Podcasts about comparative biology

Dr. Adam Summers is a Professor in the School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences and Department of Biology at the University of Washington, and he conducts research in his lab within the Friday Harbor Laboratories there. With a background in engineering and mathematics, Adam works on applying engineering and physics principles to living systems. He uses lessons from the natural world to develop solutions to real-world problems like how to filter things, stick to things, burrow in sand, and move quickly and efficiently under water. Adam and his family live on a small island where they enjoy hiking and hanging out by the sea shore together. In addition, Adam is a licensed pilot, so you can often spot him spending his free time flying small planes. He completed his bachelor's degree in mathematics and engineering at Swarthmore College, and afterwards worked as a SCUBA instructor in Australia. Adam next decided to pursue graduate school, receiving his master's degree in Biology from New York University and his PhD in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Massachusetts. He received a Miller Research Postdoctoral fellowship to conduct research at the University of California, Berkeley and went on to serve as a faculty member at UC, Irvine before joining the faculty at the University of Washington. Adam has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In addition, he was awarded the Bartholmew Prize for physiology research from the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology, the UC, Irvine Academic Senate prize for undergraduate teaching, as well as the Directors award for program management excellence from the National Science Foundation. He also writes a monthly biomechanics column in Natural History Magazine and served as scientific advisor for the Pixar films “Finding Nemo” and the recently released sequel “Finding Dory”. Adam is here with us today to talk a little about his research and tell us all about his journey through life and science.

Memories are the threads that weave together the tapestry of our lives, each one a cherished treasure that shapes who we are and where we've been. In this week's episode, both of our storytellers share stories about memories that altered their lives. Part 1: After constantly living in the shadow of her older sister, RJ Millena isn't sure how to carve her own path. Part 2: When Jasmine Anenberg finds out her high school friend overdoses while she's working in the field, she starts to see the world differently. RJ Millena is an entomologist specializing in the evolution of the twisted-wing insect parasites (Strepsiptera). She is currently a PhD Candidate with the Ware Lab in the Comparative Biology program at the American Museum of Natural History's Richard Gilder Graduate School. Originally from California, RJ grew up in the East Bay with her parents, sister, and large extended Filipino family. She attended UC Davis for her undergraduate degree in Entomology, with double minors in Nematology and Ecology, Evolution, & Biodiversity. In her spare time, she enjoys insect and turtle husbandry, playing drums and trumpet, dancing ballet, and flying trapeze with her sister. Her favorite insect is the one she studies, and her least favorite insect is the bedbug. Jasmine Anenberg is a current PhD student in the School of Forestry at Northern Arizona University. She originally hails from San Jose, California but has lived all over the west and is happy to now call Flagstaff home. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Geography and Minor in Botany in 2014 from San Francisco State University, and has worked across many sectors from urban gardening nonprofits to coffee shops to ecological restoration with federal agencies. Her research interests include plant and soil ecology, biological soil crust restoration, and dryland ecosystems. When she is not doing science, Jasmine enjoys rock climbing, hanging with her dog, and volunteer DJing on community radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It takes our sun 220 million years to orbit around the middle of our home galaxy. But that kind of timescale can be difficult to picture. So, using the International Stratigraphy Chart as a guidance for what different time periods mean in terms of millions of years, let's zoom out to the scale of a galactic year and see what happened in Earth's prehistory one cycle ago, two and so on. Sources for this episode: Bach, J. R. (2013), Paradigm paralysis in the management of neuromuscular disease. Journal of Personalized Medicine 11: 24-29. Bottjer, E. J. (2005), The Early Evolution of Animals. Scientific American 293(2): 42-47. Brusatte, S. L., Butler, R. J., Barrett, P. M., Carrion, M. T., Evans, D. C., Lloyd, G. T., Mannion, P. D., Norell, M. A., Peppe, D. J., Upchurch, P. and Williamson, T. E. (2015), The extinction of the dinosaurs. Biological Reviews 90: 628-642. Cameron, G. G. (1968), Zoroaster the Herdsman. Indo-Iranian Journal 10(4): 261-281. Clack, J. A. (2006), Devonian climate change, breathing, and the origin of the tetrapod stem group. Integrative and Comparative Biology 47(4): 510-523. Cohen, K. M., Finney, S. C., Gibbard, P. L. and Fan, J.-X. (2013; updated). The ICS International Chronostratigraphic Chart. Episodes 36: 199-204. Downs, J. P., Daeschler, E. B., Jenkins, F. A. and Shubin, N. H. (2008), The cranial endoskeleton of Tiktaalik roseae. Nature 455: 925-929. Ellery, A. (2003), Book Review: Impossible Extinction- Natural catastrophes and the supremacy of the microbial world. International Journal of Astrobiology 2(2): 153-154. Galway-Whitham, J. and Stringer, G. (2018), How did Homo sapiens evolve? Science 360(6395): 1296-1298. Hazen, R. M. (2010), How Old is Earth, and How Do We Know? Evolution: Education and Outreach 3: 198-205. Hess, F. L. (1925), The Age of the Earth. The Scientific Monthly 20(6): 597-602. Kemp, B. and Zink, A. (2012), Life in Ancient Egypt: Akhenaten, the Amarna Period and Tutankhamun. RCC Perspectives No. 3- Sickness, Hunger, War and Religion: Multidisciplinary Perspectives: 9-24. Kvĕt, R. (1991), Complete Periodical Geological Time Table. GeoJournal 24(4): 417-420. Kvĕt, R. (1995), On the Dependence of Life Evolution on Geotectonic Stages. GeoJournal 37(4): 413-417. Lemberg, J. B., Daeschler, E. B. and Shubin, N. H. (2021), The feeding system of Tiktaalik roseae: an intermediate between suction feeding and biting. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 118(7): e2016421118. MacIver, M. A., Schmitz, L., Mutan U., Murphey, T. D. and Mobley, C. D. (2020), Massive increase in visual range preceded the origin of terrestrial vertebrates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America: E2375-E2384. Meiri, S. (2022), Population sizes of T. rex cannot be precisely estimated. Frontiers of Biogeography 14(2): e53781. Roney, J. C. (2017), 1776, Viewed from the West. Journal of the Early Republic 37(4): 655-700. Sereno, P. C. (1997), The Origin and Evolution of Dinosaurs. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 25: 435-489. Vandepoele, K., De Vos, W., Taylor, J. S., Meyer, A. and Van de Peer, Y. (2004), Major events in the genome evolution of vertebrates: Paranome age and size differ considerably between ray-finned fishes and land vertebrates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 101(6): 1638-1643. Vittinghof, F. (1985), Reviewed Work(s): The Roman Empire 27 B. C. - A. D. 476. A Study in Survival by Chester G. Starr. Gnomon 57 Bd., H. 6: 572-574. Zhuralev, A. Y. and Wood, R. A. (2018), The two phases of the Cambrian Explosion. Scientific Reports 8: 16656. Życiński, J. (2006), Ethics in medical technologies: The Roman Catholic viewpoint. Journal of Clinical Neuroscience 13: 518-523.

