How many fossils are there?
CrowdScience
BBC
4.8 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 2 August 2019
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The odds of becoming a fossil are vanishingly small. And yet there seem to be an awful lot of them out there. In some parts of the world you can barely look at a rock without finding a fossil, and museum archives worldwide are stuffed with everything from ammonites to Archaeopteryx. But how many does that leave to be discovered by future fossil hunters? What’s the total number of fossils left to find?
That’s what listener Anders Hegvik from Norway wants to know and what CrowdScience is off to investigate. Despite not having the technology or time to scan the entire planet, presenter Marnie Chesterton prepares to find a decent answer. During her quest, she meets the scientists who dig up fossils all over the world; does some very large sums; and asks, have we already found all the T-rexes out there?
Presented by Marnie Chesterton and produced by Anna Lacey
(Photo: Fossilized dinosaur bones and skull in the send. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I'm Rory Stewart and I grew up wanting to be a hero and I'm still fascinated by the ideas of heroism. |
| 0:09.0 | In my new series, I'm taking in the long sweep of history from Achilles to Zelensky and asking, what is a hero? |
| 0:16.0 | Simply doing your job, being a decent human being. |
| 0:20.0 | A true hero is someone who just kind of shines by their own light, |
| 0:23.9 | and that light is to be recognized by others. |
| 0:26.5 | The Long History of Heroism with me, Rory Stewart. |
| 0:29.5 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:35.7 | Now you need to be further back than that. |
| 0:38.7 | Health and safety and all that. |
| 0:41.3 | You're listening to Crowd Science from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:44.6 | We may not get anything out of the rock. |
| 0:46.8 | I'm Marnie Chesterton and today I'm out with fossil enthusiast, Chris Andrew, |
| 0:51.8 | and his rock hammer on the famous beaches of Lyme Regis. |
| 0:55.9 | Ends worn away, but that's the devil's toenail, Gryfea. |
| 0:59.1 | A devil's toenail? What is a devil's toenail? It's an oyster. The Latin names Gwifier |
| 1:04.1 | Arcuator. I will be asking questions later. And they're one of the few fossils with an English |
| 1:08.9 | name. And they used to think that's of the hook shape, they look like a devil's toenail. |
| 1:14.3 | The cliffs around here have been throwing out everything from toenails |
| 1:18.2 | to complete Icteosaur skeletons for thousands of years. |
| 1:22.0 | What's that one? |
| 1:23.0 | Well, you tell me. |
| 1:24.1 | Well, it looks Nautilus like it. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.