Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature feature production of I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: your host of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology
Speaker 1: and evolutionary biology, and today on the show Real Life Pokemons,
Speaker 1: we're visiting the world of pocket Monsters again and showing
Speaker 1: how real life animals can be even more incredible than
Speaker 1: a boring old Pikachu. We're talking about the real life
Speaker 1: animal inspiration for Pokemon, as well as animals that should
Speaker 1: be in the next generation of Pokemon. Discover this and
Speaker 1: more as we answer the angel question who's got the
Speaker 1: most boobable Snoop joining me today is the co host
Speaker 1: of Just the Zoo of Us, an amazing animal podcast
Speaker 1: that rates and reviews animals, just like you should rate
Speaker 1: and review our podcasts. I'm so excited for this animal
Speaker 1: podcast crossover event. Welcome Ellen Weather for welcome. Thanks Katie, Hi,
Speaker 1: it's so good to be here. I'm so excited. It's
Speaker 1: about time we joined animal forces to bring to the world.
Speaker 1: Are both our animal knowledge and Pokemon knowledge, which I
Speaker 1: have to admit I'm not the biggest Pokemon expert. Well,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't call myself an expert, but I have played
Speaker 1: all the generations and I think that counts for something.
Speaker 1: I think that makes you an expert as as as
Speaker 1: far as I can see, because for me, I don't
Speaker 1: know if I can tell a Pikachu from you know,
Speaker 1: from a Jigglie Puff Gigglie Puff from a from a ratitat.
Speaker 1: You know. So you've got three Pokemon names right then,
Speaker 1: so like you're already pulling ahead of something. Is one
Speaker 1: of them that that was a great try. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: started playing um when I was five years old, when
Speaker 1: my mom got me for Christmas a purple transparent game
Speaker 1: Boy color and Pokemon Gold version UM, so I started,
Speaker 1: which was the second generation of Pokemon games. So I
Speaker 1: started there and I've played every generation ever since. So
Speaker 1: we we go way back me and put on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when I was a kid, I got bootleg versions of
Speaker 1: video games on floppy disks that I played on our
Speaker 1: personal computer. And one of them was sort of like
Speaker 1: kind of a Pokemon clone but you raised like slug monsters,
Speaker 1: so you know, that's yeah exactly, So that's my kind
Speaker 1: of background. But no, I do. I do love Pokemon.
Speaker 1: I played the the Pokemon Pokemon Go for a little bit, uh,
Speaker 1: and then you know, when that was a thing, and
Speaker 1: people were walking into traffic to get those Pokemon. And
Speaker 1: you know, I love the little guys. They're adorable, and
Speaker 1: but the biggest thing that I love about them is
Speaker 1: that a lot of them seem to be based on
Speaker 1: really whimsical versions of real life animals and all the
Speaker 1: fun kind of I feel like it trains kids to
Speaker 1: think in terms of a biologist right there, like sort
Speaker 1: of this, uh, there's like a phylogeny that you have
Speaker 1: different clades of Pokemon, water types, bug types, you have
Speaker 1: these abilities, and you have their their behaviors, and so
Speaker 1: I love that about the whole Pokemon universe. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: interesting because you know, kind of the origin story of
Speaker 1: Pokemon was that the creator of Pokemon, I believe it
Speaker 1: was to Toshi Ta Jerry Um created Pokemon out of
Speaker 1: a childhood spent collecting bugs outside, like just outside and nature,
Speaker 1: collecting bugs, and he was just so inspired by his
Speaker 1: passion for nature and bugs that he kind of combined
Speaker 1: that with this like very imaginative world building and developed
Speaker 1: Pokemon from it. So like, yeah, has a roots in
Speaker 1: you know, entomology and naturalism and biology. So you can
Speaker 1: see so much of that play out in the world
Speaker 1: of Pokemon like some of them. Actually, there's actually like
Speaker 1: ecology plays into it, like in some of my notes,
Speaker 1: like some of the aspects of the actual real life
Speaker 1: animal play out in actual game mechanics, which is really interesting. Um.
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how many people I've talked to
Speaker 1: that were inspired to begin, like lay the groundwork for
Speaker 1: an actual career in biology and zoology being inspired by
Speaker 1: playing Pokemon as a kid. Like it really does work. Yeah, No,
Speaker 1: I love that, Yeah, because it gives you this appreciation
Speaker 1: for biodiversity, even though it's a whimsical, made up biodiversity.
Speaker 1: It I think that it turns on that part of
Speaker 1: the brain that's like, oh man, I just love you.
Speaker 1: Know you've got a cat jamal, you gotta classify them.
Speaker 1: I'll discover everything. Of course, real life biologists are not
Speaker 1: trying to catch all of the animals, but they are
Speaker 1: trying to classify and learn about all the animals, and
Speaker 1: certainly not getting their subject species to battle against each other.
Speaker 1: Typically no, poor ethically that is, that is not the case. Um.
Speaker 1: But yes, So what we're gonna do is that I'm
Speaker 1: going to talk about an animal that I think should
Speaker 1: be a Pokemon now I don't really like I said,
Speaker 1: I am not a pocologist, so I don't know all
Speaker 1: the Pokemon, so there could be a Pokemon that is similar.
Speaker 1: But still, these are the animals that I think are
Speaker 1: like real life Pokemon and definitely should be in the
Speaker 1: next generation of Pokemon. And then Ellen is going to
Speaker 1: tell me about a Pokemon that has a real life
Speaker 1: animal counterpart or inspiration. So I am so sided me too.
Speaker 1: This is gonna be great. So I want to start
Speaker 1: off with one of my favorite animals because it is
Speaker 1: just the goofy ist doofy ist, weirdest, ugliest, and cutest
Speaker 1: turtle in the world. I already love turtles. They appeal
Speaker 1: to my intrinsic desire to curl up into a little
Speaker 1: shell and yell at people from the safety of it. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so these are found in the Amazon Basin.
Speaker 1: It is a fresh water aquatic turtle. And so now
Speaker 1: this is a podcast and it is an audio medium,
Speaker 1: but it's hard to even have words do justice to
Speaker 1: this turtle. So this is the Mada Mata turtle. I
Speaker 1: love this turtle. You gotta look at it. You've gotta
Speaker 1: google it. If you're driving safely, pull over to the
Speaker 1: side of the road and google it. I will try
Speaker 1: my best to describe it, but I highly suggest you
Speaker 1: look up motto moto turtle. It'll also be in the
Speaker 1: show notes a lot of pictures of it because it
Speaker 1: is one of the most Jim Henson Pokemon looking animals
Speaker 1: in the natural world. It's amazing. It'll fill you. It
Speaker 1: fills me up with warm feelings. They have contagious bliss. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like a super weird looking animal and it's kind
Speaker 1: of ugly cute, but it's one of those ugly cutes
Speaker 1: where it makes you happy, kind of like you know
Speaker 1: how like Stitch is like kind of a scary cute thing.
Speaker 1: He's got all these teeth and stuff, and then this
Speaker 1: is like a this like an ugly cute and it
Speaker 1: just makes me happy. So all right, I'm gonna take
Speaker 1: a real, a real shot at describing this. So first,
Speaker 1: you know, visualize a turtle, like an aquatic turtle. You know,
Speaker 1: it's got webbed feet, lives in the water, so you're
Speaker 1: gonna want to run it over with a steamroller. It's
Speaker 1: an imaginary steamroller, so we're not actually hurting any real turtles.
Speaker 1: But yes, so you flatten it. You've turned this turtle
Speaker 1: into sort of a turtle pancake. And then now you
Speaker 1: stretch out its neck and you give that neck some
Speaker 1: leaf like frills on the signs uh. Its head is
Speaker 1: a triangle. We're gonna want that head to be a triangle,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna want to glue a leaf to the
Speaker 1: top of its head. So are you with me? A
Speaker 1: dead leaf? That is important? Yes? So um yeah. And
Speaker 1: its shell is sort of a a chunk of bark,
Speaker 1: let's say that. So we're almost there, but you gotta
Speaker 1: take its nostrils stretch those out as well, kind of
Speaker 1: extrude those, make them long flexible tubes, like a pig
Speaker 1: snout that's stretched out, and it's very thin. It's like
Speaker 1: a spaghetti pig nose. So one of its most important features,
Speaker 1: both in terms of its diet and behavior, as well
Speaker 1: as the most important feature to me is its mouth.
Speaker 1: I know. The saying is eyes are the window into
Speaker 1: the soul, but in this case, the mouth to me
Speaker 1: is the window into the heart. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1: The door the mouth is the gaping doorway into the heart.
Speaker 1: So it's a very wide mouth. It has a big
Speaker 1: mouth when it's closed, it looks like the world's most
Speaker 1: cartoonishly goofy, wide smile, like it's thinking about a joke
Speaker 1: it wants to tell you I was thinking. It looks
Speaker 1: like it's not thinking anything at all. This is truly
Speaker 1: like no thoughts, head empty turtle. Yeah, no thoughts, pure bliss.
Speaker 1: When it's open the mouth, it looks like it's laughing
Speaker 1: too hard at its own joke, or just the emptiness
Speaker 1: in its brain has made it is funny to it
Speaker 1: and so it started laughing. Uh. It also just has
Speaker 1: the beady little eyes that are heavily litted, making it
Speaker 1: look really just completely out of it. It's like you
Speaker 1: take the heavy lidded Garfield eyes but make them small
Speaker 1: and beaty, and it's Yeah, I think you're getting the idea.
Speaker 1: Can I tell you what vibe I get from the
Speaker 1: motomatic turtle like looking at a picture of it. Did
Speaker 1: you ever watch the cartoon Jimmy Neutron in like early
Speaker 1: two thousands, Yeah, remember that Carl from Jimmy Neutron. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I remember Carl. That's the exact energy that I get
Speaker 1: from the motomatic Turtle. Carl Weezer from Jimmy Neutron. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I remember Carl Weezer and his obsession with Lama's That
Speaker 1: was a oh yeah, that was a I feel like
Speaker 1: that was that show was ahead of its time. That
Speaker 1: was a good show truly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Lazer, I
Speaker 1: loved that. Carl Weezer was like the nerd stereotype, but
Speaker 1: he was dumb as heck, like really not very smart, um,
Speaker 1: which is like great for like sort of the stereotype,
Speaker 1: like nerds equal smart, Like no nerds could equal someone
Speaker 1: not very smart, but who loves llamas? You know what
Speaker 1: I mean? Right, It's more of a passion thing that
Speaker 1: it is a knowledge thing exactly. Yeah, no, it is.
Speaker 1: It is like the Carl Wheezer of Turtles, I think
Speaker 1: so at least. But it's got more dangly bits on
Speaker 1: its face than I remember Carl Weezer having. It's got barbles,
Speaker 1: so the whisker of a catfish, but rather than being
Speaker 1: long whiskers, the Mada mata has these stubby, nubby little barbels. Uh.
Speaker 1: It's got three on its chin and four more on
Speaker 1: its jaw. So just do hickeys here and there, just
Speaker 1: little flappy bits, just flappy bits, little little dongles. So
Speaker 1: in terms of size, the turtle is about thirty seven
Speaker 1: inches long or and can weigh up to around forty
Speaker 1: five pounds or twenty kill graham. So it is not little.
