The first pterosaur to be scientifically identified was Pterodactylus, more than 200 years ago. Since then, scientists have grappled with understanding these bizarre and fantastic animals, aided by inspired science and incredible discoveries. In this episode, we’ll discuss what we know – and what we don’t know – about how these animals evolved, survived, and ruled the skies in the Age of Reptiles. In the news: cassowary evolution, the oldest scorpions, sea floor taphonomy, and Neanderthal shells.Time markers: Intro & Announcements: News: Main discussion, Part 1: Main discussion, Part 2: Patron question: We’ve donated our December 2019 Patreon earnings to WIRES to help with wildlife recovery in Australia. Learn more here: https://www.wires.org.au/Check out our blog for bonus info and pictures: http://commondescentpodcast.wordpress.com/The Common Descent Store is open! Get merch! http://zazzle.com/common_descentFollow 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.Musical Interludes are "Professor Umlaut" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/