Join Ellen & special guest, digital artist and character designer Roxy Valdez, for a multimedia exploration of the intersection where real-world biology and ecology meets the imagination: speculative evolution! We discuss the world of the Amphiterra Project, the academic research and creative process that goes into designing creatures for science fiction and fantasy, and even team up to roll dice and make our very own creatures. Our guest provides illustrations and an interactive spec evo prompt generator that will be posted on our socials to accompany this episode!

Links:

• Follow Roxy on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/bighugefrog.bsky.social
• Find more of Roxy's work and info: https://bighugefrog.carrd.co/
• Find the Amphiterra Project: https://amphiterra.weebly.com/
• Roxy's Recommendations:
• Serina: https://sites.google.com/site/worldofserina/home
• Runaway to the Stars: https://www.runawaytothestars.com/
• The Snouters: Form and Life of the Rhinogrades: https://archive.org/details/snoutersforml00stum
• Dougal Dixon: https://www.dougal-dixon.co.uk/
• Curious Archive: https://www.youtube.com/@CuriousArchive
• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
• Follow Just the Zoo of Us on BlueSky, Facebook, Instagram & Discord!
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Christian takes charge of rhinoceroses & Ellen gives bird-eating tarantulas a hair-raising review. We discuss unicorns, mmwonk, dragon calls, Ace Ventura, becoming the Thumbtacks Guy, recipes for a bag of spiders, and more. 

Links:

• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
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Join Ellen and acclaimed naturalist Ivan Phillipsen to round up his top 3 weirdest birds. We discuss what makes a bird truly “weird,” the distinct silhouette of a style icon, never letting a perfectly good placenta go to waste, birds getting tipsy on fermented berries, and so much more.

Links:

• Find more of Ivan's work at scienceofbirds.com!
• Go check out Ivan's podcast, The Science of Birds!
• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
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• Source of audio clip played at 42 minutes 17 seconds: Jacob Wijpkema, XC695095. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/695095.

Ellen & special guest Isaac answer questions from young listeners! We discuss albinism, whales and dinosaurs, what makes an organism an animal, raccoon stripes, the puppification of foxes, and so much more.

Links:

• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
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Join Ellen & special guest, veterinarian and rabbit parent Zoe Feigen, for an exposé on rabbits and the secret horrors they’re hiding underneath all that adorable fluff. We discuss biological warfare on an ecological menace, self-sharpening glass crunchers, eating poop, outie butts, flirting with pee, tearaway hair, haunting screams, and so much more. This truly eye-opening episode will forever change how you see those sweet little faces and cotton ball tails.

Links:

• Follow Zoe on Bluesky!
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Ellen bites off more than she can chew with parrotfish. We discuss the Mohs scale, Korn corn, throat teeth, crystal chainmail, sleeping bags made of snot, being terminally male, and so much more. 

Links:

• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
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Join Ellen & special guest, champion of the reef Jessie Palmer, as we try to save the world one polyp at a time. We discuss coral wars and neural nets, aliens from a different version of our own planet, literally re-inventing the wheel with coral-inspired biomimicry, what’s up with coral bleaching and how can we help, and even surprisingly philosophical questions, like “what is an individual?” “what is the self?” and “at what point do you have a new body?” This episode will change the way you look at a reef - and maybe even yourself. Hope you’re ready.

Links:

• Follow Jessie on Instagram!
• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
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Get your seeds and suet ready because it's time for a feed drop: Ellen joins birding musicians Tommy Siegel and Billy Libby for the debut episode of Extremely Accurate Bird Songs (The Podcast) on the mourning dove.

Links:

• Follow along with Extremely Accurate Bird Songs (The Podcast)
• Find more of Tommy's work on his website!
• Find more of Billy's work on his website!
• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
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Ellen's thinking about those Mexican jumping beans & Christian takes things slow with the slow worm. We discuss bean details, the strategic value of random movement, hair pencils, the difference between snakes and legless lizards, autotomy, and so much more.

Links:

Links:

• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
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Join Ellen & special guest, evolutionary biologist and herpetologist Dr. Mark D. Scherz, for a look through the magnifying glass at miniaturized animals. Our guest studies species who have shrunk down to incredibly small sizes, like frogs and chameleons who could gather on the tip of your finger, and he has some fascinating insights into why and how animals get so darn itty bitty and what could be stopping them from getting any itty bittier. We discuss silliness in scientific names, assuming a spherical frog in a vacuum, chameleons called B. nana, whether jawbones spark joy, how many brain cells you really even need anyway, and so much more.

Links:

• Learn more about Mark and his work on his website: http://www.markscherz.com/
• Check out Mark's podcast, SquaMates: http://squamatespod.com/
• Follow Mark on Tumblr: https://markscherz.tumblr.com/
• Follow Mark on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/markscherz.bsky.social
• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
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