Season 2022

01 How our deadliest parasite turned to the dark side Episode 111th January 2022 Around 10,000 years ago, somewhere in Africa, a microscopic parasite made a huge leap. With a little help from a mosquito, it left its animal host - probably a gorilla - and found its way to a new host: us. 02 Primates vs Snakes (An Evolutionary Arms Race) Episode 219th January 2022 The Snake Detection Hypothesis proposes that the ability to quickly spot and avoid snakes is deeply embedded in primates, including us - an evolutionary consequence of the danger snakes have posed to us over millions of years. 03 How the Rise of Social Insects Shrunk These Dinosaurs Episode 327th January 2022 We often think of dinosaurs as either preying on other dinos or mammals, or as plant-eaters -- but in ecosystems today, those aren’t the only two options. So why would we expect dinosaurs to have only been carnivores or herbivores, with the occasional omnivore thrown in the mix? 04 How Vertebrates Got Teeth... And Lost Them Again Episode 48th February 2022 As revolutionary as teeth were, they would go on to disappear in some groups of vertebrates. But why? 05 How Horses Went From Food To Friends Episode 516th February 2022 Do our modern horses descend from just one domesticated population, or did it happen many times, in many places? Answering these questions has been tricky, as we’ve needed to bring together evidence from art, archaeology, and ancient DNA…Because, as it turns out, the history of humans and horses has been a pretty wild ride. 06 Why We Only Have Ten Toes (It's a Long Story) Episode 623rd February 2022 Today, all mammals from humans to bats have five fingers or fewer. Yes, even whales, whose finger bones are hidden in their fins. Birds have four or fewer and amphibians get the best of both worlds, often having four digits on their “hands” and five on their “feet.” But no species of vertebrates have more than five digits, let alone eight! 07 Sharks nearly went extinct 19 million years ago #shorts Episode 72nd March 2022 There used to be SO MANY sharks...where did they go? 08 Dire wolves aren’t wolves at all #shorts Episode 83rd March 2022 Dire wolves aren’t actually wolves but what they are might be even cooler. 09 Could humans survive if they traveled back in time 3 billion years? #shorts Episode 94th March 2022 Could humans survive during the Precambrian? 10 Some trees are more closely related to broccoli than to other trees #shorts Episode 107th March 2022 Don’t be fooled by convergent evolution. 11 Human knees are the worst and we have evolution to thank for that #shorts Episode 118th March 2022 Why do human knees suck? 12 A crater in Turkmenistan has been on fire for about 50 years #shorts Episode 1210th March 2022 And it’s been reported that one of the geologists started it on purpose? 13 When a Giant Pterosaur Ruled the European Islands Episode 1315th March 2022 The ecological niche of apex predators was empty on Hateg Island, waiting to be occupied by something large, mobile, and powerful enough to fill it. 14 Only one human has been excavated from the La Brea Tar Pits #shorts Episode 1417th March 2022 15 Could humans survive a giant space rock colliding with Earth 66 million years ago? #shorts Episode 1518th March 2022 Would you have survived the K-Pg Impact? 16 The Sudden Rise of the First Colossal Animal Episode 1622nd March 2022 A truly enormous ichthyosaur around the size of a modern sperm whale, reached its size within just a few million years of taking to the water - a blink of an eye in evolutionary time. 17 The Tasmanian tiger is definitely extinct. So why do people keep report sightings of them? #shorts Episode 1725th March 2022 Thylacines are definitely extinct! 18 The Extreme Hyenas That Didn't Last Episode 1829th March 2022 Hyenas weren’t always able to eat bones. In fact, only a few million years ago, they lived very different lives. 19 Who forged one of the most famous fake fossils of all time? #shorts Episode 1931st March 2022 20 After this bird went extinct the first time, evolution just hit replay #shorts Episode 204th April 2022 The bird that evolved twice! 