Listen to Episode 210 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!
The evolution of mineral tissues is not only responsible for the incredible diversity and success of vertebrate animals, but also for their extraordinarily informative fossil record. This episode, we explore some of paleontology’s favorite body parts: Bones.
Listen to Episode 158 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!
There was a time when artwork depicting ancient animals was uncommon and even unexpected. The modern world of paleoart owes its existence in large part to an animal artist who became perhaps the most influential paleoartist of all time: Charles R. Knight.
Listen to Episode 122 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you feel like it!
The Earth is in motion beneath our feet, and this motion impacts nearly every feature and activity on the planet’s surface. And yet, we’ve only recently come to understand this central geological phenomenon. This episode, we discuss the scientific history and the deep history of Plate Tectonics.
Listen to Episode 113 on PodBean, YouTube, Spotify, or pick your favorite place for podcasts!
Life on Earth is directly impacted by the climate, and the climate changes over time in response to the activities of tectonic plates, ocean currents, biological communities, and of course, even humans. The geologic record of our planet is an archive of data on the causes and effects of changing climates. This episode, we discuss Paleoclimate.
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 64 on PodBean, Spotify, YouTube, or your favorite place for podcasts!
What would our science be without art? Fossils make for great photos, but a key part of paleontology is our ability to reconstruct long-dead organisms as living, functioning beings. In this episode, we’re joined by paleoartist and herpetologist Gabriel Ugueto as we discuss the many ways artists attempt to recreate ancient species through Paleoart.
Listen to Episode 61 on PodBean, Spotify, YouTube, or that other podcast player you like!
Ancient animals didn’t just stand around. They moved, interacted, hunted, reproduced, and did all the things animals do. It’s easy to image all of that information is lost to time, but there are all sorts of ways paleontologists can find those clues. In this episode, we’re exploring the tools, techniques, and amazing fossil finds that help us understand Behavior in the Fossil Record.
Listen to Episode 46 on PodBean, Spotify, YouTube, or other podcast providers.
The world is full of strange and miraculous creatures, but some believe there are even stranger creatures yet to be discovered. Mysterious beasts have been in human stories since we started telling them, and even today, there are still tales of animals hidden from science. This is the focus of Cryptozoology.
Will and David took a trip to St. Louis for SciFest: Rock, Fossil, Quake on September 22nd!
You can listen to us discuss the event and to our interviews with paleontologists on PodBean Spotify, YouTube, and other podcast places.
The paleontologists we spoke with were:
Dr. Ashley Morhardt, Washington University
Dr. Andy Farke, Raymond Alf Museum
Dr. Denver Fowler, Badlands Dinosaur Museum
Dr. Casey Holliday, University of Missouri
Dr. Liz Freedman Fowler, Dickinson State University
Josh Matthews, Burpee Museum
Welcome to our Spotlight Series!
Listen to Spotlight on PodBean, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you catch pods!
We’re talking paleo-science with some paleo-people! Across this 5-part series, you’ll get to know some paleontologists as we interview them about their research and their lives as scientists.
Our theme for this series is Invertebrate Paleontology
Here on this blog post, we’ll collect information on our guests, ways you can find them on the internet, and some photos of what we discussed in the episodes!
We’ll be updating this post as we release our Spotlight episodes throughout September!
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The Common Descent Podcast 