The gang discusses two papers about the effects of the Permian Mass Extinction on the evolutionary and ecological patterns of brachiopods and bivalves. Also, Amanda finds her true calling, James indiscriminately throws shade, and Curt feels the pain of being the only person to vaguely remember what the papers were about.

 'Up goer five' summary:

The group talks about two types of animals with hard parts to hide in, one which is food and one which is not food. It used to be thought that the food animals were better than the not food animals, and that they had beaten them over a long time so that there were more of them today than the not food animal. The first paper shows that this is not true, and that both animals did as well as each other until they both had a very bad day, and that the food animal just got over this very bad day faster. The second paper is making sure that we have not got anything wrong by only looking at one way we can find both the food and not food animals.

References:

Gould, Stephen Jay, and C. Bradford Calloway. "Clams and brachiopods-ships that pass in the night." Paleobiology (1980): 383-396.

Clapham, Matthew E. "Ecological consequences of the Guadalupian extinction and its role in the brachiopod-mollusk transition." Paleobiology 41.02 (2015): 266-279.