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!
http://commondescentpodcast.podbean.com
Gesamtlänge aller Episoden: 20 days 1 hour 28 minutes
episode 79: Episode 56 – The Evolution of Evolutionary Theory
One of the main themes of this podcast is the evolutionary history of life. This concept is familiar to all of us today, but our current understanding of evolution is the culmination of a very long history of scientific inquiry. In this episode, we’l...
episode 78: Episode 55 - The "Sixth Extinction" (Modern Biodiversity Crisis)
Usually, when we talk about mass extinction, we’re referring to events long past. But scary levels of extinction are a fact of our current world, as well. So much so that current events have been labeled the "Sixth Extinction.” In this episode, we di...
episode 77: Episode 54 - Alfred Russell Wallace
Happy Darwin Day! Last year around this time, we were joined by Dr. Sarah Bray to discuss the life and times of Charles Darwin. This time, Sarah joins us again to discuss his colleague and natural selection co-discoverer, Alfred Russell Wallace. In 1...
episode 76: Episode 53 - The Baculum (Penis Bone)
It's been called the most diverse of all bones. It comes in an incredible variety of shapes and sizes, living and fossil, scattered across the mammalian family tree. It's called the baculum, the os penis, and in this episode we discuss what it does, ...
episode 75: Episode 52 – Sounds of the Past (Fossil Bioacoustics)
What did dinosaurs sound like? How did extinct animals make and use sound? Like most behaviors, noises don’t fossilize, but there is some tantalizing evidence that paleontologists have pulled together about fossil bioacoustics. In this episode, we di...
episode 73: End of the Year Q&A 2018
Happy New Year! Big thanks to everyone who's supported us throughout the year, and big thanks to everyone who submitted questions to our Q&A! Here's roughly two hours of Will and David answering YOUR questions - the silly and the science-y. S...
episode 74: Episode 51 - Mosasaurs
Many times in the history of life on Earth, reptiles have returned to the oceans. There were three famous groups of marine reptiles during the Mesozoic, and in this episode, we’re discussing the last to evolve, the shortest-lived, and the greatest (i...
episode 72: Episode 50 - Australia
This episode, we take a tour of the land that takes home the prizes for oldest geologic materials, most marsupials, and (arguably) biggest island! Our trip through the history of this island-continent starts nearly at the very origin of our planet, a...
episode 71: Episode 49 - Fake Fossils
It’s no secret we love paleontology; it’s a fascinating field of study. But sometimes our favorite subject is polluted and perverted by fraud. In this episode, we’re talking about fake fossils: why they happen, how they happen, and what effect they h...
episode 70: Episode 48 - Sharks
This episode, it’s back into the ocean, this time to discuss one of the most successful groups of predators on the planet. Sharks are famously “ancient,” but their evolutionary story is complex and fascinating, stretching back more than 400 million y...