Listen to Episode 124 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or anywhere you can find it!
An Earth covered in ice might sound far-fetched, but there is enough evidence in the geologic record and climate modeling for Earth scientists to suspect this has actually happened in our planet’s past – more than once. This episode, we discuss the origins, evidence, and much-debated questions surrounding the hypothesis of Snowball Earth.
Listen to Episode 123 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or anywhere you can find it!
With eight legs, eight eyes, venomous fangs, and a knack for living just about everywhere, they’re the famous famous arachnids and among the most famous arthropods on Earth, and they’ve been successful for a good 300 million years. This episode, we discuss the diversity and evolution of Spiders.
Listen to Episode 122 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you feel like it!
The Earth is in motion beneath our feet, and this motion impacts nearly every feature and activity on the planet’s surface. And yet, we’ve only recently come to understand this central geological phenomenon. This episode, we discuss the scientific history and the deep history of Plate Tectonics.
Listen to Episode 121 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you feel like it!
Most animals have some form of nervous system, and in many cases that nervous system is monitored and regulated by a complex and fascinating organ-in-command. This episode, we discuss the diversity, fossil record, and evolution of Brains.
Listen to Episode 120 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or your favorite alternative!
The most famous dinosaur of all time didn’t come out of nowhere. T. rex has a long history of cousins and ancestors, whose evolution and lifestyles have been the subject of mountains of research, debate, and popular depictions. This episode, we discuss the whole family tree of Tyrannosaurs.
Listen to Episode 119 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or maybe somewhere else!
The Indian subcontinent has a dramatic and storied past, having traveled from one continent to another, hosting a diversity of ancient life along the way before coming to rest between a vast ocean and a monumental mountain range. This episode is all about India.
Listen to Episode 118 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or maybe somewhere else!
As organisms live, grow, and move in their environments, they leave all sorts of evidence behind on their surroundings. When this evidence becomes preserved in the geologic record, it can be provide some of our best clues to understanding lifestyles and evolution of ancient life. This episode, we talk about Trace Fossils.
Listen to Episode 117 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever else you can find it!
Several thousand living species – and many more fossils – are called “crabs,” but they don’t all share an evolutionary history. The crab-like body plan is a repeated trend in crustacean evolution, and there are differing opinions on what exactly counts as a “crab” and why natural selection keeps making them. This episode, we talk Crabs and Carcinization.
Listen to Episode 116 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever else you can find it!
Of all the reptiles to evolve marine lifestyles, only one were so strikingly specialized to earn the name “fish reptiles.” This episode, we discuss the long evolutionary history, extraordinary adaptations, diverse lifestyles, and perplexing extinction of Ichthyosaurs.
Listen to Episode 115 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or pick your favorite place for podcasts!
The Earth is covered in ecosystems, but what lives where is dependent on the local climate and landscape. This variation creates vast patterns in the distribution of life, patterns that scientists can use to understand ecology, and patterns that have changed over time as the Earth’s surface has transformed. This episode, we discuss the modern state and ancient history of Biomes.
Listen to Episode 114 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or pick your favorite place for podcasts!
Far to the north and far to the south, conditions on Earth get weird. Cold climates and periods of perpetual night or day create some of the most unique habitats on the planet, and yet life has thrived there throughout Earth history and continues to do so today. This episode, we discuss the diversity, history, and adaptations of Polar Life.
Listen to Episode 113 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or pick your favorite place for podcasts!
Life on Earth is directly impacted by the climate, and the climate changes over time in response to the activities of tectonic plates, ocean currents, biological communities, and of course, even humans. The geologic record of our planet is an archive of data on the causes and effects of changing climates. This episode, we discuss Paleoclimate.
The Common Descent Podcast 