You might know them as ghost sharks, rat fish, or spook fish. Chimaeras are close cousins of sharks and rays, equipped with distinctive and unusual features in their fins, teeth, and reproductive structures. In today’s oceans, chimaeras are rare and easy to miss, but their extended family includes some of the most diverse and iconic fish of the Paleozoic seas. In this episode, we’ll explore the traits that set chimaeras apart, we’ll take a tour through their ancient relatives, and we’ll investigate what their most famous cousins were doing with their strange spiral rows of teeth. In the news: Baltic herrings, Cambrian arms race, pterosaur tails, and early dinosaurs. Time markers:Intro & Announcements: 00:00:00News: 00:06:35Main discussion, Part 1: 00:40:25Main discussion, Part 2: 01:16:45Patron question: 02:20:00 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