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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey

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Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Bogabam Here, did you ever date someone,

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Speaker 1: perhaps in your less wise years, who sported a green mohawk,

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Speaker 1: some strange piercings and seemed to breathe out of their genitals. Well,

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Speaker 1: whatever the outcome of that experience, it might also predispose

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Speaker 1: you to having a bit of a soft spot for

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Speaker 1: the Merry River turtle, which currently ties for thirty on

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Speaker 1: the Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered Reptiles List or the

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Speaker 1: EDGE List. The list details the one hundred most endangered

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Speaker 1: reptiles in the world according to the Zoological Society of London,

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Speaker 1: and the tie is three way. The Merry River turtle

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Speaker 1: is joined by Bell's sawsheld turtle and the Shaco side

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Speaker 1: necked turtle. But what makes the Merry River turtle so

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Speaker 1: captivating is the shock of vivid green algae that grows

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Speaker 1: on its head, the strange spikes jutting out of its chin,

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Speaker 1: and the fact that it can hunker down underwater for

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Speaker 1: as long as three days, breathing out of gills located

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Speaker 1: in its cloaca, which is the all purpose hole that

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Speaker 1: serves for the reproductive, digestive and urinary systems of reptiles,

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Speaker 1: as well as other animals like birds and amphibians. It's

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Speaker 1: possible that as few as a hundred and thirty six

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Speaker 1: of these creatures exist in the wild. They find themselves

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Speaker 1: on this precarious footing partly because they have a very

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Speaker 1: small native range to begin with, they're very slow to

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Speaker 1: reach sexual maturity, they don't breed until they're twenty five

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Speaker 1: years old, and their docile temperament and outlandish looks made

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Speaker 1: them very popular targets for the exotic pet trade in

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Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties and seventies. The Zoological Society of London's

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Speaker 1: Edge of Existence program was launched in two thousand seven,

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Speaker 1: but its first list that focused exclusively on reptiles came

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Speaker 1: out in ten, backed by a study published in April

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Speaker 1: of that year in the journal Plos one. The EDGE

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Speaker 1: list names exotic reptiles from far flung reaches of the globe,

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Speaker 1: including the electric blue Williams dwarf gecko, the earthworm like

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Speaker 1: Madagascar blind snake, and the eerily sculptural Indian crocodile the gariel.

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Speaker 1: In a press release, Edge Reptiles coordinator Ricky Gums said

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Speaker 1: the reptiles often received the short end of the stick

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Speaker 1: in conservation terms compared with the likes of birds and mammals. However,

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Speaker 1: the Edge Reptile List highlights just how unique, vulnerable, and

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Speaker 1: amazing these creatures really are. Not only that, but many

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Speaker 1: reptiles represented on the list are the only survivors of

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Speaker 1: ancient lineages of reptiles the date back millions of years

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Speaker 1: to the age of dinosaurs. Gums said, if we lose

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Speaker 1: these species, there will be nothing like them left on Earth.

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Speaker 1: Using ZSL's Edge methodology to create the world's first Edge

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Speaker 1: Reptile List, and not only are we providing conservation scientists

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Speaker 1: with a quantitative tool to prioritize species for conservation, but

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Speaker 1: we also hope to bring the plight of these weird

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Speaker 1: and wonderful creatures to the public's attention before they disappear.

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Speaker 1: Number one on the Edge Reptile List, by the way,

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Speaker 1: is the gold plated Madagascar big headed turtle, the world's

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Speaker 1: most critically endangered and evolutionarily distinct reptile. Today's episode was

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Speaker 1: written by Jesslin Shields and produced by Tyler Clang. For

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Speaker 1: more in this lots of other curious topics visit how

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Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of i

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