Dr Keneiloe Molopyane is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for the Exploration of the Deep Human Journey and a National Geographic Society Emerging Explorer, 2021. Having begun as an underwater archaeologist, she ended up as an 'underground astronaut' squeezing through the claustrophobic passageways of South Africa's Rising Star Cave, site of a massive cache of bones belonging to hominid, Homo naledi. MARK from Evolution Soup dives deep with Keneiloe, in a fully-illustrated interview exploring the twists and turns of the Rising Star Cave, the bones that were found there, and the ta ..read more

What ignited the famed Cambrian Explosion? The majority of today's animal phyla got their start in this strange yet exciting period of time over five hundred million years ago. What triggered this radiation of life, some with shells, others with skeletons? What were the first predators? And what came before this period? DR SHUHAI XIAO is a paleobiologist and geobiologist who studies the interactions between the biosphere and its environments at critical transitions in Earth history, particularly during the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition. MARK from Evolution Soup chats with Shuhai about the Ca ..read more

The Meg! Did it really exist? (Spoiler alert: it did). This giant of the Miocene seas has been of keen interest to paleontologists for decades. It's true dimensions have never been known until recently. JACK COOPER is a PhD student working on the functional diversity of sharks through time. His current work focuses on the size, dimensions and reconstruction of the Megalodon shark. MARK from Evolution Soup talks to Jack about the history of its discovery, what it ate, where it swam, and the new research that he and mentor Catalina Pimiento have recently published, revealing this beast's true ..read more

Evolution is a marvel, but - bad backs? Crooked teeth? Allergies? What gives? ALEX BEZZERIDES is a professor of biology at Lewis-Clark State College in Idaho, where he teaches a wide range of biology classes, from human anatomy and physiology to entomology. He has a bachelor’s degree in biology and a PhD in neurobiology and behavior. MARK from Evolution Soup discusses Alex's new book 'Evolution Gone Wrong: The Curious Reasons Why Our Bodies Work (Or Don't)', delving into why the evolutionary process rewarded us with successes as well as lumping us with some pretty annoying failures! (Apolog ..read more

DR LARISA DESANTIS is a conservation biologist at Vanderbilt University and vertebrate paleontologist in the department of biological sciences. Larisa studies fossil mammals as a way of determining how they responded to ancient climate change. MARK from Evolution Soup talks all things sabertooth cat with Larisa, delving into the various species that boast impressive sabers, how we know what they ate ... and why they went extinct. #sabertooth #bigcats #smilodon Original YouTube Video Interview: https://bit.ly/3qChXri LINKS FOR LARISA DESANTIS: SITE: The DeSantis DREAM Lab - https://www ..read more

DR EUGENIE SCOTT is a retired university professor known for working against the teaching of Young Earth Creationism and ID – so-called ‘Intelligent Design’ - in schools... and is the founding Executive Director of the National Center for Science Education. MARK from Evolution Soup talks to Dr Scott from her home in California about her beginnings, the Kitzmiller vs Dover trial, and what exactly it is that creationists fear about evolution itself. Link to Video version of this interview: https://youtu.be/cgDQRTXssTw #evolution #creationism #science LINKS FOR DR. EUGENIE SCOTT: Twitter: @E ..read more

They were the most successful hominids of all time, existing on earth for almost two million years and leaving fossil evidence across much of the globe. From Africa to the Caucasus to the Far East, Homo erectus travelled far and left an indelible mark on prehistory. DR KAREN BAAB is a biological anthropologist studying human evolution at Midwestern University in Glendale, Arizona, USA.  Her main areas of research are the evolutionary history of Plio-Pleistocene Homo and what the shape of their skulls can tell us. MARK from Evolution Soup welcomes Dr Baab back to talk all things Homo ere ..read more

Were neanderthals just dumb brutes waiting for extinction? The latest research says they were anything but dimwitted. They had culture, forethought, and emotion - just like us. REBECCA WRAGG SYKES is a palaeolithic archaeologist and honorary fellow at the University of Liverpool, specialising in Neanderthals. She is co-founder of the Trowelblazers website, celebrating women archaeologists, palaeontologists and geologists through the ages, and the author of Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art. MARK from Evolution Soup talks to Rebecca about neanderthal history, biology, and technol ..read more

The search for the origin of life is nothing new. Abiogenesis - life from non life - has fascinated and frustrated science for countless years. But what if we've been going about it the wrong way? PROFESSOR LEE CRONIN holds the Regius chair of chemistry at the University of Glasgow. His primary interests are in the creation of artificial lifeforms using inorganic chemistry. MARK from Evolution Soup talks to Lee about his 'Inorganica' experiments, the nature of living things, why inorganic 'dead stuff' matters and - most importantly - why evolution is the engine that powers it all. #evolutio ..read more

They lived along our ancestors and were very much like them - but then vanished from history. What is the story of the genus Paranthropus and its three fascinating species? ALEXIS WILLIAMS is a PhD student in the Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology at George Washington University and studies the fossil record as a way of understanding the evolutionary history of the African hominin, Paranthropus. MARK from Evolution Soup talks with Alexis about this group of hominids, their amazingly huge teeth, and reasons why they may have gone extinct. LINKS FOR ALEXIS WILLIAMS: Got a q ..read more