Dragonflies and damselflies are incredible insects. They are arguably the world’s most skilled fliers, arguably the world’s most successful predators, and arguably the best insects (so says David). Not only that, they and their ancient cousins have been abundant and successful aerial predators for over 300 million years. This episode, we discuss what sets these bugs apart from all the rest, we explore what’s known of their evolution from their surprisingly good fossil record, and of course we highlight their most famous extinct cousins: the giant griffenflies.

In the news: croc habitats, tyrannosaur food, elephant trunks, and early mosquitos.

Time markers:Intro & Announcements: 00:00:00News: 00:04:30Main discussion, Part 1: 00:34:15Main discussion, Part 2: 01:13:15Patron question: 01:53:45

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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 3.0http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/