Birds are such unique and fascinating animals; for many decades scientists have wondered at their evolutionary story – and so have many of our listeners! Well here it is: the Evolution of Birds, complete with some scientific history, key fossil finds, and a fly-by (yep) of the incredible diversity of critters that led to birds as we know them todayIn the news: history of the Great Barrier Reef, giant bony fish, early African tetrapods, and the oldest lizards.Time markers: Intro & Announcements: News: Main discussion, Part 1: Main discussion, Part 2: Check out our blog for bonus info and pictures: http://commondescentpodcast.wordpress.com/Follow and Support us on: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/commondescentpodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/CommonDescentPC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/commondescentpodcast/ PodBean: https://commondescentpodcast.podbean.com/ iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-common-descent-podcast/id1207586509?mt=2 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCePRXHEnZmTGum2r1l2mduwThe Intro and Outro music is “On the Origin of Species” by Protodome. More music like this at http://ocremix.org.Muscial Interludes are "Professor Umlaut" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/