Evolution Talk

We don't know why dogs became man's best friend, but we have some ideas. And those ideas take us back anywhere from 10,000 to 40,000 years ago.They are perhaps the perfect visual example when it comes to witnessing the power of the gene pool and how a selection process, whether natural or artificial, can affect it.

For show notes and more, please visit https://EvolutionTalk.com

Written, Produced, & Narrated by: Rick Coste

In this episode I want to introduce you to someone. Actually, this someone is a thing, and this thing wiggled its way through life between two to four billion years ago.

Listener, meet LUCA. Your Last Universal Common Ancestor.

LUCA, meet your descendant.

For show notes and more, please visit https://EvolutionTalk.com

Written, Produced, & Narrated by: Rick Coste

As a kid I was fascinated by the idea of cavemen. Of course, all I had to go on were a few poorly produced movies that depicted cavemen battling dinosaurs, which of course never happened. I even owned an early plastic model of a Cro-Magnon man and woman. To me the Cro-Magnon were indistinguishable from the Neanderthals. As far as I knew they both lived in caves, wore skins of the animals they slaughtered and fought with spears.

Spoiler alert - we really don't refer to them as Cro-Magnon anymore.

For show notes and more, please visit https://EvolutionTalk.com

Written, Produced, & Narrated by: Rick Coste

Many years ago, in 1977, astronomer and author Carl Sagan offered us the concept of a "Cosmic Calendar" in his book The Dragons of Eden. It's a fun thought experiment in which you take the entire history of the universe, from the Big Bang until now, and represent it as calendar year.

For show notes and more, please visit https://EvolutionTalk.com

Written, Produced, & Narrated by: Rick Coste

It's time to look at fossil dating again! The last episode mentioned two dating methods used to estimate how old the Homo Naledi bones found the Rising Star cave system might be. To do so, researchers used a Uranium-thorium method as well as electron spin resonance, or "ESR". Let's take a brief look at what each of these entail.

For show notes and more, please visit https://EvolutionTalk.com

Written, Produced, & Narrated by: Rick Coste

Quite a few episodes back, I produced a show that looked at a new hominin species discovered in 2013. This history-changing discovery happened when paleoanthropologist Lee Berger, assisted by cavers Rick Hunter and Steve Tucker, explored the Rising Star Cave in the Cradle of Humankind, South Africa. I thought it's about time we revisited that earlier hominin species. Think of it as an update on what science has to say about them now.

For show notes and more, please visit https://EvolutionTalk.com

Written, Produced, & Narrated by: Rick Coste

Natural selection isn't perfect. It only cares that something works. If it works and is not harmful to its host, then that something is passed on.

For show notes and more, please visit https://EvolutionTalk.com

Written, Produced, & Narrated by: Rick Coste

There is more than random mutations when it comes to evolution by natural selection. You also have to look at other variables outside of a genetic mutation. Variables such as the environment the organism lives in, the challenges it has to face, and its ability to find food.

For show notes and more, please visit https://EvolutionTalk.com

Written, Produced, & Narrated by: Rick Coste

Please join me for a brief update on the show, it's future, and what you can do to help.

Evolution by Natural Selection is a beautiful theory. But as wonderful a theory as it is, it does have its detractors. One argument states that evolution violates the second law of thermodynamics. Is this true?

For show notes and more, please visit https://EvolutionTalk.com

Written, Produced, & Narrated by: Rick Coste