b'For tens of millions of years, North and South America were separate sisters across the sea, each with their own unique ecosystems. But around 3 million years ago, the Isthmus of Panama brought the landmasses together and kicked off an incredible mass migration of life between the continents. Some species thrived, others suffered, and in the end the very ecosystem structure of both continents was drastically altered, setting the stage for the American wildlife we know today.\\nIn the news: prehistoric parasites, early turtle evolution, teeth through time, and a surprising hominin hybrid. Also, a devastating museum fire in Brazil.\\nTime markers: Intro & Announcements: 00:00:00News: 00:06:00Main discussion, Part 1: 00:38:30Main discussion, Part 2: 01:04:00Patron question: 01:35:00\\nCheck out our blog for bonus info and pictures: http://commondescentpodcast.wordpress.com/\\nFollow and Support us on: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/commondescentpodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/CommonDescentPCFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/commondescentpodcast/PodBean: https://commondescentpodcast.podbean.com/ iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-common-descent-podcast/id1207586509?mt=2YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCePRXHEnZmTGum2r1l2mduw\\nThe Intro and Outro music is \\u201cOn the Origin of Species\\u201d by Protodome. More music like this at http://ocremix.org.\\nMuscial Interludes are "Professor Umlaut" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/'