There isn’t much on Earth quite like an ant colony or a beehive. Lots of animals are social, but relatively few are eusocial. It’s a bizarre lifestyle, living in large multi-generational colonies with lots of members who don’t reproduce but instead dedicate their lives to protecting and nourishing the offspring of the few reproducers. In this episode, we discuss the many questions surrounding this phenomenon, including how many times this trait has evolved, why it’s apparently so beneficial, and exactly how natural selection could even produce such a strange lifestyle.
In the news: venom evolution, pointy things, early rainforests, and bone origins.
Time markers:
Intro & Announcements: 00:00:00
News: 00:05:00
Main discussion, Part 1: 00:39:00
Main discussion, Part 2: 01:15:00
Patron question: 02:02:00
Check out our blog for bonus info and pictures:
http://commondescentpodcast.wordpress.com/
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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.
Musical Interludes are "Professor Umlaut" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Spook-E - Harpies
Episode 70 - Convergent Evolution
Episode 69 - Ankylosaurs
Episode 68 - Evolution of Eyes
Voices of La Brea - Bonus Episode
Episode 67 - The La Brea Tar Pits
Episode 66 - Elephants
Episode 65 - The Late Devonian Extinction(s)
Episode 64 - Paleoart
Silver Screen Science – Godzilla (2014) and Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
Silver Screen Science – King Kong (2005) and Kong: Skull Island (2017)
Episode 63 - Sexual Selection
Silver Screen Science – Kaiju Concepts
Silver Screen Science - Gojira (1954)
Episode 62 – Amber
Silver Screen Science - King Kong (1933)
Episode 61 - Behavior in the Fossil Record
Episode 60 - Turtles
Episode 59 - Bats
Episode 58 - The Bone Wars
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