Eons
Overview
Hank Green, Kallie Moore, and Blake de Pastino guide viewers on an enlightening exploration of Earth's biological history in Eons. The journey spans from the Archaean Eon, marking life's inception, through the Mesozoic Era—famous for its dinosaurs—culminating at the conclusion of the last Ice Age. The hosts delve into the fascinating evolutionary paths of mammals, including humans and contemporary species, sharing insights from their expertise in paleontology. Each episode offers a captivating glimpse into the intricate tapestry of life’s development over eons.
Episodes
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1
The Trouble With Trilobites
Trilobites are renowned not only for their remarkable functionality and impressive fossilization but also for their widespread presence. They have mad...
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2
When Did the First Flower Bloom?
In the Cretaceous Period, dinosaurs exhibited incredible diversity, ferocity, and peculiar traits. However, beneath these majestic creatures, a remark...
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3
The Tully Monster & Other Problematic Creatures
The fossil record reveals creatures that defy our fundamental perceptions of what animals should resemble. Among these, the Tully Monster stands out a...
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4
Stegosaurs: Tiny Brains & Thagomizers
Assuming it’s a given that extinct dinosaurs were all strange and fascinating, you can’t overlook the fact that the Stegosaurus ranks among the mo...
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5
What Colors Were Dinosaurs?
While we have learned much about dinosaurs, one mystery has continued to challenge paleontologists for years: what colors did these creatures actually...
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6
The Story of Saberteeth
Smilodon was a formidable Ice Age feline, comparable in size to today's tiger, boasting impressive fangs that reached nearly 18 centimeters in length....
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7
That Time Oxygen Almost Killed Everything
Imagine a time when oxygen nearly extinguished all life on Earth. Three billion years ago, the planet looked completely different, and an excess of ox...
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8
The Biggest Thing That Ever Flew
In today's world, we recognize two main categories of flying vertebrates: birds and bats. However, over 66 million years ago, a massive reptile, rough...
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9
Dimetrodon: Our Most Unlikely Ancestor
Boasting a lizard-like form and a unique sail adorning its back, Dimetrodon is often regarded as the emblem of the Palaeozoic Era, a period long befor...
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10
The Extinction That Never Happened
The natural world is filled with organisms that were once believed to be extinct, only to be rediscovered thriving in their habitats. Paleontologists ...
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11
The Strange Case of the Buzzsaw Jaws
Countless fossils pose significant challenges to our understanding of how ancient organisms appeared, lived, and operated. One of the enduring enigmas...
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12
The Age of Giant Insects
Insects vastly outnumber humans, and we often delude ourselves into believing we dominate them simply because of our size. However, insects and other ...
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13
History's Most Powerful Plants
Fossil fuels originate from the remnants of long-gone organisms that have undergone immense heat and pressure over millions of years. Specifically, co...
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14
How Did Dinosaurs Get So Huge?
Our fascination with dinosaurs stems from the sheer disbelief that such massive creatures once roamed the Earth. Yet, it’s true! During the Jurassic...
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15
When The Earth Was Purple
Aside from the vast blue of the oceans, green is the most prevalent color on our planet. Now, picture a period when the Earth had a distinctly … pur...
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16
'Living Fossils' Aren't Really a Thing
Crocodiles, horseshoe crabs, and tuatara are creatures that have survived for millions of years, remaining largely unchanged since the era of the dino...
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17
When Whales Walked
Whales are often seen as elegant behemoths of the ocean. However, imagine a time when these magnificent creatures could actually walk on land.
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18
An Illustrated History of Dinosaurs
The perception of dinosaurs has evolved significantly over the past 350 years as naturalists have delved into their study. When we examine the various...
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19
A Brief History of Geologic Time
Geologists have examined the layers of the earth beneath us to uncover and detail significant moments in the history of life. These pivotal events sha...
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20
The Search for the Earliest Life
Over 4 billion years ago, Earth’s crust was still in the process of cooling, and the oceans were just starting to take shape. However, recent discov...
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21
The Facts About Dinosaurs & Feathers
In the last two decades, various dinosaur species, ranging from small to large, have been uncovered sporting different forms of fluff or even complete...
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22
The Last Time the Globe Warmed
Picture a vast, vibrant rainforest brimming with diverse wildlife...in the Arctic. Believe it or not, there was once a period—relatively recent—wh...
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23
What Happened to the World's Greatest Ape?
Gigantopithecus, likely twice the size of today's gorillas, holds the title of the largest great ape in history. Its existence offers valuable insight...
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24
When Giant Fungi Ruled
Around 420 million years ago, a colossal organism thrived on decaying matter, gradually becoming the largest living entity on Earth. This behemoth was...
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1
How Two Microbes Changed History
Imagine if I said that over two billion years ago, a minuscule organism began to inhabit another living being and chose to stay forever. Today, the de...
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2
The Time Terror Birds Invaded
Around 5 million years ago, a formidable new predator emerged from the south, arriving on the coastal plains of North America. This massive, flightles...
