Christian Sidor is a professor in the UW Department of Biology and curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Burke. And for the last 18 years, he’s been traveling back and forth to Zambia and Tanzania, collecting fossils from the Permian period.

The Permian lasted about 47 millions years and ended 252 million years ago with the Triassic Period. 

Sidor has found a lot of Permian specimens. Last month he and his collaborators co-edited a series of 14 articles on the animals they’ve discovered during their field work.

So, we wanted to go check out some of these new, ancient animals.

Guest:
Christian Sidor: professor in the UW Department of Biology and curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Burke

Related stories:
Fresh fossil finds in Africa shed light on the era before Earth’s largest mass extinction - UW News

Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes

Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.

Christian Sidor is a professor in the UW Department of Biology and curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Burke. And for the last 18 years, he&rsquo;s been traveling back and forth to Zambia and Tanzania, collecting fossils from the Permian period.
The Permian lasted about 47 millions years and ended 252 million years ago with the Triassic Period.&nbsp;
Sidor has found a lot of Permian specimens. Last month he and his collaborators co-edited a series of 14 articles on the animals they&rsquo;ve discovered during their field work.
So, we wanted to go check out some of these new, ancient animals.
Guest:
<ul>
<li>Christian Sidor: professor in the UW Department of Biology and curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Burke</li>
</ul>
Related stories:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.washington.edu/news/2025/08/11/permian-pangea-fossil-finds/?mkt_tok=NTI3LUFIUi0yNjUAAAGcZlT37BFgH7zM2H8K0MDqTlU3nYyD5dfVR9B1sX-W7s4lFOLvoCFXgckW3KsG_ftTrUU7kRxMpgsW6YhdidXtHPQHfSz35XZTvCxG6-Ije-A">Fresh fossil finds in Africa shed light on the era before Earth&rsquo;s largest mass extinction - UW News</a></li>
</ul>
Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to&nbsp;<a href="http://kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes">kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes</a>
Soundside&nbsp;is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.

Soundside

Before birds, flowering plants, and dinosaurs, there was the Permian. One UW professor shares his knowledge of the world millions of years ago.

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