In this week's episode, Maren Vitousek joins the show to talk about stress and her work in tree swallows. She starts by describing what stress is and what it is not. Matthew and Maren talk about the development of the stress response and its long-term implications. Then Maren's talk about the tree swallow project that she co-directs and what her lab has learned from studying stress in these animals.After the break, they talk about Maren's experience as a mother of three in academia. Maren describes her experience becoming a mother at three different career stages, the costs that mothers pay in academia, and what cultural and policy changes can be made to make academia more parent-friendly.This week's Two-Minute Takeaway comes from Mary Woodruff (@MaryJWoodruff), a PhD Candidate in the Rosvall Lab at Indiana University. She uses behavior and physiology to understand how wild birds are coping with climate change. Learn more about Mary's work here.Del Giudice, M., Buck, C. L., Chaby, L. E., Gormally, B. M., Taff, C. C., Thawley, C. J., ... & Wada, H. (2018). What is stress? A systems perspective. Integrative and Comparative Biology, 58(6), 1019-1032. https://academic.oup.com/icb/article/58/6/1019/5094765Credits: The Animal Behavior Podcast is created by a team of animal behavior researchers and audio professionals. Come meet us here! We receive production support from the Cornell Broadcast studio directed by Bert Odom-Reed, and financial support from the Animal Behavior Society.

Nick talks to Dr. Stephen Simpson & Dr. David Raubenheimer, both professors at the University of Sydney who have been research collaborators for many years. Their research focuses on understanding animal feeding behavior, especially how & why different animals use their sensory systems in order to consume foods so that their diets contain the right balance of nutrients. Understanding animals in the evolutionary & ecological contexts they evolved to survive in enables us to build a holistic picture of the general principles underlying feeding behavior. Topics discussed include: Macronutrients (protein, fats & carbohydrates) and micronutrients (sodium, calcium); the 'protein leverage hypothesis' & how this explains the modern obesity epidemic; how different diets can promote fat weight, longevity, or reproductive success; the optimal macronutrient composition for weight loss; the comparative biology of feeding behavior across animals like humans, gorillas, spiders, wolves, etc.The discussion is based on their book, "Eat Like the Animals: What Nature Teaches Us About the Science of Healthy Eating."Try Everyday Dose, high-quality coffee & matcha altneratives with functional mushrooms & other supplements.Support the showSign up for the free weekly Mind & Matter newsletter:[https://mindandmatter.substack.com/?sort=top]Learn how you can further support the podcast: [https://mindandmatter.substack.com/p/how-to-support-mind-and-matter]

Animals have to adapt to all sorts of changes, but urbanisation is perhaps one of the most drastic. Urban noise can majorly interfere with communication, so how do frogs overcome the noise and busyness of the big city? Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/herphighlights Full reference list available here: http://www.herphighlights.podbean.com Main Paper References: Halfwerk W, Blaas M, Kramer L, Hijner N, Trillo PA, Bernal XE, Page RA, Goutte S, Ryan MJ, Ellers J. 2018. Adaptive changes in sexual signalling in response to urbanization. Nature Ecology & Evolution. DOI: 10.1038/s41559-018-0751-8. Other Mentioned Papers/Studies: Halfwerk W, Jones PL, Taylor RC, Ryan MJ, Page RA. 2014. Risky Ripples Allow Bats and Frogs to Eavesdrop on a Multisensory Sexual Display. Science 343:413–416. DOI: 10.1126/science.1244812. Graitson, E., & Taymans, J. 2022. Impacts des lâchers massifs de faisans de Colchide (Phasianus colchicus L.) sur les squamates (Reptilia Squamata). Bull. Soc. Herp. Fr, 180. Kaczmarek, E.B., Gartner, S.M., Westneat, M.W. and Brainerd, E.L., 2022. Air Breathing and Suction Feeding Kinematics in the West African Lungfish, Protopterus annectens. Integrative and Comparative Biology. Other Links/Mentions: The forest and urban calls from Halfwerk et al., 2018. Forest call: https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41559-018-0751-8/MediaObjects/41559_2018_751_MOESM3_ESM.wav Urban call: https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41559-018-0751-8/MediaObjects/41559_2018_751_MOESM4_ESM.wav Editing and Music: Podcast edited by Emmy – https://www.fiverr.com/emmyk10  Intro/outro – Treehouse by Ed Nelson Species Bi-week theme – Michael Timothy Other Music – The Passion HiFi, https://www.thepassionhifi.com

Episode 53. Shaena Montanari is an Investigative Reporter at Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting. She completed her PhD in Comparative Biology at the American Museum of Natural History and undergrad at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also completed a Master's degree in Investigative Journalism at Arizona State University.

