Listen to Episode 137 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!
When paleontologists examine ancient remains, they need to consider not only what they’re looking at, but how it got to be there. This episode, we discuss the various processes, incredible possibilities, and crucial limitations of Fossilization.
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 90 on PodBean, Spotify, YouTube, or that other podcast source you like!
You may be familiar with the concept of organisms alive today that are relics of the ancient past, holdovers from times long ago. But this idea, misleading and poorly defined as it often is, is the source of much debate among scientists and science communicators, often revolving around the specific term we discuss in this episode: “Living Fossils.”
Listen to Episode 84 on PodBean, Spotify, YouTube, or your favorite podcast place!
Life ain’t easy. For animals, plants, and organisms of all kinds, there exists a constant threat of injury and disease. Fortunately, these unfortunate occurrences sometimes leave evidence in fossils that can inform us of the lives – and even deaths – of species from long ago. The study of this evidence is called Paleopathology.
Listen to Episode 62 on PodBean, Spotify, YouTube, or that other podcast player you like!
For hundreds of millions of years, trees have produced resin. In the right conditions, that resin can harden and persist in the fossil record, and when we’re lucky, it can take with it all sorts of amazing organic remains that normally escape the fossil record: rare species, evidence of ecological interaction, and even behaviors caught in progress. This episode, we talk about the amazing world of Amber.
Listen to Episode 49 on PodBean, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you find your podcasts.
And don’t forget to submit your question for our End Of The Year Q&A!
Most of the time on this podcast, we’re geeking out over fossils from around the world. But in this episode, we’re venting a bit about the darker side of fossil-hunting: fraud. We’re discussing fake fossils: why they happen, how they happen, and what effect they have on paleontology.
Listen to Episode 34 on PodBean, Spotify, YouTube, or your personal preferred podcast platform!
Over the past three decades, a particular field of study has been revolutionizing our understanding of the past, driven by advances in technology and good ol’ scientific persistence. This episode, we discuss Ancient DNA.
The Common Descent Podcast 