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Paleo Bites
Ectopistes, the Passenger Pigeon
(image source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/things-of-beauty-i-like-to-see--543528248785595561/)
Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host and Matt’s dad Don Hall discuss Ectopistes, another great example of human-caused extinction because we didn’t depress our listeners enough with the Dodo and Tasmanian Tiger episodes. From the Late Pliocene to the Early Holocene, this 1.5-foot columbid bird used to have flocks in the billions before being shot, batted, and netted by greedy and terrible European colonizers when they came to America. The Native Americans lived with them all right though, so it’s not all humans that are bad, just European ones. My great grandfather was an Italian immigrant, so I’m allowed to say that. Hey, remember when this show was about dinosaurs?
Want to further support the show? Sign up to our Patreon for exclusive bonus content at Patreon.com/MatthewDonald. Also, you can purchase Matthew Donald's dinosaur book "Megazoic" on Amazon by clicking here, its sequel "Megazoic: The Primeval Power" by clicking here, its third installment "Megazoic: The Hunted Ones" by clicking here, or its final installment "Megazoic: An Era's End" by clicking here, as well as his non-dinosaur-related book "Teslanauts" by clicking here.
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23:31||Ep. 249(image source: Max Bellomio, @digital_duck on Twitter) Host Matthew Donald and guest co-host Ben O’Regan discuss Macrauchenia, a big hoofed mammal that either had a trunk or didn’t, kind of like me when I travel or go to the pool. Either trunks or no trunks. It depends on how lazy I’m feeling. From the Pleistocene epoch, this 10-foot-tall litoptern ungulate was part of a group of mammals unique to South America that died out due to the Great American Interchange and the changing climate. Which means this one’s extinction had nothing to do with humans, so we can cross that one off the list at least. Guilt-free! Yay! Ugh… Want to further support the show? Sign up to our Patreon for exclusive bonus content at Patreon.com/MatthewDonald. Also, you can get links to follow Matthew Donald and purchase his books at https://linktr.ee/matthewdonald. Also, AI voices are used in the intro in all of this month's episodes.248. Inostrancevia, of Alexander Inostrantsev
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