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My cousin? 21 00:01:08.680 --> 00:01:09.519 What is life? 22 00:01:09.680 --> 00:01:14.239 Welcome to Evolutionary Biology. Also welcome to ssmologies. Smologies are 23 00:01:14.280 --> 00:01:16.599 episodes we put out every few weeks. They have been 24 00:01:16.640 --> 00:01:19.159 carved out of longer full length episodes to be a 25 00:01:19.239 --> 00:01:22.760 kid friendly and much shorter. But for the full version 26 00:01:23.040 --> 00:01:25.680 with adult language and facts, you can check the link 27 00:01:25.719 --> 00:01:27.680 in the show notes. Also, thank you to everyone at 28 00:01:27.719 --> 00:01:30.560 patreon dot com slash ologies for supporting the show. You 29 00:01:30.599 --> 00:01:33.560 can join for a dollar a month and leave questions 30 00:01:33.560 --> 00:01:36.519 for experts. And thank you to everyone leaving reviews which 31 00:01:36.599 --> 00:01:38.400 keep the show up in the charts. And I read 32 00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:41.280 every single one, like this small one this week from 33 00:01:41.480 --> 00:01:46.719 Gonga fifty three, who wrote soothing, inspiring, uplifting, optimism inducing, 34 00:01:46.879 --> 00:01:49.840 fascinating Ologies is good for your humanity. Oh gong Go 35 00:01:49.920 --> 00:01:52.640 fifty three, that review was good for my day. I 36 00:01:52.719 --> 00:01:57.200 needed that. Thank you. Okay, onward, So evolutionary biology how 37 00:01:57.480 --> 00:02:00.560 living things morphed into what they are now. And in 38 00:02:00.599 --> 00:02:03.519 this episode you're going to pick up some sweet sweet 39 00:02:03.560 --> 00:02:09.800 definitions like taxonomy and genetic drift. Plus Finch gossip all 40 00:02:09.840 --> 00:02:13.479 about how Charles Darwin had a really wonderful but difficult 41 00:02:13.479 --> 00:02:16.719 but wonderful life that involved probably a lot of bad 42 00:02:16.759 --> 00:02:21.319 toilet experiences. And what posters and news headlines get so 43 00:02:21.520 --> 00:02:25.439 wrong about how things evolve? So please enjoy this chat 44 00:02:25.439 --> 00:02:29.199 with an ornithologist from Occidental College in Los Angeles. We 45 00:02:29.360 --> 00:02:33.439 essentially boil down that our mutations are our strengths and 46 00:02:33.599 --> 00:02:40.719 adaptability is a virtue. With evolutionary biologist John mccormicklogious. 47 00:02:42.800 --> 00:02:53.599 Pology, alogymologyology. 48 00:02:56.599 --> 00:03:01.039 So are you and by trade are you a lutionary biologist? 49 00:03:02.120 --> 00:03:06.000 Yes, that's kind of war a couple of different hats. 50 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:11.280 I'd say evolutionary biologist is probably the broadest one. Sometimes 51 00:03:11.280 --> 00:03:14.159 I consider myself an ornithologist as well, I should hope 52 00:03:14.199 --> 00:03:16.159 so as the curator of a bird collection. 53 00:03:16.520 --> 00:03:18.560 So do you would you say that you have like 54 00:03:18.680 --> 00:03:21.680 genus and species on the brain a lot? 55 00:03:22.080 --> 00:03:24.560 Oh yeah, rah, yeah, all the time, because that's a 56 00:03:24.560 --> 00:03:26.719 lot of what we do here with a with a 57 00:03:26.759 --> 00:03:30.919 specimen collection, just you know, naming the basic units of biodiversity. 58 00:03:31.159 --> 00:03:33.960 Do you remember as a kid in class learning the 59 00:03:34.479 --> 00:03:36.039 like what was it? King Philip? 60 00:03:36.319 --> 00:03:38.759 What is the Yeah? 61 00:03:38.800 --> 00:03:39.520 What is it again? 62 00:03:39.680 --> 00:03:39.919 Well? 63 00:03:40.120 --> 00:03:40.919 I can't remember it. 64 00:03:42.240 --> 00:03:47.280 Let's talk taxonomy, which is how science organizes things. So 65 00:03:47.479 --> 00:03:50.439 you may have learned that plants and fungi and animals 66 00:03:50.439 --> 00:03:55.039 are classified into domain, kingdom, class, order, family, genus, and species, 67 00:03:55.319 --> 00:03:57.759 and you're like, wow, how did you memorize that? Now 68 00:03:58.360 --> 00:04:01.840 the mnemonic device is clutch here. I never remember the 69 00:04:01.919 --> 00:04:04.240 mnemonic device for this. I remember we learned one. I 70 00:04:04.240 --> 00:04:07.879 think it was like, dear King Philip came over from Germany? 