The Common Descent Podcast
Episodes
Episode 110 - Mazon Creek Fossil Beds
04 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Go searching in the right spots in Illinois and you’re liable to find a hard chunk of ironstone with a gorgeous fossil inside. The Mazon Creek Fossi...
Episode 109 - Hyenas
21 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Despite their unfortunate reputation, hyenas are really impressive. Modern and fossil, they’re a diverse group with a variety of dietary and social ...
Episode 108 - Penguins
07 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Penguins aren’t the only flightless birds, and they aren’t the only diving birds, but they sure are good at doing both! In this episode, we discus...
Episode 107 – Tusks
21 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Taking teeth to the extreme! Tusks have evolved numerous times, particularly in mammals, and they’ve come in a striking array of shapes and sizes fo...
Episode 106 - Franz Nopcsa
07 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Happy Darwin Day! Baron Franz Nopcsa was a paleontologist around the start of the 20th Century, remembered today for his innovative fossil research, h...
Episode 105 - Carnivorous Plants
24 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A new tradition begins! Get ready for more plants with our friend Dr. Aly Baumgartner! Most plants are content to sit still and take in sunlight and s...
Episode 104 - Pinnipeds
10 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Seals, sea lions, and walruses (oh my!) are widespread, successful, and invariably charming. In this episode, we take a look at how they’re adapted ...
End of the Year Q&A 2020
31 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Happy New Year! A huge thanks to everyone who sent in questions for this year’s Q&A – we got more than we could even answer! – and to everyone ...
Episode 103 – The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum
27 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The PETM has been called the largest natural climate change event of the Cenozoic Era. It marks the transition from the ecosystems of the Paleocene to...
Episode 102 - Parasites
13 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The word parasite doesn’t typically invoke a lot of happy thoughts for us humans, but as far as life on Earth is concerned, parasitism is a path to ...
Episode 101 - Sauropods
29 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Is there a group of dinosaurs more iconic than sauropods? Famous for their ridiculously long necks, their global success, their astounding diversity, ...
100 Episodes: A Look Back
22 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve released 100 episodes of the podcast! Plus, more than 50 side episodes, a handful of YouTube videos, some live shows … it’s been quite a j...
Episode 100 - The Origin of Life
15 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
One hundred episodes is kind of a big deal, so we figured we’d pick a big deal kind of topic, and it doesn’t get much bigger than this. As far as ...
Episode 99 - Evolution of Insects
01 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Insects must be among the most impressive animals in Earth history. For hundreds of millions of years, they have been some of the most significant ani...
Spook-E - The Sirens
31 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome ... to Spookulative Evolution. It’s October once again and time for Spook-E! Each episode throughout this month, we’re choosing a monster ...
Spook-E - The Leviathan
24 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome ... to Spookulative Evolution. It’s October once again and time for Spook-E! Each episode throughout this month, we’re choosing a monster ...
Episode 98 - Species and Speciation
18 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When we study life, past or present, we talk a lot about species, their evolution, their diversity, their extinction, and more. But we don’t often s...
Spook-E - Sea Serpents
17 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome ... to Spookulative Evolution. It’s October once again and time for Spook-E! Each episode throughout this month, we’re choosing a monster ...
Spook-E - The Kraken
10 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome ... to Spookulative Evolution. It’s October once again and time for Spook-E! Each episode throughout this month, we’re choosing a monster ...
Episode 97 - Venom and Poison
04 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Okay, that’s not a great title. More accurately, we’re discussing toxins, the substances that organisms produce for chemical defense or attack aga...
Episode 96 - Marsupials
20 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Marsupials are like alternate-reality mammals. Everything about them, from their skeletons to their reproductive strategies, is just a bit strange –...
Episode 95 – The Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse
06 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This episode marks the end of our extinction series, but on the bright side, Aly’s here! Most of the extinction events we discuss are very animal-fo...
Episode 94 - Dogs
23 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Dogs are among the most diverse and successful mammalian predators on the planet, from widespread wild predators like wolves to the most iconic domest...
Episode 93 - Cats
09 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Cats are among the most diverse and successful mammalian predators on the planet, from lions on the savanna to ocelots in the jungle to domestic cats ...
Episode 92 - Eggs
26 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Everybody starts somewhere, and most animals start inside an egg! Eggs are about as old and as varied as animal life itself, and when they show up in ...
Episode 91 - Frogs
12 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Roughly nine out of ten living amphibian species are frogs. They’re incredibly diverse and successful, and they have been since the Jurassic Period....
