Listen to Episode 109 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or anywhere you can find it!
These carnivores might have a reputation as uncouth scavengers, but their modern and fossil history is full of a diverse array of specialized hunters. In this episode, we discuss the surprising modern diversity and the rich fossil record of Hyenas.
Listen to Episode 104 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or your favorite alternative!
Seals, sea lions, and walruses (oh my!) are widespread, successful, and invariably charming. In this episode, we examine the adaptations, mysterious origins, and diverse but spotty fossil record of this fascinating group of aquatic mammals, the Pinnipeds.
Listen to Episode 96 on PodBean, Spotify, YouTube, or just search for it in your podcast app!
Kangaroos, koalas, opossums, possums, Tasmanian devils, and their relatives … they all have a few things in common: an unusual reproductive strategy, a pouch for their young, and a shared evolutionary history that separates them from the majority of living mammals. This episode is all about Marsupials.
Listen to Episode 94 on PodBean, Spotify, YouTube, or just search for it in your podcast app!
For tens of millions of years, they were dominant predators in North America, and they have since spread naturally into habitats around the globe, but you know them best as the most iconic domesticated species on Earth. This episode, we explore the diversity, evolution, and history of Dogs.
Listen to Episode 93 on PodBean, Spotify, YouTube, or just search for it in your podcast app!
They got their start more than 20 million years ago, and today they’re among the most charismatic and successful mammals on Earth, from the African savannah to the Amazon rainforest to the many memes of the internet. This episode, we explore the diversity, evolution, and history of Cats.
Listen to Episode 76 on PodBean, Spotify, YouTube, or anywhere podcasts can be found!
The evolution of horses is not only one of the classic evolutionary stories of the ancient past, it’s also an incredible story of scientific discovery and adjustment. From the dawn of the Age of Mammals to the domestication of modern work animals, we’re taking a trip through Horse Evolution.
Listen to Episode 66 on PodBean, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you’d like!
In this episode, we take a deep dive into the largest land mammals that have ever lived. We’ll explore the handful of modern species and their extraordinarily diverse evolutionary history. From mammoths to mastodons, shovel-tuskers to miniature island-dwellers, the fossil record is full of bizarre elephants.
Listen to Episode 59 on PodBean, Spotify, YouTube, or that other podcast player you like!
Only four times in the history of evolution have organisms developed powered flight. The only mammals to do it has achieved a worldwide distribution, a remarkable diversity, and the honor of being one of the most numerous groups of mammals. And yet, their evolutionary history is shrouded in mystery. In this episode, we discuss perhaps the most incredible of mammals: Bats.
Listen to Episode 47 on PodBean, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you find your podcasts.
*Don’t forget to submit your questions for our End Of The Year Q&A!
In today’s world, there is only one group of synapsids: the mammals. But for a good 100 million years before true mammals appeared, a diverse array of non-mammalian synapsids dominated ecosystems on land. In this episode, we’re following the story of synapsid evolution from their earliest lizard-like ancestors right up to the origin of true mammals.
Listen to Episode 41 on PodBean, Spotify, YouTube, or your preferred podcast place!
This episode – the second most requested topic to date – deals with some of the largest and cleverest animals our planet has ever seen. We discuss how one group of mammals developed and moved from land to the sea as we explore the Evolution of Whales.
Listen to Episode 18 – both parts! – on PodBean (and Part 2), Spotify, YouTube, or that other place you get podcasts!
This episode topic comes requested by Mac, but we couldn’t bear to squeeze it into just one episode! We discuss the fascinating, complicated, and deeply personal story of Human Evolution.
The Common Descent Podcast 