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3
Untangling the Devil's Corkscrew
In the late 19th century, paleontologists in Nebraska unearthed massive, spiral formations of hardened sand embedded deep in the ground. The local ran...
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4
The Great Snake Debate
Ninety million years ago, a prehistoric serpent called Najash possessed legs. This isn't the only instance of a snake having limbs, but what’s even ...
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5
The Whole Saga of the Supercontinents
Exploring natural history involves examining the transformations of our world, yet Earth is perpetually shifting. The very ground we stand on is in co...
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6
From the Cambrian Explosion to the Great Dying
The Paleozoic Era, the initial period of our current eon, is arguably one of the most intriguingly misleading times in Earth’s history. Characterize...
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7
How Sex Became a Thing
The exact organism that first embraced sexual reproduction remains a mystery, but we can trace the fascinating journey of how and why this groundbreak...
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8
The Other Explosion You Should Know About
Fossils discovered globally indicate that multi-cellular life existed long before the Cambrian Explosion and was far more intricate and varied than pr...
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9
How the Turtle Got Its Shell
What is the origin of turtles, and how did they develop their shells? Discovering the answers to these questions would lead scientists to reevaluate t...
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10
What a Dinosaur Looks Like Under a Microscope
In Bozeman, Montana, we had the opportunity to meet Dr. Ellen-Thérèse Lamm, who investigates ancient life through cellular analysis. Kallie engages ...
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11
The Most Useful Fossils in the World
For many years, paleontologists grappled with the enigma of a particular type of fossil that appeared in the millions. This abundant specimen left res...
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12
Inside the Dinosaur Library
This week, we return to Bozeman, Montana, where we catch up with Amy Atwater, the Collections Manager at the Museum of the Rockies. The museum boasts ...
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13
What Was the Ancestor of Everything?
Our quest to understand our beginnings traces back to a singular, enigmatic ancestor. This figure is the root of all known life, and scientists refer ...
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14
How the Squid Lost Its Shell
The early relatives of today’s soft-bodied cephalopods, such as octopuses and squids, possessed shells. While these shells served as a valuable prot...
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15
How the Chalicothere Split In Two
Two extinct species, closely linked to horses and rhinos, showcase remarkable differences in their physical forms despite their close relationship. Th...
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16
The Age of Reptiles in Three Acts
Reptiles began their journey in the Paleozoic as modest beings, but over the ages, they evolved into some of the most colossal life forms to ever roam...
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17
The Weird, Watery Tale of Spinosaurus
In 1912, a fossil hunter stumbled upon peculiar bone fragments within the hauntingly beautiful Cretaceous Bahariya rock formation in Egypt. This small...
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18
From the Fall of Dinos to the Rise of Humans
Having traversed through the vast expanse of geologic history, we now find ourselves in the Cenozoic Era. This period witnesses the emergence of many ...
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19
That Time It Rained for Two Million Years
At the onset of the Triassic Period, the continents were united in the supercontinent Pangea, stretching from pole to pole in a landscape that was ext...
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20
Why Triassic Animals Were Just the Weirdest
During the Triassic period, many organisms resembled contemporary species, despite being only distantly related. This phenomenon can be attributed to ...
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21
Where Did Viruses Come From?
Fossils of viruses, in a sense, are embedded in the DNA of their hosts, and that includes you. This genetic remnant reveals insights into the origins ...
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22
When Fish First Breathed Air
385 million years ago, a group of fish embarked on a groundbreaking journey that would mark a pivotal moment in the evolution of life, becoming the fi...
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23
How the T-Rex Lost Its Arms
The Tyrannosaurus rex was massive and fierce, but it also had surprisingly small arms. While the tale of how T-Rex ended up with its tiny limbs is str...
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24
FAQs From Our First Year
Throughout the inaugural season of PBS Eons, we've journeyed through Earth's history, starting from the earliest forms of life all the way to the curr...
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25
When Insects First Flew
Insects were the pioneers of flight among animals, mastering it like no other group. This remarkable evolutionary milestone was so unique that researc...
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26
The Mystery of the Eocene’s Lethal Lake
In the 1800s, miners in Messel, Germany, started to dig in the open mud deposits, extracting oil from the rock. During their work, they stumbled upon ...
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27
When Fish Wore Armor
Around 420 million years ago, certain fish resembled medieval warriors, sporting armor that came in the form of large plates or interlocking scales. I...
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28
When Birds Had Teeth
Scholars continue to debate whether Archaeopteryx should be classified as a genuine bird, a paravian dinosaur, or something else entirely. Regardless ...
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29
How Horses Took Over North America (Twice)
The early ancestors of today’s horses thrived and eventually dispersed across the globe, reaching Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa. However, ...
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30
How a Supervolcano Made the Cenozoic’s Coolest Fossils
Among North America's most powerful and transformative forces lies a supervolcano known as Yellowstone, which is also the source of some of the contin...
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31
The Rise and Fall of the Bone-Crushing Dogs
For over thirty million years, a vast and varied subfamily of canines known as bone-crushers roamed North America, but they vanished not long ago. Wha...
