Podcast 85 - Hot Blooded; Studying Fossil Metabolism

In this episode, the gang discusses two papers that use morphological and chemical proxies to understand the metabolism of fossil animals. Did all early tetrapods breathe through their skin? Were mosasaurs warm blooded? Also, James accidentally goes full stealth, Amanda instigates a Civil War, and Curt gets not-it'ed into bumbling through explaining geochemistry.

References:

Witzmann, Florian. "CO2‐metabolism in early tetrapods revisited: inferences from osteological correlates of gills, skin and lung ventilation in the fossil record." Lethaia (2015).

Harrell, T. Lynn, Alberto Pérez‐Huerta, and Celina A. Suarez. "Endothermic mosasaurs? Possible thermoregulation of Late Cretaceous mosasaurs (Reptilia, Squamata) indicated by stable oxygen isotopes in fossil bioapatite in comparison with coeval marine fish and pelagic seabirds." Palaeontology59.3 (2016): 351-363.

Podcast 84 - Jawless Fish and Spider Butts; Searching for Ancestral Forms in Fossil Data

In this episode, the gang discusses two papers that try and piece apart the complicated evolutionary history of cyclostomes (lampreys and hagfish) and spiders. What did the ancestors of these things look like? Also, Amanda comes up with a lucrative business proposal, James hijacks the podcast to make a bold statement, and Curt is skeptical of history.

References:

Ota, Kinya G., et al. "Identification of vertebra-like elements and their possible differentiation from sclerotomes in the hagfish." Nature communications 2 (2011): 373.

Oisi, Yasuhiro, et al. "Craniofacial development of hagfishes and the evolution of vertebrates." Nature 493.7431 (2013): 175-180.

Garwood, Russell J., et al. "Almost a spider: a 305-million-year-old fossil arachnid and spider origins." Proc. R. Soc. B. Vol. 283. No. 1827. The Royal Society, 2016.

Podcast 83 - Dead End Conversations; The Evolutionary Impact of Ecological Specialization

In this episode, the gang discusses two papers about the long term macroevolutionary effects of ecological specialization. Is specialization on a specific ecology an evolutionary dead end? The gang attempts to answer that question, but they keep getting distracted. Also, James shares life experiences, Amanda imagines a nightmarish future for James, and Curt workshops the plot of a new epic animated experience.

References:

Day, Emma H., Xia Hua, and Lindell Bromham. "Is specialization an evolutionary dead end? Testing for differences in speciation, extinction and trait transition rates across diverse phylogenies of specialists and generalists." Journal of Evolutionary Biology (2016).

Burin, Gustavo, et al. "Omnivory in birds is a macroevolutionary sink."Nature Communications 7 (2016).

Podcast 82 - So Like Majora's Mask; Astrobiology and Cyclicity of Extinction

In this episode, we wanted to discuss large-scale astrobiological patterns and cyclicity of extinction, but instead we picked a few papers that weren't directly focused on those themes. So join us as we talk around two astrobiology papers! Meanwhile, James nearly becomes a mass extinction, Curt considers the psychological health of the hero of Hyrule, and Amanda gives her cat some tough love.

References:

Nimura, Tokuhiro, Toshikazu Ebisuzaki, and Shigenori Maruyama. "End-cretaceous cooling and mass extinction driven by a dark cloud encounter."Gondwana Research (2016).

Whitmire, Daniel P. "Periodic mass extinctions and the Planet X model reconsidered." Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters455.1 (2016): L114-L117.

Podcast 81 - Niche Ontogeny; The Hero This City Deserves

In this episode the gang discusses two papers about how niche breadth can change as organisms grow, with one paper looking at modern organisms and the other focusing on extinct fossil taxa. Also, James is fascinated by New York's greatest "hero", Amanda becomes "enthusiastic" in her defense of a topic, and witness the dark middle chapter of the podcast as Curt "ruins everything". We also have an in-depth discussion on what can and cannot be classified as a pie.... it's one of those podcasts. Skip to 12 minutes in if you want to start learning about science.

References

Dick, Daniel G., Günter Schweigert, and Erin E. Maxwell. "Trophic niche ontogeny and palaeoecology of early Toarcian Stenopterygius (Reptilia: Ichthyosauria)." Palaeontology (2016).

Purwandana, Deni, et al. "Ecological allometries and niche use dynamics across Komodo dragon ontogeny." The Science of Nature 103.3-4 (2016): 1-11.

Podcast 80 - The Severity of The Sixth Mass Extinction, A Belated Birthday Fun-Time Celebration

In this episode, the gang celebrates its third year of podcasting by discussing two papers that use the fossil record to determine how our current biodiversity crisis stacks up to past mass extinctions. Also, Amanda deals with abandonment, James explore New York, and Curt gives life lessons from 70s film.

"Mr Mealeys Mediocre Machine" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

References:

Hull, Pincelli M., Simon AF Darroch, and Douglas H. Erwin. "Rarity in mass extinctions and the future of ecosystems." Nature 528.7582 (2015): 345-351.

Plotnick, Roy E., Felisa A. Smith, and S. Kathleen Lyons. "The fossil record of the sixth extinction." Ecology letters (2016).

