Episode 245 - Cycads

The Common Descent Podcast

Common Descent

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

4.8 • 896 Ratings

🗓️ 7 June 2026

⏱️ 135 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Cycads are cousins of conifers, and although they can be found throughout the modern tropics, they are often considered a visual indicator of prehistory. This episode, Aly joins us to explore what sets cycads apart from other plants, what we know of their deep history, and whether they truly deserve their reputation as dinosaur food. In the news: toothless crocs, Arctic mammals, turtle relations, and crater life. Time markers:Intro & Announcements: 00:00:00News: 00:10:35Main discussion, Part 1: 00:41:00Main discussion, Part 2: 01:25:55Patron question: 02:00:45 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 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. Hello, David.
0:21.4	Hello, everybody, and welcome to Common Descent, a podcast about paleontology, evolution, the history of life on Earth.
0:27.8	This is episode 245, and our topic today is cycads.
0:34.5	As is tradition, this episode number ends in a five, which means we're talking about plants.
0:39.0	Sikads are a very famous group of plants associated with ancient times.
0:46.3	You often see them illustrated alongside dinosaurs and stuff.
0:50.4	Why is that?
0:51.7	What is special about Sikads?
0:53.9	Did they actually exist alongside dinosaurs? Are they a
0:57.9	truly ancient group of plant life? I have no idea. I know Will doesn't know. Not even a little bit.
1:05.4	And that is why, after we get through the intro in the news, we will be joined this episode,
1:18.4	as always, by our favorite paleobotanist, Dr. Ali Baumgartner, who will join us to answer all of these questions for us.
1:19.9	And also, you get to listen.
1:26.3	Which is exciting because, yeah, cycads are famous, but I know nothing actually about them.
1:27.8	Same. So this is going to be a lot of fun.
1:29.3	We will be able to dive into this familiar but mysterious group of plants.
1:35.5	We'll be able to go through their modern diversity as well as their evolutionary history
1:40.1	and figure out what it is about them that makes them so ancient coded in so much of our art.
1:46.5	This topic, as usual, was also requested.
1:50.2	Our listeners have the opportunity to suggest topics.
1:53.4	They'd like to hear us talk about here on the podcast.
	...

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