71 00:04:08.120 --> 00:04:12.919 Comma so, which is weird? Who ends? What's the so about? 72 00:04:13.039 --> 00:04:15.960 What's the restless story? Anyway? I never remembered it. Dear 73 00:04:16.079 --> 00:04:19.000 King Philip came over for grape soda is another way 74 00:04:19.079 --> 00:04:23.000 to remember kingdom, class, order, family, genus, species. So calling 75 00:04:23.040 --> 00:04:26.319 an organism or a specimen by its genus and species, 76 00:04:26.600 --> 00:04:28.600 it's kind of like saying your last name first. But 77 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:33.399 it's what we call Lenaean taxonomy. Even though Swedish ecologist 78 00:04:33.680 --> 00:04:37.399 Carlinius he didn't really invent it. Someone else did. It 79 00:04:37.480 --> 00:04:40.720 was kind of already established. And so tell me a 80 00:04:40.759 --> 00:04:44.199 little bit about when you first kind of grasped the 81 00:04:44.279 --> 00:04:47.480 concept of evolution. When did you start to realize, Okay, 82 00:04:47.600 --> 00:04:50.920 mutations are responsible for a lot of these different appearances 83 00:04:50.920 --> 00:04:53.120 and behavior and capabilities of animals, like When did you 84 00:04:53.160 --> 00:04:54.720 start to get excited about evolution. 85 00:04:55.160 --> 00:04:57.079 I think it was when I was doing some of 86 00:04:57.120 --> 00:04:59.680 those early readings in high school. I know there are 87 00:04:59.680 --> 00:05:03.519 other people that have spoken at more length about evolution 88 00:05:03.639 --> 00:05:10.160 than Carl Sagan, who was principally an astronomer cosmologist, but 89 00:05:10.360 --> 00:05:13.879 it was some of his books that delve Moore into 90 00:05:13.879 --> 00:05:16.160 evolutionary ideas that got me into it. 91 00:05:16.360 --> 00:05:19.560 From there, John studied at University of Arizona and he 92 00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:22.639 took an evolution class by doctor Nancy Moran. 93 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:25.120 And it was really there for the first time that 94 00:05:25.199 --> 00:05:29.079 I learned just kind of the basic framework of evolution 95 00:05:29.279 --> 00:05:34.720 and its processes, mutation, natural selection, and then some things 96 00:05:34.759 --> 00:05:37.759 I'd never heard of, like genetic drift, which is the 97 00:05:38.160 --> 00:05:44.279 sort of random way that evolution can take gene frequencies 98 00:05:44.319 --> 00:05:45.279 and populations. 99 00:05:45.480 --> 00:05:48.399 What's an example of genetic drift? How do you describe 100 00:05:48.439 --> 00:05:49.879 that at a cocktail party to someone. 101 00:05:49.759 --> 00:05:53.399 Who's well, I guess I'd point to the eminem bowl 102 00:05:53.480 --> 00:05:57.199 and I'd say, take a small handful of Eminem's and 103 00:05:57.240 --> 00:06:02.480 you end up with three green ones instead of the full, 104 00:06:03.079 --> 00:06:06.680 you know, rainbow of colors. That's genetic drift, and that's 105 00:06:06.759 --> 00:06:11.680 what can happen in populations. Sometimes generation to generation, you 106 00:06:11.720 --> 00:06:14.560 don't always get a random draw of the genes that 107 00:06:14.600 --> 00:06:18.160 are out there. Sometimes you get a very non representative draw, 108 00:06:18.560 --> 00:06:21.439 and that can have a big influence on evolution. And 109 00:06:21.519 --> 00:06:24.879 I kind of liked the idea that there's that sort 110 00:06:24.920 --> 00:06:27.439 of chance element in there too, as well as kind 111 00:06:27.439 --> 00:06:30.959 of the more what we call deterministic or kind of 112 00:06:30.959 --> 00:06:34.040 the more predictable outcomes of natural selection. 