Podcast 79 - All the Cool Stuff is Dead; On Dodos and Glyptodonts

In this episode the gang talks about Dodo brains and Glyptodont genes. Meanwhile, James makes an unappreciated joke, Curt tries to create an "internet hug", and Amanda learns about The Batman. 

References:

Gold, Maria Eugenia Leone, Estelle Bourdon, and Mark A. Norell. "The first endocast of the extinct dodo (Raphus cucullatus) and an anatomical comparison amongst close relatives (Aves, Columbiformes)." Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society (2016).

Delsuc, Frédéric, et al. "The phylogenetic affinities of the extinct glyptodonts." Current Biology 26.4 (2016): R155-R156.

Podcast 78 - History Repeats, Bizarre Convergence in Fossil Animals

The gang discusses three papers that detail some truly unique examples of morphological convergence; from brachiopods that look like corals to bovids with dinosaurian nasal crests. Also, James designs some conspicuous Mario levels,  Amanda wins an argument that "never happened", Curt is excluded from a business venture, and everything comes back to Zardoz.

References:

Streng, Michael, et al. "A new family of Cambrian rhynchonelliformean brachiopods (Order Naukatida) with an aberrant coral‐like morphology."Palaeontology 59.2 (2016): 269-293.

Labandeira, Conrad C., et al. "The evolutionary convergence of mid-Mesozoic lacewings and Cenozoic butterflies." Proc. R. Soc. B. Vol. 283. No. 1824. The Royal Society, 2016.

O’Brien, Haley D., et al. "Unexpected Convergent Evolution of Nasal Domes between Pleistocene Bovids and Cretaceous Hadrosaur Dinosaurs." Current Biology (2016).

Podcast 77 - Old and Burny, A Discussion of Fossil Fungi

In this episode, we discuss the complex relationship between fungi and earth systems processes through time, focusing on the potential role of fungi in facilitating early terrestrialization and the proposed hypothesis that fungi may (or may not) have been indirectly responsible for the Carboniferous coal swamps. Also, Amanda aggressively segues, Curt derails the conversation into navel gazing about the nature of scientific fields, and James goes on a fascinating journey from Angry to Annoyed finally ending up at Resentfully Happy.

"Aces High" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

References: 

Redecker, Dirk, Robin Kodner, and Linda E. Graham. "Glomalean fungi from the Ordovician." Science 289.5486 (2000): 1920-1921.

Heckman, Daniel S., et al. "Molecular evidence for the early colonization of land by fungi and plants." Science 293.5532 (2001): 1129-1133.

Lücking, Robert, et al. "Fungi evolved right on track." Mycologia 101.6 (2009): 810-822.

Nelsen, Matthew P., et al. "Delayed fungal evolution did not cause the Paleozoic peak in coal production." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2016): 201517943.

Podcast 76 - In Which James and Amanda are Slightly too Inebriated to Discuss Mesozoic Fossils

In this episode we discuss a grab bag of Mesozoic papers, ranging from potential dinosaur mating dances to large-eyed mosasaurs. And after a fairly sober month, Amanda and James dive headfirst into the highest alcohol content beer they have with expected disastrous results. Come and join us as Amanda tries her hand at ASMR, James uncovers a plot to destroy him, and Curt enjoys being the most sober person in the room. Also we keep talking about The Thing for some reason...

Simple text summary

The group looks at two studies that look at things from a long time ago. The first looks at marks left by big angry animals with no hair when they wanted to fuck. The marks are from them trying to get another animal to come so they could fuck. The same marks are left by flying animals with hard noses today when they want to fuck. The second paper looks at a big angry animals that lived in the place made of water that you can not drink that had big eyes. It comes from a place where we have not found big angry animals that lived in the place made of water that you can not drink from before. The fact it has big eyes means that it might have got food at night, and maybe went for food that made their own light.

References

Lockley, Martin G., et al. "Theropod courtship: large scale physical evidence of display arenas and avian-like scrape ceremony behaviour by Cretaceous dinosaurs." Scientific reports 6 (2016).

Konishi, Takuya, et al. "A new halisaurine mosasaur (Squamata: Halisaurinae) from Japan: the first record in the western Pacific realm and the first documented insights into binocular vision in mosasaurs." Journal of Systematic Palaeontology (2015): 1-31.

Podcast 75 - New Years Resolutions and Sponges Y'all!

We ring in the new year by talking about new research on the evolutionary history of early animals. Also, Amanda makes some very deep cartoon cuts, James manages an emergency, and Curt makes impossible resolutions. 

Simple text summary:

The group talks about how early animals are close together, and which ones came first. While for a long time we thought that one type of animal came first, new studies thought that a different type of animal actually came first. A new study looks at these other studies and shows that actually the first answer is right. We then look at a study that looks at what was going on when these first animals were first appearing.

References:

Pisani, Davide, et al. "Genomic data do not support comb jellies as the sister group to all other animals." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112.50 (2015): 15402-15407.

Erwin, Douglas H. "Early metazoan life: divergence, environment and ecology." Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 370.1684 (2015): 20150036.