How our deadliest parasite turned to the dark side

S06 E01 • Tuesday, Jan 11, 2022 • Jan 11 • 10m

Around 10,000 years ago, somewhere in Africa, a microscopic parasite made a huge leap. With a little help from a mosquito, it left its animal host - probably a gorilla - and found its way to a new host: us.

Primates vs Snakes (An Evolutionary Arms Race)

S06 E02 • Wednesday, Jan 19, 2022 • Jan 19 • 10m

The Snake Detection Hypothesis proposes that the ability to quickly spot and avoid snakes is deeply embedded in primates, including us - an evolutionary consequence of the danger snakes have posed to us over millions of years.

How the Rise of Social Insects Shrunk These Dinosaurs

S06 E03 • Thursday, Jan 27, 2022 • Jan 27 • 10m

We often think of dinosaurs as either preying on other dinos or mammals, or as plant-eaters -- but in ecosystems today, those aren’t the only two options. So why would we expect dinosaurs to have only been carnivores or herbivores, with the occasional omnivore thrown in the mix?

How Vertebrates Got Teeth... And Lost Them Again

S06 E04 • Tuesday, Feb 8, 2022 • Feb 8 • 10m

As revolutionary as teeth were, they would go on to disappear in some groups of vertebrates. But why?

How Horses Went From Food To Friends

S06 E05 • Wednesday, Feb 16, 2022 • Feb 16 • 10m

Do our modern horses descend from just one domesticated population, or did it happen many times, in many places? Answering these questions has been tricky, as we’ve needed to bring together evidence from art, archaeology, and ancient DNA…Because, as it turns out, the history of humans and horses has been a pretty wild ride.

Why We Only Have Ten Toes (It's a Long Story)

S06 E06 • Wednesday, Feb 23, 2022 • Feb 23 • 10m

Today, all mammals from humans to bats have five fingers or fewer. Yes, even whales, whose finger bones are hidden in their fins. Birds have four or fewer and amphibians get the best of both worlds, often having four digits on their “hands” and five on their “feet.” But no species of vertebrates have more than five digits, let alone eight!

Sharks nearly went extinct 19 million years ago #shorts

S06 E07 • Wednesday, Mar 2, 2022 • Mar 2 • 1m

There used to be SO MANY sharks...where did they go?

Dire wolves aren’t wolves at all #shorts

S06 E08 • Thursday, Mar 3, 2022 • Mar 3 • 1m

Dire wolves aren’t actually wolves but what they are might be even cooler.

Could humans survive if they traveled back in time 3 billion years? #shorts

S06 E09 • Friday, Mar 4, 2022 • Mar 4 • 1m

Could humans survive during the Precambrian?

Some trees are more closely related to broccoli than to other trees #shorts

S06 E10 • Monday, Mar 7, 2022 • Mar 7 • 1m

Don’t be fooled by convergent evolution.

Human knees are the worst and we have evolution to thank for that #shorts

S06 E11 • Tuesday, Mar 8, 2022 • Mar 8 • 1m

Why do human knees suck?

A crater in Turkmenistan has been on fire for about 50 years #shorts

S06 E12 • Thursday, Mar 10, 2022 • Mar 10 • 1m

And it’s been reported that one of the geologists started it on purpose?

When a Giant Pterosaur Ruled the European Islands

S06 E13 • Tuesday, Mar 15, 2022 • Mar 15 • 10m

The ecological niche of apex predators was empty on Hateg Island, waiting to be occupied by something large, mobile, and powerful enough to fill it.

Only one human has been excavated from the La Brea Tar Pits #shorts

S06 E14 • Thursday, Mar 17, 2022 • Mar 17 • 1m

Could humans survive a giant space rock colliding with Earth 66 million years ago? #shorts

S06 E15 • Friday, Mar 18, 2022 • Mar 18 • 1m

Would you have survived the K-Pg Impact?

The Sudden Rise of the First Colossal Animal

S06 E16 • Tuesday, Mar 22, 2022 • Mar 22 • 10m

A truly enormous ichthyosaur around the size of a modern sperm whale, reached its size within just a few million years of taking to the water - a blink of an eye in evolutionary time.

The Tasmanian tiger is definitely extinct. So why do people keep report sightings of them? #shorts

S06 E17 • Friday, Mar 25, 2022 • Mar 25 • 1m

Thylacines are definitely extinct!

The Extreme Hyenas That Didn't Last

S06 E18 • Tuesday, Mar 29, 2022 • Mar 29 • 10m

Hyenas weren’t always able to eat bones. In fact, only a few million years ago, they lived very different lives.

Who forged one of the most famous fake fossils of all time? #shorts

S06 E19 • Thursday, Mar 31, 2022 • Mar 31 • 1m

After this bird went extinct the first time, evolution just hit replay #shorts

S06 E20 • Monday, Apr 4, 2022 • Apr 4 • 1m

The bird that evolved twice!

Someone lost the only fossil from what might’ve been the biggest dinosaur ever #shorts

S06 E21 • Tuesday, Apr 5, 2022 • Apr 5 • 1m

Would you have survived the biggest mass extinction of all time? #shorts

S06 E22 • Wednesday, Apr 6, 2022 • Apr 6 • 1m

An ancient insect trapped in amber has a parasitic mushroom erupting out of it? #shorts

S06 E23 • Friday, Apr 8, 2022 • Apr 8 • 1m

I will pass on the parasitic mind-controlling mushroom, thanks

How the Smallest Animal Got So Simple

S06 E24 • Wednesday, Apr 13, 2022 • Apr 13 • 8m

We tend to think that evolution only goes in one direction— toward getting bigger and more advanced. But that’s not always the case. This tiny, simple animal, the Myxozoans, (yes, animal!) evolved from something bigger and more complex.