113 00:06:34.720 --> 00:06:38.720 Let's take a quick Darwin detour. Who was he? Why 114 00:06:38.720 --> 00:06:40.720 should you care? I'm going to run this down as 115 00:06:40.759 --> 00:06:43.240 quick as I can for you. So. Charles Robert Darwin 116 00:06:43.360 --> 00:06:46.279 was born in England in the early eighteen hundreds. His 117 00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:50.360 father was a super rich doctor, and Darwin tried to 118 00:06:50.360 --> 00:06:54.759 go to medical school but he hated at He hated it. 119 00:06:54.879 --> 00:06:58.560 He was also the grandson of prominent abolitionists, which is cool, 120 00:06:58.600 --> 00:07:03.240 and he loved nature in geology, he loved collecting beetles. God, 121 00:07:03.319 --> 00:07:06.759 he loved it. His dad was like, kiddo, you're a loser, 122 00:07:06.959 --> 00:07:09.879 and Darwin's like, Dad, can I just go on this boat, 123 00:07:10.319 --> 00:07:12.560 the HMS Beagle and travel the world and I'll write 124 00:07:12.560 --> 00:07:15.199 about it? Will you please finance it? Rich dad and 125 00:07:15.279 --> 00:07:18.480 his dad reluctantly agreed, but at one point said to him, 126 00:07:18.560 --> 00:07:21.079 you're married for this quote. You care a fun nothing 127 00:07:21.079 --> 00:07:24.759 but shooting dogs and rat catching, and you will be 128 00:07:24.879 --> 00:07:29.720 a disgrace to yourself and all your family. But ha, 129 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:33.120 jokes on you, pop. Charles Darwin did a bunch of writing, 130 00:07:33.360 --> 00:07:36.800 kind of like travel blogging, but with more dysentery and 131 00:07:36.879 --> 00:07:40.720 smeared ink, and his diaries were made into a popular book, 132 00:07:40.759 --> 00:07:43.639 The Voyage of the Beagle. It was on these travels 133 00:07:43.680 --> 00:07:46.600 that he started to come up with a theory of evolution. 134 00:07:46.759 --> 00:07:51.399 But it took him years of tankering and rewriting an 135 00:07:51.439 --> 00:07:54.560 illness which may or may not have been Shagga's disease 136 00:07:54.800 --> 00:07:58.920 from a parasite on something called an assassin bug, and 137 00:07:59.120 --> 00:08:02.800 he was also a little thwarted by I think procrastination. 138 00:08:03.240 --> 00:08:07.519 But finally he published his on the Origin of Species 139 00:08:08.040 --> 00:08:11.800 his book in eighteen fifty nine. It was a huge deal. 140 00:08:11.959 --> 00:08:14.800 He also kind of published it alongside a contemporary of his, 141 00:08:15.240 --> 00:08:19.399 Alfred Wallace. Now Alfred Wallace never heard of him before 142 00:08:19.480 --> 00:08:22.800 I started researching this episode. He was working on a 143 00:08:22.839 --> 00:08:25.959 super similar theory, but he had a harder and more 144 00:08:26.079 --> 00:08:31.319 impoverished life than Darwin, like Wallace's ship full of work 145 00:08:31.839 --> 00:08:34.480 sank to the ocean floor. He was a drift at 146 00:08:34.559 --> 00:08:38.480 sea on a lifeboate Alfred Wallace, who no one ended 147 00:08:38.559 --> 00:08:41.519 up caring about. But back to Darwin on the Beagle trip. 148 00:08:41.720 --> 00:08:45.039 So Darwin stopped for supplies in the Galapagos Islands off 149 00:08:45.080 --> 00:08:47.840 the coast of South America, and he noticed that different 150 00:08:47.879 --> 00:08:51.279 animals on different islands had slightly different features. For example, 151 00:08:51.639 --> 00:08:54.399 all those finches, why do they have different beak shapes? 152 00:08:54.799 --> 00:08:57.559 They got crushing bills, they got probing bills, they got 153 00:08:57.600 --> 00:09:01.080 grasping bills. What are these bills? Ah, they must be 154 00:09:01.159 --> 00:09:05.799 adapted for different food sources on each little tiny island climate. 155 00:09:06.320 --> 00:09:08.840 So what is it about birds that make them prime 156 00:09:09.080 --> 00:09:13.080 for studying evolutionary biology? Why? Birds? Well, people freaking love birds. 