kagayaさんをゲストに迎え、アメリカザリガニの自発性行動開始の脳研究における単一ニューロンの膜電位活動の記録とその形態染色技術の話、超高速パンチをするシャコの研究、リカレントニューラルネットワークの機械学習フレームワークであるリザバーコンピューティングについてお話をうかがいました。 (w/ mazさん)Guest (加賀谷の研究履歴) アメリカザリガニの自発性行動開始の脳機構研究(高畑雅一lab) 行動が外部感覚刺激ではなく自発内発的に生じるとき、その開始が起こる脳内機構を調べるため、ザリガニ脳内の単一ニューロンの膜電位活動を記録、形態染色の技を卒論時から9年間継続してようやく特定のニューロンが見つかった。 シャコの超高速運動の研究(Sheila Patek lab) 神経系が身体機構を通して環境に働きかけるメカニズムの研究として、超高速パンチをするシャコを研究。 カニの行動の個性の研究(Seto Marine Biology lab) 京大白浜水族館の飼育員の原田桂太さんがカイメンで帽子をつくるカニをシャコ水槽の隣でされていて、体のわりに小さすぎる帽子をつくってるカニがいたりして、行動実験とデータ解析を計画。ベイズ統計による解析。 ソフトロボット研究(中嶋浩平 lab→國吉中嶋 lab 2022-) 科研費の新学術領域ソフトロボット学に公募班で採用されて、ソフトロボット的研究開始。中嶋さんとは京大白眉、この領域でお世話になり、現在中嶋ラボへ。 Shownotes Katsushi Kagaya maz Researchat.fm mazさん回 (ep133) … “mazさんをゲストに迎え、自身の研究の変遷を軸に、バイオメカニクスのおもしろさを話していただきました。” ゆるふわ生物学 の シャコパンチ回 カニの行動の個性の研究 ソフロボ：ソフトロボット、新学術領域ソフトロボット学 リザバー: リザバー・コンピューティング(recurrent neural networkの機械学習法のひとつ) 中嶋さんの総説 北大水泳部 kagayaさんの輝かしい水泳の記録 … 勝手に貼ってすいません！(tadasu) 北大理学部生物学科 山本貴司さん 千葉すずさん イトマンオーストラリア遠征：年に一度、全国のイトマンスイミングスクールから選抜され豪州遠征があった。 近大附属高校：近畿大学附属高等学校。当時、普通科、理数科、国際科のほか、水泳をはじめスポーツによる活動を重視するクラスもあった。 「鳥が飛ぶようにヒトは言語をつかう」Steven Pinker, Language Instinct 高畑雅一 (たかはたまさかず)： kagayaの北大在籍時の先生 アメフラシの神経：キャンデル神経科学のエリック・キャンデルのアメフラシの神経系で学習の分子機構の研究 イカの神経: ホジキンとハクスレーはじめとする活動電位の発生メカニズムの研究が念頭にありました シナプス統合作用：中枢ニューロンは、複雑な形状をもった樹状突起をもって多くの他のニューロンとシナプスを形成する。細胞でのシナプス電位の空間的時間的分布は、シナプス部位からの解剖学的距離だけでなく、三次元構造、膜・細胞質の電気的性質、電位依存型イオンチャネルによるコンダクタンス変化などの影響を受ける。シナプスでの電流が細胞内をどう拡散していくかと合わせてこれらが「神経計算の実体」に大きな影響を与える。この入出力関係(計算)を決めている諸過程をシナプス統合作用という。 ザリガニの脳：kagayaが学部4年生のときに作成したザリガニの脳の組織切片の染色像 ザリガニ論文1：Kagaya & Takahata, 2010 ザリガニ論文2：Kagaya & Takahata, 2011 細胞内記録(イントラ)：ガラス管微小電極を細胞に刺入し、主にカレントクランプで細胞内外の電位差を測る。ガラス管内に蛍光色素を充填して細胞内染色をすることが可能。 マイクロエレクトロード(ガラス管微小電極)：シャープエレクトロードともいう。クラシックな手法。パッチ電極では細胞膜を密着させるが、自然に膜がシールするのを待つ。膜が破れて細胞を破壊してしまうことも。 カレントクランプ：電流固定法。電流を固定して、電位を測る。 細胞外記録(エクストラ)：ほぼスパイク(イントラの記録の活動電位だけフィルタされた電位記録)だけの記録。電極と細胞との位置関係、その他もろもろの複雑な細胞外液の状況に依存した記録になるのでスパイクのタイミングだけをデータとすることが多い。また、近くに複数の細胞があれば複数のスパイクが混じるので一つの電極に複数のユニットが混じるのでスパイク・ソーティングする必要がある。一方、イントラではシナプス活動と同時に活動電位も記録できる。が、細胞の刺さる場所が軸索だとスパイクしか見えない。ザリガニでは樹状突起の肥厚部が主なシナプス統合部でここに刺さればシナプス活動が見える。 パッチ電極をつかったパッチクランプ イオンチャネル ルシファーイエロー 下村脩 … Researchat.fm ep112を参照 下村脩先生がクラゲを採っていた様子 … 家族とクラゲを採っていた下村先生。写真に映っているお子様の一人は伝説のハッカーTsutomu Shimomuraさんである。 下村先生のクラゲ漁の伝説 … “海岸で朝６時から夜まで毎日、家族総出でクラゲを取り続け、１７年間で８５万匹も捕獲し分析。ごく微量しか含まれないＧＦＰが光る仕組みを突き止めた。” コマンドニューロン: ザリガニコマンドニューロンのレビュー “Fifty years of a command neuron: the neurobiology of escape behavior in the crayfish” アメフラシの水管刺激によるエラの引き込み反射 光遺伝学 神経軸索：シナプス活動によって生じる活動電位は、脊椎動物の運動ニューロンでは軸索の起始部で生じる。ここは活動電位を発生するための電位依存型イオンチャネルがたくさんあって閾値が低い。脊椎動物の細胞ではシナプスからこの部位までに細胞体が介在する。一方、ザリガニなど節足動物では細胞体はこの流れから離れたところにあってシナプス統合に関与しない。よって、統合部位として肥厚した樹状突起に電極を狙って刺入してシナプス統合作用を調べることになる。シナプス統合、つまり神経計算の結果発生した活動電位は軸索を伝導する。 下行性ニューロン：脳内に細胞体と樹状突起をもっていて脳を出て胸部へと軸索を伸ばしていく。 腹髄、囲食道縦連合：梯子型神経系の腹側を通る縦連合を腹髄という。囲食道縦連合は、食道を囲んでいる縦連合。左右をつなぐ連合を横連合という。 神経計算の実体：アナログ的な神経膜電位活動の記録について、 田渕さん並木さんの比較生理2019「神経回路の自発活動パターンとその機能的役割」に詳細にまとめられています キイロショウジョウバエ：いわゆるモデル生物のひとつ。 コネクトーム HHMI Janelia デンドライトdendrite: 樹状突起のこと。 ウチダザリガニ … ウチダザリガニと染色体の話は記念すべきResearchat.fm ep1で話しています。Researchat.fmはウチダザリガニと共に始まったと言っても過言ではない。 氷冷麻酔: 昆虫ではCO2が（も？）よく使われる印象がある (maz) クチクラ：外骨格表面 おおらかな指導：先生ははじめから10年かけてもいいとは思われてはいなかった、はず。 identifiable neuron、 identified neuron 同定(可能)ニューロン: Scholapediaに期待したらまだ書かれておらず「どなたかご存命の方に書いて欲しい」というようなことが。別の個体から得られたニューロンどうしであっても生理学的、形態学的に似ていて同一視できるニューロン。運動ニューロンだと筋肉との関係で厳密な意味で同定ニューロンになる。介在ニューロン、とくに中枢のニューロンになってくると生理と形態の情報の再現性の問題で同一視しづらくなる。なお、同定ニューロンであっても個体間変異が生じる。 Leland H. Hartwell … 出芽酵母を用いた細胞周期に関する研究により、2001年度のノーベル生理学・医学賞を受賞 Leland Hartwellの動画 … 観察から細胞周期に関する因子を同定していく様の解説。 Leland Hartwellの動画 … インタビューワーはResearchat.fm ep107で紹介したBungo Akiyoshiさんの指導教官であるSue Biggins先生。 仮説生成型 vs 仮説検証型: Researchat.fm ep127のHARKingも参照。 Strong inference の翻訳 … めちゃくちゃいいので必読！kagayaさんご紹介ありがとうございます。今度これについて話したいです。(tadasu) Ronald Hoy 柳田敏雄 研究をすすめる「よりどころ」、inflection point（変曲点）: mazの脳内では横軸が時間、縦軸が成果みたいなものとして、最初はあまり成果が伸びないが途中からぐいっと上に曲がるような曲線が想像されていた【maz】 ポール・グレアム: 本人の公式ページ・英語版ウィキペディア Y Combinator ハッカーと画家 … オーム社による和書あり。 早すぎる最適化：これは Donald Knuth 博士による記述 早すぎる最適化 … ANRIの江原ニーナさんによるハッカーと画家と早すぎる最適化に関する記事 (関係ないですが、江原ニーナさんのポッドキャスト、復活希望です。) Researchatのポールグレアム回　(ep87) スケールしないことをしよう … FoundXの馬田さんによる解説記事 naoya_tさんによるポール・グレアムの日本語翻訳記事まとめ Coffee machine: いわゆる「コーヒーメーカー」だが英語版ウィキペディア記事では冒頭文（定義文）で “A coffeemaker, coffee maker, or coffee machine” と並列されており英語では同義語のようだ。 雲のツイート 自由意志:「で、ザリガニに自由意志はあるの?」ってPaul Katz氏に聞かれたのが思い出されます。 ヒトであれば内省、内観を言葉で伝えることができるが（リベットの実験）、そうでない動物では行動や生理現象を分析するにとどまる。 運動準備電位: Kornhuber & Deecke, 1965 コンフォーカル：共焦点走査型顕微鏡 ブラックホールの観測: Researchat.fm ep8でも話していました。　 スーパーカミオカンデとニュートリノの検出 スーパーカミオカンデとニュートリノの検出 重力波の初検出 シャコパンチ 冨菜雄介さん …　(関係ないですが、researchmapのIDがlobsterなのいかつすぎますね) シーラ・パテック：シャコパンチはじめ、生物と物理の境界を研究されている。kagayaのシャコパンチ研究のメンター。シーラのTED Talk The Patek Lab キャビテーション はてブ：はてなブックマーク Comparative Biomechanics:「比較」は多様な生物種を対象とするニュアンスがある。 SICB: Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology というアメリカの学会。毎年1月に年会があり 2011 Annual Meetingで Kagaya と maz はニアミスしていた。非ヒトのバイオメカニクス研究発表の場としてはこの SICB とヨーロッパの SEB (Society for Experimental Biology) が代表的と思われる【maz】 リザバー計算 (reservoir computing) 中嶋浩平さん Kohei Nakajima 京大の白眉プロジェクト シャコパンチ論文 リカレントニューラルネットワーク：回帰的神経回路網 RNN。典型的なRNNとしてはランダムにそれぞれが結合した echo state network (後述)がある。スパイクニューラルネット型もある。 Herbert Jaeger リードアウト：リザバー計算の典型的設定のパラメータチューニングはこの線形読み出し器部分だけなので学習にかかる計算コストがとても小さい。 echo state neural network：シンプルなPC上での Echo State Network (ESN) による計算の例 spiking neural network たこあし、シリコンたこあし計算機：中嶋さんの royal society interface に掲載された論文のひとつ Wolfgang Maass ブラックボックスを解剖する研究 Echo State Property: “Intuitively, the ESP states that the reservoir will asymptotically wash out any information from initial conditions.” 流体構造連成: ある物体、たとえば布みたいなものに風があたって力（いわゆる揚力や抗力）が生じて、形が変わったとする。そうすると、形が変わったことで揚力や抗力が変わるので、また変形がおきる。この繰り返しで振動的な挙動が生じたりする。このように、流れと物体変形の相互作用現象（問題）を流体構造連成 (fluid-structure interation, FSI) と呼ぶ【maz】 双子渦（カルマン渦？): 円柱などの物体の後方には、流れのスケールで決まる無次元数である Reynolds 数に応じて左右対称な双子渦や左右交互の周期的な渦放出（Kármán 渦列）ができる。このうち双子渦を利用してリザバコンピューティングをしようという発想がある (Goto et al., 2021). なお双子渦ができるのは Reynolds 数が低いときで、つまり { サイズが小さい OR 流れが遅い OR 流体の粘性が高い（ねばねばしてる）} ような状態で、具体的には40程度まで。たとえば直径 2 cm の電線を風が 1 m/s でゆっくりと吹きすぎるような場面ですら Reynolds 数は 1300 程度で、双子渦はできない。興味深いことに、上記論文では双子渦からカルマン渦に遷移する直前の Reynolds 数で最も成績がよいという結果が出ているようだ【maz】 カオス的遍歴, “Chaotic itinerancy as a dynamical basis of hermeneutics in brain and mind” 井上さんの論文: Inoue, K., Nakajima, K., & Kuniyoshi, Y. (2020). Designing spontaneous behavioral switching via chaotic itinerancy. Science advances Unconventional Computing Diagital Computing, “Towards a generalized theory comprising digital, neuromorphic and unconventional computing” 大自由度力学系 E-kagen: 鈴森康一「新学術領域研究「ソフトロボット学」 ルースカップリングとタイトカップリング … 柳田敏雄先生による一分子研究の歴史とその解説 モルフォロジカル・コンピュテーション Kunt Shmidt-Nielsen 下澤先生：下澤楯夫先生 Editorial Notes ザリガニ研究は出てから10年以上たってからのもので、あまり外で話す機会がなくなっていたので、今回紹介する機会をいただけて感謝です。シャコパンチを詳しくはまた別の機会に(？)(kagaya) ほぼ聞き役でした。シャコパンチや関連して高速運動・超高速運動の面白さみたいな話はもうちょっとしたかったけど、それやったらたぶんリザバまで行かなかったですね… (maz) kagayaさんとmazさん、お忙しい中、ご出演いただきありがとうございます。全然掘りきれていませんが、また次回よろしくお願いします(シャコとカニの個性！気になる!)。それにしてもkagayaさんのキャリアの変遷は面白すぎて今回お話できて良かったです。リザバーの部分については更なる自身での理解が必要だと思いました。完全版は+40minぐらいあるのですがまたいつか。(tadasu)

