Episode 214 - Saber Teeth

The Common Descent Podcast

Common Descent

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

4.8 • 764 Ratings

🗓️ 30 March 2025

⏱️ 158 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Evolution just loves a nice pair of oversized canines, especially on mammalian predators. Saber-toothed animals have shown up over and over again – we even have some today – but despite their similarities, not all of these toothy species were using their canines the same way. This episode, we explore the various shapes of functions of saber teeth and the disparate lineages that have sported them. In the news: The Fossil Keeper’s Treasure, the size of megalodon, and vulture feathers. Time markers:Intro & Announcements: 00:00:00News: 00:07:00Main discussion, Part 1: 00:44:30Main discussion, Part 2: 01:28:30Patron question: 02:27:30 Check out our website for this episode’s blog post and more: http://commondescentpodcast.com/ Join us on Patreon to support the podcast and enjoy bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/commondescentpodcast The Fossil Keeper’s Treasure: https://www.edelweiss.plus/#sku=1917044267&g=4400 Find Amy online at @MaryAnningsRevenge Support links:National Immigrant Justice Center: https://immigrantjustice.org Researcher Support Consortium: https://researchersupport.org/ Got a topic you want to hear about? Submit your episode request here: https://commondescentpodcast.com/request-a-topic/ Lots more ways to connect with us: https://linktr.ee/common_descent 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

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the Common Descent Podcast.
0:19.0	Hello, Will.
0:20.0	Hello, David.
0:20.8	Hello, everybody out Hello, David.
0:23.0	Hello, everybody out there in the whole world,
0:26.8	and welcome to Common Descent, a podcast about paleontology evolution and the fascinating history of life on Earth.
0:29.6	This is episode 214, and our topic is Sabre Teeth.
0:34.9	Yes.
0:36.1	Very fun, anatomical bit convergent evolution. Yes. Very fun anatomical bit convergent evolution.
0:41.8	Sabertieth are most famous for, of course, saber-toothed cats, the extra long, often
0:47.7	blade-like canines that they were using to do whatever they were doing with them.
0:53.1	But Sabre Teeth is a commonly reoccurring feature in especially mammal evolution.
1:00.0	This episode, we will talk a bunch about saber tooth cats, naturally, and we'll visit a bunch of
1:06.3	the other animals past and present that have evolved saber-toothed canines and talk about what else goes
1:14.8	along with it and what they're using it for.
1:17.4	This is going to be just a fun trip through evolutionary history.
1:21.7	This is a fun topic because saber teeth are one of those things that are blatantly cool
1:27.0	on the surface. You have extremely those things that are blatantly cool on the surface.
1:28.9	You have extremely long teeth that are shaped like knives.
1:33.0	That's just a fun, enjoyable sentence.
1:36.2	But also, it's a really neat evolutionary question and paleontological, like, case and mystery.
1:43.3	Yes.
	...

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