157 00:09:13.639 --> 00:09:17.759 There have been a lot of them observed, described, collected, 158 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:21.320 so there's a good base of knowledge there, as opposed 159 00:09:21.360 --> 00:09:24.360 to like slime molds, which nobody goes to hunt down 160 00:09:24.360 --> 00:09:27.080 and marble at. Probably a few people do, and I 161 00:09:27.159 --> 00:09:29.759 hope they're friends with each other. But anyway, birds. 162 00:09:29.919 --> 00:09:32.480 And the starting place for a lot of that is 163 00:09:32.919 --> 00:09:36.320 what is the evolutionary tree of relationships? Just knowing who 164 00:09:36.360 --> 00:09:40.399 is related to whom is an important starting point, and 165 00:09:40.480 --> 00:09:42.759 if you don't have that, then that's kind of your 166 00:09:42.759 --> 00:09:46.200 first step. And so with birds, they've been worked out 167 00:09:46.240 --> 00:09:49.480 well enough that that first step is kind of already 168 00:09:49.519 --> 00:09:53.200 completed and you can sort of jump to answering some 169 00:09:53.279 --> 00:09:55.919 of the broader questions. 170 00:09:55.639 --> 00:09:59.360 Because you know the characters in the story exactly exactly right. 171 00:10:00.360 --> 00:10:02.799 Look at yourself or people in your life and say, 172 00:10:03.159 --> 00:10:05.200 wait to go, j man, I am the result of 173 00:10:05.240 --> 00:10:06.639 a bunch of evolution. 174 00:10:09.720 --> 00:10:12.720 It is a pretty marvelous thing when you think about it. 175 00:10:12.919 --> 00:10:17.000 I tend to not focus so much on humans as 176 00:10:17.039 --> 00:10:18.200 the pinnacle of evolution. 177 00:10:18.559 --> 00:10:20.120 Ouch, you have a point, and. 178 00:10:20.080 --> 00:10:24.879 I like to look at other situations and marvel over 179 00:10:24.559 --> 00:10:29.320 the millions of years of evolution that produce some remarkable 180 00:10:29.440 --> 00:10:35.120 radiation of birds, for example. But when you stop to 181 00:10:35.159 --> 00:10:41.039 think about it, everything that's alive today is the survivor 182 00:10:41.519 --> 00:10:44.399 of essentially three point seven billion years of evolution. 183 00:10:44.720 --> 00:10:46.399 It's a matter of trial and erra. 184 00:10:46.919 --> 00:10:49.679 All those species, millions and millions of species that are 185 00:10:50.120 --> 00:10:53.840 crawling around on this very thin crust of the earth 186 00:10:55.080 --> 00:10:58.200 are the products of that three point seven billion years 187 00:10:58.200 --> 00:11:02.559 of evolution and it's it's a remarkable thing, you know, 188 00:11:02.879 --> 00:11:07.279 in each one, even from a bacteria to a human, 189 00:11:07.919 --> 00:11:12.720 has evolved just as much through just as much time. 190 00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:16.600 I think it's easy to think about certain species alive 191 00:11:16.639 --> 00:11:19.720 today as being more evolved than others, because maybe they 192 00:11:21.679 --> 00:11:24.759 have a few more adaptations or they look more complex. 193 00:11:24.919 --> 00:11:29.000 But at the end of the day, that bacterium and 194 00:11:29.039 --> 00:11:32.519 that human were all the products of three point seven 195 00:11:32.519 --> 00:11:33.600 billion years of evolution. 196 00:11:34.840 --> 00:11:39.080 Let's debunk some flimflam. What is a myth about evolution 197 00:11:39.240 --> 00:11:41.720 that you feel like people hang on to other than 198 00:11:41.759 --> 00:11:42.919 just creationism? 199 00:11:43.559 --> 00:11:47.679 Right? So, I think one of the great myths is 200 00:11:47.759 --> 00:11:52.159 embodied in that classic symbol of evolution where you see 201 00:11:52.200 --> 00:11:57.399 sort of the chimpanzee evolving through something that looks like 202 00:11:57.440 --> 00:12:00.919 a Neanderthal into modern humans. 