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32
Life, Sex & Death Among the Dire Wolves
This isn't a Game of Thrones fan fiction episode. Dire wolves actually existed, and thousands met their end in a specific location in California. The ...
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33
When We First Walked
Fossilized footprints reveal that our human ancestors roamed the Earth 3.6 million years ago. But who initiated this journey? Which species was the tr...
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34
Did Raptorex Really Exist?
For nearly ten years, paleontologists have been at odds over the fossil LH PV18, reaching vastly different conclusions. Some believe it belongs to the...
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35
Can We Get DNA From Fossils?
In 1993, researchers opened a chunk of amber and extracted the remains of a long-dead weevil to analyze its DNA. Initially, it seemed like a breakthro...
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36
When Giant Amphibians Reigned
Temnospondyls were a vast and varied group of amphibians that thrived for an astonishing 210 million years. To say they were diverse barely scratches ...
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37
Your Place in the Primate Family Tree
Purgatorius, a type of mammal known as a plesiadapiform, could very well be among your earliest ancestors. But how did we transition from a small, mou...
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38
The Two People We're All Related To
Thanks to a strange twist of genetics and some unusual evolutionary developments, two humans from vastly different eras in the distant past have manag...
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39
When Rodents Rafted Across the Ocean
The strongest evidence indicates that Caviomorpha originated in South America, tracing their roots back to ancestors that lived in Africa more than 40...
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40
When Birds Stopped Flying
Ratites have made their way to regions like Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and South America, with fossils also found in Europe, Asia, and North Amer...
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41
When Camels Roamed North America
Camels are well-known for their incredible adaptations that enable them to thrive in conditions where many other large mammals would struggle to survi...
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42
How Sloths Went From the Seas to the Trees
Sloths display an incredible range of ecological adaptations; some forage in the ocean, while others make their homes underground, and some even seek ...
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43
When Sharks Swam the Great Plains
Whether you've visited, lived in, or even just flown over the central region of North America, you’ve likely noticed traces of a remarkably intrigui...
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44
When Apes Conquered Europe
Currently, our nearest evolutionary relatives, the apes, are found only in limited regions of Africa and Asia. However, during the Miocene epoch, they...
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45
Why Megalodon (Definitely) Went Extinct
For over 10 million years, Megalodon reigned supreme as the ocean's ultimate predator. However, around 2.6 million years ago, this colossal shark vani...
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1
When Humans Were Prey
In the not-so-distant past, our early human ancestors faced relentless dangers from predators. This challenging period in their existence likely playe...
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2
How Blood Evolved (Many Times)
Blood stands as one of the most transformative elements in our evolutionary journey. Over the course of hundreds of millions of years, the functions a...
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3
The Humans That Lived Before Us
With the discovery of additional fossil ancestors, our understanding of the genus has broadened, allowing for the inclusion of more members that bear ...
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4
The Island of Shrinking Mammoths
The mammoth fossils discovered on the Channel Islands near southern California are notably smaller than those of their mainland counterparts. Their di...
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5
The Evolution of the Heart (A Love Story)
To grasp the origins of hearts, we must journey back to the earliest shared ancestor of all creatures with a heart. This process spanned hundreds of m...
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6
How 7,000 Years of Epic Floods Changed the World
Unusual geological formations in the Pacific Northwest are the remnants of a mystery that took almost fifty years to unravel. These distinctive featur...
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7
The Island of Huge Hamsters and Giant Owls
During the late Miocene period, there existed an island—or perhaps a cluster of islands—within the Mediterranean Sea, teeming with extraordinary g...
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8
The Giant Bird That Got Lost in Time
The California condor stands as North America's largest avian species, a distinction it has maintained since the Late Pleistocene Epoch. This remarkab...
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9
When We First Made Tools
The tools crafted by our early human ancestors might appear simple compared to the screen in front of you, but their invention marks a crucial turning...
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10
When Giant Scorpions Swarmed the Seas
Sea scorpions flourished for an astonishing 200 million years, exhibiting a diverse range of shapes and sizes. Throughout their existence, they evolve...
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11
When We Tamed Fire
The mastery of fire has profoundly influenced our evolutionary journey. In numerous ways, the physical forms we possess today were molded during the e...
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12
The Mystery Behind the Biggest Bears of All Time
The short-faced bears proved to be incredibly versatile, making significant adjustments to survive the challenges presented by two evolving continents...
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13
The Croc That Ran on Hooves
During the Eocene Epoch, a fearsome reptile emerged, sporting teeth designed for tearing into meat. Its hind legs were significantly longer than its f...
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14
When We Took Over the World
By examining fossils and archaeological finds, we can follow the journey of our ancestors from their earliest beginnings in Africa to their arrival in...
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15
The Ghostly Origins of the Big Cats
The major species of big cats we know today emerged less than 11 million years ago, yet much of their evolutionary background is still shrouded in mys...
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16
The History of Climate Cycles (and the Woolly Rhino) Explained
During the Pleistocene Epoch, the habitat of the woolly rhinoceros expanded and contracted in response to shifts in the global climate. But what facto...
