Episode 57 - Evolution of Flowering Plants (Angiosperms)

Look who's back - our favorite paleobotanist, Aly Baumgartner!

And that means it’s time for more plants! As you may have noticed, the world around you is absolutely full of flowers. Angiosperms have dominated nearly every terrestrial ecosystem on the planet, but the story of their early evolution is a famous conundrum. Darwin called it an “abominable mystery,” but there are some tantalizing clues as to how this group of plants got their start and then evolved to the incredible diversity we see today.

In the news: new Cayman mammals, louse camouflage, a geologic orrery, and language evolution.

Time markers:

Intro & Announcements: 00:00:00

News: 00:04:00

Main discussion, Part 1: 00:35:30

Main discussion, Part 2: 01:10:00

Follow Aly on Twitter: @kyrietree

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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.

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

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/