Episode 142 - Phytosaurs

What this episode covers

Take a walk along the waterways of the Late Triassic, and you could easily think it was a world full of crocodiles! But in fact, those are not crocs, but phytosaurs, a group of predatory reptiles that represent not only one of the oldest groups of carnivorous reptiles to achieve a near-global distribution, but also one of evolution's most famous cases of convergent evolution. So, what features did phytosaurs share with crocs? Where did they differ? And just how croc-like were their lifestyles? Listen in and find out! In the news: dinosaur belly buttons, tiny frogs, snake venom, and giant dwarf crocs. Time markers:Intro & Announcements: 00:00:00News: 00:05:45Main discussion, Part 1: 00:41:00Main discussion, Part 2: 01:11:30Patron question: 01:47:00 IT’S CROC MONTH! Check out our Croc Month activities on our social media, Discord, and Patreon! We recently made a guest appearance on Third Pod From the Sun, where we discussed the K-Pg mass extinction! https://thirdpodfromthesun.com/2022/06/10/extinctions-dinosaurs-a-big-rock-andclimate-change/ Check out our blog for bonus info and pictures:http://commondescentpodcast.wordpress.com/ Join us on Patreon to support the podcast and enjoy bonus content! https://www.patreon.com/commondescentpodcast  Or make a one-time donation via PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/4c68u4hp Find merch at the Common Descent Store! http://zazzle.com/common_descent Join the Common Descent Discord server! https://discord.gg/CwPBxdh9Ev Follow and Support us on: Twitter: https://twitter.com/CommonDescentPCFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/commondescentpodcastInstagram: @commondescentpodcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCePRXHEnZmTGum2r1l2mduwPodBean: https://commondescentpodcast.podbean.com/ iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-common-descent-podcast/id1207586509?mt=2 You can email us at commondescentpodcast(at)gmail.comOr send us physical mail at:The Common Descent Podcast1735 W State of Franklin Rd. Ste 5 #165Johnson City, TN 37604 The Intro and Outro music is “On the Origin of Species” by Protodome. More music like this at http://ocremix.org. Musical Interludes are "Professor Umlaut" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

PodParley-generated summary based on available episode metadata and transcript content.