The Common Descent Podcast

By Common Descent

Natural Sciences Education

What's The Common Descent Podcast about?

Join David and Will as they explore the paleontologists’ perspective on various topics in life and earth history.

Each episode features a main discussion on a topic requested by the listeners, presented as a lighthearted and educational conversation about fossils, evolution, deep time, and more.

Before the main discussion, each episode also includes a news segment, covering recent research related to paleontology and evolution.

Each episode ends with the answer to a question submitted by subscribers on Patreon.

New episodes with new topics every fortnight!

Download our free app to listen on your phone

LAST EPISODE

Patron Mini-Episode Compila...

12.04.2023

Mini-episodes are rewards for our high-level supporters on Patreon, each one focusing on a requested topic for a specific Patron. From time to time, we combine a bunch of these and release them as a bundle for all our listeners ...

The Common Descent Podcast episodes:

12.04.2023 Patron Mini-Episode Compilation #4 Mini-episodes are rewards for our high-level supporters on Patreon, each one focusing on a requested topic for a specific Patron. From time to time, we combine a bunch of these and release them as a bundle for all our listeners ...
11.26.2023 Episode 179 - Thermoregulation If things get too hot or too cold, the crucial processes inside the cells and tissues of living organisms stop working properly, and that’s bad. So, organisms expend a lot of time and energy managing their body temperatures. This episode, ...
11.12.2023 Episode 178 - Ears Listen up! The world around us is full of sound, and animals have evolved numerous strategies for receiving and interpreting those sounds. In this episode, we discuss the many varieties of sound-sensing organs and how they’ve evolved repeatedly throughout life ...
11.04.2023 Cute-E - Friendly Dragons Welcome … to Cute-E! Every October during Spook-E, we have fun speculatively evolving monsters from myths and stories, but we leave out the cuddlier side of fiction. In Cute-E, we’re choosing kinder creatures and discussing how they – or something ...
10.29.2023 Episode 177 - Neanderthals These days, we Homo sapiens are the only humans around, but that wasn’t always the case. This episode, we are joined by special guest Dr. Bridget Alex to discuss our most famous extinct cousins, Neanderthals. We explore what makes them ...
10.28.2023 Spook-E - Turtle Dragons Welcome ... to Spookulative Evolution. It’s October, and that means it’s Spook-E Season once again! Each episode in the series, we pick a type of monster and explore how it – or something like it – might evolve under the ...
10.21.2023 Spook-E - Wyverns Welcome ... to Spookulative Evolution. It’s October, and that means it’s Spook-E Season once again! Each episode in the series, we pick a type of monster and explore how it – or something like it – might evolve under the ...
10.15.2023 Episode 176 - Hadrosaurs Hadrosaurs (the so-called “duckbill” dinosaurs) and their fellow ornithopods were among the most abundant and successful dinosaur groups of all time. This episode, we discuss their evolution and diversity, and we explore some of the most outstanding and unique features ...
10.14.2023 Spook-E - East Asian Dragons Welcome ... to Spookulative Evolution. It’s October, and that means it’s Spook-E Season once again! Each episode in the series, we pick a type of monster and explore how it – or something like it – might evolve under the ...
10.07.2023 Spook-E - European Dragons Welcome ... to Spookulative Evolution. It’s October, and that means it’s Spook-E Season once again! Each episode in the series, we pick a type of monster and explore how it – or something like it – might evolve under the ...
10.01.2023 Episode 175 - Plant Defenses Plants are delicious, nutritious, and full of energy, so they’re prime targets for all sorts of herbivores, parasites, and pathogens. But plants aren’t just sitting passively accepting attacks, they use a variety of strategies to defend themselves, from the frustrating ...
09.17.2023 Episode 174 - The Mesozoic Marine Revolution Earth’s oceans change over time, not just in their size and shape, but also in the very dynamics of their ecosystems. The stage was set for modern ocean ecosystems by an event called the Mesozoic Marine Revolution, a dramatic restructuring ...
09.03.2023 Episode 173 - Herbivores (Plant-Eaters) Eating plants isn’t easy, and yet the habit has evolved many times over the history of life on Earth, and herbivores have become essential components of ecosystems as we know them. This episode, we discuss the adaptations animals use to ...
08.27.2023 Silver Screen Science - 65 (2023) There’s a new paleontology-adjacent movie out there, and as usual, it’s a great opportunity to examine how science is translated to the big screen. Back to the Cretaceous (kind of) – 65 (2023) Check out our website for more stuff:http://commondescentpodcast.com/ ...
