Dragonflies and damselflies are incredible insects. They are arguably the world’s most skilled fliers, arguably the world’s most successful predators, and arguably the best insects (so says David). Not only that, they and their ancient cousins have been abundant and successful aerial predators for over 300 million years. This episode, we discuss what sets these bugs apart from all the rest, we explore what’s known of their evolution from their surprisingly good fossil record, and of course we highlight their most famous extinct cousins: the giant griffenflies.
In the news: croc habitats, tyrannosaur food, elephant trunks, and early mosquitos.
Time markers:
Intro & Announcements: 00:00:00
News: 00:04:30
Main discussion, Part 1: 00:34:15
Main discussion, Part 2: 01:13:15
Patron question: 01:53:45
Check out our website for this episode’s blog post and more:
http://commondescentpodcast.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/
Episode 94 - Dogs
Episode 93 - Cats
Episode 92 - Eggs
Episode 91 - Frogs
Episode 90 - "Living Fossils"
Episode 89 - The Burgess Shale
Live Chat - Conservation Paleontology
Live Chat - Paleopathology
Episode 88 - Evolution of Teeth
Live Chat - Turtles
Episode 87 - Ceratopsians, the Horned Dinosaurs
Live Chat - Ancient DNA
Episode 86 - New Zealand
Episode 85 – The Ordovician Mass Extinction
Silver Screen Science - Animals of the James Bond Franchise
Silver Screen Science - Godzilla (1998)
Episode 84 - Paleopathology
Silver Screen Science - Evolution (2001)
Patron Mini-Episode Compilation
Silver Screen Science - Tremors
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