203 00:12:01.399 --> 00:12:06.080 This linear illustration of primates up to modern humans is 204 00:12:06.159 --> 00:12:09.360 called the Road to Homo Sapiens. It's also been called 205 00:12:09.399 --> 00:12:13.399 the March of Progress, and it was published in nineteen 206 00:12:13.519 --> 00:12:17.080 sixty five at a time life science volume. You've totally 207 00:12:17.120 --> 00:12:21.000 seen it. It has silhouettes of gibbons and then chimps 208 00:12:21.039 --> 00:12:23.679 and apes all kind of marching in a line up 209 00:12:23.799 --> 00:12:27.960 until you get to these like tanned muscular neanderthals. Now 210 00:12:28.279 --> 00:12:32.240 rather than this linear evolution, evolution looks more like a tree, 211 00:12:32.600 --> 00:12:34.480 as they call it, a tree of life, where one 212 00:12:34.600 --> 00:12:39.000 thicker branch represents a common ancestor and then new species 213 00:12:39.080 --> 00:12:43.279 kind of branch outward. So that's called phylogeny. And Darwin 214 00:12:43.440 --> 00:12:46.279 sketched it in one of his Beagle era notebooks with 215 00:12:46.399 --> 00:12:50.679 the words I think scrawled above it, which I think 216 00:12:50.799 --> 00:12:54.960 is super adorable and very humble. Okay, back to that 217 00:12:55.080 --> 00:12:59.639 road to Homo sapiens linear evolution illustration and how that's 218 00:12:59.720 --> 00:13:00.799 not how things happen. 219 00:13:01.399 --> 00:13:05.519 Although it's even used by people who are pro evolution, 220 00:13:06.480 --> 00:13:09.440 I think it kind of leaves people with a misimpression 221 00:13:09.440 --> 00:13:17.480 of how evolution actually operates, because you know, chimpanzees and 222 00:13:17.559 --> 00:13:22.720 humans are each other's closest relatives, and you know, humans 223 00:13:22.759 --> 00:13:29.440 didn't evolve from chimpanzees. We evolved from some common ancestor 224 00:13:29.600 --> 00:13:34.000 that we shared with chimpanzees, and so that that depiction 225 00:13:34.080 --> 00:13:40.879 of evolution is kind of, you know, following a linear pattern, right, 226 00:13:43.279 --> 00:13:47.039 it belies the true branching history of evolution that's underneath. 227 00:13:47.759 --> 00:13:50.960 And one of the most common questions you get is 228 00:13:52.399 --> 00:13:55.759 if humans evolve from apes, Why are there still apes? 229 00:13:56.039 --> 00:13:56.159 Right? 230 00:13:57.360 --> 00:14:01.320 And again it's it's embodied in that symbol. That's not true. 231 00:14:01.320 --> 00:14:06.519 We didn't evolve from apes. Gorillas and chimpanzees and us 232 00:14:06.600 --> 00:14:10.919 all evolved from a common ancestor that was neither an ape, 233 00:14:10.960 --> 00:14:14.279 nor a chimpanzee, nor a human, but something else. 234 00:14:14.759 --> 00:14:16.840 For more on this, you can see the recent gorilla 235 00:14:16.879 --> 00:14:21.360 Ology episode or the classic Primatology episodes, although as of 236 00:14:21.440 --> 00:14:24.960 yet we don't have those in kid friendly Smologies forms, 237 00:14:25.159 --> 00:14:27.519 but there are bleeped episodes and transcripts on our website 238 00:14:27.519 --> 00:14:30.240 at aliware dot com slash Ologies extras, which will be 239 00:14:30.279 --> 00:14:32.759 linked in the show notes. And for every episode we 240 00:14:32.840 --> 00:14:35.159 donate to a related cause, and this week we will 241 00:14:35.159 --> 00:14:37.320 send it to a cause that John has supported in 242 00:14:37.399 --> 00:14:42.120 the past, the Ornithological Council, which supports bird science and 243 00:14:42.159 --> 00:14:45.159 the people who do it so learn more at birdnet 244 00:14:45.360 --> 00:14:48.720 dot org. And that donation was made possible by sponsors 245 00:14:48.720 --> 00:14:49.159 of the show. 246 00:14:50.200 --> 00:14:54.559 Love MNS, quality and value you can trust. At MNS 247 00:14:54.720 --> 00:14:58.320 you can update your home, your wardrobe and theirs with 248 00:14:58.480 --> 00:15:02.120 quality you can count on. 