21 Someone lost the only fossil from what might’ve been the biggest dinosaur ever #shorts Episode 215th April 2022 22 Would you have survived the biggest mass extinction of all time? #shorts Episode 226th April 2022 23 An ancient insect trapped in amber has a parasitic mushroom erupting out of it? #shorts Episode 238th April 2022 I will pass on the parasitic mind-controlling mushroom, thanks 24 How the Smallest Animal Got So Simple Episode 2413th April 2022 We tend to think that evolution only goes in one direction— toward getting bigger and more advanced. But that’s not always the case. This tiny, simple animal, the Myxozoans, (yes, animal!) evolved from something bigger and more complex. 25 We know a lot about dinosaurs but...what was the first dinosaur? #shorts Episode 2514th April 2022 26 Why Sour May Be The Oldest Taste Episode 2620th April 2022 While sour taste's original purpose was to warn vertebrates of danger, in a few animal groups, including us, its role has reversed. The taste of danger became something it was dangerous for us to avoid. 27 The Ancient Human Species With A Missing Body Episode 2727th April 2022 Only a handful of Denisovan fossils have been identified. In the absence of actual body fossils, it’s impossible for us to reconstruct their morphology, right? 28 Are there dinosaur fossils in space? #shorts Episode 282nd May 2022 29 Why don’t rabbits get really, really big? #shorts Episode 293rd May 2022 30 An extinct human species was discovered deep within a cave system #shorts Episode 304th May 2022 31 When Ants Domesticated Fungi Episode 3110th May 2022 While we’ve been farming for around 10,000 to 12,000 years, the ancestors of ants have been doing it for around 60 million years. So when, and how, and why did ants start … farming? 32 The Curious Case of the Cave Lion Episode 3217th May 2022 A mysterious, large feline roamed Eurasia during the last ice age. Its fossils have been found across the continent, and it’s been the subject of ancient artwork. So what exactly were these big cats? 33 Is This The Oldest Dad In The Fossil Record? Episode 3326th May 2022 Fossil evidence suggests Diictodon used burrows to breed, and that a parent stayed behind to feed and protect their young. And the parent that stayed behind? It might’ve been the male. 34 Why did so many predators die at the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry? #shorts Episode 3427th May 2022 There’s something weird going on at the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry in what’s now Utah. 35 What is the most successful human species? #shorts Episode 3531st May 2022 Does Homo erectus beat out Homo sapiens? 36 Sharks have antibacterial skin. Can we use that to save lives? #shorts Episode 361st June 2022 Sometimes modern problems require ancient, evolutionary solutions. 37 This Ice Age pup's last meal was a woolly rhino #shorts Episode 372nd June 2022 What was this ancient pup’s last meal? 38 What came first, the sabertooth or the cat? #shorts Episode 383rd June 2022 The newest oldest saber-toothed mammal 39 How To Build A Woolly Mammoth (But Should We?) Episode 398th June 2022 In the quest to understand how evolution basically built the woolly mammoth, we may have found the blueprints for building them ourselves. 40 Something Has Been Making This Mark For 500 Million Years Episode 4015th June 2022 Paleodictyon, a hexagonal-patterned fossil, is a bit of a mystery. We don’t even know if it’s a trace fossil, or the organism itself. So… what could it be? 41 Giant Viruses Blur The Line Between Alive and Not Episode 4129th June 2022 In 2003, microbiologists made a huge discovery. One that would force us to reconsider a lot of what we thought we knew about the evolution of microbial life: giant viruses. 42 This new giant bacterium is visible to the naked eye #shorts Episode 426th July 2022 Microbiology goes macro with a new giant bacterium! 43 Another Spinosaurus study, another opportunity to debate if Spinosaurus was aquatic #shorts Episode 437th July 2022 Spinosaurus had dense bones! 