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17
The Hellacious Lives of the "Hell Pigs"
Although they're called "hell pigs," their exact place in the mammalian family tree remains a mystery. These creatures walked on hooves similar to pig...
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18
How Evolution Works (And How We Figured It Out)
When evolution was first proposed, it marked a groundbreaking shift in scientific thought. Join our three hosts as they explore the intricacies of evo...
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19
When the Synapsids Struck Back
Synapsids were the pioneers of terrestrial megafauna, yet most of these colossal creatures faced extinction. Nonetheless, a few managed to survive, ma...
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20
When Ichthyosaurs Led a Revolution in the Seas
After The Great Dying, which decimated over 90 percent of ocean life and forever altered the marine ecosystem, the marine reptiles known as Ichthyosau...
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21
When We Met Other Human Species
Today, we are the sole surviving group of hominins on Earth. However, this wasn’t always the case. A century ago, Eurasia was inhabited by various o...
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22
How Volcanoes Froze the Earth (Twice)
More than 600 million years ago, massive ice sheets enveloped the Earth, covering both land and oceans. What led to this dramatic freeze? And cruciall...
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23
How Earth's First, Unkillable Animals Saved the World
Having endured countless disasters and mass extinctions throughout history, sponges have proven remarkably resilient. As small, filter-feeding organis...
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24
When Giant Deer Roamed Eurasia
Megaloceros stood out as one of the largest deer species to ever roam the planet. Archaeological findings reveal a rich history of our ancestors coexi...
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25
Was This Dinosaur a Cannibal?
For nearly twenty years, paleontologists have been locked in a debate over whether Coelophysis engaged in cannibalism. The clues they’ve examined to...
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26
The Missing Link That Wasn’t
The concept of the Missing Link, which suggests there should be a creature that is both part ape and part modern human, continues to linger in discuss...
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27
The Raptor That Made Us Rethink Dinosaurs
In 1964, paleontologist John Ostrom discovered intriguing fossils embedded in Montana's mudstone. This groundbreaking find paved the way for the Dinos...
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28
When Bats Took Flight
Bats emerge in the fossil record as fully developed, flying creatures, appearing on nearly every continent except Antarctica around the same period. T...
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29
How Pterosaurs Got Their Wings
The first flight of pterosaurs signaled the start of their decline. Ironically, the very ability to soar through the skies, along with the transformat...
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30
When Giant Lemurs Ruled Madagascar
Thousands of years ago, Madagascar was home to enormous lemurs. What led to the evolution of such a diverse array of primates, and in what ways did th...
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31
When Antarctica Was Green
Prior to the Eocene Epoch, roughly 56 million years ago, Antarctica was still connected to both Australia and South America. Interestingly, much of wh...
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32
The Case of the Dinosaur Egg Thief
Paleontologists discovered a small theropod dinosaur skull resting atop a nest of eggs thought to belong to a herbivorous dinosaur. Contrary to the in...
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33
When Hobbits Were Real
Discovered by researchers and referred to as Homo floresiensis, this small-statured creature is commonly known as "the hobbit" due to its unique dimen...
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34
Were These Monsters Inspired by Fossils?
For millennia, humans have uncovered the remnants and traces of ancient creatures. Alongside these discoveries, storytelling about extraordinary beast...
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35
How We Domesticated Cats (Twice)
A burial site in Cyprus, dating back 9,500 years, stands as one of the earliest pieces of evidence of the bond between humans and cats. This raises qu...
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36
When Giant Hypercarnivores Prowled Africa
These hyaenodonts were among the largest land-dwelling carnivorous mammals ever recorded. Although they stood as the top predators of their era, they ...
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37
Why Male Mammoths Lost the Game
Woolly mammoths, those beloved proboscideans from the ice age, vanished from Europe and North America around 10,000 years ago as the last ice age came...
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38
The Forgotten Story of the Beardogs
Due to their unusual mix of features resembling both bears and dogs, these creatures are often mistakenly referred to as beardogs. Although you may ha...
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39
The Fuzzy Origins of the Giant Panda
How does a bear, categorized within the order Carnivora, transform into an herbivore? Contrary to its appearance, the story of the giant panda is far ...
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1
That Time the Mediterranean Sea Disappeared
How could such a vast body of water like the Mediterranean simply vanish? It would require decades and over a thousand research studies to begin to un...
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2
The Neanderthals That Taught Us About Humanity
During the early to mid-20th century, Neandertals were often viewed as primitive beings, depicted as unintelligent, hunched cavemen. However, the find...
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3
The Giant Dinosaur That Was Missing a Body
Measuring an astounding 2.4 meters in length, its forelimbs featured large, comma-shaped claws. However, apart from these unusual arms, very few remai...
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4
How South America Made the Marsupials
During the Cenozoic Era, which is the current geological period, marsupials and their metatherian relatives thrived across South America. They occupie...
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5
A Short Tale About Diplodocus' Long Neck
Sauropods benefited greatly from their long necks, but not in the way you might expect. This unique trait enabled them to access food sources that oth...
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6
When the Rainforests Collapsed
The Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse marked a pivotal moment in the evolution of land-dwelling animals. This lesser-known extinction event allowed fo...
