The emergence of life on land was one of the most important moments in the grand saga of life’s evolutionary history. Many of the characteristics of our bodies– like our arms, legs, hips, hands, fingers, and necks– can be traced back to adaptations that occurred during the transition from fish to amphibians. But how do we know that? What evidence exists from this time that can help us piece together the sequence of events that led our ancestors out of the water and onto land?

Neil Shubin is a paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and an award winning science communicator whose fieldwork in the Canadian Arctic is helping piece together some of the most important transitions in the history of life. He’s the Robert R Bensley Distinguished Service Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago. He’s also the author of several books, including Your Inner Fish, The Universe Within, Some Assembly Required, and a new book entitled Ends of the Earth: Journeys to the Polar Regions in Search of Life, The Cosmos, and Our Future. His team has discovered several important fossils that have helped biologists better understand how fish evolved into land animals.

Neil Shubin’s Lab at the University of Chicago: https://shubinlab.uchicago.edu/

Neil Shubin’s new book, Ends of the Earth:

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/692649/ends-of-the-earth-by-neil-shubin/

Interactive 3D model of Tiktaalik fossil:

https://www.biointeractive.org/classroom-resources/tiktaalik-fossil-body

Qikiqtania - fossil fish that returned from land to water

https://shubinlab.uchicago.edu/2022/07/20/meet-qikiqtania-a-fossil-fish-with-the-good-sense-to-stay-in-the-water-while-others-ventured-onto-land/

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The 3-masted topsail schooner Oosterschelde is on a two-year journey around the world, following the route taken by Charles Darwin aboard the HMS Beagle nearly 200 years earlier. The voyage is known as the Darwin200 expedition. It’s the brainchild of Stewart McPherson, a British naturalist and science communicator. McPherson and his colleagues organized conservation projects and educational outreach led by young researchers known as Darwin Leaders in each location.

Thanks to The Explorers Club, Scott had the opportunity to join the Darwin200 expedition in in December 2023 as it sailed from Uruguay to Argentina. During the journey, he sat down with Grant Terrell, an ornithologist serving as the ship’s naturalist who is collecting data about seabirds along the two-year, worldwide journey.

Learn more about the Darwin200 project, and follow the Oosterschelde on its global journey:

https://darwin200.com/

Follow the expedition on social media:

https://www.facebook.com/darwin2002021/

https://www.instagram.com/darwin200_

https://x.com/darwin200_

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUTGh9MgZjuBFQE8i8Bn8Ag

There are also free educational activities and resources shared live each week that are designed to to inspire children’s curiosity and passion for learning: https://worldsmostexcitingclassroom.com/

This podcast is produced by 3Wire Creative.

Help support this podcast and future episodes by checking out Autio the perfect travel companion app for more engaging road trips. Autio is a network of stories, told by master storytellers like Kevin Costner, Phil Jackson, and John Lithgow, with the power to bring the landscape, its people, and its history alive as you pass through it.

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Autio is a network of stories, told by master storytellers like Kevin Costner, Phil Jackson, and John Lithgow, with the power to bring the landscape, its people, and its history alive as you pass through it. Professionally edited and narrated, the audio vignettes combine to paint a picture you’re unlikely to get from a history book or visitor’s...

Madagascar is home to some incredible wildlife. Many of the animals in Madagascar occur nowhere else on Earth. Among them are lemurs– a group of primates that resemble monkeys but are in fact their own distinct group. But, unfortunately, these remarkable animals are facing enormous challenges.

Dr. Jonah Ratsimbazafyis a primatologist who is from Madagascar and is considered one of the world’s experts on lemurs and is helping lead the fight to protect them. He is the President of the International Primatological Society and was a Co-founder and President of the Madagascar Primate Study and Research Group at the University of Antananarivo, or GERP. He is a member of the African Academy of Sciences and a National Geographic Explorer. He also works with the Houston Zoo as Director of their in-country Madagascar program.

Madagascar Primate Study and Research Group: https://www.association-gerp.org/

International Primatological Society: https://internationalprimatologicalsociety.org/

Houston Zoo’s Madagascar program: https://www.houstonzoo.org/conservation/african-wildlife/#:~:text=The%20Zoo%20is%20committed%20to,primates%20de%20Madagascar%20(GERP).

World Lemur Festival: https://www.lemurreserve.org/world-lemur-festival/

Thanks to Eric Wuesthoff and Amy Dunham for lemur audio and video.

This podcast is produced by 3Wire Creative

Help support this podcast and future episodes by checking out Autio the perfect travel companion app for more engaging road trips. Autio is a network of stories, told by master storytellers like Kevin Costner, Phil Jackson, and John Lithgow, with the power to bring the landscape, its people, and its history alive as you pass through it.

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Please check out our affiliate link for AUTIO!

Autio is a network of stories, told by master storytellers like Kevin Costner, Phil Jackson, and John Lithgow, with the power to bring the landscape, its people, and its history alive as you pass through it. Professionally edited and narrated, the audio vignettes combine to paint a picture you’re unlikely to get from a history book or visitor’s guide.

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Australia is famous for its strange creatures. And rightfully so. They’ve got kangaroos, koalas, echidnas, and of course one of the wackiest animals anywhere– the platypus! But it’s also home to equally weird and wonderful creatures of a different sort. They just tend to be a little smaller.

Ecologist storyteller Mark Moffett specializes in finding these small wonders– and sharing their stories with the world. To learn more about Mark Moffett’s incredible career as an ecologist storyteller, check out his website: doctorbugs.com. You can also learn about his most recent project on the life and death of societies at the Templeton Foundation’s website:

https://www.templeton.org/grant/the-life-and-death-of-societies-investigating-the-societies-of-animals-to-understand-our-own

You can read some of Mark Moffett’s recent articles here:

https://bigthink.com/the-well/human-ability-to-coexist-coffee-shop/

https://thesunmagazine.org/issues/532/one-of-us-issue-532

His latest book “The Human Swarm: How Our Societies Arise, Thrive, and Fall” is available from Basic Books (https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/mark-w-moffett/the-human-swarm/9781549195082/?lens=basic-books) and wherever books are sold.

