Take a deep breath and appreciate for a moment the organs that let you do it so efficiently. Lungs are an invaluable tool for life out of the water, and are therefore a favorite topic for paleontologists interested in early animals on land. This episode, we explore the diversity of modern lungs and the few but fascinating insights we have into the lungs of ancient animals, from dinosaurs to the first terrestrial vertebrates.

In the news: trilobite sizes, polar forests, early footprints, and cicadas.

Time markers: Intro & Announcements: 00:00:00 News: 00:05:50 Main discussion, Part 1: 00:31:30 Main discussion, Part 2: 01:21:35 Patron question: 02:05:35

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The 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