Giraffes are so famous and familiar to most of us that it can be easy to forget how utterly strange they are. This episode, we explore modern giraffes, their living cousins (okapis!), and their ancient relatives to understand how these monumental mammals came to be how they are. Along the way, we’ll meet a whole variety of wacky-horned fossil species, and we’ll tackle the questions of how and why the giraffe got its long neck. In the news: dinosaur feet, marine crocs, hunted giant elephants, and...
Feb 19, 2023•2 hr 10 min•Ep. 231
Happy Darwin Day! You’ve seen his artwork. And if you somehow haven’t, you’ve seen lots of art inspired by his artwork. Charles R. Knight might be the most influential paleoartist of all time, inspiring a century’s worth of artists, scientists, and ancient-animal-enthusiasts around the world with his skillful and scientifically-informed works. In this episode, we explore who Knight was, how he became a renowned paleoartist, and his extraordinary role in ushering in the modern world of paleontolo...
Feb 05, 2023•1 hr 54 min•Ep. 230
Glowing organisms might seem like something out of science fiction, but not only do they exist here on Earth, they are incredibly common. Some species glow when exposed to certain kinds of light, and others produce their very own light in the darkest habitats on the planet. This episode, we explore glowing life: how they do it, what they use it for, and what we can tell about how this remarkable ability came to be. In the news: painted turtles, dinosaur herbivores, human brains, and insect ears....
Jan 22, 2023•2 hr 18 min•Ep. 229
The Paleozoic Era was home to many strange and fascinating extinct groups, and among the most eye-catching of these were the eurypterids. Colloquially called “sea scorpions,” these carnivorous aquatic arthropods came in many forms for many habitats and are now known from many amazing fossils. In this episode, we discuss what makes eurypterids distinct from similar organisms, what we know about their lifestyles, and the many ways they continue to surprise and confuse us. In the news: Brazilian cr...
Jan 08, 2023•1 hr 58 min•Ep. 228
Happy New Year! It’s been an exciting and eventful year for the podcast, and we’re glad you’ve been along for the ride! As usual, this is our annual Q&A where we answer the many, many questions our listeners submitted – the scientific, the silly, and the personal. Thanks as always to all of our listeners, our Patrons, our special guests, and to everyone who supports the podcast in ways big and small. See you next year. Check out our blog for bonus info and pictures: http://commondescentpodca...
Dec 31, 2022•4 hr 13 min•Ep. 227
It’s a great time of year to talk about conifers! Also their cousins: cycads, ginkgos, and others! Gymnosperms don’t get nearly as much love and attention as their flowering counterparts, the inescapable angiosperms, but they nonetheless have their own fascinating history going all the way back to some of the earliest forests on Earth. This episode, we’re joined once again by our favorite paleobotanist Dr. Aly Baumgartner to discuss what makes gymnosperms unique, what has made them so successful...
Dec 25, 2022•2 hr 44 min•Ep. 226
Viviparity is the reproductive style where embryos develop inside a parent’s body instead of inside an egg the parent lays. It’s a very familiar habit to us placental mammals, but it’s also an extremely widespread and diverse feature of life. Seriously, it’s ridiculous just how many times viviparity has evolved and just how many different ways species have found to be viviparous. In this episode we’ll answer such questions as: How and why does viviparity evolve? What features vary from one vivip...
Dec 11, 2022•1 hr 55 min•Ep. 225
Built-in body armor is common among reptiles and rare among mammals, but armadillos are the major exception. Equipped with a full set of segmented armor over their heads, backs, and tails, armadillos have been waddling around well-protected for tens of millions of years, and their ancient relatives include some of the most famous and preposterous of extinct mammals. This episode, we discuss the unique features and fascinating history of armadillos, glyptodonts, and their other ancient cousins. I...
Nov 27, 2022•1 hr 49 min•Ep. 224
You might have noticed that over the last few decades, a lot of really exciting and famous fossil discoveries have been coming out of China. If you pay close attention, you might even catch that many of them are coming from the same place: the incredible fossil assemblages of the Jehol Biota. We’ve mentioned Jehol fossils many times on the podcast, but in this episode, we focus on the big picture: where do these fossils come from, why are they so incredibly well-preserved, and what are just some...
Nov 13, 2022•2 hr•Ep. 223
Look at the various animals on Earth – or rather, look just behind them – and you’ll see a vast variety of tails! Tails and tail-like structures are often simple extensions of the body, and yet they’ve been adapted and modified into many shapes with many functions, and because they’re often so important to an animal’s lifestyle, they can be especially useful for paleontologists trying to understand ancient animals. In this episode, we’ll discuss definitions, diversity, functions, and fossils of ...
