by James Lamsdell, Amanda Falk, and Curtis Congreve
A group of scientists have biweekly informal discussions about evolutionary biology and palaeontology... over beer.
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
3/10/2013
Email Addresses
1 available
Phone Numbers
0 available
April 20, 2025
<p data-pm-slice="0 0 []">The gang discusses two papers that use morphometrics to investigate patterns of selection on bird morphology. The first paper looks at the morphology of feathers, while the second paper looks more broadly at various parts of the avian body. Meanwhile, James breathes new life into a classic, Amanda is passionate about formatting, and Curt exposes “the truth”.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition):</strong></p> <p>The friends talk about two papers that look at animals that move in the air. Both of these papers look at how these animals look and try to find out why these animals look the way they do. The first paper looks at the different types of soft things that these animals use to fly and also to stay warm. They look at how these soft things look and how that look has changed over time and between groups. Some of these animals that don't fly have soft things that are different from the ones that do fly, but they way they are different is different with each group that does not fly.</p> <p>The second paper looks at parts of these animals like their mouths to see how they change between groups. They find that there are lots of things these animals could be doing that most of them are not doing. This makes them say that maybe there is something keeping the animals looking like that because if they change too much in one way it might be really really bad for them.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>References:</strong></p> <p>Sayol, Ferran, et al. "Biophysical constraints on avian adaptation and diversification." BioRxiv (2023): 2023-10.</p> <p>Saitta, Evan T., et al. "Feather evolution following flight loss in crown group birds: relaxed selection and developmental constraints." Evolution (2025): qpaf020.</p>
April 6, 2025
<p class="" style="white-space: pre-wrap;" data-pm-slice="0 0 []"> The gang discusses two papers that look at preserved skin/external tissues. The first paper shows a unique record of Cambrian molting, and the second paper looks at the first preserved samples of plesiosaur skin. Meanwhile, Amanda commits an "own goal”, Curt shares some old internet fun, and James has opinions about fins.</p> <p class="" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </p> <p class="" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><strong>Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition):</strong></p> <p class="" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The friends talk about two papers that look at skin that is very very very old. The first paper looks at animals from a long time ago that lose their skin when they get too big for it when then grow. They found these parts on the skin that are hard and most of the time there are two but some of them have four, and that these ones that have four are because they are growing new skin under the old skin.</p> <p class="" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The second paper looks at an animal from a long time ago that breathes air but lives in the water and is close to things today that have harder skin. Other animals like this animal have some skin that we know about, but for this group of animal we did not know a lot about their skin. In the other animals that move into water, their skin gets soft, but this group shows that some of their skin is hard like the animals that are on land. This might be because how these animals live.</p> <p class="" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </p> <p class="" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> <strong>References:</strong></p> <p class="" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Yu, Chiyang, Deng Wang, and Jian Han. "Cambrian palaeoscolecidomorph Cricocosmia caught in the act of moulting." Historical Biology 37.3 (2025): 643-649.</p> <p class="" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Marx, Miguel, et al. "Skin, scales, and cells in a Jurassic plesiosaur." Current Biology (2025).</p>
March 23, 2025
<p class="" style="white-space: pre-wrap;" data-pm-slice="0 0 []"> The gang discusses two papers that look into the evolution and timing of key morphological innovations within animal groups. The first paper describes possible raptorial appendages in fossil artiopods, and the second paper finds early evidence of modern bird morphologies in the Jurassic. Meanwhile, Amanda gloats, Curt dies, and James eulogizes.</p> <p class="" style="white-space: pre-wrap;" data-rte-preserve-empty= "true"> </p> <p class="" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><strong>Up-Goer Five (Amanda Edition):</strong></p> <p class="" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Today our friends look at two papers where one friend can feel better about how they do the work than how other people do the work. One paper is about big face hand animals with many parts to their legs that use their big face hands to maybe grab and eat other animals. It says that maybe these animals with many parts to their legs all got the big face hand parts in different ways that other animals with many parts that also have the big face hand parts.</p> <p class="" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The other paper is about the animals that do not have hair or hard skin that fly. It says that the animals that do not have hair or hard skin that fly show up earlier than people maybe thought that they did. They are animals that are more like today's animals that do not have hair or hard skin that can fly. One of our friends has said this for a long time and felt good when they saw this paper.</p> <p class="" style="white-space: pre-wrap;" data-rte-preserve-empty= "true"> </p> <p class="" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> <strong>References:</strong></p> <p class="" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">O'Flynn, Robert J., et al. "The early Cambrian Kuamaia lata, an artiopodan euarthropod with a raptorial frontal appendage." Journal of Paleontology (2025): 1-13.</p> <p class="" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Chen, Runsheng, et al. "Earliest short-tailed bird from the Late Jurassic of China." Nature 638.8050 (2025): 441-448.</p>
Common Descent
Iszi Lawrence and David Hone
Palaeocast
The Leakey Foundation
The McElroys
I KNOW DINO, LLC
Cool Zone Media and iHeartPodcasts
WTYP is Justin Roczniak, November Kelly, Liam McAnderson, and friends.
Michael Hobbes & Peter Shamshiri
Alie Ward
Fortunate Horse, Worlds Beyond Number
Bucket of Milk
Completely Arbortrary
In Defense of Plants
iHeartPodcasts
Pod Engine is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or officially connected with any of the podcasts displayed on this platform. We operate independently as a podcast discovery and analytics service.
All podcast artwork, thumbnails, and content displayed on this page are the property of their respective owners and are protected by applicable copyright laws. This includes, but is not limited to, podcast cover art, episode artwork, show descriptions, episode titles, transcripts, audio snippets, and any other content originating from the podcast creators or their licensors.
We display this content under fair use principles and/or implied license for the purpose of podcast discovery, information, and commentary. We make no claim of ownership over any podcast content, artwork, or related materials shown on this platform. All trademarks, service marks, and trade names are the property of their respective owners.
While we strive to ensure all content usage is properly authorized, if you are a rights holder and believe your content is being used inappropriately or without proper authorization, please contact us immediately at [email protected] for prompt review and appropriate action, which may include content removal or proper attribution.
By accessing and using this platform, you acknowledge and agree to respect all applicable copyright laws and intellectual property rights of content owners. Any unauthorized reproduction, distribution, or commercial use of the content displayed on this platform is strictly prohibited.