The Cenozoic Era was home to many unusual ancient mammals, but few so strange as the “gorilla-horses,” the ungulates that swapped their hooves for claws, chalicotheres. This episode, we discuss the features that make these animals distinct and which confused paleontologists for decades, and we go over what is known – and still unknown – about their evolution and lifestyles.In the news: Let’s Botanize, Prototaxites identity, and giant kangaroos.Find Let’s Botanize here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/ben-goulet-scott/lets-botanize/9781635869040/ Book preorder promo: https://www.letsbotanize.org/preorder-promo.Time markers: Intro & Announcements: News: Main discussion, Part 1: Main discussion, Part 2: Patron question: Check out our website for this episode’s blog post and more: http://commondescentpodcast.com/Join us on Patreon to support the podcast and enjoy bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/commondescentpodcastGot a topic you want to hear about? Submit your episode request here: https://commondescentpodcast.com/request-a-topic/Lots more ways to connect with us: https://linktr.ee/common_descentThe Intro and Outro music is “On the Origin of Species” by Protodome. More music like this at http://ocremix.orgMusical Interludes are "Professor Umlaut" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0