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7
How a Hot Planet Created the World's Biggest Snake
Approximately 59 million years ago, the dominant creature in the ancient Colombian forests was the Titanoboa, the largest snake ever discovered. Recen...
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8
When the Sahara Was Green
Thousands of years ago, the Sahara's climate was entirely unlike what it is today. This wasn't merely a matter of a bit more rainfall; the region expe...
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9
When Penguins Went From The Sky To The Sea
Nowadays, we picture penguins as petite, waddling birds in tuxedos. However, their lineage traces back to ancestors that could fly, and for millions o...
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10
How the Egg Came First
The journey of the egg stretches back millions of years, tracing the evolution from the earliest vertebrates that took their first steps onto land to ...
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11
How Dogs (Eventually) Became Our Best Friends
While we’re still piecing together the specifics, a majority of researchers believe it took millennia of interaction for humans and dogs to form the...
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12
When a Billion Years Disappeared
In certain regions, the rocks beneath the Great Unconformity date back roughly 1.2 billion years earlier than those situated above it. This gap in Ear...
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13
The Risky Paleo Diets of Our Ancestors
Our eating habits can be traced through the fossil record, revealing their influence on our evolution. Over the ages, a key factor in our species' suc...
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14
How the Andes Mountains Might Have Killed a Bunch of Whales
Cerro Ballena, also referred to as Whale Hill, is home to over 40 skeletons of marine mammals, creating a fascinating graveyard of ocean life from the...
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15
How Plants Caused the First Mass Extinction
During the Cambrian period, life on land was on the brink of a significant transformation. The introduction of plants would soon alter the environment...
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16
The Two Viruses That We’ve Had For Millions of Years
A particular strain of herpesvirus is unique to a specific primate species, with each virus branching off from the herpesvirus family tree when its re...
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17
How We Identified One of Earth’s Earliest Animals
Researchers were puzzled about the nature of the Ediacaran life forms, questioning whether they were lichen, bacterial colonies, fungi, or something e...
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18
When Dinosaur Look-Alikes Ruled the Earth
During the Triassic Period, a vast array of crocodile-like creatures thrived while dinosaurs were just beginning to emerge. It was these ancient repti...
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19
The World Before Plate Tectonics
At one point in Earth's history, geologists labeled a period the Boring Billion due to its perceived stability. However, this era was far from dull. I...
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20
When Dinosaurs Chilled in the Arctic
Living in the Arctic during the Cretaceous Period was incredibly challenging, particularly during the winter months. Despite these difficulties, fossi...
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21
How the Walrus Got Its Tusks
The saga of ancient walruses and the evolution of modern ones' tusks stretches back nearly 20 million years. Although some aspects of this narrative r...
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22
The Story of the Dino Stampede
To unravel the mystery of Lark Quarry, specialists have delved into a unique branch of paleontology known as paleoichnology, which focuses on trace fo...
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23
The Biggest Frog that Ever Lived
Discovering the origins of Beelzebufo, the enormous frog that coexisted with dinosaurs, has proven to be one of the most perplexing challenges in the ...
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24
The Dinosaur Who Was Buried at Sea
Paleontologists have been researching dinosaurs since the 1830s, yet no one had ever discovered a specimen quite like Borealopelta. The secret to its ...
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25
How We Figured Out Fermentation
Due to a recent evolutionary change, one of our primate ancestors developed the ability to safely digest fermented fruits without becoming ill, allowi...
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26
The Oddest Couple in the Fossil Record
Researchers examined the burrow where Thrinaxodon and Broomistega were found alongside their fossilized remains to uncover how they ended up buried to...
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27
How Ancient Art Captured Australian Megafauna
Hidden beneath the layers of ancient rock art are depictions of bizarre creatures that, for many years, anthropologists believed could only be figment...
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28
The Sea Monster from the Andes
In 1977, while a farmer was tilling his land on a high plateau in the Andes, he unexpectedly uncovered a massive fossilized skeleton. This discovery r...
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29
When Rodents Had Horns
These peculiar little creatures are part of the genus Ceratogaulus, but they’re often referred to as horned gophers, thanks to their distinctive hor...
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30
The First and Last North American Primates
The early primates didn’t just inhabit North America; it’s actually where our primate lineage began! So, what became of those distant ancestors of...
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31
How Plants Became Carnivores
Botanical carnivory continues to evolve as plants find innovative ways to survive when essential resources are lacking. When faced with nutrient defic...
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32
How Ankylosaurs Got Their Clubs
Although clubs are almost universally associated with ankylosaurs, our understanding of how these unique structures functioned and how this peculiar a...
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33
Why Do Things Keep Evolving Into Crabs?
Animals seem to repeatedly evolve into crab-like forms independently, raising the question of what makes this shape so evolutionarily advantageous tha...
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34
How Plankton Created A Bizarre Giant of the Seas
Aegirocassis, stretching over 2 meters in length, stood out as the largest radiodont to ever exist and potentially the biggest creature of the Early O...
