The Biologic Podcast

Welcome to Episode 123! Today we move deeper into the Malacostraca by exploring the Astacidea, the lobsters and crayfish, as well as their many relatives.

Welcome to Episode 122! Today, we'll begin our exploration of the large and diverse clade Malacostraca, which includes the shrimp, lobsters, and crabs. We'll start with the earliest branches and offshoot groups, many of which, like the krill, have become widespread, abundant, and critically important for global ecosystems.

Welcome to Episode 121! Today we are introducing a new series on the crustaceans! In today's show, we'll dive into the early evolutionary history of the crustaceans, and take a closer look at a handful of the most basal groups in the clade. 

Hello and welcome to Episode 120! Today we'll be wrapping up our series on the myriapods by looking at the long historical relationship between humans and our many-legged friends. From prehistorical mythology to the cutting edge of modern day technology, myriapods have quietly achieved a unique kind of cultural significance. 

Welcome to Episode 119! Today we will take a closer look at the class Chilopoda, also known as the centipedes. These are a uniquely predatory group of myriapods, with many fascinating adaptations for their ecological niche. 

Welcome to Episode 118! In today's show, we return our focus to the myriapods by examining one of the more well-known groups, the millipedes of Diplopoda. They are a curious branch of arthropods, with many fascinating traits and behaviors that may seem otherwordly in their strangeness, or uncanny in their familiarity. 

Welcome to Episode 117! In today's special episode, we'll be stepping back from the myriapods to examine the soil biome itself. We will explore all aspects of the soil, from its material composition and chemical qualities, to its ecological role as a foundational substrate for life. This episode will transform the way you think about the dirt under your feet, and pull back the curtain to reveal the incredible biological activity thrumming along just under the surface. 

Welcome to Episode 116! Today we will take a look at some of the smallest terrestrial creatures, some of the most obscure myriapods, oft left unseen as they crawl around in the soil. 

Welcome to Episode 115! Today we're beginning a new series about the myriapods, those cryptic and classic creepy crawlies that dwell in the soils of the world. In this episode, we'll begin with a broad overview of the evolution and diversification of the myriapods. 

Welcome to Episode 114! In today's show, we'll wrap up our series on the arachnids by exploring their relationship with humans, from our evolution and prehistory, to the modern day. In human cultural lore, arachnids are nuanced and complex entities. They have inspired many technologies, their biochemistry has provided many medicinal chemicals, and their influence on human culture and experience has been profound. 

Welcome to Episode 113! We're finishing up the two-part mini-series on the true spiders of Araneae with this in-depth look at the Araneomorphae. This group comprises the vast majority of modern spiders, and demonstrates a bewildering degree of biodiversity and ecological contribution. 

Welcome to Episode 112! Today's show will explore the early evolution of the true spiders, their anatomy and physiology, and the life strategies and behavior of early spider groups like the Mesothelae and Mygalomorphae. This is part 1 in the Araneae mini-series; part 2 will explore the Araneomorphae. 

In today's show, we'll take a look at the infamous scorpion, as well as several of its near relatives. It will be an exciting adventure in the life of a scorpion or scorpion-like creature, as they scuttle along in deserts or forests, using their claws or venomous tail to attack prey. These are incredible, charismatic and cryptic creatures, representing a modern scientific frontier waiting to be studied. 

Hello and welcome to Episode 110! Today we will explore the anatomy, lifestyle and ecology of two major arachnid groups; the acariformes and the parasitiformes, more commonly known as the mites and the ticks. Although they're most well known for the handful of groups that parasitize animals and sometimes even eat blood, most of them are herbivores whose collective consumption and metabolic activity plays a critical ecological role.

Welcome to Episode 109! Today's episode is an important one. It marks the beginning of our four part mega series on the arthropods. In this first part, we introduce the most basal arthropod clade, the arachnids, and explore their evolutionary origins. We'll look at the ecological challenges they faced, and the friends and relatives they made along the way. Today's show will set the stage for the rest of the arachnids we'll look at in upcoming episodes, and the rest of the arthropods that we'll explore in the later parts of this mega series. 

Welcome to Episode 108! Today we'll be exploring the unique and diverse relationships that humans have with the many types of molluscs that share this world with us. They are part of our myths and legends, they are sources of food and medicines, and they've inspired countless technologies. We have a surprisingly close relationship with these most alien-like of Earthly creatures. 

Welcome to Episode 107! This is part 2 in a 2-part series on the cephalopods. Today we will explore the evolutionary history of the coleoids, a "recent" branch of cephalopod. We will also examine their alien anatomy, their unusual life cycle, and their shockingly sophisticated intelligence. 

Welcome to Episode 106! This show is part 1 in a 2-part series on the cephalopods. Today we will explore the evolutionary history of the cephalopods, and take a closer look at the physiology and life cycle of the descendants of the strange, basal lineage of nautiloids.

Welcome to Episode 105! Today we'll be exploring the wild world of gastropods, including their unique and bizarre physiology, as well as their even more bizarre reproductive strategies. It'll be a thoroughly entertaining and provocative episode, exploring the biology of a quiet, innocuous, and infinitely weird group of invertebrates. 