Speaker 1: It's kind of big. Yeah. Yeah, it is solidly. Its
Speaker 1: presence is solid and profound. Uh So. Its feet are
Speaker 1: webbed for swimming, like I mentioned earlier, and it uses
Speaker 1: its weird leaf like frills and ridged bark looking shell
Speaker 1: to blend in with vegetation and to lay in wait
Speaker 1: for some poor unsuspecting fish. When the fish gets close enough,
Speaker 1: the turtle uses its mouth like a vacuum and just
Speaker 1: suddenly snaps its mouth open really wide, which creates this
Speaker 1: um cavitation in the water, So it creates the suction
Speaker 1: and just vacuums up this vacuums up this unsuspecting fish,
Speaker 1: then snaps its mouth closed, swallows the fish whole, and
Speaker 1: then resumes having that little smile on its face. Very uh,
Speaker 1: kind of terrifying in a way because it seems like
Speaker 1: really happy and dumb and silly, uh right, just like
Speaker 1: a kind of Winnie the Pooh. But then just opens
Speaker 1: up its mouth wide and swallows a fishhole and it
Speaker 1: cannot chew. It's cranial anatomy is too weird to allow
Speaker 1: it to chew. It in fact, just swallows things whole
Speaker 1: instead like a shark, but it's way cuter. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think sharks are cute, but this, Yeah, sharks don't
Speaker 1: have Sharks don't have a goofy smile, you know, like
Speaker 1: they've got a dad joke just sort of waiting in
Speaker 1: the ways. Well, I think of the whale shark. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: that's goofy smile. Yes, whale sharks do have a goofy,
Speaker 1: goofy smile. I also think goblin sharks have a pretty
Speaker 1: goofy smile. There's it's a scarier goofy but it's sort
Speaker 1: of more like a Mr. Burne smile. But it's still
Speaker 1: a little buzy. Say that, like, smile was not the
Speaker 1: is not a word that I associate with the goblin's
Speaker 1: shark A grin. Okay, all right, I could see that.
Speaker 1: I can see that. I feel like the matamata has
Speaker 1: made a lot of sacrifices for that smile. Though it
Speaker 1: has its sacrificed its ability to chew in any sort
Speaker 1: of fear you could have of it. That's true. They've
Speaker 1: lost their intimidation factor completely. I mean, look at that face.
Speaker 1: It looks like it's got an ear to ear smile,
Speaker 1: and then this long, thin pig nos and these it's
Speaker 1: just the most ridiculous looking thing. We may feel very
Speaker 1: differently about it if we were perhaps small fish that
Speaker 1: might be on their menu. That to them, maybe this
Speaker 1: is like the most terrifying thing you can imagine. I
Speaker 1: feel like there'd be a lot of things I would
Speaker 1: feel the prently about if I was a small fish,
Speaker 1: namely toilet. But I guess the idea of the automato
Speaker 1: is that you shouldn't be seeing it anyway until it's
Speaker 1: too late, right, so right, you can't be deceived by
Speaker 1: the smile, like it's a pile of very doofy looking
Speaker 1: leaves until it opens its mouth and you realize, hey,
Speaker 1: those aren't some exceptionally dumb looking dead leaves. That's an
Speaker 1: exceptionally dumb looking turtle. And it only looks dumb. It's
Speaker 1: not that dumb in real life. It's just that's the
Speaker 1: way it looks to us. I mean, I don't think
Speaker 1: it's that's smart, you know, can we judge it to
Speaker 1: back it up? It's all it's all about how you
Speaker 1: define smartness, right, Like, if smartness is the ability to
Speaker 1: like do complex puzzle solving or you know, have some
Speaker 1: kind of language or something, maybe it's not, you know,
Speaker 1: but if your definition of smartness is having a weird
Speaker 1: mating dance, it does, then this one's yeah, because it
Speaker 1: has a really weird mating dance. Really yeah. So a
Speaker 1: male will seduce the female by thrusting out his head,
Speaker 1: neck and limbs, and by opening his mouth as wide
Speaker 1: as he can and then closing it repeatedly, sort of
Speaker 1: like some kind of weird muppet mating dance. It'll it'll
Speaker 1: keep thrusting its head and opening its mouth and opening
Speaker 1: its mouth like a deranged cuckoo clock. And if that
Speaker 1: doesn't have her swooning, it will also wiggle its head flaps.
Speaker 1: That's I gotta say. That's how my husband won me over.
Speaker 1: Yah for him. You gotta wiggle your head flaps sometimes,
Speaker 1: everyone out there, are all your singles out there, Wiggle
Speaker 1: the head flap, notes, wiggle the head flaps. Always, wiggle
Speaker 1: the head flaps. It's all in the head flaps. People
Speaker 1: don't give it enough credit, but no not. I think
Speaker 1: things like a personality or a job or passion that
Speaker 1: those are the kinds of things that people look for
Speaker 1: in a partner. No head flaps, it's head flaps. Actually yeah,
Speaker 1: if it's working for the turtle, it must work for me.
Speaker 1: I think we Yeah. I think it's hubrious to think
Speaker 1: that these are not universally applicable uh flirtation methods. But Ellen,
Speaker 1: what do you think? Do you think that this animal
Speaker 1: is worthy of being a Pokemon, or should I say
Speaker 1: our pokemon worthy of being this animal? I will say yes.
Speaker 1: And I also want to add that there there is
Speaker 1: a Pokemon that is at least visually Reminisce sent me
Speaker 1: tell me now I need to see. It is called Turtonator.
Speaker 1: Which is which is? I will say the goofiest Pokemon names.
Speaker 1: So at least they did keep the energy in naming
Speaker 1: it turtonatord. Now it is a fire and dragon type pokemon.
Speaker 1: Um It lives in volcanic craters and camouflages itself as
Speaker 1: a rock, and it has more of like a volcanic
Speaker 1: look to it. So it has these kind of like
Speaker 1: spikes that look like rocks jutting out of lava. It
Speaker 1: kind of looks like a cartoon bomb. I think, um
Speaker 1: so As far as similarities to the Madam mata, I
Speaker 1: really think it begins and ends with just the way
Speaker 1: it looks, because it has like that flathead, has the
Speaker 1: tube nose, and it has some kind of like jagged appearance.
Speaker 1: So like, I don't think it shares a lot else
Speaker 1: with the mate mata other than just like some general
Speaker 1: appearance things. Um. But I mean, and it's at least
Speaker 1: looks like a moutomata, so it's I think it's as
Speaker 1: close as you're going to get to a moutematic turtle
Speaker 1: to a modemotic Pokemon. UM. I would love it if
Speaker 1: they took another stab at the modemata and made one
Speaker 1: that was a little bit more like aligned with the
Speaker 1: actual Pokemon. But I do admire the creativity that they
Speaker 1: took with this. With Totoenator, I've never used a Tertinator
Speaker 1: on my team because I personally I don't love the
Speaker 1: way that they look I admire that it is cool
Speaker 1: and creative, but it's not my aesthetic and my team
Speaker 1: building strategy is one aesthetic based, so was not did
Speaker 1: not fit into my team vision at the time. The
Speaker 1: Pokemon I collector based on cuteness factor a h it
Speaker 1: is based solely on how they look. Yeah, this is
Speaker 1: this is giving me madam matauh. But it's also giving
Speaker 1: me a little bit of homestar runner, sort of like
Speaker 1: if you fuse the two. Uh yeah, no, I see,
Speaker 1: I can see this being the moutomata. But I think
Speaker 1: we do need another one. We need one that it's got,
Speaker 1: it's leaf based, and one that really emphasizes that smile. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure, there's like thirty salamander Pokemon. So I think
Speaker 1: we can make room for another mottomata. I think we
Speaker 1: can for sure. I think that can be arranged. Someone
Speaker 1: give me call up Nintendo or or you know, Mr Pokemon,
Speaker 1: Mr Pokemon Company. My in boxes open at all times.
Speaker 1: Dmn me, Dear dear Mario, I've noticed the problem with
Speaker 1: your with your video game Pokemon. Dear Mr Super Mario,
Speaker 1: dear Mr Super Nintendo Chalmers. Um yeah, so so I
Speaker 1: think we can have another mottom mata I and give
Speaker 1: them another chance. Yeah, bigger smile, more phase dongles and elite,
Speaker 1: thank you in advance. Thanks. It would be cool if
Speaker 1: it was a water tight. Yeah yeah, I mean fire
Speaker 1: types cool too, but still yeah, yeah, it lives in
Speaker 1: the Amazon Rivers Freshwater Rivers, so you know there and
Speaker 1: then every time it like defeats defeats a Pokemon should
Speaker 1: like donate uh fifty cents to the Amazon. You know,
Speaker 1: I would love it if they made some sort of
Speaker 1: like Pokemon game like for a cause, yeah, would be
Speaker 1: so cool. Can you imagage again Pokemon Company in box? Yeah,
Speaker 1: dialing Mr Luis gi Mario slide into those d M
Speaker 1: So allen, uh, you have some Pokemon to tell me about?
Speaker 1: Can you tell me about a Pokemon and and and
Speaker 1: teach me teach me the ways of the Pokemon and
Speaker 1: the real life animal that it has gained inspiration from.
Speaker 1: Absolutely Okay, So I'm bringing one that I feel is
Speaker 1: particularly relevant right now. This is gar Chomp. Guard Chomp
Speaker 1: is a ground and dragon type Pokemon that was introduced
Speaker 1: in the fourth generation of Pokemon games. Those those games
Speaker 1: were Diamond, Pearl and the sequel Platinum. So I really
Speaker 1: wanted to talk about this right now in honor of
Speaker 1: Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, which are the remakes of
Speaker 1: those fourth generation games. So they like reworked the whole
Speaker 1: game top to bottom, gave them fresh fresh graphics because
Speaker 1: Pearl Diamond and Pearl came out on the Nintendo DS,
Speaker 1: so these these games just came out for the switch.
Speaker 1: Um So, guard Chump first appeared in the Diamond and
Speaker 1: Pearl games on the d s. They were guard Chomp
Speaker 1: was infamously on the team of champions Cynthia, the champion
Speaker 1: of the game. Sorry if this is a spoiler if
Speaker 1: you haven't played it, I don't think it's a spoiler.
Speaker 1: Um It. Cynthia famously the champion that you beat, like
Speaker 1: that that you have to battle at the end of
Speaker 1: the game. Getting like completely wrecked by Cynthia's gar Chomp
Speaker 1: is like a rite of passage for Pokemon players. Like
Speaker 1: she it's just famously so incredibly difficult to beat her.
Speaker 1: It's like they just really cranked the difficulty up on
Speaker 1: Cynthia's gar Chomp in particular, it's like so incredibly vicious.
Speaker 1: So I know a lot of people are playing the
Speaker 1: Diamond and Pearl remix right now, a lot of people
Speaker 1: are probably reliving that trauma of having been completely obliterated
Speaker 1: by Cynthia's gar Chomp. So I wanted to talk about
Speaker 1: black eyes, like a doll's eyes. It's just like, I
Speaker 1: know a lot of people are are processing that still,
Speaker 1: Like I saw a tweet the other day that was
Speaker 1: like getting getting destroyed by Cynthia's guard Chomp, Like I'm
Speaker 1: nine years old all over again. So I think a
Speaker 1: lot of I think it'll resonate with a lot of
Speaker 1: people right now. If you are a long time Pokemon
Speaker 1: player or if you're new to the series, you know
Speaker 1: there's a remake out now, so you you might be
Speaker 1: getting familiar with guard Chomp right now. Yeah. I'm looking
Speaker 1: at this guy and it is intimidating. It's like half shark,
Speaker 1: half pterodactyl with a lot of spikes. Yeah. Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a very very cool looking Pokemon, very edgy, very
Speaker 1: sinister looking. Guard Chomp is a dragon and it is
Speaker 1: is a ground and dragon type, but it's based on
Speaker 1: a hammer head shark, which I think is really really interesting.
Speaker 1: I like when Pokemon does this kind of like with Tertinator,
Speaker 1: where it takes a Pokemon and like redesigns it but
Speaker 1: removes it from like its original context in real life
Speaker 1: and like reworks it to be like in a different biome.
Speaker 1: So this is like a hammer head shark for the desert,
Speaker 1: which I think is really cool. But guard chomps design
Speaker 1: incorporates what I think are some really interesting features of
Speaker 1: the hammer head shark. So most notably, like you look
Speaker 1: at guard chomp and you can see that it has
Speaker 1: this head that has these two lobes on either side
Speaker 1: of its head that really resemble that iconic hammer shaped
Speaker 1: head of the hammer head shark. But the structure on
Speaker 1: the hammer head shark has a name. It's called a
Speaker 1: cephalo foil. Have you talked about cephalo foils before? I
Speaker 1: have not. Let's do it. It's so cool. So the
Speaker 1: cephala foil is. So there are lots of hammer head sharks.