Episode 90 - "Living Fossils"
27 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
"Living fossils" aren't really a thing, not the way they're typically talked about anyway, and the term can be a source of debate among scientists and...
Episode 89 - The Burgess Shale
14 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia sits one of the most important, well-studied, and scientifically influential fossil sites in the world. Th...
Live Chat - Conservation Paleontology
05 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this series, we invite scientists to live Q&As on YouTube, where we discuss topics we’ve covered before on the podcast. This episode, we discusse...
Live Chat - Paleopathology
03 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this series, we invite scientists to live Q&As on YouTube, where we discuss topics we’ve covered before on the podcast. This episode, we discusse...
Episode 88 - Evolution of Teeth
31 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Start exploring vertebrate evolution and paleontology, and it won’t be long before you end up on the subject of teeth. These handy structures are en...
Live Chat - Turtles
20 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this series, we invite scientists to live Q&As on YouTube, where we discuss topics we’ve covered before on the podcast. This episode, we discusse...
Episode 87 - Ceratopsians, the Horned Dinosaurs
17 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
From massive Triceratops to tiny Psittacosaurus, few dinosaurs are as famous, charismatic, or commonly preserved as ceratopsians. In this episode, we’...
Live Chat - Ancient DNA
12 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this series, we invite scientists to live Q&As on YouTube, where we discuss topics we’ve covered before on the podcast. This episode, we discusse...
Episode 86 - New Zealand
03 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the South Pacific Ocean, there is a family of islands that have been isolated since the Cretaceous Period. New Zealand – past and present – has...
Episode 85 – The Ordovician Mass Extinction
19 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve discussed mass extinctions quite a bit on this podcast, and indeed we’ve devoted episode to four out of the famous “Big Five” that shape...
Silver Screen Science - Animals of the James Bond Franchise
16 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
There’s a pandemic on, and we and many of our listeners are spending lots of time at home. On the bright side, it’s a good opportunity to watch mo...
Silver Screen Science - Godzilla (1998)
08 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
There’s a pandemic on, and we and many of our listeners are spending lots of time at home. On the bright side, it’s a good opportunity to watch mo...
Episode 84 - Paleopathology
05 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Life ain’t always easy. Injury and disease are a persistent threat for life of all sorts, and that’s been true for as long as there has been life....
Silver Screen Science - Evolution (2001)
01 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
There’s a pandemic on, and we and many of our listeners are spending lots of time at home. On the bright side, it’s a good opportunity to watch mo...
Patron Mini-Episode Compilation
29 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
One of the rewards we offer to our highest-level Patrons is a special mini-episode on an animal or group of their choosing. We’ve done five so fa...
Silver Screen Science - Tremors
25 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
There’s a pandemic on, and we and many of our listeners are spending lots of time at home. On the bright side, it’s a good opportunity to watch mo...
Episode 83 - Coelacanths
22 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In 1938, a fishing crew pulled up a fish that everyone thought had been extinct for 70 million years. Since then, coelacanths have become famous not j...
Episode 82 - Trilobites
08 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Few fossil animals are as popular with the public, as abundant in the fossil record, or as important to the study of past life on Earth as trilobites....
Episode 81 - Metamorphosis
23 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Metamorphosis is the process that turns a caterpillar to a butterfly, a fry to a fish, and a tadpole to a frog. Animals have been metamorphosing for o...
Episode 80 - Mary Anning
09 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Happy Darwin Day! This time around, we’re talking about Mary Anning! She was one of the earliest modern paleontologists, she helped lay the groundwo...
Episode 79 - Pterosaurs
26 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The first pterosaur to be scientifically identified was Pterodactylus, more than 200 years ago. Since then, scientists have grappled with understandin...
DragonCon 2019 Paleontology Hour Panel
19 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
At DragonCon 2019, Will and David were part of the Paleontology Hour Panel, where a room full of nerds asked all their paleo-related questions to a pa...
Episode 78 - Exaptation
12 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Hand a kitchen appliance to a child and they’re likely to find a whole new way to use it. This happens in evolution, too – traits adapted for one ...
End of the Year Q&A 2019
01 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Happy New Year! We got a ton of questions this year, so enjoy the end of the decade with this extra-long edition of David and Will saying the things y...
Episode 77 - Fins to Feet: The Fish-Tetrapod Transition
29 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Happy New Year! As we transition into a new decade, this episode is about one of the most important and incredible transitions in the evolutionary his...