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I do have some questions from listeners, and 266 00:16:02.600 --> 00:16:04.279 I don't know if they're going to be easy questions. 267 00:16:04.399 --> 00:16:07.879 You can say pass on any of these Doctor Tigenwall 268 00:16:07.879 --> 00:16:09.759 wants to know what are the best ways to differentiate 269 00:16:09.879 --> 00:16:15.559 bad post talk evo bio claims from actual science. Example, 270 00:16:15.799 --> 00:16:19.360 bananas evolved to be eaten by humans because we have hands. 271 00:16:20.159 --> 00:16:23.960 Things like that. A lot of the examples of evolution 272 00:16:24.080 --> 00:16:26.360 you see written about in the popular press kind of 273 00:16:26.360 --> 00:16:31.440 fall into this trap of portraying evolution as though it 274 00:16:31.559 --> 00:16:37.159 responds to needs. And sometimes this is just loose shorthand. 275 00:16:37.279 --> 00:16:40.240 I have heard that people get like a science teacher 276 00:16:40.279 --> 00:16:42.879 tell me she hates when she hears like, oh, this 277 00:16:42.919 --> 00:16:45.200 species evolved because. 278 00:16:44.919 --> 00:16:48.519 It wanted this exactly. Yeah, and so right. The recent 279 00:16:48.600 --> 00:16:53.039 example was birds that have evolved to feed off of 280 00:16:53.240 --> 00:16:58.320 bird feeders in Great Britain. So birds have evolved longer 281 00:16:58.360 --> 00:17:02.000 bills to feed off of bird feeders was kind of 282 00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:04.519 the headline that you saw, and it kind of gives 283 00:17:04.559 --> 00:17:08.000 this impression of evolution that it responds to needs. The 284 00:17:08.000 --> 00:17:10.920 birds sort of thought to themselves, look, you know, I 285 00:17:10.920 --> 00:17:13.799 really need a longer bill here, and so let's let's 286 00:17:13.839 --> 00:17:15.720 go for that, you know, let's try to reach that 287 00:17:15.799 --> 00:17:19.960 pinnacle of evolution. We have the bill plate again. Underlying 288 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:26.720 that is the true evolutionary mechanism, which is differential survival 289 00:17:26.799 --> 00:17:27.640 and reproduction. 290 00:17:28.240 --> 00:17:33.160 Differential survival and reproduction just being fancy talk for little 291 00:17:33.279 --> 00:17:37.240 variances and genes mean good mutations which help a plant 292 00:17:37.400 --> 00:17:40.720 or a bird or a snail thrive and mate in 293 00:17:40.799 --> 00:17:43.759 its particular environment. Boom, natural selection. 294 00:17:44.359 --> 00:17:46.160 You know, the way I would say it would be 295 00:17:46.440 --> 00:17:50.160 much longer. It would be something on along the lines 296 00:17:50.200 --> 00:17:54.559 of birds with longer bills were able to feed more 297 00:17:54.559 --> 00:18:00.799 effectively from bird feeders and thereby produce more offs which 298 00:18:00.880 --> 00:18:04.839 led the population as a whole to have longer bills. 299 00:18:05.119 --> 00:18:08.279 Now you can understand why a headline writer isn't going 300 00:18:08.359 --> 00:18:10.240 to go there, Why I don't have a job as 301 00:18:10.279 --> 00:18:11.240 a headline writer. 302 00:18:13.400 --> 00:18:16.079 Breaking news. Birds with the longer bills we're able to 303 00:18:16.079 --> 00:18:19.519 feed morely from burn feeders in there five produce more offspring, 304 00:18:19.519 --> 00:18:23.319 which would the population as a whole having longer bills. 305 00:18:22.839 --> 00:18:28.359 It's very wordy. Moving on, Dustin Growick wants to know 306 00:18:28.519 --> 00:18:31.920 what are your favorite evolutionary anachronisms. 307 00:18:31.240 --> 00:18:36.480 You might be talking about, like structures like holdovers, evolutionary 308 00:18:36.519 --> 00:18:39.599 holdovers that don't have a Oh okay, so that don't 309 00:18:39.599 --> 00:18:44.079 have a use anymore. I mean the hip bones, the 310 00:18:44.160 --> 00:18:47.599 tiny hip bones of modern whale are a great evolutionary 311 00:18:47.599 --> 00:18:52.400 anachronism because they really speak to the fact that special creation. 