Listen to Episode 232 on Podbean, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!
Today, bony animals are some of the most diverse organisms on Earth, but it wasn’t always that way. This episode, we explore what modern and fossil species have to tell us about Vertebrate Origins.
Listen to Episode 231 on Podbean, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!
Ever since an unusual group of fish gave rise to the first land-dwelling vertebrates, their descendants have been returning to the water. This episode, we explore the many evolutionary paths of Secondarily Aquatic Vertebrates.
Listen to Episode 223 on Podbean, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!
Evolution is made possible by the variation that builds up in genomes due to generations of errors, interference, and alteration of DNA. This episode, we explore the science and study of Mutations.
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 144 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!
In evolution, sometimes species get big, and sometimes they get small. The factors behind changing body sizes are extremely varied, and many trends in size evolution are poorly understood. This episode, we discuss Evolutionary Gigantism and Dwarfism.
Listen to Episode 100 on PodBean, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever else you can find it!
As far as we can tell, all life on Earth is descended from a common ancestry. But there are so many open questions about when, where, and how life got started. In this episode, we tackle some of the biggest questions in the universe as we discuss The Origin of Life.
Listen to Episode 98 on PodBean, Spotify, YouTube, or elsewhere!
The study of life, past and present, revolves around the evolution, diversity, and extinction of organisms. But exactly how we group organisms and how we understand how new groups arise is a complex topic with much terminology and occasional turmoil. In this episode, we discuss Species and Speciation.
Listen to Episode 78 on PodBean, Spotify, YouTube, or anywhere podcasts can be found!
This episode is about the complex and surprising ways that evolution can change course under new pressures, and about how scientists argue over what to call this phenomenon! It starts as far back as Darwin, and continues in debates to this day. Let’s talk about Exaptation.
Listen to Episode 70 on PodBean, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts!
With all the diversity of life past and present, it’s incredible how often evolution repeats itself. Wings, flippers, eyes … all sorts of fascinating features have shown up multiple times in multiple groups of organisms. In this episode, we discuss this very common, curious, and sometimes confusing aspect of natural selection: Convergent Evolution.
The Common Descent Podcast 