Okay, but griffins, and ligers, and birds, oh my!

On this episode

About this episode

E41. Centaurs, mermaids, minotaurs: we have been inventing creatures that are two things at once for as long as we have told stories. Birds do it for real. Dr. Glaucia Del-Rio of the Florida Museum of Natural History studies two Amazonian antbirds that meet where a river runs out, and what their offspring say about where one species ends. In this episode, you'll hear about: Why a river can be an impossible barrier for a bird with perfectly good wings, and what researchers found when they carried birds out into the middle of one and let go How to spot a hybrid antbird at a glance, once you know which colors belong to which parent The German-Brazilian ornithologist an all-women expedition was…