08.20.2023 Episode 172 - Toothed Whales For much of their evolutionary history, whales have been divided into two main lineages: baleen whales and toothed whales. The toothed variety are especially diverse today, including sperm whales, belugas, porpoises, and so, so many dolphins (among others). This episode, ...
08.06.2023 Episode 171 - The Tethys Sea Throughout Earth history, tectonic forces have changed the shape of the continents – and the oceans! You might be familiar with the Tethys Sea as an ancient ocean nestled against Pangaea, home to marine reptiles and more, but there’s actually ...
07.23.2023 Episode 170 - Milk Mammals are famous for their ability to produce milk, a special substance that is essential for providing newborns with the ingredients they need for healthy development. As it turns out, mammals aren’t the only ones. Milk-like substances have evolved in ...
07.16.2023 Snake Stuff with David Happy Snake Month! In this special episode, it’s all about snakes with our very own snake-enthusiast: David! Thanks to our Patrons for providing the inspiration for these interview questions! Join us on Patreon to support the podcast our scaly friends! ...
07.09.2023 Episode 169 - Sea Snakes Snakes are surprisingly good at adapting to life in saltwater. Today’s seafaring serpents include a wide diversity of semi-marine species as well as a fascinating assortment of fully oceanic snakes, and this is a tradition that extends well into the ...
06.25.2023 Episode 168 – Marine Crocs Most crocodilians today can handle saltwater to some degree, but many of their ancient cousins were much more suited to a life at sea, including some of the most impressive ocean-going reptiles in history. In this episode, we’ll explore the ...
06.17.2023 Croc Chat with Will Happy Croc Month! In this special episode, we talk about crocs with the croc-fanatic himself: our very own Will! Thanks to our Patrons for providing the inspiration for these interview questions! Join us on Patreon to support the podcast our ...
06.11.2023 Episode 167 – Geologic Dating When scientists find a new rock formation or fossil assemblage, how do they determine how old it is? The answer lies in the many varied methods of geologic dating. In this episode, we’ll discuss how we can sort the events ...
05.28.2023 Episode 166 - Monotremes In our modern world, there are three major groups of mammals: placentals (that’s most of us), marsupials, and the rare and bizarre monotremes. Today’s monotremes – that’s echidnas and platypuses – are famous for their seemingly “un-mammalian” features: they lack ...
05.14.2023 Episode 165 - Fruit One of the hallmarks of angiosperms (flowering plants) is the formation of a container to hold their seeds. These containers are fruits, and they come in an astonishing variety of forms and functions, far beyond the typical line up of ...
04.30.2023 Episode 164 - The ”Boring Billion” From roughly 1.8 – 0.8 billion years ago, things on Earth seemingly slowed down. The geologic record shows a conspicuous lack of evidence for major climatic, tectonic, or biological changes, a dramatic contrast to the tumultuous times before and after. ...
04.25.2023 Patron Mini-Episode Compilation #3 As you might know by now, our high-level supporters on Patreon get to request a topic for their own special mini-episode! Every now and then, we collect the most recent of these and put them together into a compilation for ...
04.16.2023 Episode 163 - Claws Check the fingers and toes of your favorite vertebrate animals and you’re likely to find claws or something similar at the ends. These digit-caps come in a variety of shapes – claws, nails, even hooves – for a variety of ...
04.02.2023 Episode 162 – Caecilians You’re probably familiar with frogs and salamanders, but there is a third group of modern amphibians, the strangest of them all: the worm-like caecilians. In this episode, we’ll explore the many bizarre anatomical features of caecilians, from their tentacled faces ...
03.18.2023 Episode 161 - Sleep We spend a huge portion of our lives sleeping. For us and other animals, it’s clearly a very important behavior. And yet, despite how familiar and commonplace it is, there’s plenty we still don’t understand about sleep: its origins, evolution, ...
03.05.2023 Episode 160 - The Messel Pit Once, it was a volcanic crater. Then, it was a lake, perhaps equal parts lush and deadly. Much later, it was a mining site. And finally, today, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most famous ...
02.19.2023 Episode 159 - Giraffes Giraffes are so famous and familiar to most of us that it can be easy to forget how utterly strange they are. This episode, we explore modern giraffes, their living cousins (okapis!), and their ancient relatives to understand how these ...
02.05.2023 Episode 158 – Charles R. Knight Happy Darwin Day! You’ve seen his artwork. And if you somehow haven’t, you’ve seen lots of art inspired by his artwork. Charles R. Knight might be the most influential paleoartist of all time, inspiring a century’s worth of artists, scientists, ...