Anthropo Snips are a quick look at new(ish) interesting papers and concepts related to anthropogenic impacts on natural ecosystems. Today's Paper A look at how artificial light at night, or ALAN, is actually even worse than we thought it was (yay?), enjoy!Kevin J Gaston, Simone Ackermann, Jonathan Bennie, Daniel T C Cox, Benjamin B Phillips, Alejandro Sánchez de Miguel, Dirk Sanders, Pervasiveness of Biological Impacts of Artificial Light at Night, Integrative and Comparative Biology, Volume 61, Issue 3, October 2021, Pages 1098–1110, https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icab145The Anthropo Scene is an independent project by young ecologists hoping to educate and share interesting information about invasive species around the world. If you would like to sponsor an episode, or suggest a future topic and/or collaboration, find us on Instagram at @Anthropo_scene_podcast, facebook, or send us an email at anthroposcenepodcast@gmail.com.Support us via Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Anthropo_SceneFollow us on Instagram and FacebookMusic credit to: @ejifiii_stuffOther interesting papers about ALAN and its impacts A meta-analysis of biological impacts of artificial light at night. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-020-01322-xImpact of Different Wavelengths of Artificial Light at Night on Phototaxis in Aquatic Insectshttps://academic.oup.com/icb/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/icb/icab149/6310577?redirectedFrom=fulltext#Impacts of artificial lighting at night on insect conservation. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/icad.12490Artificial light at night at the terrestrial-aquatic interface: Effects on predators and fluxes of insect prey- https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0240138Impact of Different Wavelengths of Artificial Light at Night on Phototaxis in Aquatic Insects. https://academic.oup.com/icb/article-abstract/61/3/1182/6310577?redirectedFrom=fulltextSupport the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Anthropo_Scene)

Episode Summary:In this episode, Matthew speaks with Eleanor Caves (@EleanorCaves), a Marie Curie fellow and soon-to-be assistant professor at UC Santa Barbara.They start out by talking about the concept of the umwelt and the importance of sensory ecology in understanding animal behavior.  Then they talk about Eleanor's work exploring the signaling and sensory worlds of cleaner shrimp and their clients. After the break, they discuss work-life balance, imposter syndrome, and overcoming challenges in academia.This week's Two-Minute Takeaway comes from Chase Anselmo (@ChasingTheBrain), a graduate student in the Maruska lab at Louisiana State University. Read about the paper that serves as the foundation for Chase's work studying the impacts of hormones on cichlid color perception here.Papers/media relevant to today's show:1. For an explanation of the history of the umwelt and human biases in sensory ecology: EM Caves, S Nowicki, and S Johnsen. 2019. Von Uexküll revisited: Addressing human biases in the study of animal perception. Integrative and Comparative Biology. 2.  Regarding the importance of visual acuity in explaining animal behaviorEM Caves, NC Brandley, and S Johnsen. 2018. Visual acuity and the evolution of signals. Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 33: 358-372.3. Videos from Eleanor's fieldwork showing cleaner shrimp and client behavior:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFl8UKWy-no Credits:The Animal Behavior Podcast is created by Matthew Zipple (@MatthewZipple) and Amy Strauss (@avstrauss).You can contact us at animalbehaviorpod@gmail.com and find us on Twitter (@AnimalBehavPod).Our theme song is by Sally Street (@Rainbow_Road13), assistant professor in evolutionary anthropology at Durham University in the UK. You can find her on Sound Cloud here: https://soundcloud.com/rainbow_road_music.Musical transitions by André Gonçalves (@fieryangelsfell), a researcher at the primate research institute at Kyoto University.Our logo was designed by Adeline Durand-Monteil (@adelinedurandm), a master's student in ecology and evolution. You can see more of Adeline's work on her website: https://adelinedurandmonteil.wordpress.com/.The Animal Behavior Podcast is produced with support from the Animal Behavior Society (@AnimBehSociety).