Speaker 1: By the way, there's not like one species of hammer
Speaker 1: head sharks. They can be really really big, like I
Speaker 1: think it's the scallop tammra head shark is maybe the
Speaker 1: biggest hammer head. That's the one with those like sensory
Speaker 1: bumps on the front of the hammer head. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: called the scallop hammer head because the front edge of
Speaker 1: their cephalo foil has those sort of bumps on it,
Speaker 1: like you said. And then there's little ones there's like
Speaker 1: the bonnet head, which are really common. It is it
Speaker 1: looks like a baby hammer head In fact, a lot
Speaker 1: of times fishers will fishermen will catch a bonnet head
Speaker 1: and mistake it for a baby hammer head, and they'll say, oh,
Speaker 1: I caught this baby hammer head, but it's actually a
Speaker 1: bond a head that I actually happened to us one time.
Speaker 1: We were um walking along the beach and we found
Speaker 1: a bonnet a dead bonnet head on the sand, and
Speaker 1: we thought it was a baby hammer head, but it
Speaker 1: was a bonnet head. They're really little and they have
Speaker 1: like a small little cephalo foil, and they're actually omnivorous,
Speaker 1: which I think is interesting. It's a shark that eats plants.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's a super common thing. Um. Anyway,
Speaker 1: there's a Yeah, so there's a lot of different hammer
Speaker 1: head sharks, and that cephalo foils can kind of change
Speaker 1: depending on which one you're looking at. Some of them
Speaker 1: have really long, exaggerated ones, like there's one that's called
Speaker 1: the wing head shark, where it's just like super cranked up.
Speaker 1: The thing goes like it's completely like T shaped. Uh,
Speaker 1: the winghead I think has the most exaggerated one. Um.
Speaker 1: But for you know, they all kind of follow the
Speaker 1: same general plan of it being like this sort of
Speaker 1: T shaped head. So the advantages it gives to the
Speaker 1: shark are really interesting. First of all, it really buffs
Speaker 1: up their field of view. They have that those eyeballs
Speaker 1: located on either one of these lobes sort of like yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's it's not these aren't just like decorative. They
Speaker 1: actually how is the eyeball and so they're looking in
Speaker 1: one direction and then an entirely different direction. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: with their eyes being like at the ends of those lobes,
Speaker 1: they can see in three hundred and sixty degrees all
Speaker 1: around them. They can see in three hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: degrees all around them. But they also have this really
Speaker 1: really big overlap between what their left eye and their
Speaker 1: right eye can see. So there's like this very large
Speaker 1: point in the middle of their vision where it's called
Speaker 1: I think it's called binocular overlap. So in the wing
Speaker 1: head shark, like I mentioned that has this really exaggerated
Speaker 1: stephalo foil, they have up to forty eight degrees of
Speaker 1: overlap between their left and right eye. So what that's
Speaker 1: really really good for is depth perception. So like you know,
Speaker 1: how like if you cover one eye and then you
Speaker 1: cover the other, I what you can see kind of
Speaker 1: changes a little bit because of the angle, and that's
Speaker 1: what lets you perceive depth. Um So for hammerhead sharks,
Speaker 1: they have really dramatic depth perception. They're really good at
Speaker 1: seeing how far away things are, so it's really good
Speaker 1: for their eyesight. Another thing the cephalofoil helps them with
Speaker 1: is that that whole thing, like you mentioned, is lined
Speaker 1: with electro receptors, So the edge of their cephalo foil
Speaker 1: is lined with these sensory cells that can detect magnetic fields.
Speaker 1: A lot of sharks, a lot of fish really in general,
Speaker 1: have electro receptors. And what's is what it's really good
Speaker 1: for for hammer heads is that it makes them really
Speaker 1: sensitive to the movements of prey that might be hiding
Speaker 1: under the sand. So a lot of the prey that
Speaker 1: they're looking for is things like stingrays, or flat fish
Speaker 1: or all sorts of little fit like goose fish and
Speaker 1: stuff like that that might be burrowed under the sands.
Speaker 1: So if you're swimming over them looking for them only
Speaker 1: using your eyes, you're not gonna see them and you're
Speaker 1: gonna miss them. But the hammer head shark can detect
Speaker 1: their movements. It can even sense things like heartbeats. Right, Like,
Speaker 1: you can't hide that because your heart, your heart sends
Speaker 1: out an electrical uh polse every time it beats, like
Speaker 1: this electrical rhythm of of your of the chambers of
Speaker 1: your heart. That's why when the heart is out of rhythm, uh,
Speaker 1: you use sort of a little bit of electricity to
Speaker 1: get it back and rhythm with with you know, the
Speaker 1: shock paddles with a with a de fabular order. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so the you can't disguise that, right, You can't like
Speaker 1: make your heart stop beating. So the hammer head can
Speaker 1: can detect even totally hidden prey. And then once it
Speaker 1: does detect that prey, it can use the cephalo foil
Speaker 1: as a weapon, so it can actually pin prey down
Speaker 1: to the sand and immobilize it so that it can
Speaker 1: eat it. Or if it's hunting something like a stingray
Speaker 1: or a flat fish that's like down flat against the
Speaker 1: botto them, they can wedge the cefal foil underneath the
Speaker 1: prey and flip it over like that's like a big
Speaker 1: it's like a spatelaae it is. They use it like
Speaker 1: a big spatchelor to flip This be called spatchelor head.
Speaker 1: Sharks instead of hammer heads because they don't use them
Speaker 1: as a hammer, they use it as a spachelor. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I I also have never really seen a
Speaker 1: hammer shaped like that, you know, like the hammers I've
Speaker 1: used have only ever had like, you know, a blunt
Speaker 1: end and then kind of like a curved end and
Speaker 1: it doesn't really look like a hamper. But oh well,
Speaker 1: I didn't call him that, So that's maybe an old
Speaker 1: timey hammer. Maybe an old timey hammer that it didn't
Speaker 1: have that curved back bit bit where you like pull
Speaker 1: out the nails, but just like the two hammers on
Speaker 1: each end, like a ball peen hammer that's been flattened out.
Speaker 1: I don't really know, I'm not I was about to say, like,
Speaker 1: I'm the wrong person to be talking to about what
Speaker 1: tools look like. I'm not handy. I'm sorry, I'm handed,
Speaker 1: but I just don't bother learning the names of anything.
Speaker 1: I'm like, just give me the small one and then
Speaker 1: the twisty one and the U shape attorney bit. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: I feel it. Um So, yeah, I think the cephal
Speaker 1: foil is a really interesting thing to be including on
Speaker 1: on guard chump. It's identifiable you look at it, you know,
Speaker 1: exactly what it is, and also on Guard on Guard Chump,
Speaker 1: they made the lobes kind of look almost like jet engines,
Speaker 1: which is really cool. It's like incorporating some like jetplane
Speaker 1: elements into the design. Now, I do notice that it's
Speaker 1: it's eyes are not on the cephalo foil, though they
Speaker 1: are sort of you know, I think they were doing
Speaker 1: that to make it look more like a cool dragon.
Speaker 1: I imagine if they put the eyes on the cephalo foil,
Speaker 1: they probably tried it, because I know a lot of
Speaker 1: times like Pokemon, go through a few drafts of the
Speaker 1: design before they reach what what you see in the game.
Speaker 1: So if I had to guess, they probably tried it. Like,
Speaker 1: there are probably some old like deleted draft of Guard
Speaker 1: Chomp with the eyes like on the sides, um, and
Speaker 1: it probably looked pretty goofy and they decided not to
Speaker 1: do that. I think it's probably also an early draft
Speaker 1: of Guard Chomp where it's just like Garfield as a
Speaker 1: dragon chomping on. Definitely, for sure, it's primarily praise on
Speaker 1: Lasagna right. Um. So aside from the cephalof oil, you know,
Speaker 1: it has some other shark elements. It's got that like
Speaker 1: identifiable that vertically aligned fin um. It has the dorsal
Speaker 1: fin and the pectoral fins. Let you really know, it's
Speaker 1: supposed to be based on a shark um, but it
Speaker 1: has something on its design that I think is a
Speaker 1: nod to the shark inspiration in a really interesting way.
Speaker 1: So you see how it has all these little white
Speaker 1: spikes all over its body, on its arms and legs,
Speaker 1: it has these white spikes. So those white spikes look
Speaker 1: exactly like its teeth, like it looks like you copied
Speaker 1: and pasted the teeth from its mouth onto its body.
Speaker 1: I think that that is a reference to shark's skin,
Speaker 1: which is covered in tiny scales called thermal denticles. Yes, denticals.
Speaker 1: Have you talked about these? It not tentacles with a T. Denticles, Yes,
Speaker 1: denticals like a dentist. Yes, the tiny the tiny skin
Speaker 1: teeth that we know and love. Yes, skin teeth. So
Speaker 1: if you if you're not already familiar with what skin
Speaker 1: teeth are, if you're a more recent listener, um, these
Speaker 1: are these skin teeth are really built just like the
Speaker 1: teeth inside of the shark's mouth. They have an inner
Speaker 1: layer of pulp and nerves, and then an outer layer
Speaker 1: made of dentine um. They're just much smaller and they
Speaker 1: grow all over the body, pointing towards the tail. Um.
Speaker 1: This gives sharks a really distinct texture. I should also
Speaker 1: say this is not specific to the hammerhead sharks built
Speaker 1: like um, so it gives sharks a really distinct texture.
Speaker 1: Have you ever touched a shark before. I haven't. I've
Speaker 1: touched a ray before, and I think they have a
Speaker 1: similar dentical situation, but it's like it's rough. So on
Speaker 1: a shark, if you start with the head and move
Speaker 1: your hand towards their tail, it feels really smooth, like
Speaker 1: a like a ray or like a dolphin or something
Speaker 1: like that. But if you start with a tail and
Speaker 1: you move your hand towards the head, it feels sand papery.
Speaker 1: It feels really rough. So the texture changes based on
Speaker 1: what direction you're feeling. And that's because those denticles are
Speaker 1: all pointing towards the tail. So this helps them by
Speaker 1: reducing their drag in the water, and it helps them
Speaker 1: swim faster. It's really good for aerodynamic, uh, hydrodynamic, I
Speaker 1: should say, like swimming. And I know that I was
Speaker 1: talking to some shark scientists and they mentioned that this
Speaker 1: shark skin like scale sort of thing has been used
Speaker 1: in the development of wet suits for athletic swimmers. Um
Speaker 1: that they've like used this like sort of scaly design
Speaker 1: to reduce drag for Olympic swimmers, which I think is
Speaker 1: just so cool. Yeah, yeah, No, I like it when
Speaker 1: we borrow things from animals, Like we look at things
Speaker 1: like geck um paths and they're like, oh, this is
Speaker 1: this takes advantage of physics that is really hard for
Speaker 1: us to achieve. And so then we look to these
Speaker 1: amazing physical aspects of animals and then you know, steal
Speaker 1: it as long as we're not skinning the sharks and
Speaker 1: wearing them as as wetsuits. Right. I don't think he
Speaker 1: would want to do that. Um. I mean they've got
Speaker 1: to figure it out, right, so might as well copy
Speaker 1: what they're doing. Um. This also is I think why
Speaker 1: guard Chomp is incredibly fast in the game, has a
Speaker 1: pretty high speed stat and the polkadex entries described guard
Speaker 1: Chomp as having speeds rivaling those of a jet plane.