01.22.2023 Episode 157 - Bioluminescence and Biofluorescence Glowing organisms might seem like something out of science fiction, but not only do they exist here on Earth, they are incredibly common. Some species glow when exposed to certain kinds of light, and others produce their very own light ...
01.08.2023 Episode 156 - Eurypterids (Sea Scorpions) The Paleozoic Era was home to many strange and fascinating extinct groups, and among the most eye-catching of these were the eurypterids. Colloquially called “sea scorpions,” these carnivorous aquatic arthropods came in many forms for many habitats and are now ...
12.31.2022 End of the Year Q&A 2022 Happy New Year! It’s been an exciting and eventful year for the podcast, and we’re glad you’ve been along for the ride! As usual, this is our annual Q&A where we answer the many, many questions our listeners submitted – ...
12.25.2022 Episode 155 - Gymnosperms It’s a great time of year to talk about conifers! Also their cousins: cycads, ginkgos, and others! Gymnosperms don’t get nearly as much love and attention as their flowering counterparts, the inescapable angiosperms, but they nonetheless have their own fascinating ...
12.11.2022 Episode 154 - Live Birth Viviparity is the reproductive style where embryos develop inside a parent’s body instead of inside an egg the parent lays. It’s a very familiar habit to us placental mammals, but it’s also an extremely widespread and diverse feature of life. ...
11.27.2022 Episode 153 - Armadillos Built-in body armor is common among reptiles and rare among mammals, but armadillos are the major exception. Equipped with a full set of segmented armor over their heads, backs, and tails, armadillos have been waddling around well-protected for tens of ...
11.13.2022 Episode 152 - The Jehol Biota You might have noticed that over the last few decades, a lot of really exciting and famous fossil discoveries have been coming out of China. If you pay close attention, you might even catch that many of them are coming ...
10.30.2022 Episode 151 - Tails Look at the various animals on Earth – or rather, look just behind them – and you’ll see a vast variety of tails! Tails and tail-like structures are often simple extensions of the body, and yet they’ve been adapted and ...
10.29.2022 Spook-E - Mimics Welcome ... to Spookulative Evolution. October is here, and that means it’s time for Spook-E! Each episode throughout this month, we’re choosing a monster and discussing how it – or something like it – might evolve under the rules of ...
10.22.2022 Spook-E - Beholders Welcome ... to Spookulative Evolution. October is here, and that means it’s time for Spook-E! Each episode throughout this month, we’re choosing a monster and discussing how it – or something like it – might evolve under the rules of ...
10.16.2022 Episode 150 - Stegosaurs Stegosaurus is one of the all-time most famous and recognizable dinosaurs, but it wasn’t alone! Its whole extended family, the stegosaurs, were medium- to large-sized herbivorous dinosaurs sporting an array of plates and spikes. This episode, we discuss the diversity ...
10.15.2022 Spook-E - Displacer Beasts Welcome ... to Spookulative Evolution. October is here, and that means it’s time for Spook-E! Each episode throughout this month, we’re choosing a monster and discussing how it – or something like it – might evolve under the rules of ...
10.08.2022 Spook-E - Owlbears Welcome ... to Spookulative Evolution. October is here, and that means it’s time for Spook-E! Each episode throughout this month, we’re choosing a monster and discussing how it – or something like it – might evolve under the rules of ...
10.02.2022 Episode 149 - Ants In our modern world, ants are so ubiquitous that it’s difficult to image our planet without them, so successful that they shape the environments around them despite their tiny size, and so diverse that we couldn’t possibly discuss even a ...
09.18.2022 Episode 148 - Gliding 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 ...
09.04.2022 Episode 147 - Genetics For many years, scientists pondered the question: how and why do offspring inherit traits from their parents? And key to the answer to that question is another question: what determines an organism’s traits in the first place? The pursuit of ...
08.21.2022 Episode 146 - The Jurassic-Cretaceous Transition Every period of geologic time is distinguished by its own environmental and ecological features, and every boundary between time periods is characterized by change. The boundary between the Jurassic Period and the Cretaceous Period is mostly marked by mystery. Was ...
08.07.2022 Episode 145 - Photosynthesis We live in a solar-powered world. Photosynthesis is the process by which some organisms (notably plants and cyanobacteria) harness the energy of sunlight to power their own metabolism, in the process creating the sugars (food) which provide a source of ...

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