About this episode

The episode discusses the peculiarities of bird eyes and their implications for understanding dinosaur vision.

In this short discussion, palaeontologist Dave Hone and Iszi Lawrence chat with podcaster Suzy Buttress about the strangeness of bird eyes... from iris colour and pupil shape, to owls, crocodiles and the frustrating problem of soft tissue in fossils. Could dinosaurs really have had the slit pupils made famous by Jurassic Park? Or have we been picturing dinosaur eyes all wrong? Expect: birds, dinosaurs, crocodiles, giant marine reptile eyeballs, weird owl anatomy, and some surprisingly unsettling turkey dissection stories. This is an extract from Series 5 Episode 4 with Suzy Buttress from the Casual Birder podcast. You can watch the footage of this recording here: https://youtu.be/czcOPj8_jC8 Support the show and grab extra content: https://www.patreon.com/terriblelizards

People in this episode

Hosts: Iszi Lawrence, David Hone

Guest: Suzy Buttress

Topics covered

• bird eyes
• dinosaurs
• palaeontology
• iris colour
• pupil shape
• soft tissue
• fossils

Keywords

• bird eyes
• dinosaurs
• iris colour
• pupil shape
• soft tissue
• fossils
• palaeontology

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Casual Birder, Terrible Lizards

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• TLS12E06 Spinosaurus, Jurassic World & Troodon · June 23, 2026 · 55 min
• S12DB13 Mary Anning, Marine Reptiles & the Jurassic Coast · June 17, 2026 · 18 min
• S12DB12 What colour were triceratops horns? · June 3, 2026 · 13 min
• S12E05 Mass Extinctions, CGI & Dinosaurs · May 27, 2026 · 57 min

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