The Common Descent Podcast

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 biza…

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 und…

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 …

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 ancie…

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, inspir…

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…

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 aquati…

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 l…

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 inescap…

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 extrem…

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…

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…

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’…

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…

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…

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 a…

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…

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…

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 th…

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 fo…