Oct 30, 2022•2 hr 1 min•Ep. 222
Welcome ... to Spookulative Evolution. October is here, and that means it’s time for Spook-E! Each episode throughout this month, we’re choosing a monster and discussing how it – or something like it – might evolve under the rules of evolution and natural selection, pulling inspiration from organisms of the real world. This year’s theme: monsters of Dungeons and Dragons . This episode, we delve into a paranoia-inducing scourge of dungeons. What hypothetical natural scenario might cultivate a sha...
Oct 29, 2022•57 min•Ep. 221
Welcome ... to Spookulative Evolution. October is here, and that means it’s time for Spook-E! Each episode throughout this month, we’re choosing a monster and discussing how it – or something like it – might evolve under the rules of evolution and natural selection, pulling inspiration from organisms of the real world. This year’s theme: monsters of Dungeons and Dragons . This episode, we gaze upon something truly alien. Can we formulate an evolutionary path to produce a malicious floating orb c...
Oct 22, 2022•55 min•Ep. 220
Stegosaurus is one of the all-time most famous and recognizable dinosaurs, but it wasn’t alone! Its whole extended family, the stegosaurs, were medium- to large-sized herbivorous dinosaurs sporting an array of plates and spikes. This episode, we discuss the diversity and deep history of stegosaurs, what we know of their lifestyles, and of course the big questions: just what were they doing with that ridiculous armor? In the news: Moon impacts, bird brains, Jurassic vomit, and super-old algae. Ti...
Oct 16, 2022•1 hr 56 min•Ep. 219
Welcome ... to Spookulative Evolution. October is here, and that means it’s time for Spook-E! Each episode throughout this month, we’re choosing a monster and discussing how it – or something like it – might evolve under the rules of evolution and natural selection, pulling inspiration from organisms of the real world. This year’s theme: monsters of Dungeons and Dragons . This episode, we roll out a monster that’s tough to get grasp on. From where on the tree of life might we develop a many-limb...
Oct 15, 2022•48 min•Ep. 218
Welcome ... to Spookulative Evolution. October is here, and that means it’s time for Spook-E! Each episode throughout this month, we’re choosing a monster and discussing how it – or something like it – might evolve under the rules of evolution and natural selection, pulling inspiration from organisms of the real world. This year’s theme: monsters of Dungeons and Dragons . This episode, we play with a classic chimera. How might nature select for a beast that combines the fierce features of a bear...
Oct 08, 2022•40 min•Ep. 217
In our modern world, ants are so ubiquitous that it’s difficult to image our planet without them, so successful that they shape the environments around them despite their tiny size, and so diverse that we couldn’t possibly discuss even a small fraction of their diversity in this one podcast episode. We’ll touch on some of what makes ants unique, list a few of our favorite examples of modern ant lifestyles, and dive into what is known about their ancient history and evolution. Get ready for fire ...
Oct 02, 2022•2 hr 2 min•Ep. 216
Powered flight is hard, and evolution has only produced it a few times. Gliding, however, is much easier and much more common. In fact, there is an astonishing diversity of gliding organisms to be found in our modern world as well as in the fossil record, with an incredible variety in the adaptations they use to sail through the sky. This episode, we’ll explore what it takes to glide and what patterns we see in gliding evolution, and we’ll also geek out about all the amazing sizes, shapes, and s...
Sep 18, 2022•2 hr 30 min•Ep. 215
For many years, scientists pondered the question: how and why do offspring inherit traits from their parents? And key to the answer to that question is another question: what determines an organism’s traits in the first place? The pursuit of these answers ultimately led to the modern field of genetics, which itself is crucial to the study of evolution. This episode, we address just a few key points on this vast topic, with a focus on how our understanding of genetics allows us to interpret the h...
Sep 04, 2022•2 hr 7 min•Ep. 214
Every period of geologic time is distinguished by its own environmental and ecological features, and every boundary between time periods is characterized by change. The boundary between the Jurassic Period and the Cretaceous Period is mostly marked by mystery. Was there a mass extinction? Were there catastrophic changes? Where even is the boundary exactly? In this episode, we’ll discuss the answers – or lack thereof – to these questions and more as we explore this surprisingly enigmatic time in ...
Aug 21, 2022•1 hr 42 min•Ep. 213
We live in a solar-powered world. Photosynthesis is the process by which some organisms (notably plants and cyanobacteria) harness the energy of sunlight to power their own metabolism, in the process creating the sugars (food) which provide a source of energy for all sorts of other organisms, not to mention releasing oxygen as well. Photosynthesis is the reason our planet is the way it is, from the diversity of life to the composition of the atmosphere. In this episode, we discuss the diversity ...