44 There were dinosaurs with basically no arms at all, just hands! #shorts Episode 448th July 2022 Guemesia: a new no-arm dino 45 When Giant Millipedes Reigned Episode 4513th July 2022 This giant millipede was the largest known invertebrate to ever live on land. So how did it get so big?? 46 How Plate Tectonics Transformed Los Angeles Episode 4621st July 2022 Despite the profound changes we’ve made here in recent history, the epic saga of Los Angeles' natural history is still visible - and even striking - if you know where and how to look for it. 47 Why Does Caffeine Exist? Episode 4728th July 2022 Today, billions of people around the world start their day with caffeine. But how and why did the ability to produce this molecule independently evolve in multiple, distantly-related lineages of flowering plants, again and again? 48 This was the biggest earthquake humans ever experienced #shorts Episode 483rd August 2022 One of the biggest earthquakes humans ever experienced happened around 3800 years ago in what's now northern Chile. 49 Someone stole two of the most important documents in the history of science #shorts Episode 493rd August 2022 We have no idea where they were all this time, or who stole and returned them and why. 50 You can thank evolution for flesh-eating bees #shorts Episode 505th August 2022 Flesh-eating bees exist! 51 This is one of the oldest art workshops ever discovered! #shorts Episode 515th August 2022 Archaeologists have discovered an ancient art workshop 52 Did An Ancient Pathogen Reshape Our Cells? Episode 5211th August 2022 There is one - and only one - group of mammals that doesn’t have alpha-gal: the catarrhine primates, which are the monkeys of Africa and Asia, the apes, and us. 53 How Whale Evolution Kind Of Sucked Episode 5318th August 2022 Mystacodon is the earliest known mysticete, the group that, today, we call the baleen whales. But if this was a baleen whale, where was its baleen? Where did baleen come from? And how did it live without it? 54 The Fungi That Turned Ants Into Zombies Episode 5423rd August 2022 This fungus was actually manipulating ants’ movements, forcing them to do something they’d never ordinarily do, something strange, yet specific… 55 Did you know that fossils can get sick? #shorts Episode 5531st August 2022 Did you know that fossils can get sick? – Specifically with Pyrite Disease 56 A supervolcano in Idaho once caused a disaster 900 miles away. #shorts Episode 568th September 2022 Disaster in the great plains! 57 A bunch of very important fossils disappeared during WWII. #shorts Episode 579th September 2022 80 years ago, a bunch of fossils of ancient humans disappeared. 58 Did this animal poop cubes? Giant cubes? #shorts Episode 5813th September 2022 Congrats! You just found a wombat burrow. And the cubes are its poop. 59 Are wisdom teeth a problem for us because of evolution? Or because of our development? #shorts Episode 5914th September 2022 Wisdom teeth can be such a pain 60 Our extinct relative was an ancient leopard’s lunch. #shorts Episode 6016th September 2022 Paranthropus got chomped by a leopard 61 When did we start wearing clothes? #shorts Episode 6117th September 2022 We didn’t always wear clothes! 62 Did Megalodon go after whale faces specifically? #shorts Episode 6222nd September 2022 Ancient sperm whale heads belonged on every shark-cuterie board 63 Where Did Water Come From? Episode 6327th September 2022 Mercury, Venus, and Mars are all super low on water – so where did ours come from and why do we have so much of it? We think our water came from a few unlikely sources: meteorites, space dust, and even the sun. 64 Our Ancient Relative That Said 'No Thanks' To Life On Land Episode 644th October 2022 Around the time that some of our fishapod relatives were crawling out of the water, others were turning around and diving right back in. 65 Imagine a cat's mouth fully covering up their saber teeth. #shorts Episode 655th October 2022 We might’ve been wrong about how this saber-toothed cat looked 66 Darwin correctly predicted an animal existed without ever seeing it. #shorts Episode 667th October 2022 Sometimes evolution is completely predictable. 67 Neandertals weren’t dumb cavemen. In lots of ways, they were just like us. #shorts Episode 6710th October 2022 Shanidar 1 got by with a little help from his friends 68 Here are two ways to get a fossil species named after you. #shorts Episode 6814th October 2022 Here are two ways to get a fossil species named after you.