Episode 224 - Bipedalism

The Common Descent Podcast

Common Descent

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

4.8 • 764 Ratings

🗓️ 17 August 2025

⏱️ 135 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Most vertebrate animals on land get around on all fours, but some of us have committed to two-legged locomotion. This episode, we explore the various ways animals have evolved bipedalism and the many benefits that come with it. We’ll also take a look at how we identify bipedal animals in the fossil record, and we’ll zoom in on the evolutionary story behind Earth history’s most successful bipeds. In the news: potato origins, trilobite legs, bone worm burrows, and australopithecine sexes. Time markers:Intro & Announcements: 00:00:00 News: 00:07:35 Main discussion, Part 1: 00:35:15Main discussion, Part 2: 01:10:50Patron question: 02:05:55 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 Subscribe to Curiosity Box using our Affiliate Link: https://www.curiositybox.com/CommonDescent And get 25% off the first box with code descent25 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.
0:19.3	Hello, Will.
0:21.5	Hello, David.
0:26.0	Hello, everybody, and welcome to Common Descent, a podcast about paleontology, evolution,
0:27.6	Earth history, stuff like that.
0:30.6	This is episode 224.
0:33.6	Our topic today is bipedalism.
0:34.4	Yeah. That is the behavior of moving around on two feet.
0:39.4	This is something that we see in a bunch of different animals, but not most of them.
0:42.9	So it's a fun and unusual feature.
0:46.0	In this episode, we'll discuss what it means to be bipedal, the various ways that different animals achieve being bipedal,
0:52.5	how we identify bipeds in the fossil record,
0:55.1	and we'll explore the evolution of the groups that have done it most successfully and notably.
1:02.3	Yes, insert obligatory, this episode was made for Wauken joke.
1:06.9	This episode was made for Wakan, and it was also made for these requesters who requested this particular topic.
1:14.0	If you have a request for something you'd like to hear us talk about, you can submit it to the topic request form on our website.
1:19.4	This topic was requested by Eric, Nat, Joe, Appricity, and Professor Paul.
1:27.3	Thanks, everyone. Good request.
1:29.3	Thank you all for chiming in.
1:31.7	We hope you enjoy it. This episode is a lot of fun to prepare for, so I am excited for people to get to hear it.
1:36.8	Before we get to the meet, some announcements first and foremost, as always, we have a Patreon,
1:41.6	and the support that we receive on Patreon allows us to do everything that we do here at the podcast.
	...

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