Aug 07, 2022•2 hr 41 min•Ep. 212
The history of evolution is full of species of unusual size, big and small. But the factors that lead to evolutionary miniaturization or embiggening can be quite varied and are not all fully agreed-upon by scientists. This episode, we discuss what it means for life to evolve huge or tiny, what trends researchers have identified in body size evolution, and which of those trends actually holds up to further scrutiny. In the news: krait venom, a frozen pup, parental water bugs, and giant storks. Ti...
Jul 24, 2022•2 hr 22 min•Ep. 211
Happy Snake Month! In this bonus episode, we discuss snake conservation and geek out about snakes with special guest Hiral Naik of Save the Snakes. We talk about what it takes to save snakes, why snakes are so worthy of our attention and respect, and why education is such a major part of snake conservation! Follow Hiral on Twitter: @HiralNaik25 Instagram: @hirals_hive Save The Snakes: https://savethesnakes.org/ Twitter: @savethesnakes Instagram: @savingsnakes Snake Education and Community Awaren...
Jul 16, 2022•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 209
Monitor lizards are charismatic, surprisingly diverse, full of surprising biological features, and on top of all that, they include the largest terrestrial lizards in history. Also, they’re closely related to snakes (it is Snake Month, after all). That’s a cool group of lizards! In this episode, we discuss what makes these lizards so unique and fascinating, and we dive into their long but often mysterious fossil record to address some major questions about monitor evolution. In the news: vampire...
Jul 10, 2022•2 hr 8 min•Ep. 210
Take a walk along the waterways of the Late Triassic, and you could easily think it was a world full of crocodiles! But in fact, those are not crocs, but phytosaurs, a group of predatory reptiles that represent not only one of the oldest groups of carnivorous reptiles to achieve a near-global distribution, but also one of evolution's most famous cases of convergent evolution. So, what features did phytosaurs share with crocs? Where did they differ? And just how croc-like were their lifestyles? L...
Jun 26, 2022•1 hr 57 min•Ep. 208
Once again, we return to the Jurassic franchise! And as usual with these movies, there’s lots to discuss about the portrayal of ancient animals, scientific concepts, and scientists. Another trilogy concludes – Jurassic World: Dominion (2022) _ IT’S CROC MONTH! Check out our Croc Month activities on our social media, Discord, and Patreon! Check out our blog for bonus info and pictures: http://commondescentpodcast.wordpress.com/ Join us on Patreon to support the podcast and enjoy bonus content! ht...
Jun 20, 2022•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 207
Happy Croc Month! In this special episode, we talk croc conservation and geek out about crocs with special guest Dr. Marisa Tellez of the Crocodilian Research Coalition. We learn about what it’s like to study crocs in the wild, we discuss the importance of public education, and we hear some of Marisa’s amazing croc tales! Follow Marisa on Instagram and Twitter: @crocparasites13 CRC Info: Webpage: www.crocodileresearchcoalition.org Facebook and Pinterest: Crocodile Research Coalition Instagram: @...
Jun 17, 2022•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 206
Perhaps you’ve heard of Pangaea, the supercontinent that existed when our modern continents were puzzle-pieced together. But have you heard of Rodinia? Or Columbia? Scientists have only come to realize in the last few decades that supercontinents are a recurring feature of our planet. This episode, we discuss what counts as a supercontinent, what evidence they leave behind, and the various ways they impact just about every other feature of our planet as they continuously come together and break ...
Jun 12, 2022•2 hr 14 min•Ep. 205
Recently, BBC Studios put out a new documentary series set in the world of the Late Cretaceous, so we’re doing our first-ever Silver Screen Science discussion focused on a documentary! The documentary in question: Prehistoric Planet. Happy Croc Month! Special things are going on throughout this (and next) month in all the places linked below! Join us on Patreon to support the podcast and enjoy bonus content! https://www.patreon.com/commondescentpodcast Or make a one-time donation via PayPal: htt...
Jun 05, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 204
Who doesn’t like a flashy bit of headgear? A wide variety of cranial ornamentation is found on a wide variety of animals: sharp horns, branching antlers, bumpy knobs, and more. In this episode, we break down what technically counts as a “horn” (you’ll be unsurprised to learn there isn’t a simple answer!), the vast diversity of animal headgear today and in the fossil record, and the various ways animals have found to use these remarkable structures. In the news: sabertoothed faces, head origins, ...
May 29, 2022•2 hr 24 min•Ep. 203
Scavenging isn’t easy. There’s a reason most scavengers are only part-time carrion-eaters. But vultures are exquisitely adapted for a dedicated lifestyle of finding and feasting on carcasses, and as a result, they’ve made themselves invaluable members of ecosystems all over the globe. In this episode, we explore vulture evolution, their ancient history, and the adaptations that make them the world’s most famous scavengers. In the news: insect wings, trilobite mating, a “small” sauropod, and post...
May 15, 2022•1 hr 52 min•Ep. 202