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35
The Rise and Fall of the Tallest Mammal to Walk the Earth
Paraceratherium evolved from much smaller rhino ancestors but took a unique route in its development. Surprisingly, it grew to such enormous sizes tha...
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36
How Humans Lost Their Fur
Unlike all other primates, we lack a dense coat of fur. This seemingly minor difference in our physical appearance has significantly impacted our temp...
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37
When Lizards Took Over the World
Lizards are found in a vast array of species all over the world, but their journey to this point has been lengthy. They once contended with a formidab...
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38
When the Earth Suddenly Stopped Warming
For many years, researchers have been investigating the reasons behind the Younger Dryas and whether a similar occurrence could happen in the future. ...
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39
The Triassic Reptile With "Two Faces"
Determining the true appearance of this creature's face would require years of research by paleontologists. However, gaining insights into this unusua...
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1
What Happened to the World's Biggest Beaver?
We want to emphasize just how large this beaver was. Similar to today's beavers, it thrived in both terrestrial and aquatic environments. However, the...
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2
The Reign of the Hell Ants
This long-extinct creature shared a familiar six-legged, segmented body structure similar to that of modern ants. However, it boasted an enormous, scy...
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3
The Pandemic That Lasted 15 Million Years
Our genetic material contains traces of a vast, ancient pandemic that affected numerous species, spread across the entire planet, and persisted for ov...
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4
When We First Talked
The journey of our capacity for speech is a remarkable story in itself, deserving of reflection. It has taken millions of years to reach this point wh...
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5
The Return of Giant Skin-Shell Sea Turtles
The largest turtle known to science isn't related to modern leatherbacks or any other existing sea turtles. However, it seems that certain features of...
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6
The Genes We Lost Along the Way
Our DNA is filled with countless inactive genes, and we are just starting to uncover their mysteries. One thing is evident: our identity isn't solely ...
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7
Our Bizarre, Possibly Venomous, Relative
Euchambersia may have had venom as far back as 20 million years prior to the appearance of the first lizards and over 150 million years before snakes ...
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8
How Worm Holes Ended Wormworld
The Ediacaran period featured a remarkable variety of elongated tubes, flat ribbons, and other worm-like forms, leading some to refer to it as Wormwor...
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9
How Humans Became (Mostly) Right-Handed
Unlike any other known placental mammal, humans exhibit a strong preference for using one side of the body, with right-handedness being particularly p...
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10
How Chilis Got Spicy (and Why We Love the Burn)
Chilis have become the most extensively grown spice around the globe, thriving in various regions from their origins in the Americas to parts of Europ...
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11
How To Survive the Little Ice Age
Nunalleq, located in present-day southwest Alaska, appeared to flourish during the Little Ice Age. What strategies did this village employ to endure a...
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12
When Crocs Thrived in the Seas
During the reign of dinosaurs on land, metriorhynchids flourished in the ocean. However, adapting to an aquatic lifestyle posed significant challenges...
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When Trees Took Over the World
Around 420 million years ago, the forest floor in present-day New York was dominated by a peculiar plant that resembled nothing like a tree, despite h...
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How Weasels Got Skinny
Weasels possess a unique body structure that seems to challenge the limits of metabolic capability. This raises intriguing questions about their evolu...
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Where Are All The Squid Fossils?
You might find it interesting that cephalopods actually have a fairly extensive fossil history, with one notable exception. Given that squids shared t...
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Did These Giant Sloths Poop Themselves to Death?
At Tanque Loma, over 22 giant ground sloths belonging to the Eremotherium genus perished. Among the five theories put forth by scientists regarding th...
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The Traits That Spawned the Age of Mammals
Many characteristics we associate with mammals actually emerged quite early, even dating back to the era of dinosaurs. In fact, some of these traits a...
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The Island of the Last Surviving Mammoths
The mammoths of Wrangel Island became the last remaining members of a once-thriving genus that had flourished across the globe for millions of years. ...
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Where Are All the Medium-Sized Dinosaurs?
Fossils of medium-sized predatory dinosaurs are surprisingly uncommon in regions where massive predators like T. rex roamed. This is puzzling, as it c...
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How the Starfish Got Its Arms
The tale of how the starfish came to have its arms serves as a reminder that even creatures we know well today possess astonishingly rich histories th...
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The Creature That Stumped Darwin
Toxodon was among the final survivors of a lineage that disappeared 11,000 years ago, having flourished in seclusion for millions of years. Its fossil...
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How Pollination Got Going Twice
The Jurassic era resembled our own in many ways, with comparable relationships between plants and insects, though the species involved have evolved ov...
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How a Supervolcano Ignited an Evolutionary Debate
The Toba supervolcano experienced the largest explosive eruption in the past 2.5 million years, and humans were present to witness, or at least experi...
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How a Mass Extinction Event Created the Amazon
The Amazon rainforest in South America is a haven for vibrant flowering plants. However, the region we recognize today as the Amazon underwent a drama...
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When Mammals Only Went Out At Night
For many years, scientists held the belief that dinosaurs were active during the day while small mammals were primarily nocturnal. However, as researc...
