Listen to Episode 156 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!
During the Paleozoic, the so-called “sea scorpions” were among the most successful carnivores in the world’s waters. This episode, we explore the ancient history and claims-to-fame of Eurypterids.
Listen to Episode 155 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!
For many millions of years, cone-bearing plants and their relatives were among the most successful and important plants on Earth. In some places, they still are, such as the coniferous forests of the Northern Hemisphere. This episode, Aly joins us again to discuss the diversity and history of Gymnosperms.
Listen to Episode 154 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!
Not all embryos develop inside eggs. In many animals, embryos develop fully inside the parent’s body. This habit has evolved numerous times and in numerous styles. This episode, we discuss the complex and fascinating evolution of Live Birth.
Listen to Episode 153 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!
Body armor is a rarity among mammals, and yet this particular group has made it work in modest modern species and gigantic ancient ones. This episode, we discuss the past and present of Armadillos.
Listen to Episode 152 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!
For the last few decades, a seemingly non-stop stream of famous fossils have been produced by excavations in China, and most of them are coming from the same region. This episode, we discuss the deep history, the incredible fossils, and the abundant research opportunities of the Jehol Biota.
Listen to Episode 151 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!
For most animals, the body doesn’t end at the hips! That final stretch of anatomy comes in many shapes and sizes suitable to a wide variety of lifestyles. This episode, we discuss the diversity and biological importance – past and present – of Tails.
Listen to Episode 150 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!
They are among the most famous and the most recognizably bizarre of all dinosaurs. This episode, we discuss the fossil record, evolutionary history, and many morphological mysteries surrounding Stegosaurs.
Listen to Episode 148 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!
Powered flight has only evolved a few times, but it’s incredible how many times and how ways evolution has produced organisms that sail through the sky. This episode, we discuss the astonishing diversity – past and present – of Gliding.
Listen to Episode 147 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!
Our understanding of evolution would be incomplete without knowledge of what, deep down, determines the traits of an organism and, crucially, how those traits are passed from parent to offspring. This episode, we discuss the foundational field of Genetics.
Listen to Episode 145 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!
We live in a solar-powered world. This episode, we discuss the process that provides the energy that every organism on the planet relies on, as well as the oxygen that characterizes the atmosphere that allows life as we know it to thrive: Photosynthesis.
The Common Descent Podcast 