The Common Descent Podcast

Part 5 of 5 in this month’s series: KaiJune! There’s a new Godzilla movie, and that means it’s time for more movie science! All June, we’ll be exploring giant monster movies, specifically looking at two of the most famous examples of all time: King K...

Featuring paleoartist and herpetologist Gabriel Ugueto! Follow Gabriel on Twitter (@SerpenIllus) or at his website, gabrielugueto.com, and listen to his herpetology podcast: squamatespod.com Can you picture paleontology without … pictures? For about ...

It’s Episode 65, and you know what that means … extinction! This time, we address the ancient and confusing Late Devonian extinction. This is traditionally considered one of the “Big 5,” but it doesn’t seem to be “one” extinction at all. Geologists a...

This episode, we take a deep dive into the evolutionary story of Earth’s largest land mammals. Extinction has left us with only three elephant species today, but for tens of millions of years their extended family, the proboscideans, came in many wei...

How odd that one of the world’s richest and most famous fossil sites isn’t on a mountain or in a desert, but in the heart of one of the world’s largest cities. In this episode, we’ll dive into the history of the La Brea Tar Pits, explore how the site...

If you’re reading this, there’s a very good chance you’re using one of the most incredible tools in the animal toolkit: the eye! In this episode, we discuss what’s known – and what’s suspected – about the incredible evolutionary history of the eye. H...

It’s dinosaur time again! This episode, the spotlight is on the “living tanks” of the Mesozoic, the armored ankylosaurs. These impressive creatures were covered head to tail in dazzling armor that puts most other fortified animals to shame. We’ll dis...

With all the incredible diversity of life, it’s fascinating how often evolution repeats itself. The fossil record and the modern world are full of signs of this pattern of convergent evolution – similar pressures drive organisms to similar features a...

Welcome ... to Spookulative Evolution. It’s October, and we’re back with more Spook-E! Each week this month, we’re choosing a creepy creature and discussing how it – or something like – might evolve biologically, pulling inspiration from critters of ...

During the Cretaceous Period, North America flooded. The entire middle section of the continent was submerged, creating an inland sea that stretched from the Arctic to the Gulf of Mexico and hosted a unique and fascinating underwater ecosystem. Not o...