Along The Backbone: Recent Episodes
Dr. Matthew Bonnan, Ph.D.
This site is not defunct, but it is undergoing a major overhaul to update it to my new position.
Of all the vertebrate animals, only mammals have muscles of facial expression ... why?
Birds are dinosaur descendants, so today on U.S. Thanksgiving you are consuming a derived dinosaur called a turkey. So, we know that at least some dinosaurs were delicious.
The ability to open doors depends on two things: 1) being able to grip the door handle and 2) being able to rotate the hand so that the door handle turns. Could a hungry Velociraptor turn a door handle to get at you, the delectable human in hiding?
Why don't mammals continuously replace their teeth? The answer may surprise you.
Having upright limbs has advantages for mammals. And you probably want to know about how an elephant almost made Dr. Bonnan thinner.
Many of us enjoy eating meat, but few of us pause to think about how important its pre-meal form, skeletal muscle, is for vertebrate life.
It seems only fitting that a podcast series called Along the Backbone should discuss the formation of the backbone in one of lengthiest vertebrates: snakes.