Thermal Imaging Technology Helps Firefighters See Through Smoke Wildfires are still raging out west, and states are using anything in their arsenals to fight back. This year, for the first time, Oregon’s Department of Forestry is using thermal imaging technology to see through thick smoke to the fires below. The state’s firefighting teams say this technology has been game-changing during this devastating wildfire season.  Thermal imaging technology uses infrared waves to detect heat, and then presents that information visually. These graphics make it possible to see exactly where the fire is moving, which areas are the hottest, and how much is actually burning. This information is crucial to firefighting teams on the ground, who can know with more certainty which areas are safe to enter. Freelance tech reporter Kate Kaye from Portland, Oregon joins Ira to talk about seeing this tech in action in a plane several miles above the wildfires.  Birds Of A Feather Flutter Together Bird feathers have many different functions. Softer down keeps a bird warm and stiffer wing feathers are used for flight. Feathers are also important in communication. Bright plumage can say ‘hey, look at me.’ And some birds even use the shape of their feathers as a communication tool—by using the sound their feathers make to relay messages. The results were published this week in the journal Integrative and Comparative Biology. Biologists Valentina Gomez-Bahamón and Christopher Clark, both authors on that study, describe how birds might develop different wing-fluttering dialects, and how this could play a role in the evolution of bird species. Check out more sounds, videos and images from the research! To Milk A Tick  Ticks are masters of breaking down the defenses of their host organism to get a blood meal. They use anesthetics to numb the skin, anticoagulants to keep the blood flowing, and keep the host’s immune system from recognizing them as invaders and kicking them out. And the key to understanding this is in the tick’s saliva. Biochemist and microbiologist Seemay Chou discusses how she milks the saliva from ticks to study what compounds play key parts in these chemical tricks. She also talks about how ticks are able to control the microbes in their saliva. 

In today's episode Greg sits down with Dr. Patrick Whelan, Professor in Comparative Biology & Experimental Medicine at the University of Calgary to discuss the differences between science in Canada vs. the United States (2:32), how he developed his passion for researching spinal cord injury and good lab practices (8:17), the advantages of a good model organism in spinal cord research (19:32), how dopamine modulates CPGs to alter movement (27:57), the association between pain and locomotion (38:59), how innervation of the spinal cord may be modulated by the gut-brain axis (41:12), his collaborative work with clinicians on movement disorders (48:26), and Calgary as a city (53:06).

The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB), an American Institute of Biological Sciences member society, fosters research, education, public awareness, and understanding of living organisms from molecules and cells to ecology and evolution. For this episode of BioScience Talks, we chatted with presenters and personnel from SICB's 2019 annual meeting, which was held earlier this year in Tampa, Florida. At the meeting, researchers shared work that highlights the value of interdisciplinary, cooperative science integrated across scales, geographies, and disciplines. Please register for the 2020 Annual SICB Meeting in San Antonio, Texas. See http://sicb.org/meetings/2020 for details.   Subscribe on iTunes. Subscribe on Stitcher. Catch up with us on Twitter.

Does plasticity always help organisms adapt? What happens if it doesn't? Could it speed up evolution Tune in to hear Art and Marty talk with evolutionary ecologist Cameron Ghalambor about the role of non-adaptive plasticity in evolution. Cam is a professor at Colorado State University who tackles these questions by studying guppies. We interviewed Cam at a bar in Tampa, FL during a conference for the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/bigbiology/message

In the news: The first new dinosaur of the year was named Diluvicursor; A new study explains how oviraptorids ate; Researchers release a 3D model of Massospondylus for anyone to print; Details on the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology conference; Several museums are holding events; and much more Dinosaur of the day Nasutoceratops, a ceratopsian with horns like a bull. This episode is brought to you in part by TRX Dinosaurs, which makes beautiful and realistic dinosaur sculptures, puppets, and animatronics. You can see some amazing examples and works in progress on Instagram @trxdinosaurs To get access to lots of patron only content check out https://www.patreon.com/iknowdino For links to every news story, all of the details we shared about Nasutoceratops, and our fun fact check out http://iknowdino.com/nasutoceratops-episode-164/

The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB), an American Institute of Biological Sciences member society, fosters research, education, public awareness, and understanding of living organisms from molecules and cells to ecology and evolution. For this episode of BioScience Talks, we chatted with presenters and personnel from SICB's 2017 annual meeting, which was held earlier this year in New Orleans. At the meeting, researchers shared hundreds of findings that highlight the value of interdisciplinary, cooperative science integrated across scales, as well as new models and methodologies to enhance research and education. Abstracts are now being accepted for the 2018 Annual SICB Meeting in San Francisco. See http://sicb.org/meetings/2018 for details.   Subscribe on iTunes. Subscribe on Stitcher. Catch up with us on Twitter.

Interview with Danny Barta, a PhD candidate in Comparative Biology at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City. We talk to him about "The Titanosaur" exhibit at AMNH and details about when it was found in Argentina. In the news: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom has wrapped; A new species of troodontid was identified in Alberta and named after Phillip Currie; Dinosaurs couldn't migrate far enough to justify cold blooded dinosaurs in Antarctica; Rapidly scanning fossils with a Microsoft Kinect; Lots of dinosaur exhibts, a new comic, game, and more Dinosaur of the day Bahariasaurus, a giant Egyptian theropod that likely lived at the same time as Spinosaurus. Please consider helping us cover the costs of getting to SVP 2017 and get access to our Patrons-only video and/or a postcard! https://www.patreon.com/iknowdino For links to every news story, all of the details we shared about Bahariasaurus, a transcript of our interview with Danny, and our fun fact check out http://iknowdino.com/bahariasaurus-episode-139/

Dr. Adam Summers is a Professor in the School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences and Department of Biology at the University of Washington, and he conducts research in his lab within the Friday Harbor Laboratories there. He completed his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and engineering at Swarthmore College, and afterwards worked as a SCUBA instructor in Australia. Adam next decided to pursue graduate school, receiving his master’s degree in Biology from New York University and his PhD in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Massachusetts. He received a Miller Research Postdoctoral fellowship to conduct research at the University of California, Berkeley and went on to serve as a faculty member at UC, Irvine before joining the faculty at the University of Washington. Adam has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In addition, he was awarded the Bartholmew Prize for physiology research from the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology, the UC, Irvine Academic Senate prize for undergraduate teaching, as well as the Directors award for program management excellence from the National Science Foundation. He also writes a monthly biomechanics columnn in Natural History Magazine and served as scientific advisor for the Pixar films “Finding Nemo” and the recently released sequel “Finding Dory”. Adam is here with us today to talk a little about his research and tell us all about his journey through life and science.

