May 18, 2019
It’s easy to see how fossils can teach us what ancient animals looked like, or how they evolved. But what about the ways they moved, ate, socialized, reproduced? In this episode, we explore the innovative ways paleontologists have devised to interpret the behavior of ancient animals. From their bones, their tracks, their living relatives, and modern clever experimentation, we can come to understand more than you’d ever imagine about behavior in the fossil record.
In the news: a Denisovan jaw, a new bat-winged dinosaur, a cave of wonders, and a flapping robot.
The Common Descent Store is open! Get merch! http://zazzle.com/common_descent
How do you become a paleontologist? A GREAT post by our friends at Time Scavengers!
https://timescavengers.blog/2019/05/13/how-do-you-become-a-paleontologist/
Check out our blog for bonus info and pictures:
http://commondescentpodcast.wordpress.com/
Follow and Support us on:
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/commondescentpodcast
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CommonDescentPC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/commondescentpodcast/
PodBean: https://commondescentpodcast.podbean.com/
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-common-descent-podcast/id1207586509?mt=2
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCePRXHEnZmTGum2r1l2mduw
The Intro and Outro music is “On the Origin of Species” by Protodome.
More music like this at http://ocremix.org.
Muscial Interludes are "Professor Umlaut" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
April 20, 2019
Many groups of life have conquered the land and water, but only four times in evolutionary history has life taken to the air. The most recent group to achieve flight are bats. Their combination of flight and advanced echolocation have earned them an incredible diversity, a worldwide distribution, and a deep-seated place in human culture, but their evolutionary history is a long-standing mystery, and their fossil record is nearly non-existent. But that's not going to stop us from geeking out about them!
In the news: dinosaur scales, diverging crows, a new human, seal evolution, and that butchered mastodon again!
The Common Descent Store is open! Get merch! http://zazzle.com/common_descent
Check out our blog for bonus info and pictures:
http://commondescentpodcast.wordpress.com/
Follow and Support us on:
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/commondescentpodcast
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CommonDescentPC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/commondescentpodcast/
PodBean: https://commondescentpodcast.podbean.com/
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-common-descent-podcast/id1207586509?mt=2
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCePRXHEnZmTGum2r1l2mduw
The Intro and Outro music is “On the Origin of Species” by Protodome.
More music like this at http://ocremix.org.
Muscial Interludes are "Professor Umlaut" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
February 23, 2019
Usually, when we talk about mass extinction, we’re referring to events long past. But scary levels of extinction are a fact of our current world, as well. So much so that current events have been labeled the "Sixth Extinction.” In this episode, we discuss just how bad our current ecological crisis is, what’s causing it, and whether or not it truly deserves to be called a mass extinction. We also discuss what’s already being done – and what we can all do – to counteract catastrophe. It’s a depressing one, folks, but all isn’t lost. Stay informed and stay hopeful!
In the news: a new island, ancient turtle cancer, megalodon extinction, and that one Archaeopteryx feather.
Check out our blog for bonus info and pictures:
http://commondescentpodcast.wordpress.com/
Follow and Support us on:
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/commondescentpodcast
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CommonDescentPC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/commondescentpodcast/
PodBean: https://commondescentpodcast.podbean.com/
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-common-descent-podcast/id1207586509?mt=2
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCePRXHEnZmTGum2r1l2mduw
The Intro and Outro music is “On the Origin of Species” by Protodome.
More music like this at http://ocremix.org.
Muscial Interludes are "Professor Umlaut" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
February 9, 2019
Happy Darwin Day! Last year around this time, we were joined by Dr. Sarah Bray to discuss the life and times of Charles Darwin. This time, Sarah joins us again to discuss his colleague and natural selection co-discoverer, Alfred Russell Wallace. In 1858, the year before Darwin published his famous book, he received a letter from a young, adventurous, sometimes tragic man in the throes of illness in southeast Asia. To Darwin’s shock, the letter included precisely the same biological insights he had been working on. That letter came from Alfred Russell Wallace.
Find Sarah and her colleagues on the podcast Discovering Darwin! http://discoveringdarwin.blogspot.com/
In the news: fast-evolving mice, a small-headed reptile, an early Antarctic archosaur, and really old amoebae.
Check out our blog for bonus info and pictures:
http://commondescentpodcast.wordpress.com/
Follow and Support us on:
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/commondescentpodcast
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CommonDescentPC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/commondescentpodcast/
PodBean: https://commondescentpodcast.podbean.com/
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-common-descent-podcast/id1207586509?mt=2
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCePRXHEnZmTGum2r1l2mduw
The Intro and Outro music is “On the Origin of Species” by Protodome.
More music like this at http://ocremix.org.
Muscial Interludes are "Professor Umlaut" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
January 26, 2019
It's been called the most diverse of all bones. It comes in an incredible variety of shapes and sizes, living and fossil, scattered across the mammalian family tree. It's called the baculum, the os penis, and in this episode we discuss what it does, who has it, what it means for paleontologists, and the evolutionary processes that made it what it is today.
In the news: whales eating whales, pregnant plesiosaurs, robo-tetrapods, and the first American dogs.
Check out our blog for bonus info and pictures:
http://commondescentpodcast.wordpress.com/
Follow and Support us on:
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/commondescentpodcast
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CommonDescentPC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/commondescentpodcast/
PodBean: https://commondescentpodcast.podbean.com/
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-common-descent-podcast/id1207586509?mt=2
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCePRXHEnZmTGum2r1l2mduw
The Intro and Outro music is “On the Origin of Species” by Protodome.
More music like this at http://ocremix.org.
Muscial Interludes are "Professor Umlaut" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
