Episode 139 - Vultures

The Common Descent Podcast

Common Descent

Science, Education, Earth Sciences, Natural Sciences, Science:natural Sciences

4.8 • 764 Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2022

⏱️ 112 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Scavenging isn’t easy. There’s a reason most scavengers are only part-time carrion-eaters. But vultures are exquisitely adapted for a dedicated lifestyle of finding and feasting on carcasses, and as a result, they’ve made themselves invaluable members of ecosystems all over the globe. In this episode, we explore vulture evolution, their ancient history, and the adaptations that make them the world’s most famous scavengers. In the news: insect wings, trilobite mating, a “small” sauropod, and post-Cretaceous plants. Time markers:Intro & Announcements: 00:00:00News: 00:04:00Main discussion, Part 1: 00:36:00Main discussion, Part 2: 01:16:00Patron question: 01:44:30 Check out our blog for bonus info and pictures:http://commondescentpodcast.wordpress.com/ Join us on Patreon to support the podcast and enjoy bonus content! https://www.patreon.com/commondescentpodcast Or make a one-time donation via PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/4c68u4hp Find merch at the Common Descent Store! http://zazzle.com/common_descent Join the Common Descent Discord server! https://discord.gg/CwPBxdh9Ev Follow and Support us on: Twitter: https://twitter.com/CommonDescentPCFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/commondescentpodcastInstagram: @commondescentpodcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCePRXHEnZmTGum2r1l2mduwPodBean: https://commondescentpodcast.podbean.com/ iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-common-descent-podcast/id1207586509?mt=2 You can email us at commondescentpodcast(at)gmail.comOr send us physical mail at:The Common Descent Podcast1735 W State of Franklin Rd. Ste 5 #165Johnson City, TN 37604 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 3.0http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the Common Descent Podcast.
0:19.0	Hello, Will. Hello, David.
0:21.1	Hello, listeners, and welcome to Common Descent, a podcast about paleontology, evolution,
0:25.7	life history, and so on.
0:27.9	This is episode 139, and our topic today is vultures.
0:33.2	Yeah.
0:34.7	As with previous episodes, where we focus on a group of life, we're going to talk about
0:39.4	vultures, what they are, what they do, their diversity, a bit of their evolution and
0:43.7	fossil history.
0:45.4	It's going to be a lot of fun.
0:46.5	It's been a while since we've done a bird-centric episode.
0:50.1	Very true.
0:50.7	And it's been a little while since we've done an episode about a Spider-Man villain.
0:55.6	I'm very excited.
0:57.1	Vultures have always just been high on my list of animals that I think are very neat and just cool looking.
1:04.7	Yeah.
1:05.3	And they are very cool.
1:06.9	So this episode, we're going to talk about not only the diversity of vultures and their evolution and sort of their lifestyle and behavior, but the ways in which they are uniquely specialized to be the best they are at what they do.
1:20.6	Yes.
1:21.1	Just like Spider-Man's.
1:23.0	This episode was requested by Jamie and Keegan.
1:28.4	So thank you very much for that request.
	...

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