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 strategies of gliders.

In the news: coral mutations, African dinosaurs, croc brains, and ancient amputation.

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The Intro and Outro music is “On the Origin of Species” by Protodome.

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