Eons S06E03 · How the Rise of Social Insects Shrunk These Dinosaurs

Overview

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?

Torrents

Subtitles

Episodes

1. 1 1. How our deadliest parasite turned to the dark side2022-01-11 · 10mAround 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
2. 2 2. Primates vs Snakes (An Evolutionary Arms Race)2022-01-19 · 10mThe 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 s
3. 3 3. How the Rise of Social Insects Shrunk These Dinosaurs2022-01-27 · 10mWe 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 di
4. 4 4. How Vertebrates Got Teeth... And Lost Them Again2022-02-08 · 10mAs revolutionary as teeth were, they would go on to disappear in some groups of vertebrates. But why?
5. 5 5. How Horses Went From Food To Friends2022-02-16 · 10mDo 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
6. 6 6. Why We Only Have Ten Toes (It's a Long Story)2022-02-23 · 10mToday, 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 be
7. 7 7. Sharks nearly went extinct 19 million years ago #shorts2022-03-02 · 1mThere used to be SO MANY sharks...where did they go?
8. 8 8. Dire wolves aren’t wolves at all #shorts2022-03-03 · 1mDire wolves aren’t actually wolves but what they are might be even cooler.
9. 9 9. Could humans survive if they traveled back in time 3 billion years? #shorts2022-03-04 · 1mCould humans survive during the Precambrian?
10. 10 10. Some trees are more closely related to broccoli than to other trees #shorts2022-03-07 · 1mDon’t be fooled by convergent evolution.
11. 11 11. Human knees are the worst and we have evolution to thank for that #shorts2022-03-08 · 1mWhy do human knees suck?
12. 12 12. A crater in Turkmenistan has been on fire for about 50 years #shorts2022-03-10 · 1mAnd it’s been reported that one of the geologists started it on purpose?
13. 13 13. When a Giant Pterosaur Ruled the European Islands2022-03-15 · 10mThe ecological niche of apex predators was empty on Hateg Island, waiting to be occupied by something large, mobile, and powerful enough to fill it.
14. 14 14. Only one human has been excavated from the La Brea Tar Pits #shorts2022-03-17 · 1m
15. 15 15. Could humans survive a giant space rock colliding with Earth 66 million years ago? #shorts2022-03-18 · 1mWould you have survived the K-Pg Impact?
16. 16 16. The Sudden Rise of the First Colossal Animal2022-03-22 · 10mA 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 ti
17. 17 17. The Tasmanian tiger is definitely extinct. So why do people keep report sightings of them? #shorts2022-03-25 · 1mThylacines are definitely extinct!
18. 18 18. The Extreme Hyenas That Didn't Last2022-03-29 · 10mHyenas weren’t always able to eat bones. In fact, only a few million years ago, they lived very different lives.
19. 19 19. Who forged one of the most famous fake fossils of all time? #shorts2022-03-31 · 1m
20. 20 20. After this bird went extinct the first time, evolution just hit replay #shorts2022-04-04 · 1mThe bird that evolved twice!
21. 21 21. Someone lost the only fossil from what might’ve been the biggest dinosaur ever #shorts2022-04-05 · 1m
22. 22 22. Would you have survived the biggest mass extinction of all time? #shorts2022-04-06 · 1m
23. 23 23. An ancient insect trapped in amber has a parasitic mushroom erupting out of it? #shorts2022-04-08 · 1mI will pass on the parasitic mind-controlling mushroom, thanks
24. 24 24. How the Smallest Animal Got So Simple2022-04-13 · 8mWe 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,
25. 25 25. We know a lot about dinosaurs but...what was the first dinosaur? #shorts2022-04-14 · 1m
26. 26 26. Why Sour May Be The Oldest Taste2022-04-20 · 8mWhile 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 dang
27. 27 27. The Ancient Human Species With A Missing Body2022-04-27 · 10mOnly 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?
28. 28 28. Are there dinosaur fossils in space? #shorts2022-05-02 · 1m
29. 29 29. Why don’t rabbits get really, really big? #shorts2022-05-03 · 1m
30. 30 30. An extinct human species was discovered deep within a cave system #shorts2022-05-04 · 1m
31. 31 31. When Ants Domesticated Fungi2022-05-10 · 10mWhile 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
32. 32 32. The Curious Case of the Cave Lion2022-05-17 · 9mA 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 w
33. 33 33. Is This The Oldest Dad In The Fossil Record?2022-05-26 · 8mFossil 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 m
34. 34 34. Why did so many predators die at the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry? #shorts2022-05-27 · 1mThere’s something weird going on at the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry in what’s now Utah.
35. 35 35. What is the most successful human species? #shorts2022-05-31 · 1mDoes Homo erectus beat out Homo sapiens?
36. 36 36. Sharks have antibacterial skin. Can we use that to save lives? #shorts2022-06-01 · 1mSometimes modern problems require ancient, evolutionary solutions.
