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Join David and Will as they explore the paleontologists’ perspective on various topics in life and earth history. Each episode features a main discussion on a topic requested by the listeners, presented as a lighthearted and educational conversation about fossils, evolution, deep time, and more. Before the main discussion, each episode also includes a news segment, covering recent research related to paleontology and evolution. Each episode ends with the answer to a question submitted by subscribers on Patreon. New episodes with new topics every fortnight!
Episodes

Saturday Sep 21, 2019
Episode 70 - Convergent Evolution
Saturday Sep 21, 2019
Saturday Sep 21, 2019
With all the incredible diversity of life, it’s fascinating how often evolution repeats itself. The fossil record and the modern world are full of signs of this pattern of convergent evolution – similar pressures drive organisms to similar features and lifestyles. In this episode, we’ll talk about what exactly convergent evolution entails, share some of our favorite examples, and talk about how things can get a bit confusing.
Did we mention your favorite example of convergent evolution?
In the news: rhino DNA, baby sea turtles, sea snake breathing, and dinosaur temperatures.
Time markers:
Intro & Announcements: 00:00:00
News: 00:04:00
Main discussion, Part 1: 00:32:30
Main discussion, Part 2: 01:02:00
Patron question: 01:35:30
Check out our blog for bonus info and pictures:
http://commondescentpodcast.wordpress.com/
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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/
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