Interspirituality with Kurt Johnson Episode Recap Show Notes: • Early Years – Kurt discusses some of his early life events—including depression, scientific studies and much more—and how they led him to his life’s passion. • Wayne Teasdale – Kurt shares about his deep friendship with the wonderful Brother Wayne Teasdale, the impact he had on his life, and the continuing impact his work has in the world. • Interspirituality – In The Coming Interspiritual Age, Kurt writes, “Interspirituality is the natural discussion among human beings about what we are experiencing. In academic terms, it’s the intersubjective discussion among us all about who we are, why we are here, and where we are going. In the context of religion, interspirituality is the common heritage of humankind’s spiritual wisdom and the sharing of wisdom resources across traditions. In terms of our developing human consciousness, interspirituality is the movement of all these discussions toward the experience of profound interconnectedness, unity consciousness, and oneness.” Kurt and I explore what it means to be interspiritual and how it can deepen our spiritual paths. • Everyone’s A Mystic – Kurt and I explore our mutual friend Ken Wilber’s four quadrants of “I”, “We”, “It” and “It’s” and how they relate to each of us being a mystic. • Scientific Consciousness Studies – Kurt talks about scientific consciousness studies, discussing our basic experience of consciousness and “raw feeling”, quantum ideas of consciousness, and the future of unconsciousness.   Kurt's Website Kurt's Bio Kurt Johnson, Ph.D.  has worked in professional science and comparative religion for over 40 years and serves on many international committees, particularly at the United Nations.  In comparative culture and religion Kurt has been on the faculty of New York City’s One Spirit Interfaith Seminary for 12 years and is the co-author of the very influential 2013 book on the future of world religions: The Coming Interspiritual Age. In science, with a PhD in Evolution, Ecology and Comparative Biology he was on the staff of the American Museum of Natural History for 25 years and is currently associated with the McGuire Center for Biodiversity at the University of Florida.  Kurt has published over 200 scientific articles and seven books, including the popular science bestseller Nabokov’s Blues: The Scientific Odyssey of a Literary Genius. In 2015 his book on science and the arts, Fine Lines, appears from Yale University Press along with contributions in a United Nations NGO publication:  Ethics, Spiritual Values, and the New United Nations Development Agenda. Kurt has presented regularly on science and religion at The Science and Nonduality Conference and the Parliament of the World’s Religions and published articles on this inter-relationship in many periodicals, including audio discussions with Ken Wilber at Integral Life. He is a founding member of the Contemplative Alliance and President of the Friends of the Institute of Noetic Sciences. At the United Nations he serves on the Executive Committee of the UN NGO Committee on Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns and the NGO Forum 21 Institute.  Formerly a monastic for over 10 years, and active in contemplative and sacred activism across several traditions, Kurt is also an ordained Eco-Minister and recently co-edited the Namaste Insights internet magazine on the eco-vision of interfaith pioneers Thomas Berry and Wayne Teasdale. Kurt’s Books: The Coming Interspiritual Age,Nabokov's Blues: The Scientific Odyssey of a Literary Genius, Fine Lines: Vladimir Nabokov’s Scientific Art  

Under the canopy of an ancient fern forest near the border of Arizona and New Mexico a colossal crocodile-like reptile took a bite out of an even larger, toothy giant. The attack failed and the victim limped on to fight another day, until its carcass was finally pillaged by another scaly monster and smaller, pickier scavengers. Studying bones collected over a century ago, scientists are now able to reconstruct these scenes from the ancient Wild West using new digital tools familiar to fans of C.S.I. Join Matt and Adam as we explore the crazy Triassic world 215 million years ago where a colossal rauisuchian was ambushed by a gigantic phytosaur! The post Quick Bite: Clash of the Triassic Titans! appeared first on Past Time Paleo.

A new fossil shows an ancient reptile, Philydrosaurus, surrounded by young. Possible evidence that parental investment is a more ancient trait in land-based vertebrates than paleontologists thought! Reptiles aren’t known for being great parents. When it comes to time and energy spent with the kids, mammals get all the glory. Birds also spend a lot […] The post News Bite: Parental care in extinct reptiles appeared first on Past Time Paleo.

Researchers lead by Hans-Dieter Sues from the Smithsonian Institution described a wealth of new giant, long-necked dinosaur material from Western Asia (Uzbekistan). They were able to reconstruct what the brain looked like and discvered the dinosaur, part of the lineage called "titanosaurs", is closely related to animals from the far East of Asia, places like China and Laos. They decided there wasn't enough of the giant to give it a name, but they know it and its relatives were able to make a living across the diverse enviroments of Asia 90 million years ago. This is further evidence that tintanosaurs were successful for much of the Age of Dinosaurs both on the Northern and Southern continents. The study: Sues, H.-D., A. Averianov, and R. C. Ridgely, and L. M. Witmer (2015) Titanosauria (Dinosauria, Sauropoda) from the Upper Cretaceous (Turonian) Bissekty Formation of Uzbekistan. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2014.889145 The post News Bite: Giant dinosaur brain from Uzbekistan! appeared first on Past Time Paleo.

Iguanodon was discovered before the word "dinosaur" was invented and the story of Iguanodon research is the story of dinosaur research as paleontologists use new fossils to test old ideas about what the animal looked like and how it moved. Was it a lumbering quadruped? A springy kangaroo reptile? A little of both? Join us as we dive into the history of paleontology and the history of Iguanodon, the enthusiastic animal who is always ready to give you two thumbs up! The post Quick Bite: Iguanodon, History of a Dinosaur! appeared first on Past Time Paleo.

To conjure up extinct environments, museums, books, and documentaries rely on art to show vanished animals revitalized in their ancient surroundings. This type of educational reconstruction is called Paleoart (or Palaeoart for the UK inclined) and you can't help but look at an image of a roaming Tyrannosaurus rex without wondering, "How much of that is real?" How do we know its bulk, its color, its environment, or its behavior? Where does the science start and the art (and hypothesizing) begin? Julius Csotonyi, a Candian paleoartist, sat down with us to discuss how he assembles his images which are on display in natural history museums across North America and fill his recently published book, The Paleoart of Julius Csotonyi. A single landscape by Julius is a blend of the latest knowledge from paleontologists, zoologists, paleobotanists, geologists, and geochemists, and as new information is learned, he is ready to update his paintings and present the world with a more accurate glimpse into the ancient past. The post Episode 14: The Art of Dinosaurs appeared first on Past Time Paleo.

When we think of paleontologists, we think of people hunkered down with bones, teeth, and shells studying the preserved body parts of dead organisms. But animals leave behind more than just their skeletons. As they walk they can leave behind footprints, as they eat they can leave behind bite marks, and as they finish eating they leave behind…well…what comes from the behind. The study of the traces of past behavior is called ichnology and Dr. Tony Martin (@Ichnologist) and author of “Dinosaurs without Bones” is with us to reveal all the amazing insights a paleontologist can learn from the fossil record, even when there aren’t any bones! He takes us through a wandering heard of sauropod dinosaurs, into the burrow of the dinosaur Oryctodromeus, and across the mudflats of an amphibian-dominated Alabama. These animals may be extinct, but their traces bring them back to thundering life in this episode of Past Time! The post Episode 13: Following in the Footsteps of Dinosaurs appeared first on Past Time Paleo.

When we think of iconic dinosaurs, like T. rex with its massive head full of teeth, and Parasaurolophus crowned with a gigantic, tube-like horn, we’re thinking of the features of adult dinosaurs. But we know from looking around today that animals change a lot from birth to adulthood. Did T. rex always have a massive maw and Parasaurolophus a huge crest? How quickly did they grow in? What were they used for? To really understand the biology of these titans, paleontologists need to study baby dinosaurs to connect the dots from tiny hatchling to adult dinosaur. Unfortunately, the fossils of dino-toddlers are few and far between because their skeletons are usually pretty delicate. In this episode we discuss the improbable discovery of a baby Parasaurolophus with Dr. Andy Farke, a paleontologist from the Raymond Alf Museum and Webb Schools in Clermont, California. Dubbed “Dinosaur Joe”, the young dinosaur was found and studied by young, high school scientists from the Webb School. The high school scientists were part of the team that revealed the six-foot-long animal was only one-year-old and had a little nubbin of a what would become that spectacular Parasaurolophus crest. Listen to the episode to learn more about growing up dinosaur! The post Episode 12: Growing up Dinosaur appeared first on Past Time Paleo.

