UM atUM [S03-ep23]: Fossils Under a Rocket
This week on "UM atUM ": Pierre-Olivier Antoine, a paleontologist at the Institute of Evolutionary Sciences in Montpellier, explains how tens of thousands of fossils discovered beneath the Ariane rocket launch site are shedding new light on the history of French Guiana. A program co-produced with Divergence FM and broadcast every Wednesday at 6 p.m. on 93.9.
And today, we’re heading to French Guiana—more specifically, to Kourou. Sorry to all you space exploration enthusiasts—we’re not inviting you on a space journey, but rather a journey through time. It was at the Ariane rocket launch site that an international consortium of paleontologists, geologists, and biologists came up with the idea to excavate and dig—and to say the least, they had a good nose for it. Between 2017 and 2021, scientists coordinated by the Institute of Evolutionary Sciences in Montpellier unearthed tens of thousands of fossils spanning a period of 130,000 years.
This discovery provides insight not only into the animal and plant biodiversity of French Guiana during the Pleistocene andHolocene epochs, but also into other aspects. The journey through time I mentioned should be understood in both of its dimensions, because this fossil assemblage also tells us a great deal about the Earth’s past and future climate.
We’ll tell you more about this with our guest, Pierre-Olivier Antoine, a paleontologist at ISEM, who coordinated this study. He is the author of the article we’re focusing on today, published in the journal *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA*.
For more information:
- Read the press release: A rich coastal ecosystem dating back 125,000 years discovered beneath Ariane 6 in French Guiana
- Read the article “A Late Pleistocene Coastal Ecosystem in French Guiana Was Hyperdiverse Relative to Today”
- Also listen to the episodes “Caribbean Rodent Fossils at the ISEM Sedimentation Hall” and “The Giant Sloth at the Sclerochronology Platform” with Pierre-Olivier Antoine
In the second half of the show, we invite you to discover an episode of “Lumlu,” the podcast series from Lum magazine, by listening to “The Wild Boar of Discord.” Raphaël Mathevet, a researcher at the Center for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology, talks to us about the delicate coexistence between humans and animals.
- Read the article "The Wild Boar of Discord"
AtUM , you’ve got the schedule—let’s get started!
Co-production: Divergence FM / University of Montpellier
Host: Lucie Lecherbonnier
Interview: Aline Périault / Lucie Lecherbonnier
Director: Alice Rollet
Check out theUM podcasts,UM available on your favorite platform (Spotify, Deezer, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, etc.).