Blaine Schubert and David Moscato held the latest episode in their Paleo Talks series on Sept. 4.
Paleo Talks is a virtual forum where guests are invited to discuss the latest research in the field of paleontology.
Schubert is a paleontologist and professor of geosciences at ETSU. He splits his time between teaching and being the director of the Gray Fossil Site.
Moscato received his master’s degree at ETSU where Schubert was an advisor on the committee overlooking Moscato’s thesis. Moscato currently works as a science communicator at the Gray Fossil Site.
Paleontology is study of life in the past, but it should not be confused with archeology, which studies human life in the past.
The Paleo Talks series began back in April with their first talk being about “Early Mastodons of America,” and they have continued on Fridays ever since.
“When the pandemic hit, I started talking with David about things we could do,” said Schubert. “Maybe we could start some kind of talk show that would engage both our students that were starting to have to stay home, but also the general public and other students from all over the place.”
Many guests have appeared on their show.
Stephanie Drumheller-Horton appeared to discuss “Scavenging and Cannibalism in Dinosaurs,” Jack Tseng discussed interpreting diets and behaviors of ancient animals and Schubert has discussed “Underwater Caves and Extinct Carnivores of the Yucatan.”
“I think one of the big benefits of doing a program this way is that you have the scientists doing the research directly explaining what they did and directly explaining it to any an audience,” Moscato said. “You know, the audience is some other scientists, some students, some general public who are interested.”
If you want to view past episodes, they are all available to watch on the ETSU Natural History Museum and Gray Fossil Site YouTube channel.