Marine mammals are fascinating beasts. Whales, manatees, seals, otters...they've all gone back to the water and in the process evolved all kinds of spectacular adaptations to make a living in a soggy setting. Toothed evolved an ability to “see” the underwater world around them using echolocation - basically sonar - to track prey with high-pitched sounds and echoes. A 23 million years old fossil from South Carolina called Cotylocara shows toothed whales could echolocate early in their evolutionary history. A more surprising adaptation to life in the water was preserved with another new whale fossil from California. Called Semirostrum, the new whale has a huge underbite and long chin which was probably used as a sensitive probe to track down buried prey. Whales in the water are interesting, but not unexpected. Our final study examines how SLOTHS adapted to life in the ocean. Thalassocnus was a relative of giant ground sloths, a solidly terrestrial group of animals. A recent study showed how Thalassocnus gradually acquired thickened bones, a trait that has been observed in nearly every mammal that has gone back to the water. Even if it’s a weird animal to imagine clawing through the water, it adapted to that lifestyle in exactly the way paleontologists expect any mammal to get back to the water! The post Quick Bite: Weird Whales and Swimming Sloths appeared first on Past Time Paleo.

Over 400 million years ago the oceans were teeming with life, but it didn’t look much like what you see at the aquarium or in Finding Nemo. Instead of colorful fish flitting through coral reefs, the ancient seas had giant, shelled squids darting past the icons of the early ocean: The Trilobites! Journey back to the Late Ordovician sea with Dr. Brenda Hunda, Curator of Invertebrates at the Cincinnati Museum Center. Dr. Hunda has spent her career carefully documenting the changes in trilobites in the remarkable rocks near Cincinnati, Ohio. Trilobites were spectacularly diverse early arthropods (the group that includes crustaceous, insects, and arachnids) that adapted to the ever-changing seas, by swimming through the water, scooting along the ocean floor, and burrowing through the mud for their 300 million year reign. Our journey through the ancient Queen City features the musical talents of two great Cincinnati-area bands: The Cincinnati Dancing Pigs and Jake Speed and the Freddies! Take the plunge into invertebrate paleontology with Matt and Adam in this episode of Past Time! The post Episode 11: Trilobites and the Cincinnati Sea appeared first on Past Time Paleo.

50 million-years ago, the heir to Tyrannosaurus stalked the forests of ancient Europe and North America, snapping up the tiny ancestors of horses, cows, and wolves in its colossal meat-cleaving beak. Gastornis was a six-foot-tall, flightless bird and the king of the food chain...or that’s what we thought. For decades paleontologists looked at the huge, parrot-like head and thought the giant bird must be a carnivore, but a recent, exhaustive study drew on molecular evidence, anatomical evidence, and ecological evidence to show Gastornis was a giant herbivore! The former terror bird likely used that massive beak to crack open the abundant seeds and leaves that would have littered the forest at the beginning of the Age of Mammals. Tune in to Past Time to learn how the fossil Terror Bird became Big Bird! The post Quick Bite: From Terror Bird to Gentle Giant appeared first on Past Time Paleo.

Meet Alienochelys selloumi, a giant, snorkel-nosed turtle with powerful, shell-crushing plates in its massive beak! The distant relative of the largest turtle alive today, the leatherback sea turtle, Alienochelys swam the ancient ocean of North Africa at the very end of the Age of Dinosaurs (the Late Cretaceous). It was found in the same rocks as Ocepechelon, the whale turtle discussed in our first Quick Bite back in July. There were a lot of giant, goofy, snorkel-snouted turtles in Cretaceous Morocco! When Alienochelys' discovery was announced, another paper was published describing fossilized pigment molecules that showed many marine reptiles, including a 55 million-year-old leatherback sea turtle, were dark in color, an adaptation we see in many modern swimming vertebrates. It's time to pick a new-favorite fossil turtle with Past Time! The post Quick Bite: The Alien Turtle and Ancient Color appeared first on Past Time Paleo.

Little people! Giant reptiles! Towering elephants! Huge birds! It sounds like the stuff of literary and box-office gold, but this Middle-Earth-like world actually existed 17,000 years ago on Flores, an island near Indonesia. Homo floresiensis, or "The Hobbts", only stood three feet tall but they cast a huge shadow over the story of human evolution. In 2004 fossils of the small, big-footed hominins were discovered and they have challenged paleoanthropologists, like this episode's Dr. William Jungers, to reconsider many hypotheses of human origins including which species left the continent and how we're all related. Once thought to just be small versions of Homo erectus, the hobbits may have much more ancient ancestors, posing more questions for the fossil record to answer as the human story becomes even more complicated...and interesting! The post Episode 10: The Hobbit – An Unexpected Discovery appeared first on Past Time Paleo.

Last episode we featured Lythronax, the oldest-known North American tyrannosaur and a close relative of Tyrannosaurus rex. But tyrannosaurs weren’t the only big carnivores to tromp through the Mesozoic of North America. Before the tyrant lizards were huge, there was another giant terrorizing the American West: Siats! Named for a Ute mythological giant, Siats was a bus-sized carnivore in the middle Cretaceous of Utah (99 million years ago). The giant had close relatives - the neoventors - on almost all the continents. This is a bit of a mystery because the continents were getting spread out by 99 million years, making it tough to explain how the neovenators conquered the world. In North America, this global dynasty replaced another family of giants: the carcharodontosaurs which included Acrocanthosaurus the top carnivore of the Early Cretaceous of Western and Eastern North America. The discovery of Siats shows different lineages of carnivorous dinosaurs could get really big and T. rex is just the last monarch to fill the giant carnivore niche in North America. It’s another toothy, terrifying tale on Past Time! The post Quick Bite: The Giant Before the Tyrant! appeared first on Past Time Paleo.

Tyrannosaurus rex is a dinosaur celebrity, a villain in most dinosaur movies and documentaries, but where did the massive beast come from? On November 6, 2013, a team of paleontologists including our expert in this episode, Dr. Randy Irmis from the University of Utah and the Natural History Museum of Utah, published two new skeletons of Tyrannosaurus’s close kin: Teratophoneus and Lythronax. The skeletons reveal Tyrannosauridae (T. rex’s family) was diverse 80 million years ago with different species living in different parts of Western North America. The new genus Lythronax is the oldest member of the Tyrannosauridae even though its anatomy closely resembles the last species of tyrannosaurid, T. rex. A massive sea divided Western North America, called Laramidia, from Eastern North America, called Appalachia. Laramidia was a long, skinny continent that ran from Alaska to Baja California. In general, in modern ecosystems, the larger the land-mass, the more species can live on it. Laramidia was one-tenth the size of the continent of North America, but it supported more species of large animals than the complete continent of North America today! Geologists, paleontologists, and ecologists aren’t sure how this was possible so they continue to search for new fossils and the origins of the North American ecosystem. New fossils, like Teratophoneus and Lythronax show us there are still more questions to answer using the fossil record! Sic semper tyrannis! The post Episode 9: New Relatives of Tyrannosaurus rex! appeared first on Past Time Paleo.

