BioAudio

Fossils, Rocks and Radioactive Clocks: How to date the ancient past

Send us a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2234324/open_sms] Today on the BioAudio podcast, it's all about dating! (no not that kind). Have you ever wondered how we figure out when things happened way in the past? When a scientist says "it's 100 million years old..." just how did they figure it out? Today I'm talking to Dr. Matthew Jones. He's a paleontologist at Arizona State University and his specialty is fossil mammals (though he admits he was a dinosaur kid). It's often his job to figure out just how old is this rock and he's going to tell us about the science of dating ancient things. Stratigraphy, radioactive clocks, iridium rain and a commit that slammed into the earth. Who knew dating was so risky.

What is a phylogeny for?

Send us a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2234324/open_sms] In this episode I"m joined by Bahar Roohshad, an undergraduate student from one of my classes to talk about phylogenetics. What are they? what are they for and how might we use on?

Biodiversity and Insect Declines

Send us a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2234324/open_sms] We keep hearing that biodiversity is in decline. But what does this mean? How is biodiversity distributed and what does "decline" look like? In this episode PhD student Hadil Elsayed talks to us about her experience tracking insects in some of the most protected habitats in Canada.

Beaver, Otters and Wolves: Ecosystem Engineers and Trophic Cascades

Send us a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2234324/open_sms] Today on the BioAudio podcast Prof Alex Mills returns to talk about how we recognize and describe an "ecological community" and the unique roll of keystone species, ecosystem engineers and apex predators. We will also talk about three famous trophic cascades, where the removal or introduction of a species has consequences that rebound across the entire system.

Disease Ecology: Parasites in Community Ecology

Send us a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2234324/open_sms] This week on the BioAudio podcast we are talking about disease ecology with Prof Dan Becker. It's a field that combines mathematical modeling, ecology, evolution, medicine, veterinary science... and he actually got into this as a cultural anthropologist interested in social justice. How do you get from social justice to the fate of vampire bats in a fragmented ecosystem? tune in to find out in this episode of the BioAudio podcast where we explore community disease ecology in wild populations.