Palaeo After Dark

In this episode of Palaeo After Dark, the gang discusses two papers that use morphometric analysis to test how strongly ecology imprints on evolution, which culminates in Curt drunkenly stumbling his way through hierarchy theory. Also, James and Curt talk about the wonder that is Machete Kills, and Amanda wins an argument only using the word “meh”.

 

References

Mitchell, Jonathan S., and Peter J. Makovicky. "Low ecological disparity in Early Cretaceous birds." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 281.1787 (2014): 20140608.

Hopkins, Melanie J. "The environmental structure of trilobite morphological disparity." Paleobiology 40.3 (2014): 352-373. 

Eldredge, Niles, and Stanley N. Salthe. "Hierarchy and evolution." Oxford surveys in evolutionary biology 1 (1984): 184-208.

Direct download: Podcast_37_-_Derp_Birds.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

In this week's episode we discuss a paper about using paleobotany to reconstruct paleoclimate, and then spin this discussion into a longer talk about niche conservatism. Meanwhile, Curt violates Godwin's Law by comparing something that is merely horribly unethical with something that is an absolute evil, James gives the Internet and by extension the world an ultimatum, and Amanda confesses to serial herbicide. We also completely mess up our discussion of what stomatal density is used as a proxy for (hint: it’s actually CO2 concentration.... but we apparently forgot that).

 

References:

Utescher, T., et al. "The Coexistence Approach–theoretical background and practical considerations of using plant fossils for climate quantification."Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology (2014).

Crisp, Michael D., et al. "Phylogenetic biome conservatism on a global scale."Nature 458.7239 (2009): 754-756.

Direct download: Podcast_36_-_Some_of_My_Best_Friends_Are_Plants.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

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