Episode 216 - Plankton

Just about every body of water on Earth, from oceans to puddles, is home to an ecosystem of tiny drifting organisms. This episode, we discuss what sorts of organisms we might expect to find in a swarm of plankton, we’ll explore how plankton is so fundamental to biological and geological systems on Earth, and we’ll take some time to lay out some of the many ways that ancient plankton are a crucial part of the fossil record.

In the news: climbing reptiles, croc extinctions, Ashfall rhinos, and ankylosaur tracks.

Time markers:

Intro & Announcements: 00:00:00

News: 00:05:40

Main discussion, Part 1: 00:35:15

Main discussion, Part 2: 01:23:00

Patron question: 02:00:30

Check out our website for this episode’s blog post and more: commondescentpodcast.com

Join us on Patreon to support the podcast and enjoy bonus content: patreon.com/commondescentpodcast

Listen to Will talk speculative evolution on the Nerd Trek Podcast

open.spotify.com/episode/2NzdG8TMfwGLzpP8sKXHQA

And listen to David talk de-extinction on the House of Pod

open.spotify.com/show/3z6EgP0BzaHQoXzCtxQ32t

Support links:

ACLU: aclu.org

Got a topic you want to hear about? Submit your episode request here: commondescentpodcast.com/request-a-topic

Lots more ways to connect with us: linktr.ee/common_descent

The Intro and Outro music is “On the Origin of Species” by Protodome. More music like this at ocremix.org

Musical Interludes are "Professor Umlaut" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0