Episode 76 - Horse Evolution
15 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The evolution of horses is a classic story, first because it is a beautiful example of evolution in the fossil record, and second because of how our s...
...But We Digress - Pokemon Paleontology
08 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to the world of Pokémon Paleontology! In this digression – by popular demand – we explore how the fictional world of Pokémon draws inspi...
Episode 75 - The Great Oxidation Event
01 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Time for another extinction! This time, we’re discussing what might be the most ancient, most mysterious, and most catastrophic mass extinction even...
Episode 74 - South America
17 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
South America today is home to some of the most incredible ecosystems on the planet, and its fossil record is even more varied and fantastic. In this ...
Episode 73 - Trees
03 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Aly's back for more plants! As our friend Aly is fond of pointing out, plants aren't just the colorful background of Earth history, they're dynamic an...
Spook-E - Chimeras
26 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome ... to Spookulative Evolution. It’s October, and we’re back with more Spook-E! Each week this month, we’re choosing a creepy creature an...
Episode 72 - Plesiosaurs
20 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The oceans of the Mesozoic were home to a lot of fascinating sea predators, but perhaps none weirder than the plesiosaurs. Four giant flippers, tiny t...
Spook-E - Hydras
19 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome ... to Spookulative Evolution. It’s October, and we’re back with more Spook-E! Each week this month, we’re choosing a creepy creature an...
Spook-E - Gorgons
12 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome ... to Spookulative Evolution. It’s October, and we’re back with more Spook-E! Each week this month, we’re choosing a creepy creature an...
Episode 71 - The Western Interior Seaway
06 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
During the Cretaceous Period, North America flooded. The entire middle section of the continent was submerged, creating an inland sea that stretched f...
Spook-E - Harpies
05 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome ... to Spookulative Evolution. It’s October, and we’re back with more Spook-E! Each week this month, we’re choosing a creepy creature an...
Episode 70 - Convergent Evolution
22 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
With all the incredible diversity of life, it’s fascinating how often evolution repeats itself. The fossil record and the modern world are full of s...
Episode 69 - Ankylosaurs
08 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It’s dinosaur time again! This episode, the spotlight is on the “living tanks” of the Mesozoic, the armored ankylosaurs. These impressive creatu...
Episode 68 - Evolution of Eyes
25 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
If you’re reading this, there’s a very good chance you’re using one of the most incredible tools in the animal toolkit: the eye! In this episode...
Voices of La Brea - Bonus Episode
11 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We were in southern California for NAPC recently, so we sat down with a bunch of the crew from La Brea to get some insights into their work, their his...
Episode 67 - The La Brea Tar Pits
11 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
How odd that one of the world’s richest and most famous fossil sites isn’t on a mountain or in a desert, but in the heart of one of the world’s ...
Episode 66 - Elephants
28 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This episode, we take a deep dive into the evolutionary story of Earth’s largest land mammals. Extinction has left us with only three elephant speci...
Episode 65 - The Late Devonian Extinction(s)
14 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It’s Episode 65, and you know what that means … extinction! This time, we address the ancient and confusing Late Devonian extinction. This is trad...
Episode 64 - Paleoart
30 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Featuring paleoartist and herpetologist Gabriel Ugueto! Follow Gabriel on Twitter (@SerpenIllus) or at his website, gabrielugueto.com, and listen to...
Silver Screen Science – Godzilla (2014) and Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
29 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Part 5 of 5 in this month’s series: KaiJune! There’s a new Godzilla movie, and that means it’s time for more movie science! All June, we’ll be...
Silver Screen Science – King Kong (2005) and Kong: Skull Island (2017)
22 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Part 4 of 5 in this month’s series: KaiJune! There’s a new Godzilla movie, and that means it’s time for more movie science! All June, we’ll be...
Episode 63 - Sexual Selection
16 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The history of animal life on Earth has been shaped by sex. The struggle to reproduce puts unique evolutionary pressures on species which affect their...
Silver Screen Science – Kaiju Concepts
15 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Part 3 of 5 in this month’s series: KaiJune! There’s a new Godzilla movie, and that means it’s time for more movie science! All June, we’ll be...
Silver Screen Science - Gojira (1954)
08 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Part 2 of 5 in this month’s series: KaiJune! There’s a new Godzilla movie, and that means it’s time for more movie science! All June, we’ll be...