312 00:18:53.079 --> 00:18:57.599 If you believe that each species is created perfect for 313 00:18:57.720 --> 00:19:01.599 its particular niche on Earth, why would modern whales have 314 00:19:01.960 --> 00:19:06.640 tiny hip bones unless there's something in their evolutionary past 315 00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:10.440 that points to the fact that they were once land animals. 316 00:19:10.720 --> 00:19:12.920 I've never known that. That makes me want to go 317 00:19:12.920 --> 00:19:15.799 look at whale skeletons. Yeah, like, oh, whales, you don't 318 00:19:15.839 --> 00:19:16.079 need that. 319 00:19:16.720 --> 00:19:18.279 Yeah, why are you carrying that around? 320 00:19:18.440 --> 00:19:23.839 It's overpacking. Celestia wants to know are there any species 321 00:19:23.839 --> 00:19:26.519 that we can see current evolving happening in order to 322 00:19:26.559 --> 00:19:27.839 adapt to our modern world? 323 00:19:28.079 --> 00:19:34.920 Viruses? Oh, viruses are constantly evolving to humans, and the 324 00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:38.920 flu virus that's hitting us in one flu season is 325 00:19:38.960 --> 00:19:43.279 going to be you know, yesterday's news. Next year, there's 326 00:19:43.279 --> 00:19:46.039 going to be a flu virus two point zero. And 327 00:19:46.119 --> 00:19:49.839 that's evolution that you can see over the course of generations, 328 00:19:50.039 --> 00:19:53.240 just a couple of years. Even another great example is 329 00:19:53.279 --> 00:19:58.839 antibiotic resistance. That's another scary one, and sometimes people don't 330 00:19:58.880 --> 00:20:02.839 necessarily file that under evolution, but they should because it's 331 00:20:02.880 --> 00:20:06.680 a direct result of natural selection pressures that we are 332 00:20:06.799 --> 00:20:13.400 placing on bacteria through our overuse of antibiotics. The reason 333 00:20:13.440 --> 00:20:16.279 we're getting these superbugs is because of evolution. 334 00:20:16.480 --> 00:20:19.319 Now, what has been your favorite moment, say, out in 335 00:20:19.359 --> 00:20:21.319 the field on an expedition, Like, have you ever had 336 00:20:21.319 --> 00:20:22.599 a moment where it's just like h. 337 00:20:29.039 --> 00:20:33.039 The moments when you can take people out to an 338 00:20:33.079 --> 00:20:36.440 incredible field side people who are either just getting excited 339 00:20:36.440 --> 00:20:41.119 about science and biology or birds, and you can take 340 00:20:41.160 --> 00:20:44.319 them to a place that you've been to that's just 341 00:20:44.720 --> 00:20:49.839 way out there and is just incredible. Those are the 342 00:20:49.839 --> 00:20:51.960 moments I live for. So we got a chance to 343 00:20:51.960 --> 00:20:54.400 do that recently when we went up into the mountains 344 00:20:54.839 --> 00:20:57.839 of northern Baja. There's a mountain range called the Sierra 345 00:20:57.920 --> 00:21:03.759 San Pedro Martyr and it has basically been untouched by 346 00:21:03.960 --> 00:21:10.559 human habitation anyways. In modern times. There's still cattle that 347 00:21:10.599 --> 00:21:13.559 they run up there, but nobody really lives up there, 348 00:21:14.359 --> 00:21:16.480 and you almost don't see any place like that in 349 00:21:16.519 --> 00:21:18.839 the United States. So this is a place people don't 350 00:21:18.839 --> 00:21:22.119 really realize this, but there's a huge number of California 351 00:21:22.240 --> 00:21:25.480 condors up there, and so we had the opportunity to 352 00:21:25.519 --> 00:21:28.759 go up there and just taking some of the expedition 353 00:21:28.839 --> 00:21:32.640 members and a student from Occidental College and giving them 354 00:21:32.640 --> 00:21:36.119 the opportunity to see this place and see these condors 355 00:21:36.400 --> 00:21:39.079 up close. I mean it was it's spectacular. 