# Episode 236 - Chalicotheres

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-common-descent-podcast-466591/episode-236-chalicotheres
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-common-descent-podcast-466591/episode-236-chalicotheres.md
Podcast: [The Common Descent Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-common-descent-podcast-466591)
Published: 2026-02-01T01:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://commondescentpodcast.podbean.com/e/episode-236-chalicotheres/
Audio file: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/cnpanavvmk3bhum3/Episode_236_Chalicotheres9z0a5.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-common-descent-podcast-466591/episodes/episode-236-chalicotheres
Duration seconds: 7293

## Resource

The Cenozoic Era was home to many unusual ancient mammals, but few so strange as the “gorilla-horses,” the ungulates that swapped their hooves for claws, chalicotheres. This episode, we discuss the features that make these animals distinct and which confused paleontologists for decades, and we go over what is known – and still unknown – about their evolution and lifestyles. In the news: Let’s Botanize, Prototaxites identity, and giant kangaroos. Find Let’s Botanize here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/ben-goulet-scott/lets-botanize/9781635869040/Book preorder promo: https://www.letsbotanize.org/preorder-promo. Time markers:Intro & Announcements: 00:00:00News: 00:07:30Main discussion, Part 1: 00:50:20Main discussion, Part 2: 01:28:50 Patron question: 01:53:20 Check out our website for this episode’s blog post and more: http://commondescentpodcast.com/ Join us on Patreon to support the podcast and enjoy bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/commondescentpodcast Got a topic you want to hear about? Submit your episode request here: https://commondescentpodcast.com/request-a-topic/ Lots more ways to connect with us: https://linktr.ee/common_descent 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

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## Transcript

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