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Weird & Dead
Weird & Dead
Author: Amy Atwater and Meaghan Wetherell
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© Amy Atwater and Meaghan Wetherell
Description
A podcast about evolution's most embarrassing and bizarre stories as told by two very gossipy paleontologists. Amy and Meaghan happily dish the details on everything from fossilized dinosaur butts to the secret drama behind naming new species. Time for the hottest tea from prehistory!
33 Episodes
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From carnivorous armadillos to the serial stabbing experiments of a self-described 70 kg male with no special training in any sporting discipline but who seems to have a very vicious cat, this episode is a wild, wild ride. But would you truly expect any different from xenarthrans?CW: Cursing, drug testing, the vegan police, a man stabbing meat and facing off against cats, sloth baby murder
Evolution continues to be disgusting as we dive into the multipurpose functionality of Aye Aye and Striped Possum fingers. CW: Boogers, Aye Ayes just generally, cursing, and somehow puppy play (you know, the kink that Google apparently thinks Meaghan has)
Sometimes evolution isn’t just weird, it’s weirdly indecisive. Let’s talk about the multipurpose mishaps that led to Iguanodon’s hoof-knife-tentacle combo and the extending butterknife palms of Pandas. Now with fixed audio featuring also Amy!CW: jokes about dildos, sex acts, and rude hand gestures. Cursing. Discussion and mockery of Meaghan’s current ganglion cyst. We do call extra fingers weird or freaky, but this is specific to animals and does not cover polydactyly or humans.
There is a worm that has fins and an Elizabethan collar of venomous fangs. It looks like someone glued false lashes to a tiny translucent manatee, and it might be the reason that clams are starting to kill people. Let's talk about arrow worms!CW: Swearing. Jokes about penises. Impacts of modern climate change.
Some birds (and thus, dinosaurs) make milk in a special part of their throat called the crop. Let's talk crop milk, crop cheese, shrimp smoothies, and why pterosaurs were pink.CW: a befowling of milk and cheese as concepts. Gagging noises. Eating of roadkill (theoretical). Swearing.
Or rather, unusually interesting size. To some. Let's talk giant beavers and the biggest rodent of all time, Josephoartigasia.CW: Body shaming of big rodents (not us!), cursing, statistics.
From crazy three-legged millipede fossils to the sexy club hands of spiders, this episode is all about where arthropods put their genitals. Specifically, their chins and feet. Videos and images are on our website weirdanddead.com!CW: Spiders and other arthropods. Cursing. Sex acts only a millipede could dream up.
Dinosaurs and horses and Amy loudly shouting out radioactive elements to antagonize her husband, oh my! This episode covers the perils lurking behind locked and poorly ventilated cabin doors - specifically, radioactive bones.CW: Cursing, cancer and theoretical nastiness caused by radioactive poisoning, Chernobyl, Meaghan's stuffed up nose
Ankylosaurs, ichthyosaurs and nonexistent narcissistic krakens! Let's talk about why Ankylosaurs are found upside down, and what really happened at Berlin Ichthyosaur State Park. Time to bloat up & float along.CW: Cursing, Pseudoscience, Dead Animals & Decay
Time to discuss yet another body secretion that you probably didn't think could fossilize. Urine marks, urine that became rocks, and rocks that formed in urine - we've got it all, baby! CW: Body fluids, cursing, turtles doing horrible physiological things, animal death
Thanks for an excellent first year! Here’s a bonus episode where Amy demonstrates she’s learned more about Chameleons since we started (kinda). Images are on weirdanddead.com CW: Cursing
Meaghan loses her mind about how gross rugose corals are. Try evolving something that doesn’t involve genetically manipulating your babies, you lonely jellyfish-emulating losers. CW: cursing. Gagging noises.
It may not have happened in lakes but it certainly did happen – so how? Let’s dive into fossilized cloacas, theoretical genitals, and the impracticalities of sexing a dinosaur. CW: sexual content, genitalia, brief discussions of nonconsensual sex between animals, Nanotyrannus, making fun of old white men
From friends to enemies to roommates (to lovers??), we discuss classic examples of animals found fossilized together, how that happens, and how some of the interpretations are… a stretch. CW: Animal death, dead babies, lubed holes, incest, cursing
500 some million years ago the world was full of ‘abnormal shrimp’ and ‘blunt feet’ and other animals that defy comprehensible definitions. In this episode we talk all about the mind-boggling biology and bizarre geology of the Cambrian. CW: Drug references, cursing, dead animals, cavalier jokes at the expense of white men, dick jokes
Bones are sick – and this time, we mean it literally. From infected bite marks to the ever-prevalent markings of tuberculosis, we’re talking about the signs of illnesses and injuries in fossils and what they tell us about the lives (and deaths) of these animals. CW: Cancer, infections and pus, injuries, animal suffering
Did Diplodocus have a trunk? Did T. rex have a wobbly turkey neck? This week’s episode is all about fleshy face flaps and their uses, and how to detect them in the fossil record. CW: Animal death, cursing, making fun of dinosaurs, urine
There were dinosaurs in Antarctica and Alaska – but what did it look like when they lived there? Was it cold? Was it dark? Did they stay there year round? Also, Meaghan learns how magnets work (finally). CW: cursing, death of people and animals
Sometimes boners have actual bones! This episode is all about the evolution, use, and occasional loss of/damage to genital bones in both male and female animals. CW: Cursing, genitalia, brief mention of non-consensual sexual behavior in animals
How much do we really know about the brains of ancient animals? In this episode we dive into the fantastic world of endocasts, aka, brain impressions! CW: soft tissue, cursing, Nanotyrannus, brief mention of the Nazis in regards to Tilly Edinger














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