

These first few episodes have been planted pretty firmly in the fossil record but coming up we'll hear from a mammalogist working with ancient DNA, a museum attorney responsible for setting up a fully-functioning tattoo parlor in a public exhibition, and a marine biologist who spends her field season examining coral reef fishes around the world. Stay tuned! 

---

Each episode includes a segment at the end where we want to hear from you. Actually, we want to hear from your environment. We wanna know:

1. Your name
2. Where you are in the world, and what you're doing
3. 30-45 recorded seconds of your environment, preferably outside, anywhere (and everywhere). Whether you're in an urban area on your way to work or school, conducting fieldwork near home or abroad, or just enjoying a moment outside-- we want to hear it!

You can record it using the voice memo app on your smartphone and email the file to us either by responding to this newsletter or sending it to exploreastory(at)fieldmuseum.org, with the subject line "OK to share- EAS." Please include your name & location in the recording! By sending us the file you're giving us permission to use it at the end of a future episode or another Brain Scoop-related project, so thank you in advance.

---

ExploreAStory is written and hosted by Emily Graslie, produced by Sheheryar Ahsan and Brandon Brungard, with music by Jason Weidner, and made with support from the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois.