The colourful feathered world of what dinosaurs really looked like + Israel’s post-election foreign policy

In this episode, how new discoveries continue to change our understanding of what dinosaurs looked like – and are helping to shed light on bigger questions about evolution. And after Israel’s fourth election in two years ended in another political stalemate, a foreign policy expert explains what this could mean for the Middle East. Welcome to episode 11 of The Conversation Weekly, the world explained by experts. 

Ever since palaeontologists started classifying fossils and bones as dinosaurs in the early 19th century, artists have been using them to try and imagine what dinosaurs looked like. But, however much Hollywood may have instilled a certain vision of dinosaurs into our minds in recent decades, we’re still a long way off having all the answers about what dinosaurs actually looked like. 

We speak to two palaeontologists about what new evidence is emerging and how our dinosaur imaginings have changed. Maria McNamara, professor of palaeobiology at University College Cork in Ireland, explains about the, at times controversial, history of feathered dinosaurs – and what new information is starting to emerge about dinosaur colour. And Nicolas Campione, senior lecturer in palaeobiology at the University of New England in Australia, tells us the two main techniques palaeontologists have used for estimating the size of dinosaurs. 

In our second story, we head to Israel, where coalition negotiations are continuing following elections on March 23. Whatever happens next will have ramifications for Israel’s foreign policy, which is closely tied with domestic politics. Amnon Aran, senior lecturer in international politics of the Middle East, at City, University of London, talks us through how history could inform what happens next, and what the foreign policy stakes are for whoever takes the reins of the next Israeli government. 

And Eva Catalán, associate editor at The Conversation in Spain, gives us her recommended reads.

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.

If you'd like to sign up for The Conversation's free daily newsletter, please subscribe here. To get in touch, find us on Twitter @TC_Audio or on Instagram at theconversationdotcom. Or you can email us on [email protected]. Full credits for this episode can be found here. A transcript of this episode is available here.

Further reading:

• Prehistoric pigments reveal how melanin has shaped bird and mammal evolution, by Maria McNamara, Tiffany Slater and Valentina Rossi, University College Cork
• The mystery of feather origins: how fluffy pterosaurs have reignited debate, by Maria McNamara, University College Cork and Zixiao Yang, Nanjing University
• How do you weigh a dinosaur? There are two ways, and it turns out they’re both right, by Nicolas Campione, University of New England
• Largest ever flying creatures had longer necks than giraffes – we found out how these pterosaurs kept their heads up, by David Martill, University of Portsmouth and Cariad Williams, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Godzilla vs. Kong: A functional morphologist uses science to pick a winner, by Kiersten Formoso, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
• Stark choice for Israel as voters head to polls for fourth time in two years, by Amnon Aran, City, University of London
• Israel elections: Netanyahu may hold on to power, but political paralysis will remain, by Ran Porat, Monash University
• Israel election: why is Palestine no longer an important campaign issue?, by Peter Malcontent, Utrecht University
• What can statistics tell us about vaccine safety?, by Virgilio Gómez Rubio, University of Castilla-La Mancha and Anabel Forte Deltell, University of València (in Spanish)
• The success of influencers in their use of the Spanish language: idiolects and emotions in social networks, by María Nayra Rodríguez Rodríguez, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (in Spanish)