Speaker 1: It flies rather than swimming because it does live in
Speaker 1: the desert, not in the ocean. Uh. And so this
Speaker 1: is this goes back to something I said earlier. The
Speaker 1: dermal denticles actually factor into in game battle mechanics. So
Speaker 1: if you are battling with or against a guard chomp,
Speaker 1: guard chomp can have a passive ability called rough skin,
Speaker 1: and in battle this damages opponents who make physical contact
Speaker 1: with it. So if you use an attack against a
Speaker 1: guard chomp that actually physically contacts the guard chomp, so
Speaker 1: like tackle might be an example of one, then it
Speaker 1: that will actually do damage to you nice not all
Speaker 1: the time like they can. It's one of of more
Speaker 1: than one possible passive abilities it can have. But I
Speaker 1: just think that's a really cool nod to like actual
Speaker 1: shark biology. That that rough skin very cool. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: love that. I did look it up and and raise
Speaker 1: and skates actually do have the dentical So it's the
Speaker 1: same situation. You pet them in wonder and it's really smooth,
Speaker 1: but then you get that you go the other way
Speaker 1: and it feels rough that you know, kind of like
Speaker 1: a cat tongue. Yeah, that's so cool. I've like done
Speaker 1: little stingray touch tanks before. Um, it's just petting them
Speaker 1: the right way. I mean, they tell you too, you
Speaker 1: haven't vigorously rubbed array like. No, I'm a I'm a
Speaker 1: very lawful, good sort of rule following, like you know,
Speaker 1: doing the two finger only pet in one direction. So
Speaker 1: I think that's probably for the best uh to do
Speaker 1: in a touch tank because those poor things are probably
Speaker 1: stressed out enough as it is. No, I'm just trying
Speaker 1: to give them a good time. It's okay, I'm just
Speaker 1: trying to be respectful of their space. But yeah, that's
Speaker 1: a that's guard chomp. I mean, I think he's a guy.
Speaker 1: He was a cool guy. Remember I remember, you know,
Speaker 1: try eating one up when I was playing Pearl version
Speaker 1: when I was younger, and um, it took a thousand
Speaker 1: years because they are they take forever to train, but
Speaker 1: it's worth it. They're They're super strong and a great
Speaker 1: Pokemon to have on your team if you can catch one.
Speaker 1: And you can also use them to help stand down
Speaker 1: um you know, woodworking projects with those denticles, so they're
Speaker 1: functional exactly multipurpose car chum. So we've talked about the
Speaker 1: Moto Moto Turtle, who should be a Pokemon and maybe
Speaker 1: even is with the what was it turtle Tron absolutely
Speaker 1: should be the name. Yes, I mean turtle Nader is
Speaker 1: pretty good too. Um. And then we've talked about the
Speaker 1: guard Chomp, the hammerhead shark inspired pokemon with h denticles
Speaker 1: on its skin. And now I want to nominate another
Speaker 1: animal that I think should be a Pokemon, or if
Speaker 1: it is already a Pokemon, I want to know about it.
Speaker 1: And this is the cus cuss of Northern Australia and
Speaker 1: New Guinea. So they cast cuss c u s c us. Wow.
Speaker 1: So they are a marsupial uh. And as we all know,
Speaker 1: marsupials get really weird. They are strange animals. Uh. And
Speaker 1: so for the cuss cuss they all look incredible. So
Speaker 1: there are different species, um, but they all basically look
Speaker 1: like if you took a chameleon and gave it for
Speaker 1: so yeah. Yeah. So they have this long, prehensile tail
Speaker 1: that and they are not using it to grab tree branches.
Speaker 1: They curl it under them chameleon style. And further adding
Speaker 1: to that sort of weird reptile effect is that the
Speaker 1: bottom side of the tail does not have for it
Speaker 1: is sort of this pink rough texture. It's got these
Speaker 1: rough bumps on it, and that scale like texture of
Speaker 1: the underside of the tail helps it to grip branches
Speaker 1: and even food like leaves, fruit flowers, small animals, eggs,
Speaker 1: so that it can be very opportunistic with its food
Speaker 1: and grab things. So let's get into some more general
Speaker 1: information about the cuscus. So it has it is ar boreal,
Speaker 1: it is tree dwelling. Thus the importance of these chameleon
Speaker 1: like features because when you whenever, they are traits in
Speaker 1: one animal that are similar to traits and a completely
Speaker 1: unrelated animal, right like chameleons, reptiles, cuss cusses, and marsupial
Speaker 1: totally different evolutionary pounds, but we see these similar features,
Speaker 1: like these opposable digits. So they have these two opposable
Speaker 1: digits on their hands, just similar, very similar to those
Speaker 1: digits on a chameleon, so that they can grab tree branches.
Speaker 1: And it has these big bulging eyes again kind of
Speaker 1: similar to a chameleon with snake like slits that they
Speaker 1: can use to see in low light conditions and then
Speaker 1: constrict in highlight conditions. So they're about the size of
Speaker 1: a house cat. Some species are a little smaller, some
Speaker 1: species are a little bigger. There are a few different species,
Speaker 1: all having some sort of different range of coat colorations.
Speaker 1: So the biggest is the bear cuss cuss, which is
Speaker 1: the most intimidating looking of the cuss cusses. Uh. It
Speaker 1: has this dark gray fur and then these like sort
Speaker 1: of yellowish irises black peoples, and then black sclera around
Speaker 1: the eyes that make them look kind of haunted and intimidating.
Speaker 1: But they are just herbivores, although it is true they'll
Speaker 1: sometimes grab a little animal and pop it in their
Speaker 1: mouth just to give it a shot. Uh. So they will,
Speaker 1: they will, uh that they're opportunistic. Is this the one
Speaker 1: that you've got a picture of here, that's like the
Speaker 1: gray one at the end, let's see. Yeah, probably it's
Speaker 1: the solid yes, that one that guy. Do you think
Speaker 1: is this in your notes anywhere? Do you think that
Speaker 1: this could be the origin of the drop bear mythos?
Speaker 1: Have you heard of this? Yeah? So the drop bear
Speaker 1: is the Australian legend of uh, some kind of terrifying
Speaker 1: bear dropping out of the trees and maulling you. I
Speaker 1: thought the origin of that is just like that is
Speaker 1: sort of it's like an irate koala that they I'm
Speaker 1: looking at him like if you describe a drop bear
Speaker 1: to me, I would imagine this dude right here. The
Speaker 1: only problem is I'm not sure this one is in
Speaker 1: Australia or if it's just in New Guinea or in Indonesia.
Speaker 1: So this one is actually only found in Indonesia, so
Speaker 1: it can't be a drop bear. Okay, it's ruled out
Speaker 1: as the possible drop bear candidate, although maybe one of
Speaker 1: them like floated over to Australia, like on a raft
Speaker 1: of coconuts or something. And then you know rogue. So
Speaker 1: there are other species of cuscuss, all adorable and strange
Speaker 1: in their own ways. There is the black spotted cust
Speaker 1: cut us that looks like a dalmatian with a red
Speaker 1: face and a long curly tail. And there is the
Speaker 1: common spotted cuss cuss that has these reddish brown spots
Speaker 1: and sort of an orange face. And then there are
Speaker 1: white cuss cusses. But the white cuss cuss is not
Speaker 1: a different species of cuss cuss from the common spotted
Speaker 1: cuss cuss. They are females, so female cuss cusses do
Speaker 1: not have spots whereas the males do. So the females
Speaker 1: are usually a solid color, either all white or a
Speaker 1: creamy color or kind of grayish the females. Also, because
Speaker 1: they are marsupials, they do have a pouch where they're
Speaker 1: young can stay while nursing. So while they are absolutely
Speaker 1: adorable looking, they are very pugnacious. They're not they are
Speaker 1: ready ready to get into a pokemon fight. So males
Speaker 1: often fight with each other for terror tory, and they
Speaker 1: are solitary animals. They're ready to throw down at a
Speaker 1: moment's notice. They are ready to exactly. Yeah. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: they're one of the most bizarre looking marsupials, most bizarre
Speaker 1: looking mammals in my opinion. It it really does look
Speaker 1: to me like someone crossed a chameleon with a mammal
Speaker 1: and then you came up with this animal and it's
Speaker 1: it's but it is absolutely adorable in a very weird way. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to think of like other mammals that have
Speaker 1: that like prehensile tail, and all I'm coming up with
Speaker 1: are like certain types of monkeys do possums do? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah, Okay,
Speaker 1: I can you know what now that you say that,
Speaker 1: I am seeing some similarity some family resemblance this guy
Speaker 1: and our possums. Yeah, and both opossums and possums are
Speaker 1: like the North American apossums and the Australian possums are
Speaker 1: um marsupials. In fact, they are the only marsupial found
Speaker 1: in uh North America. I love them so much. They're amazing,
Speaker 1: my pals. I do. Now that you say that this
Speaker 1: guy does look like and please don't ask me about this.
Speaker 1: This might ruffle some feathers, but I think this is
Speaker 1: a cuter opossum, Like this is cuter than the opossum.
Speaker 1: Now are we talking about the the American opossum? Are
Speaker 1: we talking about the Yeah, the Virginia opossum, as I
Speaker 1: think it is called. It's it's not the cutest thing
Speaker 1: in the world. I mean, I think they're cute. But
Speaker 1: I'm looking at what you have, the picture you have
Speaker 1: of the spotted cuscus, and I really it would have
Speaker 1: to go to this one in the essance department. As
Speaker 1: much as I love apossums as well as as the possums,
Speaker 1: just p O. S. S U. M. Found in Australia
Speaker 1: another marsupial. Yeah, I I these guys have stolen my heart,
Speaker 1: They've stolen me away from It's just they're just so
Speaker 1: because I love chameleons, right, and then if you're if
Speaker 1: you were like to tell me what's the one feature
Speaker 1: of a chameleon you don't like, and I'm like, not
Speaker 1: fluffy enough, can't pet it, And so you add the
Speaker 1: fur to it and it's like you've done it. Now. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: the cuss cuss cannot move its eyes independently like a
Speaker 1: chameleon can, so that would be by one improvement would
Speaker 1: be to have those independently moving, cool telescoping eyes. But no,
Speaker 1: it doesn't have that, but yeah, it is. It is
Speaker 1: absolutely adorable and strange and functional like this tail it
Speaker 1: can use to climb, can use to grab things, and
Speaker 1: same with its little hands. It's a little weirdly almost,
Speaker 1: you know, too close to being humanlike. And it's not
Speaker 1: a primate, which is always throws me for a loop
Speaker 1: when they have the little graspy hands like with with
Speaker 1: with a possums or with raccoons. It's like, you're not
Speaker 1: a primate. What are you doing with your little hands,
Speaker 1: your little functional hands, Like, what are you even do?
Speaker 1: What do you even? You're not doing homework with that
Speaker 1: right holding pencils? Yeah, you're not texting. You cannot tweet
Speaker 1: with those thumbs. That would be if I saw one
Speaker 1: of these things, like a little tiny cell phone tweeting,
Speaker 1: like just angrily tweeting the show like well, actually, yes,
Speaker 1: in fact, I do I have a TikTok too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: oh I bet they would too. Yeah, you were mentioning
Speaker 1: their hands and their hands actually do look like chameleon
Speaker 1: hands to how they have that kind of like split
Speaker 1: between the fists. Yes, that's just like a million hands. Yeah, yes,
Speaker 1: that's like kind of I mean I wouldn't go as
Speaker 1: far as to say it's like parallel evolution. They're not
Speaker 1: close enough for that, but it they have these features
Speaker 1: that are definitely very similar. Yeah, I mean it makes sense, right,
Speaker 1: similar conditions. They're both like living in trees, climbing branch.
Speaker 1: These these guys do not eject their tongue and then
Speaker 1: hit prey with it, but you know, give me a shot.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they should hang out and like sort of brainstorm
Speaker 1: together because you know, it seems like it seems like
Speaker 1: a good collab to me. Oh my gosh, can you
Speaker 1: imagine that crossover event? It's I can't, I truly can't.
Speaker 1: It's making me go cross side. Maybe we could get
Speaker 1: the cuss cust to get to develop a nice cask
Speaker 1: would be the customers, Oh my god, a cask we
Speaker 1: get we put for like the chameleon gets for the
Speaker 1: cuss cuss gets a cast. It's this is gonna this
Speaker 1: is gonna work. We're all eventually going to become some
Speaker 1: amalgamation of cuss, cuss, chameleon, and crab. I think it's
Speaker 1: the ultimate, the ultimate form. That's true. It's eventually going
Speaker 1: to wind up as a crab anyway, So I waste
Speaker 1: but a fluffy crab like YETI crab. Yeah, yeah, those
Speaker 1: actually exist. I was gonna say that I don't think
Speaker 1: that there is a cuss cuss pokemon. Um, but if
Speaker 1: there there was, or if they made one, because I'm
Speaker 1: just saying prime opportunity right here, Like you know, this
Speaker 1: is definitely a great candidate for one. I was thinking
Speaker 1: maybe it would be a yeah, it's right there, you guys.