Fossils are the raw materials of paleontology, but if we want to know how an animal moved or ate, paleontologists, like Dr. Paul Gignac, need to study living animals, too. Dr. Gignac studies crocodylians, measuring their bite forces across species and as they grow up to figure out how the strongest bite in nature evolved. Using techniques drawn from mechanical engineering and physiology, Dr. Gignac discovered the relationship between body size and bite force in crocodiles, and developed equations to calculate those forces. Then he used these equations to calculate the bite forces of giant extinct crocodiles like Deinosuchus. He also studied the bite marks left by the sickle-clawed dinosaur Deinonychus to calculate dinosaur bite forces. There are so many questions to ask about extinct animals but there's also a lot left to learn about their living descendants! The lines between scientific disciplines get blurred and the questions just get more interesting in this episode of Past Time! The post Episode 8: Crocodiles are the Chomping Champions appeared first on Past Time Paleo.

Whales are spectacularly specialized mammals that seem perfectly adapted to their marine habitat. Plenty of other mammals have gone back to the water, but whales take it to a whole new level. No back legs, weird ear bones, noses on top of the head. What could the land-based ancestor of whales possibly looked like? Is there a fossil record of walking whales? In this episode we discover whales belong to the hooved animal group called Artiodactlys and their closest relatives, according to molecular comparisons, are hippos! But hippos and extinct fossil whales don't look very much alike. How did paleontologists, like our guest Dr. Marueen O'Leary, figure out the origins of whales, and how will they figure out the origins of hippos? As always, there are always more questions to answer when we start digging into the fossil record! The post Episode 7: Walking through Whale Evolution appeared first on Past Time Paleo.

Mammals were scrambling around during the Age of Dinosaurs and they're usually seen as small, shrew-like animals waiting for their chance to become diverse. But recent research, including three new fossils discovered in 160 million-year-old rocks from China, show our mammalian cousins were ecologically specialized creatures. Arboroharamiya was climbing through the trees while Megaconus scrambled along the ground, and Rugosodon lead the way for the diverse radiation of mammals called Multituberculates. In this episode, Matt tries to show Adam why these new, tiny mammals are so interesting and where they fit into the mammalian tree of life. The post Quick Bite: New Mammals from the Age of Dinosaurs! appeared first on Past Time Paleo.

The fossil record is pretty patchy. Most discoveries are tooth fragments, chunks of shell, or isolated slivers of bone and paleontologists are trained to eke out as much information from these precious fragments as they can. But some fossil deposits preserve more than just bones and teeth. Called "Lagerstätte" some rare deposites preserve traces of difficult-to-fossilized soft-tissues like feathers and fur. Some even preserve an animal's last meal before it entered the fossil record. In this episode of Past Time, Matt and Adam discuss Messel, a German fossil site that is one of the best examples of the biological and ecological knowledge preserved in these rare Lagerstätten deposits. Early bats, mini horses, and galloping crocodiles once roamed this extinct jungle in the heart of Europe. The exquisite preservation at Messel lets paleontologists travel back to this exotic ecosystem to tease out connections between the beginning of the Age of Mammals and modern tropical environments. The post Episode 6: Tiny Horses, Galloping Crocs, and Fossilized Jungles! appeared first on Past Time Paleo.

Humans are weird animals. We walk around on two legs, we have big brains...and we like to throw things at each other. Did all this happen in a gradual march to Homo sapiens? In this episode of Past Time, Adam and Matt talk to Dr. Susan Larson, an expert on the anatomy of living and extinct apes. Dr. Larson and Matt will try to convince Adam that mammalian and primate evolution is actually pretty interesting stuff. Dr. Larson's research introduced new wrinkles to the smoth transition from a chimp-like ancestor to us. Her work shows our close bipedal ancestors - like "Lucy" the Australopithecus and "Turkana Boy" the Homo erectus/Homo ergaster - had very different shoulder blades than ours that limited their ability to rotate their arms. This arrangement would have made throwing difficult for Homo erectus and you would have left him on the bench for the playoffs. The evolution of pitching in recent human ancestors shaped our modern anatomy and is part of what makes us human! The post Episode 5: Throwing in Human Evolution appeared first on Past Time Paleo.

Meet Ocepechlon, one of the strangest turtles to ever paddle the open ocean in our first Past Time Quick Bite! This new species was announced a few weeks ago based on a lone, beautifully preserved skull from the Late Cretaceous (end of the Age of Dinosaurs) of Morocco. The gigantic animal had a long, tubular snout that the discoverers have interpreted as an adaptation to suction feeding, a specialized feeding method used by lots of aquatic animals including some types of whales. But this would be the first known suction-feeding sea turtle. Ocepechelon also has its nasal opening placed high on its head, between its widely spaced eyes, just like the spout of a whale. Based on the researcher’s analysis, its closest relatives include the gigantic leatherback sea turtle, a huge, beautiful animal that is critically endangered. In case you were cruising for a new favorite, bizarre sea turtle, look no farther than Ocepechelon! Images and comparisons are up at www.pasttime.org The post Quick Bite: Ocepechelon the Whale Turtle appeared first on Past Time Paleo.

Sauropod dinosaurs, the long necked creatures like Apatasaurus and Brachiosaurus, were the biggest animals to ever leave a footprint on the Earth. They were the size of whales, but didn't have the luxury of water to help them support their bulk! The massive size of sauropod dinosaurs intrigued Dr. Michael D'Emic and he has been scrutinizing their bone structure and relationships to figure out how these saurian giants managed to get around and consume enough food to keep growing. The post Episode 4: Giant Dinosaur Mysteries appeared first on Past Time Paleo.

We all know what a reptile is, right? Scaly, sprawling legs, cold blooded. But where did they come from and how are they all related to one another? What makes a lizard different from a crocodile? In this episode Adam teaches Matt about the different lineages of reptiles alive today and some of the mysteries biologists and paleontologists are still wrestling with in the reptile family tree. Spoiler alert: Turtles are the black sheep of the family. The post Episode 3: What is a Reptile? appeared first on Past Time Paleo.

What is a dinosaur? What is a bird? They're related somehow, but how does a paleontologist figure out how close Velociraptors and penguins are in the dinosaur family tree? In this episode of Past Time, Matt and Adam talk to Dr. Alan Turner, an expert on fossils from the dino-bird transition to figure out which animals are most important in sorting out this incredible evolutionary story. The post Episode 2: Birds are Dinosaurs! appeared first on Past Time Paleo.

In this edition of Genome Barks, Dr. Nick Duesbery, Co-Director of the Van Andel Research Institute’s Center for Comparative Biology and Genetics, discusses the Canine Hereditary Cancer Consortium (CHCC), a national alliance of researchers with a common hope of improving the health and welfare of humans afflicted with rare tumors, and canines affected with the same respective cancer. Dr. Duesbery credits a CHF research grant for helping set the groundwork for what eventually grew into the CHCC. CHCC researchers are unraveling the genetic causes of several cancers, including but not limited to: hemangiosarcoma, osteosarcoma, melanoma, malignant histiocytic sarcoma, and lymphoma. This podcast was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Kenneth A. Scott Charitable Trust, a KeyBank Trust.

Meet the first 5 students at the new graduate school at the American Museum of Natural History -- the first museum in America awarding PhDs. The American Museum of Natural History becomes the first Museum in the US to offer a Ph.D. in Comparative Biology. Learn what it is like for these students to go to school in a museum.