They’re acrobatic fliers with long bodies and veined wings and their babies breathe through their butts: dragonflies. Let’s get into the difference between a damselfly and dragonfly, how fast they dart around, how big they were in the age of the dinosaurs, and lots more with scholar, American Museum of Natural History curator, and dragonfly expert: Dr. Jessica Ware.
Follow Dr. Ware on Google Scholar, Instagram and Bluesky
Buy Jessica’s children’s book, Bugs (A Day in the Life): What Do Bees, Ants, and Dragonflies Get up to All Day? on Amazon or Bookshop.org
A donation went to the World Dragonfly Association
Full-length (*not* G-rated) Odonatology episode + tons of science links
More kid-friendly Smologies episodes!
Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a month
OlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, hoodies, totes!
Follow Ologies on Instagram and Bluesky
Follow Alie Ward on Instagram and TikTok
Sound editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions & Jake Chaffee
Made possible by work from Noel Dilworth, Susan Hale, Kelly R. Dwyer, Aveline Malek and Erin Talbert
Smologies theme song by Harold Malcolm
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.