This podcast is produced by 3Wire Creative

Help support this podcast and future episodes by checking out Autio the perfect travel companion app for more engaging road trips. Autio is a network of stories, told by master storytellers like Kevin Costner, Phil Jackson, and John Lithgow, with the power to bring the landscape, its people, and its history alive as you pass through it.

Mentioned in this episode:

Please check out our affiliate link for AUTIO!

Autio is a network of stories, told by master storytellers like Kevin Costner, Phil Jackson, and John Lithgow, with the power to bring the landscape, its people, and its history alive as you pass through it. Professionally edited and narrated, the audio vignettes combine to paint a picture you’re unlikely to get from a history book or visitor’s guide.

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Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo is a Visiting Professor of Anthropology at Rice. His research focus is paleoanthropology and the archaeology of human origins, with methodological expertise in zooarchaeology, vertebrate taphonomy, and the application of artificial intelligence tools to paleoanthropology. He co-directs the Institute of Evolution in Africa (IDEA, Madrid, Spain) and is Professor of Prehistory at the University of Alcalá in Spain.

Since the 1990s, he has co-directed multiple paleoanthropological and archaeological projects in Tanzania, including at Peninj (Lake Natron), Lake Eyasi, and, currently, Olduvai Gorge, where he co-directs TOPPP (The Olduvai Paleoanthropology and Paleoecology Project). He has also conducted research at the paleoanthropological sites of Gona (Ethiopia). He has been a visiting scholar and visiting professor at Harvard University, Rutgers University, and University of Missouri at St. Louis.

This podcast is produced by 3Wire Creative

Help support this podcast and future episodes by checking out Autio the perfect travel companion app for more engaging road trips. Autio is a network of stories, told by master storytellers like Kevin Costner, Phil Jackson, and John Lithgow, with the power to bring the landscape, its people, and its history alive as you pass through it.

Mentioned in this episode:

AUTIO SHOW NOTE LINK

Autio

Please check out our affiliate link for AUTIO!

Autio is a network of stories, told by master storytellers like Kevin Costner, Phil Jackson, and John Lithgow, with the power to bring the landscape, its people, and its history alive as you pass through it. Professionally edited and narrated, the audio vignettes combine to paint a picture you’re unlikely to get from a history book or visitor’s guide.

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 At more than 42 million acres, the Pantanal is the world's largest tropical wetland.

It spans parts of three countries, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Brazil. If you visit the Pantanal, depending on the time of year, you may find open plains dotted with small green patches of forest, with water found mostly in the rivers that wind their way through the area. But when the rains come, those rivers spill out over the plains, covering them in water.

It is the perfect place for biologists to come and study the remarkable creatures that live here. Dr. Arnaud Desbiez is a biologist who's originally from France but has lived in Brazil for more than 15 years where he works to study and protect animals in the Pantanal. He's the founder of the Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres (ICAS)

Houston Zoo's South America’s Pantanal allows guests to explore the tropical wetlands of Brazil. The lush habitat highlights animals they are protecting in the wild, including giant anteaters, tapirs, and more. Partnered with on-the-ground conservationists, the Zoo offers visitors the chance to see these animals in an immersive and engaging trail.

This podcast is produced by 3Wire Creative

Help support this podcast and future episodes by checking out Autio the perfect travel companion app for more engaging road trips. Autio is a network of stories, told by master storytellers like Kevin Costner, Phil Jackson, and John Lithgow, with the power to bring the landscape, its people, and its history alive as you pass through it.

Mentioned in this episode:

AUTIO SHOW NOTE LINK

Autio

Please check out our affiliate link for AUTIO!

Autio is a network of stories, told by master storytellers like Kevin Costner, Phil Jackson, and John Lithgow, with the power to bring the landscape, its people, and its history alive as you pass through it. Professionally edited and narrated, the audio vignettes combine to paint a picture you’re unlikely to get from a history book or visitor’s guide.

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Wild World live broadcast from Antarctica!

Saturday, December 14 at 1 pm ET

Scott will be traveling with the Rice University Traveling Owls aboard the National Geographic Explorer. They will be somewhere along the Danco Coast of the West Antarctic Peninsula.

The broadcast will be live streamed from our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@wildworldpodcast).

Link to live event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJnU3khcV8c

Subscribe to @wildworldpodcast on YouTube @wildworldshow on X, Instagram, and Bluesky for updates and notifications!

Before signing off on our first season, we wanted to share a little more of the conversation Scott had with nature and wildlife photographer Tui De Roy.

Tui has lived in the Galapagos Islands since her family moved there in 1955 when she was just 2 years old. Her unique perspective as a local and as a photographer has given her both a keen eye for detail and the opportunity to observe how the islands and its wildlife have changed over the last half century.

Scott asked Tui what she thinks about the future of Galapagos, and how what she sees in Galapagos might be relevant for wild places throughout the world.

You can hear the rest of Scott's conversation with Tui in Episode 3 - Experiencing Galapagos with Tui De Roy and Lee Ehmke.

Learn more about Tui and see some of her outstanding photography at https://www.galapagosconsultant.com/

This season of Wild World was produced by 3WireCreative.

If you’d like a T-shirt, poster, or coffee mug with the Wild World logo, check out the Wild World merch shop run by Alltheus.com: https://alltheus.com/collections/wild-world/SSolomon+Wild-World

Join us next season as we explore even more of our wild world!