Episode 166 - Monotremes

The Common Descent Podcast

Common Descent

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

4.8 • 764 Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2023

⏱️ 128 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In our modern world, there are three major groups of mammals: placentals (that’s most of us), marsupials, and the rare and bizarre monotremes. Today’s monotremes – that’s echidnas and platypuses – are famous for their seemingly “un-mammalian” features: they lack external ears, they deliver milk without nipples, and they even lay eggs! This episode, we discuss what makes monotremes unique, the many questions still unanswered about their ancient history, and whether or not they are truly good representatives of early mammal evolution. In the news: weird mosasaur teeth, Tibetan sabertooths, marsupial growth, and giant pliosaurs. Time markers:Intro & Announcements: 00:00:00News: 00:07:50Main discussion, Part 1: 00:38:00Main discussion, Part 2: 01:11:40Patron question: 02:01:10 Check out our blog for bonus info and pictures:http://commondescentpodcast.com/ Join us on Patreon to support the podcast and enjoy bonus content! https://www.patreon.com/commondescentpodcast We’re an Audible Affiliate Partner! Use this link for a 30-day free trial to Audible: www.audibletrial.com/CommonDescent 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: https://www.instagram.com/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, David. Hello, Will.
0:21.1	And hello, listeners.
0:22.8	Welcome to episode 166 of the Common Descent Podcast.
0:27.2	Today's episode, we are talking about monotrems.
0:30.5	The weirdest mammals.
0:31.7	Yes, monotrems are the unique group of mammals today, which include the platypus and echinus that are our only remaining
0:39.6	egg-laying mammals. Yeah. These are super famous for that fact, but are also bizarre in a number of
0:46.7	other different ways compared to most mammals around today. So we will be investigating this
0:52.3	iconic and eclectic group of mammals and discuss what their history looks like, of course, but also what makes a monotrim.
1:01.2	And are they actually as weird as they seem to be today?
1:04.8	Yes.
1:05.0	And what's behind all that weirdness potentially?
1:07.9	So we'll be discussing that.
1:09.7	This is a super cool group of mammals, so I'm excited to talk about them.
1:13.8	And I am not alone.
1:15.9	You sure aren't.
1:17.3	All of our episode topics are requested, and this topic was very, very requested.
1:23.8	We had requests for monotrems or platypuses.
1:49.7	From Zabby, Grady, Logan, Anna, Jonathan, Lucas, Stacia, Sebastian, Mike, Greg, Serpentine, David, Joffrey, Kyle, Jake, Risden the Raptor, Uju, Jesse, Luke, Hadley, Milu, Gabby, Beladonna, Firefly, Blue, and Lydia.
1:54.4	And that's all the time we have for our podcast today. Thanks everybody for requesting.
2:02.6	That's awesome. I have to go catch my breath. It is great to get to do an episode topic that has been requested so very much.
	...

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