Welcome to Episode 104! Todays show will dive into a particularly strange and unusual type of animal life; the bivalves. Despite most bivalves being blind, immobile piles of slimy goo encased between two shell plates, they are remarkably fascinating creatures, with many critically important ecological contributions that help make aquatic habitats more habitable for all kinds of life. 

Hello and welcome to Episode 103! Today we'll be opening up a new chapter in the Biologic Podcast by diving into the anatomy, physiology, life cycle, and ecology of the rest of the animal kingdom, starting with the molluscs. The first episode in this new series will explore early mollusk evolution, and the biology of the earliest, most basal mollusk clades. 

Welcome to Episode 102! Today, we're going to end our series on the first Metazoans with a relatively short and sweet exploration of their complex and fascinating relationship with Humans; how we see the sponges and anemones and jellyfish in our myths, urban legends, and imagination, and the role they've played in our technical and scientific breakthroughs. 

Welcome to Episode 101! In today's show, we'll continue our exploration of the early metazoans by focusing on the large and diverse clade Cnidaria. Here we will see all manner of jellyfish, corals, and sea anemones, among many other bizarre and strange relatives, including tiny filter feeders and obligate parasites. This will be a deep dive to meet some of the weirdest animals alive today. 

Welcome to Episode 100! Today's special episode will be a deep dive into the world of the Ediacaran biota. We'll explore the early days of the Ediacaran, and the changing world that would give rise to the earliest animal-like organisms. Then, we'll follow their evolution through the Avalon, the White Sea, and the Nama time periods to see how this Ediacaran life evolves, diversifies, and eventually responds to the presence of new forms in the early Cambrian. In this way, we will learn how the Ediacaran biota set the stage for all animal life that would follow after them. 

Welcome to Episode 99! Todays show will explore the strange and cryptic creatures known as the Ctenophora, or the comb jellies. These incredible and basal animals are quite unlike anything else in the sea, such that they may hold the secrets to many long-standing mysteries of early animal evolution. 

Welcome to Episode 98! Today we will be exploring the anatomy, life cycle, and ecology of the most basal animal lineage with children still alive today; the sponges. These unassuming filter feeders are revealed to be extremely fascinating and complex creatures, critical to marine ecology. 

Welcome to Episode 97! Today we'll be exploring the evolution of the animal lineage, starting way back over a billion years ago with the ancesetral Opisthokonta. We'll look at how the earliest multicellular creatures formed the first animals, and the first lineages of animals that really took off and successfully colonized the worlds oceans, with descendents still swimming around to this day.

In this final episode on our phylogenetic exploration of the deutereostomes and the vertebrates, we'll take a look at the taxonomy and biodiversity of the mammals. The clade is the least species-rich of all the vertebrates, but their size and abundance make them key shapers of terrestrial, and many aquatic, ecosystems. 

In this exciting episode of the podcast, we'll explore the taxonomy and biodiversity of the surviving descendants of the dinosaurs; the modern birds. 

Hello and welcome to Episode 94! Today we'll be exploring the taxonomy of the reptiles, those sturdy tetrapods that diverged from their amphibian ancestors, during the warmer, drier period after the collapse of the Carboniferous rainforests. 

Welcome to Episode 93! Today we follow the vertebrates as they evolve out of the water, by exploring the taxonomy and phylogeny of the amphibians. 

Welcome to Episode 92! Today we will be exploring the taxonomy and phylogenetics of the most basal vertebrate clade; the fish. 

Welcome to Episode 91! Today we'll introduce the Deuterostome animals, and explore the taxonomy and phylogenetic relationships within the most basal extant branch; the Echinoderms.

Welcome to Episode 90! This will be an exploration of the taxonomy and phylogenetic relationships of the largest and most biodiverse animal clade on the planet; the Insects.

Welcome to Episode 89! Today we'll be exploring the enormous diversity of the crustaceans, from the tiniest arthropods that make up the zooplankton, to the largest crabs and lobsters.

Welcome to Episode 88! We'll dig into the earth to explore the terrestrial world of the millipedes, the centipedes, and all the tiny symphylans and pauropods.

Welcome to Episode 87! Today we'll begin an adventurous exploration of the arthropods, starting with the oldest arthropod lineage that has survived into the modern day: the arachnids!

Welcome to Episode 86! Enjoy a brief overview of each major clade, and the evolutionary relationships, within the Mollusk phylum. 

Welcome to Episode 85, which will explore all the worms and worm-like creatures that live across our planet, in all habitats, in all ecological niches.

Very early in the evolutionary history of animals, there was a divergance that would ultimately lead to the creation of two major divisions in the Kingdom Animalia; the Protostomes & Deuterostomes. In this episode, we'll explore this ancient evolutionary split, the physiological differences between the two clades, and the modern descendant species that represents them today.

The animal endocrine system is a complex decentralized chemical communication network that coordinates growth and homeostasis across the whole organism. Hormones are a critical component of this system, and we'll explore the many forms they can take. And while we're on the topic of glands, we'll also cover the basics of the exocrine system.

Today we'll examine the chemistry, anatomy, and physiology of the animal nervous system, from action potentials to neural circuits to animal behavior.