Cosmic Queries: Primate Evolution

About This Episode

Paleoanthropologist Dr. Ian Tattersall of the American Museum of Natural History is back in the studio to help Neil deGrasse Tyson and Eugene Mirman answer fan questions about where primates came from, and where we’re going. Find out why we’re biologically static, evolutionarily speaking. Learn why we can’t simply “flip a switch” in our genome to breed children with wings. Explore the impact of technology on evolution and of space exploration on speciation. You’ll get answers to questions like, “If humans evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?” and “Are we interfering with evolution by keeping the weak alive?” Neil, Eugene and Ian discuss selective breeding vs. evolution, whether different species of ape can interbreed, the difference between human hands and ape hands, and whether other primates use spears and slings. All this plus the competition between Neanderthal and Homo Sapiens, primates in space and science fiction, legislation and primate rights, and what species Eugene Mirman evolved from.

NOTE: All-Access subscribers can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: Cosmic Queries: Primate Evolution.