The Essential Rhythm

Producer/Host: Sarah O’Malley

This episode discusses misconceptions about early animal evolution, including the notion that resolving early animal evolution will settle the debate as to whether our earliest ancestors were sponges or comb jellies. Both groups of animals display a suite of undervalued traits, referred to as hidden biology, that demonstrate their evolutionary complexity.

Reference: Dunn et al 2015 The hidden biology of sponges and ctenophores, Trends in Ecology and Evolution Vol 30 No 5

About the host:
Sarah O’Malley is an ecologist, naturalist and science communicator passionate about deepening her listeners’ experiences with the natural world. She teaches biology and sustainability at Maine Maritime Academy and is currently collaborating on a guide book to the intertidal zone in the Gulf of Maine.

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Producer/Host: Sarah O’Malley

This episode describes the ‘ciliary mucus particle transport’ mechanism that many animals use for feeding. Reef building corals are the primary example featured in this show. Suspension feeding Molluscs are also included as an example of independent evolution of this trait (two or more lineages landing on the same trait independently).

About the host:
Sarah O’Malley is an ecologist, naturalist and science communicator passionate about deepening her listeners’ experiences with the natural world. She teaches biology and sustainability at Maine Maritime Academy and is currently collaborating on a guide book to the intertidal zone in the Gulf of Maine.

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Producer/Host: Sarah O’Malley

This episode explains the chemical structure of mucus, and revisits is role in early animal evolution as well as as a lubricant for animal movement and travel.

About the host:
Sarah O’Malley is an ecologist, naturalist and science communicator passionate about deepening her listeners’ experiences with the natural world. She teaches biology and sustainability at Maine Maritime Academy and is currently collaborating on a guide book to the intertidal zone in the Gulf of Maine.

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Producer/Host: Sarah O’Malley

This episode discusses the origins of mucus in early animal lineages, including Cnidaria and Ctenophora, and highlights the lack of mucus in another early animal lineage, Porifera (sponges). Scientists hypothesize that the invention of mucus was a major event that enabled the evolution of true tissues, as well as serving as the front line of the immune system, separating microbes from vulnerable tissue, in all animals from Cnidarians to ourselves.

About the host:
Sarah O’Malley is an ecologist, naturalist and science communicator passionate about deepening her listeners’ experiences with the natural world. She teaches biology and sustainability at Maine Maritime Academy and is currently collaborating on a guide book to the intertidal zone in the Gulf of Maine.

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Producer/Host: Sarah O’Malley

This episode continues the discussion of the role of shells in marine invertebrates, including protection from predation and the environment. Like vertebrate skeletons, invertebrate shells also provide attachment points for muscles and enable complex movement.

About the host:
Sarah O’Malley is an ecologist, naturalist and science communicator passionate about deepening her listeners’ experiences with the natural world. She teaches biology and sustainability at Maine Maritime Academy and is currently collaborating on a guide book to the intertidal zone in the Gulf of Maine.

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Producer/Host: Sarah O’Malley

This episode describes some of the similarities between vertebrate bones and mollusc shells. The use of calcium to make the different mineral components, as well as the different layers of mollusc shells is discussed.

About the host:
Sarah O’Malley is an ecologist, naturalist and science communicator passionate about deepening her listeners’ experiences with the natural world. She teaches biology and sustainability at Maine Maritime Academy and is currently collaborating on a guide book to the intertidal zone in the Gulf of Maine.

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Producer/Host: Sarah O’Malley

This episode discusses physical factors that influence food availability and thus seasonal rhythms at the sea shore. Soft shell clams (Mya arenaria) are used to illustrate the seasonal connections between temperature, food and reproduction

About the host:
Sarah O’Malley is an ecologist, naturalist and science communicator passionate about deepening her listeners’ experiences with the natural world. She teaches biology and sustainability at Maine Maritime Academy and is currently collaborating on a guide book to the intertidal zone in the Gulf of Maine.

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Producer/Host: Sarah O’Malley

This episode describes the scientific process, as executed by a group of first year college students surveying the intertidal zone in Maine. Findings include a generally positive relationship between the distance from the high tide line and biodiversity, as well as an unexpected pattern of periwinkle abundance relative to time of day.

About the host:
Sarah O’Malley is an ecologist, naturalist and science communicator passionate about deepening her listeners’ experiences with the natural world. She teaches biology and sustainability at Maine Maritime Academy and is currently collaborating on a guide book to the intertidal zone in the Gulf of Maine.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download