Speaker 1: It would make a great like grass type, I think
Speaker 1: because it lives in the trees, so I think it
Speaker 1: would be a really cool grass type. That's my thought.
Speaker 1: Maybe a starter. This would be a great grass starter.
Speaker 1: And then you could have a move called tail grab
Speaker 1: where it grabs you with its weird bumpy tail and
Speaker 1: then it just like picks you out a little bit.
Speaker 1: You're like, so, Ellen, tell me a story about another Pokemon. Okay,
Speaker 1: my second pick for a Pokemon is A It's another
Speaker 1: ground and dragon type. Like you see, I have a
Speaker 1: I have a an aesthetic that I like. Um, but
Speaker 1: it's very, very different. This is a ground and dragon
Speaker 1: type introduced in the third generation of Pokemon games, which
Speaker 1: were Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, and it is called flag On.
Speaker 1: There we go. Yeah, is a really and I could not, like,
Speaker 1: I could not paint the full picture of flag On
Speaker 1: without talking about the Pokemon that evolved into flag On. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 1: so I included the whole like evolutionary line there, I'm
Speaker 1: looking at these little dudes, I'm looking at them and
Speaker 1: I'm loving it. I'm really loving it. And that's already
Speaker 1: see where I'm going with it. If you're looking at
Speaker 1: the evolutionary line, you're probably going to talk about this.
Speaker 1: But one thing that's interesting about Pokemon is like these stages, right,
Speaker 1: they call it like it evolving, but it's more like
Speaker 1: a metamorphosis. Right. And with most animals, like uh, most mammals,
Speaker 1: you know, birds, you kind of start out as like
Speaker 1: a smaller, more maybe more hairless, and ugly looking version
Speaker 1: of the adult self. Of course, there are things that happen,
Speaker 1: you know, puberty, um and and and changes. Your body
Speaker 1: may go through changes as you grow, but most animals
Speaker 1: basically start out or not most animals by numbers, but
Speaker 1: many of the animals we are familiar with sort of
Speaker 1: start out as a smaller version of its adult self.
Speaker 1: But this is not true of insects. They can go
Speaker 1: through Obviously, we have things that start out as larva
Speaker 1: and then metamorphizes into adults, like caterpillars. But there are
Speaker 1: insects that will go through many stages of nymphs and
Speaker 1: in stars before they reach their fully mature version, and
Speaker 1: they can look ridiculously different. Like if you've ever seen
Speaker 1: a nymph of a ladybug, it's freaky looking, it's spiky,
Speaker 1: it's scary looking, cute at all, not cute, and then
Speaker 1: it metamorphosizes metamorphosis. I cannot say it, Danny Kafka. It's
Speaker 1: a cop casque nightmare that they go through metamorphosis into
Speaker 1: a beautiful adult. But uh so when I see a
Speaker 1: pokemon that is a bug type pokemon, I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: this this is accurate this tracks because it has these
Speaker 1: very different evolutions. Yeah, a lot of times people like
Speaker 1: propose changes to like Pokemon's evolution line based on like, well,
Speaker 1: I think this Pokemon actually looks more like it should
Speaker 1: evolve into this other Pokemon because the first stage looks
Speaker 1: more like the third stage. And while I get what
Speaker 1: they're going for, where because it looks like a more
Speaker 1: gradual transition in the real world, that's not you know,
Speaker 1: you can have a larval form of an animal that
Speaker 1: looks nothing like it's adult form, which really plays out
Speaker 1: in flag On, because I will admit, you know, for
Speaker 1: most of my life, I don't live in a place
Speaker 1: where the real life flag On lives, so I did
Speaker 1: not know that it was based on a real animal.
Speaker 1: So I'm looking at this evolutionary line from there called
Speaker 1: Trappinch to Vibrata to flag On, and trap Inch is
Speaker 1: definitely the odd one out here. Trap Inch looks nothing
Speaker 1: like it's later evolutions. Yeah, it looks like a little
Speaker 1: bug turtle. It does. So. Vibrabra and flyg On have
Speaker 1: these big wings, they have long, thin bodies. They look
Speaker 1: more more insect like um but they look like dragons,
Speaker 1: look more like desert dragons. We got the middle stage
Speaker 1: that looks kind of like a fly with diamonds for wing,
Speaker 1: like diamond shaped wings and diamond shaped tail. It kind
Speaker 1: of looks like it actually looks sort of like a
Speaker 1: mayflies larval stage with wings. And then the adult version
Speaker 1: looks like a little dragon but with big bug eyes um.
Speaker 1: And then like the other and diamond shaped, big diamond
Speaker 1: shaped wings and a in a big tail. And then
Speaker 1: the but the babiest version, the most baby of them,
Speaker 1: looks like a weird trap bug bug turtle. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: so trappinge, you know, just kind of looks I always
Speaker 1: thought that it looked like it's head looks kind of
Speaker 1: like a crab claw. Yeah, you know, like it has
Speaker 1: these big bear trap jaws that are with this big
Speaker 1: round head. So I always as a kid, I feel
Speaker 1: like I really thought it was like a crab. And
Speaker 1: it was so so confusing to me because I was like,
Speaker 1: this doesn't it doesn't look anything like what it evolves into,
Speaker 1: what it grows up into. So I really did not
Speaker 1: understand what this evolution line was all about. But it
Speaker 1: wasn't until like adulthood when I started to learn what
Speaker 1: more animals were Um that I found out that flagon
Speaker 1: is based on the real life ant lion. Did not
Speaker 1: know what ant lions were until very recently, because it
Speaker 1: makes so much sense, doesn't it. Um. So, as you know,
Speaker 1: ant lions are insects that live in dry arid regions,
Speaker 1: which is not where I live. I live in Florida,
Speaker 1: which is the opposite of a dry and arid region,
Speaker 1: so we don't have those where I mushy region Florida lions,
Speaker 1: I think is called wet and mushy, it's called yucky. Um.
Speaker 1: But so if you, like me, are new to ant
Speaker 1: lions and did not grow up with them. Uh. They
Speaker 1: as an adult they look kind of like a damselfly.
Speaker 1: Uh for a dragonfly, I think they look like dragonflies.
Speaker 1: But if you know what damsel flies are, look like
Speaker 1: those two there's a long, skinny bod with two pairs
Speaker 1: of large wings. Um, they're not related. Antlions are not
Speaker 1: related to damsel flies or dragonflies. It's just a coincidence
Speaker 1: of convergent evolution, like you were talking about. Um. There
Speaker 1: are over two thousand species of ant lions, so there's
Speaker 1: lots of different types of them, including over a hundred
Speaker 1: of them that live in North America, but lots of
Speaker 1: them live elsewhere, like in Africa or the Middle East.
Speaker 1: I think there might be some in Asia, probably um.
Speaker 1: But there's lots of different types of antlions, but you
Speaker 1: can find a lot of them right here in North
Speaker 1: America where I live, just not in Florida. So trappinch
Speaker 1: being the baby form of flag on, is based on
Speaker 1: the larval form of ant lions, which are probably the
Speaker 1: form that most people are familiar with, because ant lion
Speaker 1: larva have massive, jagged, sickle shaped jaws and they hold
Speaker 1: their jaws open like a bear trap at the bottom
Speaker 1: of a funnel shaped pit that they dig in the
Speaker 1: sand by burrowing backwards in a spiral. And when they
Speaker 1: do this, it's really funny because they're kind of wiggling
Speaker 1: their butt backwards. They're like torking in a giant spiral
Speaker 1: like backwards to to dig this little cone shaped m burrow.
Speaker 1: So they wait with their jaws open. You know. That's
Speaker 1: how you got to get comfortable in the couch. You
Speaker 1: can get that little bit but a formulation. So the
Speaker 1: reason they do this is so that ants who are
Speaker 1: just crawling around on the sand none the wiser. They
Speaker 1: fall down the slope into the funnel that they've created,
Speaker 1: and then once they hit the bottom, the ant lion
Speaker 1: snaps its jaws shut and eats the ant so kind
Speaker 1: of a diabolical situation. I think this is like the
Speaker 1: inspiration for like the Sarlac from Star Wars, which was
Speaker 1: in turn, I believe inspired by Dune Um. I'm not
Speaker 1: unfortunately I have not seen done yet, but it's you
Speaker 1: see this in a lot of sci fi. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of worm like snappy tunneling creatures that that there
Speaker 1: that have this theme, like the babbitt Uh worm. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's got those pincers just like the ant lion. It's
Speaker 1: a lot longer, a lot longer of a thing. And
Speaker 1: then yeah, and then it pops out of there, grabs
Speaker 1: a fish and pulls it in there. It's horrifying, but yeah,
Speaker 1: these ant lions. You know, it's interesting because when I
Speaker 1: was a kid, I played a very different game that
Speaker 1: involved the ant lion, and that was I think it
Speaker 1: was just called aunt sim or sim Ant might have
Speaker 1: been called sim Ant, and it was an ant simulator
Speaker 1: and you went around as an aunt and basically you
Speaker 1: were trying to because you were an aunt it was
Speaker 1: all about the success of the colony, not necessarily one
Speaker 1: individual ant, which took me a while to learn, because
Speaker 1: I would keep going around as one aunt and I
Speaker 1: kept dying, and I was like, well, I keep dying,
Speaker 1: and then it's like, oh, no, I can switch to
Speaker 1: the other ants. And and because you're it's about the
Speaker 1: success of the ant colony, and one of your nemesis
Speaker 1: is NEMESSI Nemesis was an ant lion, and you would walk.
Speaker 1: If you accidentally walked over ground, you had to pay
Speaker 1: very careful attention to the ground. If you got too
Speaker 1: close to something that looked like kind of a little indentation,
Speaker 1: you would get snapped up, and that was bad. It
Speaker 1: made me sad. That's incredible. That is such an interesting
Speaker 1: like mechanic for a video game. So when you were
Speaker 1: saying that, like you used to play us, I didn't
Speaker 1: think that you were going to say a video game.
Speaker 1: I thought you were going to talk about like actually
Speaker 1: playing with ant lion larva, because like, no, if you
Speaker 1: if you kind of like look around, a lot of
Speaker 1: I guess a lot of kids like to play with
Speaker 1: ant lion larva. They like to like drop little bugs
Speaker 1: into their pits and oh my, like as if you
Speaker 1: if you kind of just like touch the sides of
Speaker 1: their funnel, then they'll snap their jaws shut because I
Speaker 1: think they're they're like detecting the vibrations in the sand
Speaker 1: so you can just get a sandwich. Yeah, like like
Speaker 1: give it a little something for its troubles. I'm sure
Speaker 1: that's energetically expensive to snap their jaws shut like that.
Speaker 1: But um, so while they're when they're digging their traps,
Speaker 1: they leave these little trails in the sand that make
Speaker 1: these little designs, which has earned them the nickname of
Speaker 1: doodle bug in North America. So some people in doodle bugs,
Speaker 1: which I guess is like way too cute of a
Speaker 1: nickname for such a horrifying looking little critter, Like it
Speaker 1: does not if you just look at a picture of one,
Speaker 1: they do not look like something you would call a
Speaker 1: doodle bug. That seems very benign of a name for
Speaker 1: the sinister looking creature. Wow, yeah, yeah, it's they are
Speaker 1: quite sinister. And then they kind of evolve into something
Speaker 1: more elegant and and pretty. A dragonfly. Yeah, have you
Speaker 1: heard of a thread wing ant lion? I don't think so.
