Playing Dead
Evolution Talk18 Syys 2023

Playing Dead

If you've ever heard the phrase "play possum", you may know it means to feign death. It's real thing. Possums do it, as do sharks, ants, and a multitude of other animals. It's a defense mechanisms shaped by evolution.

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.

Music in this Episode

Jaksot(165)

The Beginning: An Arms Race

The Beginning: An Arms Race

As predators evolved to better catch their prey, their prey evolved unique and efficient ways to avoid being eaten. It was because of this sudden arms race that we see the proliferation of body forms ...

17 Marras 201411min

The Beginning: Multicellularity Rules

The Beginning: Multicellularity Rules

The reason natural selection had such a grand old-time with multicellular organisms is because it gave it something to select for. These organisms increased in size, moved into new areas for food, and...

10 Marras 201412min

The Beginning: Sexual Reproduction

The Beginning: Sexual Reproduction

One day, millions of years ago, something occurred between two unsuspecting eukaryotes. When they bumped into one another something magical happened. They both left that encounter slightly different t...

3 Marras 201415min

The Beginning: Cyanobacteria

The Beginning: Cyanobacteria

3.5 billion years ago microbial organisms appeared on the earth. These organisms combined, split, and combined some more, until the formation of microbes and single-celled algae. One of these single-c...

27 Loka 201413min

The Beginning: Life

The Beginning: Life

In the beginning the Earth wasn't exactly a hospitable place. It was hot, volcanic, and oxygen was a rare commodity. So the question now is how did life emerge from these conditions? We are still aski...

20 Loka 201412min

Only A Theory

Only A Theory

Charles Darwin had a hypothesis was that animals evolved due to a process he called natural selection. He strengthened his hypothesis with tests and observation. Evolution by natural selection has hel...

13 Loka 201415min

Alfred Russel Wallace

Alfred Russel Wallace

In 1858, Charles Darwin received a paper authored by a young naturalist named Alfred Russel Wallace. In it, Darwin found that the young man had reached the same conclusions about evolution that he had...

6 Loka 201415min

Why Darwin Matters

Why Darwin Matters

Over the last 150 plus years there is one subject which has caused its advocates and detractors to butt heads, often with incredulity at their opponents stance, and sometimes with animosity. That subj...

29 Syys 201414min

Suosittua kategoriassa Tiede

tiedekulma-podcast
rss-mita-tulisi-tietaa
rss-poliisin-mieli
docemilia
radio-antro
rss-duodecim-lehti
rss-ammamafia
rss-sosiopodi
utelias-mieli
ihanat-ipanat
mielipaivakirja
filocast-filosofian-perusteet
rss-bios-podcast
rss-tiedetta-vai-tarinaa