Shell on Earth

Big Picture Science

Science, Technology

4.5 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2019

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

(repeat) We all may retreat to our protective shells, but evolution has perfected the calcite variety to give some critters permanent defense against predators. So why did squids and octopuses lose their shells? Find out what these cephalopods gained by giving up the shell game. Plus why Chesapeake Bay oyster shells are shells of their former selves. What explains the absence of the dinner-plate sized oysters of 500,000 years ago, and how conservation paleobiology is probing deep time for strategies to bring back these monster mollusks. Also, was the Earth once encased in a giant, continental shell? A new theory of plate tectonics. Land ho! Guests: Rowan Lockwood – Conservation paleobiologist at the College of William and Mary. Al Tanner – Ph.D. student in paleobiology at the University of Bristol, U.K. Mike Brown – Professor of Geology, University of Maryland Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:32.3	Get ready to geek out. The Wired Science Podcast explores all the
0:36.8	latest and greatest in science, everything from strange diseases and
0:40.6	biological breakthroughs to interesting tech and mysteries in outer space.
0:45.0	Listen to Wired Science today wherever you get your podcasts.
0:49.0	That's Wired Science wherever you get know calcium carbonate better as limestone or as a wallboard or as a
1:07.6	powder that once dusted the lapels of professors, but for some creatures the chemical mixture CACO3 is used to build home sweet home.
1:16.7	I'm Seth Shostak.
1:17.9	I'm Molly Bentley.
1:18.9	Welcome to Big Picture Science, produced at the City Institute where researchers investigate
1:22.4	the nature and origin of life.
1:24.0	I'm Big Picture Science, we step back to get the wide-angle view on science and technology and in this episode,
1:29.1	shells are beautiful, sometimes collectors items, but their essential function is to offer protection for the animals
1:34.8	that wear them. They have different shapes and sizes and each tells a tale about the environment,
	...

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