Speaker 1: They are weirdoos so they are. It's just kind of
Speaker 1: like the same situation as the other antlines. Um, they
Speaker 1: evolve into something that looks like a cross between a
Speaker 1: dragonfly and a butterfly. It's quite beautiful. But they start
Speaker 1: out life like like the antline creepy body, creepy pincer head,
Speaker 1: but just take that head and put it on a
Speaker 1: long stick. Like they have this bizarre giraffe head, and uh,
Speaker 1: it's just the weirdest looking thing. It's like kind of
Speaker 1: scary when you think about it's pincer head and all
Speaker 1: these things, but then the fact it's got this long
Speaker 1: like stick neck, it makes it kind of more goofy
Speaker 1: than it is scary. It reminds me of those things
Speaker 1: that you can get that's like, yeah, like a t
Speaker 1: rex head on a long things that you pull the
Speaker 1: trigger and it closes the jaws. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: agree agree. I'm so glad that they have been like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm actually going to do that with my body right, yeah,
Speaker 1: just like I can't reach well, I don't want to know.
Speaker 1: She's just soup. Get along your neck. Yeah, that's really funny.
Speaker 1: Like I feel like the next time my taller husband
Speaker 1: puts something up high that I can't reach, and I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: I've got a trick and just scratch my neck out
Speaker 1: like two feet up, just go go, gadget neck. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So if you if you catch a trapp inch in
Speaker 1: so the trappinches like based on the larva and not
Speaker 1: the full grown form um. If you catch it in
Speaker 1: Pokemon ruby, it's Polka dex Entry says trappinches. Nest Is
Speaker 1: is a sloped, bold like pit dug in the sand.
Speaker 1: One patiently waits for prey to tumble down the pit.
Speaker 1: It's giant jaws have enough strength to crush even boulders. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so trapped inches a little bit more serious than doodle bug.
Speaker 1: You don't want to stick your finger in that hole,
Speaker 1: and that that is the saying of this podcast. You
Speaker 1: don't want to stick your finger into strange holes. Don't
Speaker 1: make sure that you're uh super familiar with the hole
Speaker 1: you're about to stick your finger into. Yes, um, Pokemon,
Speaker 1: like Poka x entries are always so over the top
Speaker 1: like this, like like it has the strength to crush
Speaker 1: boulders or with guard chump, it's like it's as fast
Speaker 1: as a jet plane, you know, Like that every Pokemon
Speaker 1: will it'll be like something the size of a house cat,
Speaker 1: and they'll be like it can crush a mountain, like
Speaker 1: they have the most like they're over the top all
Speaker 1: the time. It can be also over the top like dramatic,
Speaker 1: like Cubane is this adorable little dinosaur with like a
Speaker 1: skull on its head, and it's like this was its
Speaker 1: mother's skull that it wears on its head to help
Speaker 1: it sleep at night as it cries. It's like, ohkay, Pokemon,
Speaker 1: ghost type Pokemon. There are some ghost type Pokemon where
Speaker 1: like the Polka x enter will be like, yeah, this
Speaker 1: is a ghost of a person who died. Okay, okay game.
Speaker 1: This is a game played by kids around the Thanks
Speaker 1: Mr mcreel Um. But so you know, I like to
Speaker 1: think about how like the real world biology of the
Speaker 1: animal plays out in the game itself. Um, And there
Speaker 1: is an interesting way that this plays out for trappinch Um.
Speaker 1: The ant lions spend most of their life in their
Speaker 1: larval stage. So you're probably more familiar with the larval
Speaker 1: stage because that's how they spend most of their life.
Speaker 1: Once they assume their adult form, where they have wings
Speaker 1: and look like a dragonfly, they only live like that
Speaker 1: for about a month, and during that time that I
Speaker 1: would have expected, actually, because sometimes, yeah, those adult stages
Speaker 1: can last for like twenty four hours. Yeah, you're really
Speaker 1: on the clock is taking for at that point. But
Speaker 1: they can survive off of nectar and pollen while they're
Speaker 1: in their adult forms, so they have a little bit
Speaker 1: of time. They got about a month. Um. But I
Speaker 1: think that that like lengthy larval stage is referenced in
Speaker 1: trap inches life cycle in the game. It doesn't evolve
Speaker 1: so like it takes the next form until level thirty five,
Speaker 1: which is far above average for the first of a
Speaker 1: three stage evolution line UM. I checked Bulbapdia and Bulba
Speaker 1: Pda says that the average the average level for the
Speaker 1: first stage of a three stage evolution is about twenty three,
Speaker 1: so it's twelve levels higher than the average UM So
Speaker 1: it does take quite a while to train a trap
Speaker 1: Inch up all the way into a flag on. So
Speaker 1: I think that's like an interesting nod to like the
Speaker 1: real ant lions life cycle, Like, oh yeah, it's gonna
Speaker 1: stay a baby for most of its life. I think
Speaker 1: it's pretty cool. Yeah, I like it when they just
Speaker 1: like incorporate that into the game. Mechanics. Yeah, the next
Speaker 1: the last Pokemon I have to talk about. There's a
Speaker 1: very interesting way that ecology plays into the game. I
Speaker 1: really can't wait to talk about it. Well, I'm excited,
Speaker 1: so I'm going to take a break to scream in excitement,
Speaker 1: which you guys don't want to hear. Uh, And then
Speaker 1: I'll be and then we'll be right back. Oh, I
Speaker 1: can't scream. I have a baby in the other room.
Speaker 1: I'm screaming in my heart. What's that thing from? Like
Speaker 1: that Japanese side where it's like, please scream inside your heart,
Speaker 1: scream inside your heart? Thank you? So tell me about
Speaker 1: the Pokemon. Okay, I for my grand finale, I have
Speaker 1: a really interesting pokemon that is actually a new one. Um.
Speaker 1: This is a poison and water type pokemon introduced in
Speaker 1: Gen seven, which were Sun and Moon, whose were actually
Speaker 1: like somewhat recent games. These pokemon are called Marini and
Speaker 1: Toxic pex m. I dropped a couple of pictures of
Speaker 1: them for you. Like that they are such like almost
Speaker 1: silly looking pokemon, but in a very interesting way, they're
Speaker 1: like endearing I think. So. These Pokemon both have these thick,
Speaker 1: spiky tentacles that sprout out from their heads. So in Marini,
Speaker 1: which is like the baby version, they resemble hair I
Speaker 1: think they look like Medusa if she had like thorny
Speaker 1: tentacles instead of snakes for her hair um. And then
Speaker 1: in toxo Pex, they form a dome around the pokemon's body,
Speaker 1: and the pokemon's actual body is like, really really small.
Speaker 1: It's like a small body suspended inside of a dome
Speaker 1: made out of spiky tentacles. It looks like an umbrella,
Speaker 1: but with like that can move like across a tween
Speaker 1: and an umbrella and like ap peeled banana. Yeah for sure,
Speaker 1: I see that, and a little angry dude in the
Speaker 1: middle of it. Inside. Oh yeah, he looks all mad.
Speaker 1: He's got jagged teeth talks. Pex is kind of silly
Speaker 1: looking inside of his little dome. But the reason for
Speaker 1: this is that both of these pokemon's designs are based
Speaker 1: on the real life Crowd of Thorns Starfish love this creature. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, I love him when he's doing the right thing.
Speaker 1: So the crowd of Thorne's starfish, like their Pokemon counterparts,
Speaker 1: have many arms. They can have up to twenty one arms.
Speaker 1: Um starfish don't only have don't only come in that
Speaker 1: like five raid form, but I think is the most
Speaker 1: common that you'll see. They could have tons of arms, um.
Speaker 1: You know, they can come in so many different shapes
Speaker 1: and sizes, but the crown of thorns starfish has up
Speaker 1: to one max I think is the highest number ever recorded. Um.
Speaker 1: And then all of those arms that they have are
Speaker 1: covered in venomous spikes, which is why marinas are part
Speaker 1: poison type UM. So you can see that like play
Speaker 1: out in the Pokemon. So for the crowd of thorn starfish,
Speaker 1: the venomous spikes protected from predators makes it really difficult
Speaker 1: for things to chomp them up. Yeah, I feel like
Speaker 1: I like to eat seafood that has fewer venomous spikes
Speaker 1: than the one you guys have fewer, not none, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean you got to keep a few in there
Speaker 1: to like make it a little spicy. That's how it's
Speaker 1: a cannopy. You can pick it up by the spikes.
Speaker 1: But this this is just Yeah, they are really not
Speaker 1: an inviting meal, but they themselves are predators. And crayon
Speaker 1: is coral polyps um. I don't know if you've talked
Speaker 1: about coral. Yeah, I do. The sort of massive mating
Speaker 1: sex events of coral some of the biggest mass mating
Speaker 1: events where it's just just disgusting. And the polyps of
Speaker 1: that that coral r and D living creatures and in
Speaker 1: their larval stage will settle down on a reef and
Speaker 1: eventually grow into the weird mineral like organisms that we know.
Speaker 1: But yeah, they do not. They do not start out
Speaker 1: life as sessile, as sedentary. They start out life moving
Speaker 1: around and trying to find a place. Yeah. So um
Speaker 1: that is the coral polyps are absolutely the bread and
Speaker 1: butter for the start the crown of thorn starfish, that's
Speaker 1: their favorite meal. And they do this in a really
Speaker 1: gross way, like they eat the coral. This is kind
Speaker 1: of like how starfish eat, but I think it's nasty
Speaker 1: and some kids might find it interesting. So they eat
Speaker 1: by puking their guts out out literally, so they take
Speaker 1: their insides and make them outsides by just like vomiting
Speaker 1: their guts out through the middle of their body through uh.
Speaker 1: I believe the technical term is their mouth butt um,
Speaker 1: I think, but the scientific term is their mouth. But
Speaker 1: because they just have the it's just the one hole
Speaker 1: right for everything um going in coming out. It's just
Speaker 1: just the one central sort of portal to inside of
Speaker 1: the starfish, so all purpose utility hole. Yeah, it's just
Speaker 1: the one hole. So they invert their insides out through
Speaker 1: this hole, and then they wrap their guts around the
Speaker 1: coral and digest the tissue around their skeleton and eat
Speaker 1: them like that. When you see a piece of dead coral,
Speaker 1: even it may feel like this sort of hard rocky
Speaker 1: thing with all these little like divots in it um.
Speaker 1: But when that coral is alive, each of those divots
Speaker 1: is going to hold a little pall up and these
Speaker 1: little polyps kind of it's like like little tiny sea
Speaker 1: an enemy. I mean, like some coral can actually grow
Speaker 1: to be bigger, so the polyps are visible and larger
Speaker 1: and more flower like. But for some of these coral
Speaker 1: like it just looks like sort of fuzz. But that
Speaker 1: fuzz is made up of all these individual little polyps
Speaker 1: that look like these little teeny tiny trees but or
Speaker 1: or an enemies. But they are alive, and so when
Speaker 1: they do get peaked on by the starfish they do
Speaker 1: that does kill the polyps straight up, not having a
Speaker 1: good time. And and there is a pokemon based on coral.
Speaker 1: It is called Corsela. It was introduced in the second generation,
Speaker 1: so it's actually been around for a long time. Um
Speaker 1: and this plays out in a very interesting way in
Speaker 1: the games in which Marini intoxic pecks were introduced. Um
Speaker 1: So in the Sun and Moon games, there is this
Speaker 1: mechanic called an s O S battle where if you're
Speaker 1: in a battle with a wild Pokemon and the wild
Speaker 1: Pokemon has been injured and is running low on health,
Speaker 1: it may call for help from an ally, so it
Speaker 1: may you know, call in a buddy to join its
Speaker 1: team and fight against you. So if you're in a
Speaker 1: battle with a wild Corsela, which is the coral Pokemon,
Speaker 1: it may call for help from an ally, which could
Speaker 1: summon another Corsela, which would then join the battle against
Speaker 1: you the player. Or sometimes it may alert instead of
Speaker 1: a of an ally corsela, it alerts a marine, which
Speaker 1: joins the battle, but it attacks Corsela instead of attacking you.