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How Ancient Whales May Have Changed the Deep Ocean
The development of marine mammals such as Borealodon appears to have influenced deep-sea ecosystems, particularly those near geothermal vents. Interes...
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How Dinosaurs Coupled Up
The mating habits of dinosaurs have sparked much curiosity and debate, but what insights can we truly gather from the fossil evidence available to us?
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When It Was Too Hot for Leaves
Plants began their journey onto land over 470 million years ago, but it took them around 80 million years before they developed leaves in the form we ...
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Why The Paleo Diet Couldn't Save The Neanderthals
Our ancestors thrived in Eurasia for over 300,000 years, mastering the art of toolmaking with stone, wood, and animal bones. They were not only adept ...
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The Fossil Record In Your Mouth
The tough buildup that gets cleaned off your teeth at the dentist is known as dental calculus, and it's unique in that it's the only substance in your...
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When Pterosaurs Walked
Pterosaurs are famously recognized as the rulers of the skies during the Mesozoic Era. However, they didn’t spend every moment soaring through the a...
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How our deadliest parasite turned to the dark side
Approximately 10,000 years ago, in a region of Africa, a tiny parasite underwent a remarkable transformation. Assisted by a mosquito, it departed from...
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Primates vs Snakes (An Evolutionary Arms Race)
The Snake Detection Hypothesis suggests that primates, humans included, have an innate ability to swiftly recognize and evade snakes. This skill is be...
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How the Rise of Social Insects Shrunk These Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs are typically viewed as either predators of other dinosaurs and mammals or as herbivores, but modern ecosystems reveal more diverse dietary ...
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How Vertebrates Got Teeth... And Lost Them Again
Despite the groundbreaking nature of teeth, they eventually vanished in certain vertebrate species. What could be the reason behind this phenomenon?
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How Horses Went From Food To Friends
Are today's horses the result of a single domestication event, or did this process occur multiple times across different regions? Finding the answer h...
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Why We Only Have Ten Toes (It's a Long Story)
Currently, every mammal, from humans to bats, possesses five fingers or fewer. This includes whales, which have hidden finger bones within their fins....
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Sharks nearly went extinct 19 million years ago #shorts
Once, sharks were abundant in our waters, but now their numbers have dwindled significantly. What happened to them?
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Dire wolves aren’t wolves at all #shorts
Dire wolves aren't true wolves, but what they actually are could be even more fascinating.
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Could humans survive if they traveled back in time 3 billion years? #shorts
Could humans survive during the Precambrian?
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Some trees are more closely related to broccoli than to other trees #shorts
Don’t be fooled by convergent evolution.
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Human knees are the worst and we have evolution to thank for that #shorts
Why do human knees suck?
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12
A crater in Turkmenistan has been on fire for about 50 years #shorts
Reports suggest that one of the geologists intentionally caused it.
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13
When a Giant Pterosaur Ruled the European Islands
On Hateg Island, the role of apex predators remained unfilled, eagerly awaiting a creature that was substantial, agile, and formidable enough to take ...
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Only one human has been excavated from the La Brea Tar Pits #shorts
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Could humans survive a giant space rock colliding with Earth 66 million years ago? #shorts
Would you have survived the K-Pg Impact?
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The Sudden Rise of the First Colossal Animal
A massive ichthyosaur, comparable in size to a contemporary sperm whale, achieved this impressive growth in just a few million years after adapting to...
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The Tasmanian tiger is definitely extinct. So why do people keep report sightings of them? #shorts
Thylacines are definitely extinct!
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The Extreme Hyenas That Didn't Last
Hyenas didn't always have the ability to consume bones. Just a few million years back, their existence was quite different.
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Who forged one of the most famous fake fossils of all time? #shorts
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After this bird went extinct the first time, evolution just hit replay #shorts
The bird that evolved twice!
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21
Someone lost the only fossil from what might’ve been the biggest dinosaur ever #shorts
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Would you have survived the biggest mass extinction of all time? #shorts
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23
An ancient insect trapped in amber has a parasitic mushroom erupting out of it? #shorts
I’ll politely decline the mind-controlling mushroom that acts like a parasite, thank you.
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24
How the Smallest Animal Got So Simple
We often assume that evolution is a one-way street, leading to larger and more sophisticated forms of life. However, this isn't always true. The Myxoz...
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We know a lot about dinosaurs but...what was the first dinosaur? #shorts
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Why Sour May Be The Oldest Taste
Originally, the sour taste served as a warning signal for vertebrates, alerting them to potential threats. However, in certain animal species, includi...
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27
The Ancient Human Species With A Missing Body
There are only a few Denisovan fossils that have been discovered. Without actual physical remains, we can't accurately piece together what they looked...
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Are there dinosaur fossils in space? #shorts
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Why don’t rabbits get really, really big? #shorts
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An extinct human species was discovered deep within a cave system #shorts
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When Ants Domesticated Fungi
Humans have engaged in agriculture for approximately 10,000 to 12,000 years, but ants have been practicing farming for about 60 million years. This ra...
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The Curious Case of the Cave Lion
During the last ice age, a large and enigmatic feline prowled across Eurasia. Fossils of this creature have been discovered throughout the continent, ...
