Eons S05E09 · How Humans Became (Mostly) Right-Handed

Overview

No other placental mammal that we know of prefers one side of the body so consistently, not even our closest primate relatives. But being right-handed may have deep evolutionary roots in our lineage. And yet, being a leftie does seem to come with some unexpected advantages.

Torrents

Subtitles

Episodes

1. 1 1. What Happened to the World's Biggest Beaver?2021-01-13 · 10mIt’s important to us that you understand how big this beaver was. Just like modern beavers, it was semiaquatic -- it lived both on the land and in the water. The difference is that
2. 2 2. The Reign of the Hell Ants2021-01-21 · 10mThis ancient species had the same six legs and segmented body that we’d recognize from an ant today. But it also had a huge, scythe-like jaw and a horn coming out of its head. This
3. 3 3. The Pandemic That Lasted 15 Million Years2021-01-28 · 10mOur DNA holds evidence of a huge, ancient pandemic, one that touched many different species, spanned the globe, and lasted for more than 15 million years.
4. 4 4. When We First Talked2021-02-11 · 10mThe evolution of our ability to speak is its own epic saga and it’s worth pausing to appreciate that. It’s taken several million years to get to this moment where we can tell you a
5. 5 5. The Return of Giant Skin-Shell Sea Turtles2021-02-17 · 10mThe biggest turtle ever described wasn’t an ancestor of today’s leatherback turtles or any other living sea turtles. But it looks like there are some things about being a giant, sk
6. 6 6. The Genes We Lost Along the Way2021-02-24 · 10mOur DNA holds thousands of dead genes and we’ve only just begun to unravel their stories. But one thing is already clear: we’re not just defined by the genes that we’ve gained over
7. 7 7. Our Bizarre, Possibly Venomous, Relative2021-03-10 · 10mIt's possible Euchambersia possessed venom about 20 million years before the first lizards and over 150 million years before the first snakes evolved. We’ve teamed up Sarah Suta fr
8. 8 8. How Worm Holes Ended Wormworld2021-03-18 · 10mElongated tubes, flat ribbons, and other “worm-like” body plans were so varied and abundant that a part of the Ediacaran is sometimes known as Wormworld. But in the end, the ancien
9. 9 9. How Humans Became (Mostly) Right-Handed2021-03-24 · 10mNo other placental mammal that we know of prefers one side of the body so consistently, not even our closest primate relatives. But being right-handed may have deep evolutionary ro
10. 10 10. How Chilis Got Spicy (and Why We Love the Burn)2021-04-07 · 10mToday, chilis are the most widely cultivated spice crop in the world - grown everywhere from their native home in the Americas to Europe, Africa, and Asia. But how and why did chil
11. 11 11. How To Survive the Little Ice Age2021-04-20 · 10mNunalleq, a village in what’s today southwest Alaska, seemed to have thrived during the Little Ice Age. How did this village manage to survive and prosper during this time period?
12. 12 12. When Crocs Thrived in the Seas2021-04-29 · 10mWhile dinosaurs were dominating the land, the metriorhynchids were thriving in the seas. But taking that plunge wasn’t easy because it takes a very special set of traits to fully d
13. 13 13. When Trees Took Over the World2021-05-12 · 10m420 million years ago, the forest floor of what's now New York was covered with a plant that didn’t look like a tree at all, except its roots were made of wood. Instead of looking
14. 14 14. How Weasels Got Skinny2021-05-20 · 10mWeasels have an extreme body plan that may push the boundaries of what’s metabolically possible. So when and how did this happen? Why'd the weasels get so skinny?
15. 15 15. Where Are All The Squid Fossils?2021-06-03 · 10mIt might surprise you but cephalopods have a pretty good fossil record, with one major exception. If squids were swimming around in the same oceans as their closest cousins, where
16. 16 16. Did These Giant Sloths Poop Themselves to Death?2021-07-14 · 10mAt Tanque Loma, at least 22 giant ground sloths in the genus Eremotherium met their end. Of the five hypotheses that researchers proposed for what killed the sloths, the best suppo
17. 17 17. The Traits That Spawned the Age of Mammals2021-07-21 · 10mLots of the traits we think of as defining us as mammals show up pretty early, during the time of the dinosaurs. And, in some cases, they show up a lot earlier and in things that w
18. 18 18. The Island of the Last Surviving Mammoths2021-07-29 · 10mThe Wrangel Island mammoths would end up being the final survivors of a once-widespread genus. In their final years, after having thrived in many parts of the world for millions of
19. 19 19. Where Are All the Medium-Sized Dinosaurs?2021-08-12 · 10mThe remains of medium-sized predatory dinosaurs are pretty rare in places where giant predators like T. rex existed. Which is weird, because that’s just not how ecosystems work tod
20. 20 20. How the Starfish Got Its Arms2021-08-24 · 10mThe story of how the starfish got its arms reminds us that even animals that might be familiar to us today can have incredibly deep histories - ones that stretch back almost half a
21. 21 21. The Creature That Stumped Darwin2021-09-01 · 10mToxodon was one of the last members of a lineage that vanished 11,000 years ago after thriving in isolation for millions of years. And its fossils would inspire a revolutionary thi
22. 22 22. How Pollination Got Going Twice2021-09-16 · 10mThe world of the Jurassic was a lot like ours - similar interactions between plants and insects were happening, but the players have changed over time. Because it looks like pollin
23. 23 23. How a Supervolcano Ignited an Evolutionary Debate2021-09-23 · 10mThe Toba supervolcano was the biggest explosive eruption of the last 2.5 million years. And humans were around to see it, or at least feel its effects! But what were those effects?
24. 24 24. How a Mass Extinction Event Created the Amazon2021-09-29 · 10mThe Amazon rainforest of South America is a paradise for flowering plants. But long ago, the landscape that we now think of as the Amazon looked very different. And would you belie
25. 25 25. When Mammals Only Went Out At Night2021-10-07 · 10mFor decades, scientists believed dinosaurs were diurnal and tiny mammals were nocturnal. But as researchers have uncovered more mammalian fossils and studied the biology of differe
26. 26 26. How Ancient Whales May Have Changed the Deep Ocean2021-10-21 · 10mIt looks like the evolution of ocean-going whales like Borealodon may have affected communities found in the deep ocean, like the ones found around geothermal vents. And it turns o
27. 27 27. How Dinosaurs Coupled Up2021-10-28 · 10mDinosaur mating behavior has been the subject of a lot of speculation, but what can we actually say about it from the fossil record?
28. 28 28. When It Was Too Hot for Leaves2021-11-17 · 10mPlants first made their way onto land at least 470 million years ago but for their first 80 million years, leaves as we know them today didn’t exist. What held them back?
29. 29 29. Why The Paleo Diet Couldn't Save The Neanderthals2021-12-02 · 10mThese relatives of ours lived in Eurasia for more than 300,000 years. They were expert toolmakers, using materials like stone, wood, and animal bone. They were also skilled hunters
30. 30 30. The Fossil Record In Your Mouth2021-12-09 · 10mThe hardened residue scraped off your teeth at the dentist is called your dental calculus, and your dental calculus is the only part of your body that actually fossilizes while you
31. 31 31. When Pterosaurs Walked2021-12-16 · 10mIf you know one thing about pterosaurs, it’s that they’re flyers. And while pterosaurs may be well-known for their domination of the skies in the Mesozoic Era, they didn’t live the