Speaker 1: I think that if you attack the Marini, then it
Speaker 1: will then like attack you in retaliation, but until you
Speaker 1: attack it, it will attack Corsela instead. So that is,
Speaker 1: as far as I know, the only like Pokemon interaction
Speaker 1: in which an s OS battle will like call a
Speaker 1: hostile Pokemon. Um. But just I think that is just
Speaker 1: absolutely such an interesting little like nod to ecology in
Speaker 1: the game of course, Oh no, Corsela isn't trouble. Oh
Speaker 1: come help me another Corsela. And then a Marina is like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's my prey. I'm going to join this battle, which
Speaker 1: I love because that's one of the risks in the
Speaker 1: Animal Kingdom. Of course, not not necessarily with coral because
Speaker 1: they don't uh, they don't call to each other necessarily,
Speaker 1: but like the like when you have an animal who
Speaker 1: has a call to its conspecifics, that is, other members
Speaker 1: of its own species, it does risk telling a predator,
Speaker 1: Hey I'm over here. Yeah, so, and I just think
Speaker 1: it's like an interesting way to help people like learn ecology,
Speaker 1: Like oh now I know that like starfish eat coral
Speaker 1: because I played the game and I saw it happen,
Speaker 1: you know, Like, I think that's one of the coolest
Speaker 1: things they did in that game. I love that. I
Speaker 1: love that so much. Yeah, and and this there's one
Speaker 1: other way that Marini and toxic Pex in the game
Speaker 1: mirror like real life Krown of Thorn starfish, and that
Speaker 1: is that they can have a passive hidden ability, and
Speaker 1: that's called regenerator restores some of them. So in the
Speaker 1: game it restores some of their health when they're switched
Speaker 1: out of battle. Uh. And this is a reference to
Speaker 1: the crown of thorns starfish is ability to regenerate its
Speaker 1: own limbs. It's not as easy in real life. It's
Speaker 1: a while. Yeah, it takes around six months from the
Speaker 1: times you have sort of this weird baby short limb
Speaker 1: in the meantime, a little nub of like in the
Speaker 1: Deadpool movie. Um, where it's like growing the limb back
Speaker 1: and it's like tiny for a while. Um. But I
Speaker 1: saw that in some rare cases they have actually bounced
Speaker 1: back from being cut in half. You can cut the
Speaker 1: whole starfish in half and they just grow a new starfish.
Speaker 1: So um. In this this has caused some problems in
Speaker 1: the situation in which okay, so, in in normal healthy numbers,
Speaker 1: crown of thorn starfish play really important role in regulating
Speaker 1: the population of coral to make way for new growth. Um.
Speaker 1: So it's important to have them around in normal numbers.
Speaker 1: But in some cases the starfish is population can boom
Speaker 1: and you have way too many crown of thorn starfish. UM.
Speaker 1: So this could result from things like overfishing of their predators,
Speaker 1: like the giant triton is a fish that eats them
Speaker 1: a lot, so if you over fish the triton, they
Speaker 1: have fewer predators, there's more starfish. But it can also
Speaker 1: happen from an excess of nutrients in the water, so
Speaker 1: farmland can run off into the water, and then starfish
Speaker 1: larva are like, oh delicious, Yes, lots of nutrients in
Speaker 1: the water, so then you have more starfish making it
Speaker 1: into adulthood. Or it could be weakened currents, like with
Speaker 1: if current change and currents are weaker, they're not pushing
Speaker 1: the larva around, and then starfish larva get concentrated in
Speaker 1: a small area. So all of these factors kind of
Speaker 1: play into these outbreaks of crown of thorne starfish which
Speaker 1: can actually which can just completely devastate a coral reef.
Speaker 1: I saw a stat that said they could strip away
Speaker 1: up to nine of the living coral tissue on a reef,
Speaker 1: so um, big problem. And then you know, I was
Speaker 1: reading about how some people have tried to tackle this
Speaker 1: crown of thorne starfish outbreak, and one of the things
Speaker 1: that did not work was trying to cut the starfish
Speaker 1: in half. Tried to cut them in half to kill them,
Speaker 1: and that just made more of them. So don't try. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's kind of the hydress situation, you know, where you're like,
Speaker 1: I'll chop off this head, and then two more grow
Speaker 1: and you're like, all right, I'll chop off those heads,
Speaker 1: and then at a certain point you're like, Hercules, my dude,
Speaker 1: my poor dummy, my himbo, you gotta stoptop heads. He
Speaker 1: really was the original. He sent the blueprint, he did
Speaker 1: the lovable Himbo. So so don't pull the hercules and
Speaker 1: don't get starfish in half, and take care of the environment.
Speaker 1: It's it's delicate. Yeah, that was actually a big theme
Speaker 1: in like in more recent Pokemon games. There have been
Speaker 1: some major like ecology like environmentalist themes in the narratives
Speaker 1: of more recent games like Gen seven and eight. Um
Speaker 1: like they really went in they even like I didn't
Speaker 1: compile notes on this, but there are like conflicts between
Speaker 1: like invasive species because the Moon games were like kind
Speaker 1: of based on Hawaii, so you see this problem of
Speaker 1: like invasive species hunting native species. And then like there's
Speaker 1: like diverse like Pokemon have different forms based on like
Speaker 1: where they're where they're born. It's so interesting, Like more
Speaker 1: recent games have gotten so creative and incorporated so many
Speaker 1: interesting themes of like real life zoology. That is just fascinating.
Speaker 1: If you really like zoology, I feel like you could
Speaker 1: go either way, Like having a passion for zoology could
Speaker 1: get you really into Pokemon, or having a passion for
Speaker 1: Pokemon could get you really into zoology. I feel like
Speaker 1: that's just a lot of Pokemon is a gateway drug
Speaker 1: for zoology, and zoology is a gateway drug for Pokemon.
Speaker 1: Pokemon is like how biologists like set up a candy
Speaker 1: van outside of a school where they're like, hey, kids,
Speaker 1: you want to turn and then when you get close,
Speaker 1: they kidnap you and take you to a biology teach
Speaker 1: you knowledge like some kind of sick freak. Oh dare
Speaker 1: they so? Yeah? I mean I feel like a childhood
Speaker 1: spent playing Pokemon played an important role in my development
Speaker 1: for a passion in zoology. And you know this, these
Speaker 1: I feel like these are just some examples of like
Speaker 1: what you can actually learn from Pokemon. Yeah, no, I
Speaker 1: love that. And I feel like this is kind of
Speaker 1: a coincident or kismet, but an animal that I want
Speaker 1: to nominate as a pokemon is another marine animal, and
Speaker 1: it is the conch or or conk or uh sea snail.
Speaker 1: So you may only know the conch for its beautiful shell,
Speaker 1: or I guess Lord of the Flies, or I guess
Speaker 1: that one episode of SpongeBob where they have the talking,
Speaker 1: magical talking conch shell. Um. But I feel like if
Speaker 1: you have a decorative shell, it's probably conk shell, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you've seen it. Um. So the shell is very pretty,
Speaker 1: but in the ocean, it has live animals in it.
Speaker 1: So conscious are shells of a variety of large sea snails.
Speaker 1: So the Queen conch has that pretty pink and cream
Speaker 1: shell that is so famous, But there are many species
Speaker 1: of sea snails that have these that are called you
Speaker 1: know consch uh conscious so uh sadly because of those
Speaker 1: pretty shells, and also because their meat is I guess
Speaker 1: apparently delicious. Uh, they are often fished and harvested to sell.
Speaker 1: So um. The problem with taking these animals out of
Speaker 1: the environment is one you know, any time you hunt
Speaker 1: or fish something, if you do it to excess, then
Speaker 1: you can depopulate them. And also these conscious are very
Speaker 1: important uh in their environments, so they provide a home
Speaker 1: for a lot of different marine life. So there are
Speaker 1: I mean, it's obviously the shell is its own home
Speaker 1: that the sneak sea snail grew all by itself. Um,
Speaker 1: but it also is a home for other animals like
Speaker 1: porcelain craw slipper snails and cardinal fish who will cohabitate
Speaker 1: with the sea snail while it's still alive. And this
Speaker 1: is a commence a relationship because they neither hurt nor
Speaker 1: really help the snail. So they're just kind of couch surfing. Uh,
Speaker 1: they don't pay rent, but you also don't really notice them.
Speaker 1: So but they also buy their own food, so it's
Speaker 1: not that big a deal. They're not stealing your resources,
Speaker 1: you know, not stealing anything, but they're just kind of
Speaker 1: couch surfing and they clean up after themselves. Um yeah.
Speaker 1: And then after the conch dies, the snail inside of
Speaker 1: this shell dies. Their shells can be used by hermit crabs.
Speaker 1: Even the larger species of conscience can be used by
Speaker 1: giant hermit crabs. So these shells, while they may look
Speaker 1: very pretty above your mantle or something, they are actually
Speaker 1: really important to the environment. So while it doesn't necessarily hurt,
Speaker 1: like when one person takes a shell, obviously one to
Speaker 1: have a whole industry, and it's these are being collected
Speaker 1: for their shells and being bought and sold, and you
Speaker 1: know that presents a problem. And so even though the
Speaker 1: queen conch uh that one with that really pretty pink shell,
Speaker 1: it's not necessarily endangered globally speaking, but in certain areas
Speaker 1: it is. So that's important. It's significant because when an
Speaker 1: animal is starting to be threatened in a specific location,
Speaker 1: that can cause that whole small ecosystem in that area
Speaker 1: to have problems. So even if it has no like,
Speaker 1: the conscience's not gonna go extinct necessarily because it's got
Speaker 1: many different populations. But if that population, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: goes extinct, then then all these benefits that it provides
Speaker 1: to other animals in that area, either as shelter or
Speaker 1: as food, uh, is suddenly lacking. And so other animals
Speaker 1: in that area may run into two problems. Their populations
Speaker 1: may even be threatened. Um, so these are very important animals.
Speaker 1: But that's not even why I'm nominating it as a pokemon.
Speaker 1: It's because it is so goofy looking. It looks like
Speaker 1: a cartoon. It's it's the eyes. It's the googly eyes.
Speaker 1: So these shells have been so long and sort of
Speaker 1: our consciousness is just these decorative things. You don't even
Speaker 1: think of it as having a live animal in it,
Speaker 1: litt alone one with like cartoonish googly picks our eyes.
Speaker 1: So they have two eyeballs on long eyestalks, and the
Speaker 1: eyeballs have pupils pupils and colored irises which make them
Speaker 1: look like, you know, picks our eyeballs. Yeah, they look
Speaker 1: kind of human like cartoons, which is not something that feels.
Speaker 1: It feels a little unsettling seeing it come from like
Speaker 1: a snail with human eyeballs. It's a little uncanny. But
Speaker 1: I think they kind of pull it off a little
Speaker 1: bit because like it's so goofy looking. It looks like
Speaker 1: if you kind of shook it around, which please don't do,
Speaker 1: but it looks like it would make sort of rattling
Speaker 1: sound like as these eyeballs walk around. Yeah, but you know,
Speaker 1: just the most the cute like Gary from SpongeBob, but
Speaker 1: in real life and sort of different anatomy. So these
Speaker 1: I stalks are pretty interesting themselves. They have a little
Speaker 1: sensory tentacle on them below each eye. Um. It also
Speaker 1: has a long proboscis between the eye stalks where the
Speaker 1: mouth is located. So we're all about those weird proboscis
Speaker 1: is on this show today, like the modom Modo turtle
Speaker 1: that had that. Yeah, I love a proboscis. Uh and
Speaker 1: uh so they will use this weird long mouth to
Speaker 1: eat green algae mostly. Um So you can often see
Speaker 1: these googly eyes just kind of peeking out of the
Speaker 1: conch shell or even like the whole proboscis ey stock
Speaker 1: combination kind of poking out. I highly encourage you to
Speaker 1: look at images of it. I've included those in the
Speaker 1: show notes stock and you can just google conscience plus
Speaker 1: eyeballs and you will find so many great results. So,
Speaker 1: uh it has it's pretty cute. I will think that
Speaker 1: I'll give it that. It's pretty cute. I've given keys.
