The Common Descent Podcast

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 to the fatal. This episode, we’re joined by our favorite paleobotanist, Aly Baumgartner, to discuss the many ways plants defend themselves – physically, chemically, and beyond – and the fascinating evolutionary history of plant defenses and their offenders.

In the news: deep-sea fish, Wollemi pines, learning birds, and plant technology.

Time markers:
Intro & Announcements: 00:00:00
News: 00:06:55
Main discussion, Part 1: 00:38:15
Main discussion, Part 2: 01:12:25
Patron question: 01:48:10

Check out our blog for bonus info and pictures:
http://commondescentpodcast.com/

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The Common Descent Podcast
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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.

Musical Interludes are "Professor Umlaut" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Taking teeth to the extreme! Tusks have evolved numerous times, particularly in mammals, and they’ve come in a striking array of shapes and sizes for a variety of uses. From the monstrously huge ivory tusks of mammoths to the modest yet effective tusks of fanged deer to the bizarre and perplexing tusks of babirusas and narwhals, in this episode we discuss trends, drivers, and mysteries in the evolution of tusks.

In the news: razor-toothed mosasaurs, walk the dinosaur, sidewinder skin, and really old giant sloths.

Time markers:
Intro & Announcements: 00:00:00
News: 00:03:30
Main discussion, Part 1: 00:38:00
Main discussion, Part 2: 01:15:30
Patron question: 01:54:30

Check out our blog for bonus info and pictures:
http://commondescentpodcast.wordpress.com/

Find merch at the Common Descent Store! http://zazzle.com/common_descent

Follow and Support us on:
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/commondescentpodcast
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CommonDescentPC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/commondescentpodcast
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PodBean: https://commondescentpodcast.podbean.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCePRXHEnZmTGum2r1l2mduw
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-common-descent-podcast/id1207586509?mt=2

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

Musical Interludes are "Professor Umlaut" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

In this episode, we firmly establish a tradition of extinction-talk! This time, by request, it’s the latest major prehistoric extinction in Earth history, the event that took from us the mammoths, ground sloths, and other giants of the Ice Age, a mass extinction that our own species was around to witness (and perhaps even cause): the Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinction.

In the news: mistaken Archaeopteryx identity, ticks with a taste for dinosaurs, evolution of the Tibetan Plateau, and ancient bear hibernation.

Time markers:
Intro & Announcements: 00:00:00
News: 00:05:30
Main discussion: 00:32:00

Check out our blog for bonus info and pictures:
http://commondescentpodcast.wordpress.com/

Follow and Support us on:
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/commondescentpodcast
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CommonDescentPC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/commondescentpodcast/
PodBean: https://commondescentpodcast.podbean.com/
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-common-descent-podcast/id1207586509?mt=2
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCePRXHEnZmTGum2r1l2mduw

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

This episode, we take a super up-close look at the tiniest components of the fossil record, the microscopic remains that are so essential to our understanding of earth history, and the field of study devoted to them: Micropaleontology.

In the news: daytime mammals, unusual dinosaur teeth, the dinosaur family tree (again), and dead male mammoths.

Time markers:
Intro & Announcements: 00:00:00
News: 00:01:30
Main discussion: 00:27:00

Check out our blog for bonus info and pictures:
http://commondescentpodcast.wordpress.com/

Follow and Support us on:
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/commondescentpodcast
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CommonDescentPC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/commondescentpodcast/
PodBean: https://commondescentpodcast.podbean.com/
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-common-descent-podcast/id1207586509?mt=2
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCePRXHEnZmTGum2r1l2mduw

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

This time, by request, we discuss an ancient story so detailed, compelling, and important that we had to split it in two! In part one, we find our own place on the family tree of life, and trace the history and evolutionary innovations of our ancestors and cousins: the early hominins.

In the news: four-flippered swimming; the life of a dodo; weird whale teeth; and the many possible paths of evolution.

Time markers:
Intro & Announcements: 00:00:00
News: 00:03:30
Main discussion: 00:33:30

Check out our blog for bonus info and pictures:
http://commondescentpodcast.wordpress.com/

Follow and Support us on:
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/commondescentpodcast
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CommonDescentPC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/commondescentpodcast/
PodBean: https://commondescentpodcast.podbean.com/
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-common-descent-podcast/id1207586509?mt=2
Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/common-descent/the-common-descent-podcast

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