Episode 121 - Brains

Nearly all animals have some form of nervous system, and this system is often monitored and regulated by a brain. We humans are particularly proud of our enormous brains, but these organs come in all shapes and sizes across the animal kingdom, past and present. In this episode, we discuss brain diversity, the sometimes roundabout ways we explore brains in the fossil record, and what we’ve come to learn about the evolution of brains.

In the news: turtle embryo, frog-legged leaf beetle, early lizard cousin, and tyrannosaur brains.

Time markers:Intro & Announcements: 00:00:00News: 00:06:15Main discussion, Part 1: 00:34:00Main discussion, Part 2: 01:12:45Patron question: 02:05:00

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The Intro and Outro music is “On the Origin of Species” by Protodome. More music like this at http://ocremix.org.

Musical Interludes are "Professor Umlaut" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/