The Common Descent Podcast

In this episode, we’re examining the incredible formation of reefs! Not just coral – reef systems have been built by many different organisms over Earth history, and we’ll be touching on the details of these essential harbors of biodiversity: past, present, and prospects for the future.

In the news: bone-crushing dogs, ancient global warming, a tick in a web, and how birds bounced back.

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

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

Part 1 of 5!

By the end of June, there will be five Jurassic Park films! So for each of the five Saturdays this month, we’re re-watching all of the movies and chatting about the science in a series of “science reviews.” How do these movies handle such subjects as prehistoric creatures, the science of paleontology, and the portrayal of scientists?

This episode, we start at the beginning: Jurassic Park (1993).

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

Part 1 of 5!

By the end of June, there will be five Jurassic Park films! So for each of the five Saturdays this month, we’re re-watching all of the movies and chatting about the science in a series of “science reviews.” How do these movies handle such subjects as prehistoric creatures, the science of paleontology, and the portrayal of scientists?

This episode, we start at the beginning: Jurassic Park (1993).

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The Intro and Outro music is “On the Origin of Species” by Protodome.
More music like this at http://ocremix.org.

It's time for another extinction episode!

Is extinction truly forever? Could something like Jurassic Park actually be possible? If so, should we do it? As we speak, there are scientists around the world working on the early stages of answering these questions, and in the process developing the very real science of De-extinction.

In the news: sea-going crocs, giant sea snakes, early baleen whales, and super-ancient viruses.

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

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

Only a few decades ago, the idea of pulling DNA from long-dead organisms was the stuff of science fiction, but the field of ancient DNA is now totally real and thriving. In this episode, we discuss how we get DNA from ancient specimens and just a bit of the incredible world of information paleogenetics opens up for scientists.

In the news: Another ancient croc-cousin, human and sloth footprints, swimming human evolution, and the oldest wolverine!

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

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

THE GREAT DEBATEIS BACK!

By popular demand!

Will and David agree on most things, but not this... Help us settle our long-running debate - choose a side!

Head to Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon and cast your vote!

And then, if you like, tell us what you really think...what's YOUR favorite group of animals?

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

Thanks to everyone who filled out our Listener Survey!

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

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

Animals don’t start their lives as tiny copies of adults; there are all sorts of changes that a creature goes through from fertilization to birth and from newborn to mature. This development is called ontogeny. In this episode, we discuss how ontogenetic change impacts animals as they grow, what we can learn from these patterns, and how ontogeny can cause confusion in the fossil record.

In the news: colorful moth fossils, an enormous ichthyosaur, Neanderthals' strange faces, and sea turtle navigation.

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

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

Over the past several hundred thousand years, Australia has witnesed numerous ice age cycles, ecosystems dominated by giant marsupials, the arrival of humans, the extinction of those giant animals, and more. And there may be no better window into this dynamic time period than the world-famous Naracoorte Caves of South Australia.

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

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

Before life as we know it, and before even the Cambrian Explosion, there was a time when the Earth was home to an assortment of strange squishy creatures so unusual that they defy most of our best attempts at classification. This episode, we discuss life’s earliest experiments with complex bodies: the Ediacaran Biota.

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The Podcast music is “On the Origin of Species” by Protodome.