Listen to Episode 183 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!
They are among the most diverse and complex forms of integument, occurring in a huge variety of forms and functions on living and extinct dinosaurs. This episode, we discuss the diversity and exciting unfolding evolutionary story of Feathers.
Listen to Episode 179 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!
In order for living cells and tissues to operate properly, they require certain temperatures, so organisms spend lots of time and energy balancing heat and cold. In this episode, we discuss diversity, adaptations, and ancient history regarding the important process of Thermoregulation.
Listen to Episode 178 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!
The world is full of sounds, and life has evolved numerous strategies for detecting and interpreting them. This episode, we discuss the deep history and varying forms (and uses) of Ears.
Listen to Episode 175 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!
Herbivores, pathogens, and parasites all present problems for plants, but the plants aren’t just sitting there passively. This episode, we discuss the incredible (and sometimes terrifying) diversity of Plant Defenses.
Listen to Episode 170 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!
Mammals are famous for the specialized fluid they produce to nourish their young, and they’re not the only ones that do it! This episode, we discuss the functions and evolution of Milk.
Listen to Episode 163 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!
Check the fingers and toes of your favorite vertebrates and you’re likely to find hardened little end-caps on them! This episode, we discuss the many forms and functions of Claws.
Listen to Episode 157 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!
Earth is full of glowing organisms. Some glow in the light of the sun, while others produce their own light in the darkest parts of the planet. This episode, we look at the incredible phenomena of Bioluminescence and Biofluorescence.
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 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.
The Common Descent Podcast 