356 00:21:39.680 --> 00:21:43.160 Oh, super quick. Condor is a type of vulture and 357 00:21:43.200 --> 00:21:46.599 it's inky, black and huge, and it was on the 358 00:21:46.640 --> 00:21:50.480 brink of death but its being bred in captivity and 359 00:21:50.519 --> 00:21:53.960 released and it eats dead things and it doesn't have 360 00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:56.519 a song. It just grunts sometimes. And since I was 361 00:21:56.559 --> 00:21:59.079 in an ornithology lab, I had one more very important 362 00:21:59.119 --> 00:22:03.039 scientific question. My friend Dylan Rodriguez has a question about condors. 363 00:22:03.480 --> 00:22:06.119 She wants to know are they the most goth of. 364 00:22:06.160 --> 00:22:16.839 All the birds? I don't know, because I think, I mean, 365 00:22:16.880 --> 00:22:19.680 they're pretty goth. I mean that with the shaved head. 366 00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:23.240 Yeah. Thank you for entertaining these questions. 367 00:22:23.440 --> 00:22:25.039 Absolutely wow. 368 00:22:26.319 --> 00:22:29.319 To learn more about John McCormick's work, you can follow 369 00:22:29.359 --> 00:22:33.480 on Instagram at m l z Birds, which is the 370 00:22:33.519 --> 00:22:37.240 account for the more Lab of Zoology at Occidental College. 371 00:22:37.680 --> 00:22:39.720 You can follow me at Ali Ward with one O 372 00:22:39.920 --> 00:22:44.759 on Instagram or Twitter and at ologies on Instagram. We're 373 00:22:44.799 --> 00:22:47.359 also on Twitter. Also, just a heads up, since we 374 00:22:47.519 --> 00:22:51.000 recorded this, we also did a whole Condurology episode and 375 00:22:51.000 --> 00:22:52.839 I'll link that in the show notes. It's so good, 376 00:22:53.240 --> 00:22:57.119 so ask smart people simple questions because it's really the 377 00:22:57.119 --> 00:22:59.319 fastest way to fill up your brain and it's free. 378 00:22:59.440 --> 00:23:01.680 So to learn learn more about John McCormick, you can 379 00:23:01.799 --> 00:23:05.720 follow on Instagram at mL z birds, which is the 380 00:23:05.759 --> 00:23:09.240 account for the more Lab of Zoology at Occidental College. 381 00:23:09.440 --> 00:23:12.119 You can follow me at ali Ward with one L 382 00:23:12.480 --> 00:23:15.960 on Instagram or Twitter or ologies on Instagram. We're also 383 00:23:16.000 --> 00:23:19.279 on Twitter. I recently started posting more on TikTok at 384 00:23:19.319 --> 00:23:23.599 ali Underscore Ologies. John is also on Twitter at la Evolving, 385 00:23:23.680 --> 00:23:25.960 and I'll link those in the show notes. And for 386 00:23:26.039 --> 00:23:28.240 more Smologies episodes, you can head to aliwar dot com 387 00:23:28.319 --> 00:23:31.559 slash Smologies, which is linked in the show notes. Alongside 388 00:23:31.559 --> 00:23:33.440 a bunch of folks who help make the show possible. 389 00:23:33.640 --> 00:23:35.519 We try to make this small, so we'll link them 390 00:23:35.559 --> 00:23:38.240 in the show notes. But big thanks to Mercedes Maitland 391 00:23:38.279 --> 00:23:40.599 of Maitland Audio and Jared Sleeper for turning this into 392 00:23:40.680 --> 00:23:43.119 a Smologies episode from the full length one. And if 393 00:23:43.119 --> 00:23:44.799 you stick around until the end of the episode, I 394 00:23:44.839 --> 00:23:47.039 give you a piece of advice, and this one is 395 00:23:47.079 --> 00:23:51.119 that arranging your clothes in rainbow order in your closet 396 00:23:51.279 --> 00:23:54.240 on hangers. It makes hanging them up more fun and 397 00:23:54.319 --> 00:23:56.359 it looks nice when you're done. And I have hung 398 00:23:56.440 --> 00:23:59.200 mind like that for years because it makes laundry feel 399 00:23:59.240 --> 00:24:01.799 like a puzzle or a game. Okay, that's enough out 400 00:24:01.839 --> 00:24:09.799 of me until next time. Smologites, Bye bye Soldiers, spl. 401 00:24:13.400 --> 00:24:20.160