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Is This The Oldest Dad In The Fossil Record?
Fossil findings indicate that Diictodon utilized burrows for breeding, with one parent remaining to nurture and safeguard the offspring. Interestingly...
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Why did so many predators die at the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry? #shorts
Strange happenings are afoot at the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry located in present-day Utah.
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What is the most successful human species? #shorts
Does Homo erectus beat out Homo sapiens?
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36
Sharks have antibacterial skin. Can we use that to save lives? #shorts
At times, contemporary challenges call for solutions that are rooted in ancient evolution.
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37
This Ice Age pup's last meal was a woolly rhino #shorts
What was this ancient pup’s last meal?
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What came first, the sabertooth or the cat? #shorts
The newest oldest saber-toothed mammal
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How To Build A Woolly Mammoth (But Should We?)
As we delve into the mysteries of how evolution shaped the woolly mammoth, we might have uncovered the key designs that could enable us to recreate th...
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Something Has Been Making This Mark For 500 Million Years
Paleodictyon, characterized by its hexagonal pattern, remains an enigma in the world of fossils. Scientists are still uncertain whether it represents ...
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Giant Viruses Blur The Line Between Alive and Not
In 2003, microbiologists stumbled upon a groundbreaking finding that challenged our understanding of microbial evolution: the existence of giant virus...
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42
This new giant bacterium is visible to the naked eye #shorts
A groundbreaking discovery in microbiology reveals a massive bacterium!
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43
Another Spinosaurus study, another opportunity to debate if Spinosaurus was aquatic #shorts
Spinosaurus had dense bones!
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There were dinosaurs with basically no arms at all, just hands! #shorts
Guemesia: a new no-arm dino
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45
When Giant Millipedes Reigned
This enormous millipede holds the title for the largest terrestrial invertebrate ever recorded. What factors contributed to its impressive size?
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How Plate Tectonics Transformed Los Angeles
Even with the significant transformations we've undergone recently, the grand narrative of Los Angeles' natural history remains evident and compelling...
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Why Does Caffeine Exist?
Every day, billions of people globally kick off their mornings with a dose of caffeine. But what led to the independent evolution of this molecule in ...
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This was the biggest earthquake humans ever experienced #shorts
Approximately 3,800 years ago, one of the most powerful earthquakes in recorded history struck what is now northern Chile.
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49
Someone stole two of the most important documents in the history of science #shorts
We’re completely in the dark about where they’ve been all this time, who took them, and why they were brought back.
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50
You can thank evolution for flesh-eating bees #shorts
Flesh-eating bees exist!
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This is one of the oldest art workshops ever discovered! #shorts
A team of archaeologists has unearthed a long-lost art workshop from ancient times.
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Did An Ancient Pathogen Reshape Our Cells?
The only group of mammals that lacks alpha-gal is the catarrhine primates, which include African and Asian monkeys, apes, and humans.
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How Whale Evolution Kind Of Sucked
Mystacodon represents the earliest known member of the mysticete lineage, which we now refer to as baleen whales. However, if Mystacodon was indeed a ...
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54
The Fungi That Turned Ants Into Zombies
This fungus was exerting control over the ants, directing their actions in ways they would never normally choose. It pushed them to engage in unusual,...
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55
Did you know that fossils can get sick? #shorts
Did you know that fossils can actually suffer from illnesses? One such condition is known as Pyrite Disease.
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56
A supervolcano in Idaho once caused a disaster 900 miles away. #shorts
Disaster in the great plains!
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57
A bunch of very important fossils disappeared during WWII. #shorts
Eight decades ago, a collection of ancient human fossils mysteriously vanished.
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Did this animal poop cubes? Giant cubes? #shorts
Congratulations! You've just discovered a wombat burrow, and those little cubes you see are its droppings.
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Are wisdom teeth a problem for us because of evolution? Or because of our development? #shorts
Wisdom teeth can be such a pain
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Our extinct relative was an ancient leopard’s lunch. #shorts
Paranthropus got chomped by a leopard
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When did we start wearing clothes? #shorts
We didn’t always wear clothes!
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Did Megalodon go after whale faces specifically? #shorts
Every shark-cuterie board featured ancient sperm whale heads as a highlight.
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Where Did Water Come From?
Mercury, Venus, and Mars are critically short on water, leaving us to wonder about the origins of Earth's abundant supply. Scientists propose that our...
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Our Ancient Relative That Said 'No Thanks' To Life On Land
While some of our fishapod ancestors were starting to emerge from the water, others were making the decision to plunge back into it.
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Imagine a cat's mouth fully covering up their saber teeth. #shorts
It’s possible we misjudged the appearance of the saber-toothed cat.
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66
Darwin correctly predicted an animal existed without ever seeing it. #shorts
Sometimes evolution is completely predictable.
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Neandertals weren’t dumb cavemen. In lots of ways, they were just like us. #shorts
Shanidar 1 received crucial support from his companions.
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Here are two ways to get a fossil species named after you. #shorts
There are two methods to have a fossil species named in your honor.