Episode 245 - Cycads
6/7/20262 hr 15 min
Cycads are cousins of conifers, and although they can be found throughout the modern tropics, they are often considered a visual indicator of prehistory. This episode, Aly joins us to explore what sets cycads apart from other plants, what we know of their deep history, and whether they truly deserve their reputation as dinosaur food.
In the news: toothless crocs, Arctic mammals, turtle relations, and crater life.
Time markers: Intro & Announcements: 00:00:00 News: 00:10:35 Main discussion, Part 1: 00:41:00 Main discussion, Part 2: 01:25:55 Patron question: 02:00:45
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The Intro and Outro music is “On the Origin of Species” by Protodome. More music like this at http://ocremix.org
Musical Interludes are "Professor Umlaut" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsAlly Baumgartner· Guest0:00
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David· Host0:22
You're listening to the Common Descent Podcast. [upbeat music] Hello, Will.
Speaker 30:43
Hello, David.
David· Host0:44
Hello, everybody, and welcome to Common Descent, a podcast about paleontology, evolution, the history of life on Earth. This is episode 245, and our topic today is cycads. As is tradition, this episode number ends in a five, which means we're talking about plants. Cycads are a very famous group of plants associated with ancient times.
Speaker 31:09
Yeah.
David· Host1:09
You often see them, you know, illustrated alongside dinosaurs and stuff. Why is that? What is special about cycads? Did they actually exist alongside dinosaurs? Are they a truly ancient group of plant life? I have no idea. I know Will doesn't know.
Speaker 31:26
Not even a little bit.
David· Host1:28
And that is why,