We know a lot about dinosaurs but...what was the first dinosaur? #shorts

S06 E25 • Thursday, Apr 14, 2022 • Apr 14 • 1m

Why Sour May Be The Oldest Taste

S06 E26 • Wednesday, Apr 20, 2022 • Apr 20 • 8m

While sour taste's original purpose was to warn vertebrates of danger, in a few animal groups, including us, its role has reversed. The taste of danger became something it was dangerous for us to avoid.

The Ancient Human Species With A Missing Body

S06 E27 • Wednesday, Apr 27, 2022 • Apr 27 • 10m

Only a handful of Denisovan fossils have been identified. In the absence of actual body fossils, it’s impossible for us to reconstruct their morphology, right?

Are there dinosaur fossils in space? #shorts

S06 E28 • Monday, May 2, 2022 • May 2 • 1m

Why don’t rabbits get really, really big? #shorts

S06 E29 • Tuesday, May 3, 2022 • May 3 • 1m

An extinct human species was discovered deep within a cave system #shorts

S06 E30 • Wednesday, May 4, 2022 • May 4 • 1m

When Ants Domesticated Fungi

S06 E31 • Tuesday, May 10, 2022 • May 10 • 10m

While we’ve been farming for around 10,000 to 12,000 years, the ancestors of ants have been doing it for around 60 million years. So when, and how, and why did ants start … farming?

The Curious Case of the Cave Lion

S06 E32 • Tuesday, May 17, 2022 • May 17 • 9m

A mysterious, large feline roamed Eurasia during the last ice age. Its fossils have been found across the continent, and it’s been the subject of ancient artwork. So what exactly were these big cats?

Is This The Oldest Dad In The Fossil Record?

S06 E33 • Thursday, May 26, 2022 • May 26 • 8m

Fossil evidence suggests Diictodon used burrows to breed, and that a parent stayed behind to feed and protect their young. And the parent that stayed behind? It might’ve been the male.

Why did so many predators die at the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry? #shorts

S06 E34 • Friday, May 27, 2022 • May 27 • 1m

There’s something weird going on at the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry in what’s now Utah.

What is the most successful human species? #shorts

S06 E35 • Tuesday, May 31, 2022 • May 31 • 1m

Does Homo erectus beat out Homo sapiens?

Sharks have antibacterial skin. Can we use that to save lives? #shorts

S06 E36 • Wednesday, Jun 1, 2022 • Jun 1 • 1m

Sometimes modern problems require ancient, evolutionary solutions.

This Ice Age pup's last meal was a woolly rhino #shorts

S06 E37 • Thursday, Jun 2, 2022 • Jun 2 • 1m

What was this ancient pup’s last meal?

What came first, the sabertooth or the cat? #shorts

S06 E38 • Friday, Jun 3, 2022 • Jun 3 • 1m

The newest oldest saber-toothed mammal

How To Build A Woolly Mammoth (But Should We?)

S06 E39 • Wednesday, Jun 8, 2022 • Jun 8 • 8m

In the quest to understand how evolution basically built the woolly mammoth, we may have found the blueprints for building them ourselves.

Something Has Been Making This Mark For 500 Million Years

S06 E40 • Wednesday, Jun 15, 2022 • Jun 15 • 11m

Paleodictyon, a hexagonal-patterned fossil, is a bit of a mystery. We don’t even know if it’s a trace fossil, or the organism itself. So… what could it be?

Giant Viruses Blur The Line Between Alive and Not

S06 E41 • Wednesday, Jun 29, 2022 • Jun 29 • 10m

In 2003, microbiologists made a huge discovery. One that would force us to reconsider a lot of what we thought we knew about the evolution of microbial life: giant viruses.

This new giant bacterium is visible to the naked eye #shorts

S06 E42 • Wednesday, Jul 6, 2022 • Jul 6 • 1m

Microbiology goes macro with a new giant bacterium!

Another Spinosaurus study, another opportunity to debate if Spinosaurus was aquatic #shorts

S06 E43 • Thursday, Jul 7, 2022 • Jul 7 • 1m

Spinosaurus had dense bones!

There were dinosaurs with basically no arms at all, just hands! #shorts

S06 E44 • Friday, Jul 8, 2022 • Jul 8 • 1m

Guemesia: a new no-arm dino

When Giant Millipedes Reigned

S06 E45 • Wednesday, Jul 13, 2022 • Jul 13 • 8m

This giant millipede was the largest known invertebrate to ever live on land. So how did it get so big??

How Plate Tectonics Transformed Los Angeles

S06 E46 • Thursday, Jul 21, 2022 • Jul 21 • 14m

Despite the profound changes we’ve made here in recent history, the epic saga of Los Angeles' natural history is still visible - and even striking - if you know where and how to look for it.

Why Does Caffeine Exist?

S06 E47 • Thursday, Jul 28, 2022 • Jul 28 • 11m

Today, billions of people around the world start their day with caffeine. But how and why did the ability to produce this molecule independently evolve in multiple, distantly-related lineages of flowering plants, again and again?

This was the biggest earthquake humans ever experienced #shorts

S06 E48 • Wednesday, Aug 3, 2022 • Aug 3 • 1m

One of the biggest earthquakes humans ever experienced happened around 3800 years ago in what's now northern Chile.

Someone stole two of the most important documents in the history of science #shorts

S06 E49 • Wednesday, Aug 3, 2022 • Aug 3 • 1m

We have no idea where they were all this time, or who stole and returned them and why.

You can thank evolution for flesh-eating bees #shorts

S06 E50 • Friday, Aug 5, 2022 • Aug 5 • 1m

Flesh-eating bees exist!