Episode 62 – Amber
02 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When it comes to exceptional forms of preservation, it’s hard to beat amber. These fossilized chunks of tree resin have provided some of the most in...
Silver Screen Science - King Kong (1933)
01 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Part 1 of 5 in this month’s series: KaiJune! There’s a new Godzilla movie, and that means it’s time for more movie science! All June, we’ll be...
Episode 61 - Behavior in the Fossil Record
19 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It’s easy to see how fossils can teach us what ancient animals looked like, or how they evolved. But what about the ways they moved, ate, socialized...
Episode 60 - Turtles
05 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Turtles are so weird and wonderful. They're unlike any other living reptiles, mostly because they've turned their entire torso skeleton into an armor-...
Episode 59 - Bats
21 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Many groups of life have conquered the land and water, but only four times in evolutionary history has life taken to the air. The most recent group to...
Episode 58 - The Bone Wars
07 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It was the late 1800s, and paleontology was just getting started in the Americas. Two prolific and passionate scientists, Edward Drinker Cope and Othn...
Episode 57 - Evolution of Flowering Plants (Angiosperms)
24 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Look who's back - our favorite paleobotanist, Aly Baumgartner! And that means it’s time for more plants! As you may have noticed, the world around y...
Sloth Chat Livestream 2018
20 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In April 2018, we hosted this Sloth Chat Livestream! Following up from Episode 24 (Sloths), we were joined by sloth scientists Ryan Haupt and Robert M...
Episode 56 – The Evolution of Evolutionary Theory
10 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
One of the main themes of this podcast is the evolutionary history of life. This concept is familiar to all of us today, but our current understanding...
Episode 55 - The "Sixth Extinction" (Modern Biodiversity Crisis)
24 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Usually, when we talk about mass extinction, we’re referring to events long past. But scary levels of extinction are a fact of our current world, as...
Episode 54 - Alfred Russell Wallace
10 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Happy Darwin Day! Last year around this time, we were joined by Dr. Sarah Bray to discuss the life and times of Charles Darwin. This time, Sarah joins...
Episode 53 - The Baculum (Penis Bone)
27 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It's been called the most diverse of all bones. It comes in an incredible variety of shapes and sizes, living and fossil, scattered across the mammali...
Episode 52 – Sounds of the Past (Fossil Bioacoustics)
13 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
What did dinosaurs sound like? How did extinct animals make and use sound? Like most behaviors, noises don’t fossilize, but there is some tantalizin...
End of the Year Q&A 2018
31 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Happy New Year! Big thanks to everyone who's supported us throughout the year, and big thanks to everyone who submitted questions to our Q&A! H...
Episode 51 - Mosasaurs
30 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Many times in the history of life on Earth, reptiles have returned to the oceans. There were three famous groups of marine reptiles during the Mesozoi...
Episode 50 - Australia
16 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This episode, we take a tour of the land that takes home the prizes for oldest geologic materials, most marsupials, and (arguably) biggest island! Our...
Episode 49 - Fake Fossils
02 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It’s no secret we love paleontology; it’s a fascinating field of study. But sometimes our favorite subject is polluted and perverted by fraud. In ...
Episode 48 - Sharks
18 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This episode, it’s back into the ocean, this time to discuss one of the most successful groups of predators on the planet. Sharks are famously “an...
Episode 47 - Early Synapsids ("Proto-Mammals")
04 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Synapsids are a vast group of animals that includes only one living lineage: us mammals. But for about 100 million years before true mammals evolved, ...
Spook-E - Zombies
27 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome ... to Spookulative Evolution. It's October, so we're exploring some more speculative evolution with a spooky twist! Each week this month, we'...
Episode 46 - Cryptozoology
21 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Human culture is full of stories of marvelous creatures hiding in the wilds on the fringe of our understanding. Some are the stuff of local lore while...
Spook-E - Fish-People
20 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome ... to Spookulative Evolution. It's October, so we're exploring some more speculative evolution with a spooky twist! Each week this month, we'...
Spook-E - Werewolves
13 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome ... to Spookulative Evolution. It's October, so we're exploring some more speculative evolution with a spooky twist! Each week this month, we'...
Episode 45 – The Permian Extinction (“The Great Dying”)
07 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
252 million years ago, the Earth experienced what might be the worst extinction event of all time, so dramatic that it brought an end to the entire Pa...
Spook-E - Vampires
06 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome ... to Spookulative Evolution. It's October, so we're exploring some more speculative evolution with a spooky twist! Each week this month, we'...