37. 37 37. This Ice Age pup's last meal was a woolly rhino #shorts2022-06-02 · 1mWhat was this ancient pup’s last meal?
38. 38 38. What came first, the sabertooth or the cat? #shorts2022-06-03 · 1mThe newest oldest saber-toothed mammal
39. 39 39. How To Build A Woolly Mammoth (But Should We?)2022-06-08 · 8mIn the quest to understand how evolution basically built the woolly mammoth, we may have found the blueprints for building them ourselves.
40. 40 40. Something Has Been Making This Mark For 500 Million Years2022-06-15 · 11mPaleodictyon, 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?
41. 41 41. Giant Viruses Blur The Line Between Alive and Not2022-06-29 · 10mIn 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.
42. 42 42. This new giant bacterium is visible to the naked eye #shorts2022-07-06 · 1mMicrobiology goes macro with a new giant bacterium!
43. 43 43. Another Spinosaurus study, another opportunity to debate if Spinosaurus was aquatic #shorts2022-07-07 · 1mSpinosaurus had dense bones!
44. 44 44. There were dinosaurs with basically no arms at all, just hands! #shorts2022-07-08 · 1mGuemesia: a new no-arm dino
45. 45 45. When Giant Millipedes Reigned2022-07-13 · 8mThis giant millipede was the largest known invertebrate to ever live on land. So how did it get so big??
46. 46 46. How Plate Tectonics Transformed Los Angeles2022-07-21 · 14mDespite 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 lo
47. 47 47. Why Does Caffeine Exist?2022-07-28 · 11mToday, 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-relat
48. 48 48. This was the biggest earthquake humans ever experienced #shorts2022-08-03 · 1mOne of the biggest earthquakes humans ever experienced happened around 3800 years ago in what's now northern Chile.
49. 49 49. Someone stole two of the most important documents in the history of science #shorts2022-08-03 · 1mWe have no idea where they were all this time, or who stole and returned them and why.
50. 50 50. You can thank evolution for flesh-eating bees #shorts2022-08-05 · 1mFlesh-eating bees exist!
51. 51 51. This is one of the oldest art workshops ever discovered! #shorts2022-08-05 · 1mArchaeologists have discovered an ancient art workshop
52. 52 52. Did An Ancient Pathogen Reshape Our Cells?2022-08-11 · 9mThere is one - and only one - group of mammals that doesn’t have alpha-gal: the catarrhine primates, which are the monkeys of Africa and Asia, the apes, and us.
53. 53 53. How Whale Evolution Kind Of Sucked2022-08-18 · 11mMystacodon is the earliest known mysticete, the group that, today, we call the baleen whales. But if this was a baleen whale, where was its baleen? Where did baleen come from? And
54. 54 54. The Fungi That Turned Ants Into Zombies2022-08-23 · 9mThis fungus was actually manipulating ants’ movements, forcing them to do something they’d never ordinarily do, something strange, yet specific…
55. 55 55. Did you know that fossils can get sick? #shorts2022-08-31 · 1mDid you know that fossils can get sick? – Specifically with Pyrite Disease
56. 56 56. A supervolcano in Idaho once caused a disaster 900 miles away. #shorts2022-09-08 · 1mDisaster in the great plains!
57. 57 57. A bunch of very important fossils disappeared during WWII. #shorts2022-09-09 · 1m80 years ago, a bunch of fossils of ancient humans disappeared.
58. 58 58. Did this animal poop cubes? Giant cubes? #shorts2022-09-13 · 1mCongrats! You just found a wombat burrow. And the cubes are its poop.
59. 59 59. Are wisdom teeth a problem for us because of evolution? Or because of our development? #shorts2022-09-14 · 1mWisdom teeth can be such a pain
60. 60 60. Our extinct relative was an ancient leopard’s lunch. #shorts2022-09-16 · 1mParanthropus got chomped by a leopard
61. 61 61. When did we start wearing clothes? #shorts2022-09-17 · 1mWe didn’t always wear clothes!
62. 62 62. Did Megalodon go after whale faces specifically? #shorts2022-09-22 · 1mAncient sperm whale heads belonged on every shark-cuterie board
63. 63 63. Where Did Water Come From?2022-09-27 · 12mMercury, Venus, and Mars are all super low on water – so where did ours come from and why do we have so much of it? We think our water came from a few unlikely sources: meteorites,
64. 64 64. Our Ancient Relative That Said 'No Thanks' To Life On Land2022-10-04 · 10mAround the time that some of our fishapod relatives were crawling out of the water, others were turning around and diving right back in.
65. 65 65. Imagine a cat's mouth fully covering up their saber teeth. #shorts2022-10-05 · 1mWe might’ve been wrong about how this saber-toothed cat looked
66. 66 66. Darwin correctly predicted an animal existed without ever seeing it. #shorts2022-10-07 · 1mSometimes evolution is completely predictable.
67. 67 67. Neandertals weren’t dumb cavemen. In lots of ways, they were just like us. #shorts2022-10-10 · 1mShanidar 1 got by with a little help from his friends
68. 68 68. Here are two ways to get a fossil species named after you. #shorts2022-10-14 · 1mHere are two ways to get a fossil species named after you.