Evolution Talk

When talking about our ancient anscestors the question often comes up over how we refer to them.  Are they hominins or hominids?  It's a good question and it depends on how it is being used and what "hominid" branch is being discussed.   Over the next few episodes we'll be looking at some of those ancestors, so it's a good idea to address this terminology and what will be used going forward to avo...

When did our ancestors descend from the trees and walk on two legs instead of four?  How exactly did bipedalism develop?  We have some ideas but that's all they are - ideas.  We may never know, but we can certainly have some fun hypothesizing!   Evolution Talk  is also a book! You can find links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble and others on the front page of  EvolutionTalk.com , or call your local books...

Our study of the Homo Naledi continues to surprise us.  In December 2022, Professor Lee Berger announced yet another insight into the mystery surrounding the presence of the Naledi in the Rising Star Cave System.   Evolution Talk  is also a book! You can find links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble and others on the front page of  EvolutionTalk.com , or call your local bookstore and ask them to order a co...

In 1979 Stephen Jay Gould and genetecist Richard C. Lewontin presented the paper "The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme".  What do spandrels have to do with evolution and biology?  Sometimes, things are there simply because they are.   Evolution Talk  is also a book! You can find links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble and others on the front pa...

In Part 4 of a 4 Part Series on "The Eclipse of Darwinism", we take a look at William Paley's watch analogy and how it evolved into another explanation for the abundance and intricacies of life around us.  Evolution Talk  is also a book! You can find links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble and others on the front page of  EvolutionTalk.com , or call your local bookstore and ask them to order a copy. For s...

In Part 3 of a 4 Part Series on "The Eclipse of Darwinism", we take a look at "Mutationism".  Can a new species evolve in a single step or is it a series of gradual, accumulated changes as Darwinian evolution suggests?   Evolution Talk  is also a book! You can find links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble and others on the front page of  EvolutionTalk.com , or call your local bookstore and ask them to orde...

In Part 2 of a 4 Part Series on "The Eclipse of Darwinism", we take a look at "Neo-Lamarkism" as proposed by Jean-Baptiste Lamark.  Proponents hoped it would push Darwinian evolution aside as the principal force behind the evolution of species. Evolution Talk  is also a book! You can find links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble and others on the front page of  EvolutionTalk.com , or call your local bookst...

After Charles Darwin's death, the period from the 1880s to the 1920s is known as "The Eclipse of Darwinism".  Coined by Julian Huxley, it was a time where alternative theories to explain evolution sought to push Natural Selection aside.   Evolution Talk  is also a book! You can find links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble and others on the front page of  EvolutionTalk.com , or call your local bookstore an...

In this continuation of the look at speciation we began in the last episode, we will tackle some more "not so obvious" causes.   Evolution Talk  is also a book! You can find links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble and others on the front page of  EvolutionTalk.com , or call your local bookstore and ask them to order a copy. For show notes and more, please visit  https://EvolutionTalk.com

It's been awhile since we took a look at speciation and its causes.  In the first of two parts we'll jump right in with Allopatric speciation.   Evolution Talk  is also a book! You can find links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble and others on the front page of  EvolutionTalk.com , or call your local bookstore and ask them to order a copy. For show notes and more, please visit  https://EvolutionTalk.com

For decades, ever since we first began to study and understand our cell's biology and the coding sequences of DNA, we saw bits and pieces that didn't seem to make sense.   Strings of DNA that didn't appear to do anything at all. It appears, they do quite a lot. Evolution Talk  is also a book! You can find links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble and others on the front page of  EvolutionTalk.com , or call...

In 1893, the German zoologist Wilhelm Haacke published  De sign and Inheritance . In it, Haacke introduced the concept of orthogenesis.   According to Haacke, c hanges in organisms are directed toward perfection.   Evolution Talk  is also a book! You can find links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble and others on the front page of  EvolutionTalk.com , or call your local bookstore and ask them to order a co...

Consider this episode a memorial to the millions of extinct animals that once walked the earth long before we inherited it.   Like fragments of novels and poems that have been found over the years, hinting at what might have been, we have fossils and shards of bones to tell us what once was. Evolution Talk is also a book! You can find links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble and others on the front page of...

Great idea don't spring out of a vacuum, but they do sometimes seem to.  In this episode we take a look at a few.   For show notes and more, please visit  https://EvolutionTalk.com Written, Produced, & Narrated by: Rick Coste

Evolution Talk - the book is now available at your local bookstore! If you love the show, and have listened to the last 100 episodes this book is for you.   If you're a student, or want to learn more about evolution by natural selection it's the perfect introduction.  If you're a teacher, your class will love it. Just like the show, it's meant to be accessible and easy to grasp. You can find links...

What came first, the chicken or the egg?  It's an age old question.  How about another one?  What stored genetic information first?  DNA or RNA?   For show notes and more, please visit  https://EvolutionTalk.com Written, Produced, & Narrated by: Rick Coste

Colossal Biosciences hopes to reintroduce the wooly mammoth to the world, thousands of years after the last one walked the earth.  If successful they will have paved the way for a "de-extinction pipeline" for other lost species.   For show notes and more, please visit  https://EvolutionTalk.com Written, Produced, & Narrated by: Rick Coste  

Evolution by Natural Selection has assisted many amazing symbiotic relationships.  Here's one you may not be familiar with, and which you're a participant in.  It involves your gut microbiome.   For show notes and more, please visit  https://EvolutionTalk.com Written, Produced, & Narrated by: Rick Coste Evolution Talk's TeePublic Store

In 1976, British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins published The Selfish Gene .   It made exactly the splash he'd intended, but people were confused. How can genes be selfish?   For show notes and more, please visit  https://EvolutionTalk.com Written, Produced, & Narrated by: Rick Coste

Stephen Jay Gould once asked what would happen if the evolution of life on Earth were to take the same path if we had the ability to start it all over again?  In this episode we'll ask the question again ...   For show notes and more, please visit  https://EvolutionTalk.com Written, Produced, & Narrated by: Rick Coste

Imagine a world without mutants. I don't mean those super-powered heroes that populate the comics and movies from Marvel. I'm talking about you, me, and everyone else we know.  We are all mutants trying to survive.   For show notes and more, please visit  https://EvolutionTalk.com Written, Produced, & Narrated by: Rick Coste

Just what does the act of chewing have to do with brain size and evolution?  Perhaps nothing or everything.  A team of researchers is helping us to understand exactly how much energy is involved when we use our jaws.   For show notes and more, please visit https://EvolutionTalk.com Written, Produced, & Narrated by: Rick Coste

It has long been believed that an early oxygenation even gave rise to the eukaryotes.  Perhaps oxygen had nothing to do with it. A castle deep beneath the ocean waves might hold the answer. For show notes and more, please visit  https://EvolutionTalk.com

If you were somehow in control of repopulating and regenerating an area that had essentially been wiped clean of life, how would you do it?   With limited resources at your disposal would you decide to throw all your effort into producing as many offspring as possible, as quickly as possible?   Or would you take a different tactic and produce a one or two offspring, protecting and nourishing them...

How do we find life in a galaxy, or galaxies, far far away while sitting here on Earth? It's not just by looking through telescopes or sending probes.   Those will tell us a few things, but not everything.   We need a multi-disciplinary approach.   One that combines astronomy, biology, oceanography and chemistry - and that's just to name a few. Enter Astrobiology.   For show notes and more, please...