Speaker 1: I mean I wouldn't, but you know, they're like the
Speaker 1: fact that they look like they're kind of peeking around
Speaker 1: the corner, and that's why it's cute. It's just like
Speaker 1: shyly peeking, Yeah, just kind of peeking out of their shell,
Speaker 1: not too sure if they're going to come out, just
Speaker 1: scoping out the area. Uh, but yeah, it's it's overall
Speaker 1: anatomy is kind of weird. So it's got a foot,
Speaker 1: as snails do, so that that foot is that flat
Speaker 1: base of the snail, and on the back end of
Speaker 1: the foot they have a claw called the aperculum, which
Speaker 1: in terrestrial snails that is flat and hard, and that
Speaker 1: is used as a trap door to close up the
Speaker 1: entrance of the snail shell. And this helps seal in
Speaker 1: moisture because land snails still needs they still need moisture
Speaker 1: to be able to breathe and function. But uh, when
Speaker 1: conditions dry out, they can just kind of close this
Speaker 1: little door on themselves and then keep that inside. But
Speaker 1: in the cunch snails, it is actually not flat. It
Speaker 1: is talent like it looks like a big claw, and
Speaker 1: despite it looking like a claw, it's actually not used aggressively.
Speaker 1: It is used for locomotion for this punch to move around,
Speaker 1: so it digs the talon into the sand and that
Speaker 1: anchors the snail so it can basically thrust the rest
Speaker 1: of itself forward, so it's basically whole vaulting around every
Speaker 1: time it walk. So grappling hook sort of thing, Yeah,
Speaker 1: like a grappling hook but backwards, because it's like it
Speaker 1: puts it behind it and then uses it to throw
Speaker 1: itself forward like backwards ice pick climbing, which sounds very difficult,
Speaker 1: like a like ski poles live in Florida. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I don't know ski terminology to push yourself into. Yeah, exactly, Yeah,
Speaker 1: now that that's that's right. Um, that's how that's how
Speaker 1: skiing does it. Yeah. Or if you're like me, holding
Speaker 1: them awkwardly as you as you whimper softly going down
Speaker 1: a bunny slope, its thought that they do this really
Speaker 1: weird locomotion to make it harder for the counch to
Speaker 1: be tracked by prey because they're not leaving like a trail.
Speaker 1: They might be leaving weird like indentations, but they're not
Speaker 1: leaving like a chemical trail of slime or goo or anything,
Speaker 1: so it's they're untrackable, like the Jason Bourne of weird
Speaker 1: goofy animals. You know. Snails are known for being super stealthy,
Speaker 1: especially this one just thumping its way through the sand
Speaker 1: pole vaulting around so unlike many other snails, conscious are
Speaker 1: actually gonna achoristic, meaning that they are either female or male.
Speaker 1: In contrast, a lot of snails are hermaphroditic, meaning that
Speaker 1: each individual is both male or and female at the
Speaker 1: same time. It's a little different there. And the penis
Speaker 1: of the male conscience is this weird little tentacle with
Speaker 1: a leaflike protrusion on the end, so, you know, just strange,
Speaker 1: interesting all around top to the bottom. It's a weird guy. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And while I was talking about the queen conscience earlier,
Speaker 1: this general anatomy is also true of other species of
Speaker 1: conchi snail who also have the lovely little googly eyes
Speaker 1: and weird long snouts. They're all very adorable looking, and
Speaker 1: they all have very different, beautiful, beautiful shells, which I think,
Speaker 1: uh kind of gives you a lot of material to
Speaker 1: work with for a Pokemon, because you can have a
Speaker 1: shiny version, different versions of these lovely, lovely pokemons. And
Speaker 1: they could also host like smaller Pokemon inside their shells,
Speaker 1: because that happens in nature too. You know, you could
Speaker 1: summon a Pokemon from inside of its shell, some kind
Speaker 1: of crab like Pokemon. Yeah, maybe it would have a
Speaker 1: mega evolution where something else pops out and like to
Speaker 1: Pokemon exactly. And it also it comes with its own
Speaker 1: poke ball. Oh my gosh, yeah, you're right, it does.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine just throwing a conk shell into battle?
Speaker 1: Like I choose you picks Pisa, It's little eyeball down,
Speaker 1: It's like, no, thank you. But yeah, know, even though
Speaker 1: its claw is not really used aggressively, it's used for
Speaker 1: moving around. I don't see why I couldn't use it
Speaker 1: to like slap around Pikachu, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Certainly potential there, I know that, like, especially because like
Speaker 1: when you're designing a Pokemon, you're already taking some artistic
Speaker 1: liberties with like actual animal anatomy, so you might as
Speaker 1: well just give it like a giant combat claw, like
Speaker 1: it's right there, Yeah, exactly, I do. But I do
Speaker 1: feel like this, if if you were to make a
Speaker 1: Pokemon out of a conk, I feel like it would
Speaker 1: be more of it would play more of a tank
Speaker 1: role in the team, where it would probably be like
Speaker 1: very high defense, very low speed. It's more for like
Speaker 1: taking Like it's more for like absorbing damage and like
Speaker 1: taking a lot of hits, right, Because I feel like
Speaker 1: it would probably be very withdrawn into its shell, So
Speaker 1: I think it would probably be like a high defense,
Speaker 1: high HP, maybe low attack and low speed. I feel
Speaker 1: like that would maybe be the spread you're you're looking at,
Speaker 1: like the stat spread you're looking at for a conk Pokemon. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it could have an attack called like hard stare,
Speaker 1: where it just like pokes its eyeballs out of its
Speaker 1: shell and makes the enemy feel really bad about attacking
Speaker 1: at Yeah, there are quite a few like creepy stair
Speaker 1: based Pokemon moves. There's mean look, um, which I believe
Speaker 1: prevents you from being able to switch out of battle.
Speaker 1: I think there's a move called glare. I don't remember
Speaker 1: what it's called stink I there might as well be.
Speaker 1: I'm already like crafting this Pokemon's move set in Well, uh,
Speaker 1: we we cannot rewrite the we we cannot create a
Speaker 1: new Pokemon game just yet. Um, because before we go,
Speaker 1: we have to play a game. Um guess who's squawking
Speaker 1: the mystery animal sound game? So first I will reveal
Speaker 1: the answer to last week's mystery squawker. So, just as
Speaker 1: a refresher, here was the hint. It may be related
Speaker 1: to an elephant. But you're in for a surprise when
Speaker 1: you see who's saying hello. So I will play this
Speaker 1: sound now kind of sounds like a peculiar sound, like
Speaker 1: a little little like he's saying hello, but really angrily.
Speaker 1: It sounds like he's coughing. Hmm. Do I get to
Speaker 1: take a guess? Yeah, take a guess, go for it.
Speaker 1: Was that a higher rax? Yes, it was. Congratulations Ellen,
Speaker 1: and I did it. You did in Congratulations to Auntie B,
Speaker 1: sarah In and Houl guests from Twitter who also correctly
Speaker 1: guessed hierax. Amazing animal detective work, guys. So this is
Speaker 1: a rock hix. So rock hiraxes may look like overgrown
Speaker 1: gophers or some kind of cat sized rodent, but they
Speaker 1: are actually in the same clade as elephants, wooly mammoths,
Speaker 1: and manatees. So what's interesting is I actually did get
Speaker 1: some gisses about manatees, which is very smart, guests, because
Speaker 1: they are also related to elephants, and they also make noises.
Speaker 1: But these are the kinds of sounds that manatees make.
Speaker 1: There's also these kinds of sounds. All right, I think
Speaker 1: I kind of enough weird noises. So they make a
Speaker 1: bunch of weird noises under the water. To a Florida
Speaker 1: girls ears, Yes, they communicate squeaks, chirps, and grunts and farts,
Speaker 1: so not a bad guess at all, but in this
Speaker 1: case it was a rock hierax. So rock hiras is
Speaker 1: also have a variety of sounds they make. That barking
Speaker 1: grunt that we heard that sounded like a cough or
Speaker 1: some kind of weird angry hello was probably a warning
Speaker 1: that he's a tough guy and he will not tolerate
Speaker 1: any nonsense. Another common sound is a shriek they make
Speaker 1: that sounds very chilling, but it is actually, uh surprisingly innocuous.
Speaker 1: Sounds kind of like a cross between a blood curdling
Speaker 1: scream and air being slowly lit out of a balloon.
Speaker 1: I was thinking it sounds like your tea's ready does
Speaker 1: a little bit, doesn't it. But this is used by
Speaker 1: the hot rock hiracks to communicate with other hiras Is
Speaker 1: about their location. So a little bit of info about
Speaker 1: the rock hiras. They live in rocky regions in Africa
Speaker 1: and the Middle East. They are herbivores and they can
Speaker 1: eat plants that are deadly to us, like nightshade. They
Speaker 1: are highly social and can live in colonies as small
Speaker 1: as five individuals or up to eighty individuals, and there
Speaker 1: are different species of higher axes that can live together communally,
Speaker 1: so there are rock and bush hier axes too similar
Speaker 1: but different species that can coexist in the same colonies.
Speaker 1: They'll even cuddle with each other. Uh, And cuddling is
Speaker 1: very important because they actually don't thermoregulate as well as
Speaker 1: other mammals, and they need the warmth of the sun
Speaker 1: or other cuddly little higher ax bodies to keep their
Speaker 1: bodies at a good temperature. So sometimes you'll just have
Speaker 1: these piles of higher axes cuddling in the sun. It's
Speaker 1: adorable and a little hint that they are indeed related
Speaker 1: to elephants distantly, but uh, they are still in the
Speaker 1: same clade is that their front incisors are long and
Speaker 1: pointy and kind of tusk like, so you can't see
Speaker 1: it when their mouths are closed, but when they open
Speaker 1: their mouths, you see these little tiny tusks, and it
Speaker 1: it gives you a clue of how they share a
Speaker 1: common ancestor with elephants. So you grow out those tusks,
Speaker 1: you give them a longer snoot, bigger feet, stretch out
Speaker 1: their ears, lose that fur, and maybe gain about six
Speaker 1: tons and you hide yourself an elephant. Baby, you've got
Speaker 1: an elephant going there you go and so yes, So
Speaker 1: that is the story of the higher ecks. Congratulations everyone
Speaker 1: on their great guesses. So onto this week's mystery animal sound.
Speaker 1: This bald beauty is found in the forests north of
Speaker 1: the Amazon River. It's named for its friar like appearance.
Speaker 1: But don't confuse them for another monk like animal, because
Speaker 1: this mystery squawker is not monkeying around. Huh. This is
Speaker 1: a tough one, very weird sound. Um. I don't really
Speaker 1: have any great guesses. It sounds like a bird to me. Honestly,
Speaker 1: if you just completely ignoring the clues that you gave,
Speaker 1: but just based purely on the sound it makes it
Speaker 1: sounds to me like a poe too. Hmm. Interesting, like
Speaker 1: the poe too bird, which does not fit with any
Speaker 1: of the clues that you gave. Tragically. Um, so I
Speaker 1: don't think that's it, but that is what it sounds
Speaker 1: like to me. Is a po to? It is not,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you that much. That's I guess. That's another
Speaker 1: hint for everyone. It is not a po to, not
Speaker 1: po too. But the answer to this week's mry animals
Speaker 1: sound will be resolved in dramatic a dramatic conclusion next
Speaker 1: Wednesday on the next episode of Creature Feature. And thank
Speaker 1: you so much for joining me today. It was a
Speaker 1: real treat having you on the show. Tell folks where
Speaker 1: they can hear hear more from you about animals, of course. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think. First of all, thank you so much, Katie.
Speaker 1: This has been so much fun. I really love y'all show,
Speaker 1: so it's been really get to actually be on it.
Speaker 1: This is so exciting. Um. Like you mentioned earlier, our
Speaker 1: podcast is called Just the Zoo of Us. Sometimes I
Speaker 1: do episodes with my husband, but sometimes we bring on
Speaker 1: guests who may be scientists or researchers or zookeepers or
Speaker 1: people that are experts in animals. And what we do
Speaker 1: is we review animals by rating them out of ten
Speaker 1: in different categories being effectiveness, ingenuity, and aesthetics. Um, that
Speaker 1: sounds cool to you. Come check us out where on
Speaker 1: Spotify and iTunes all the other places that you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts. Um, we're over on the Maximum Fun network,
Speaker 1: which you can find at maximum fun dot org where
Speaker 1: you can listen to us and the other Maximum bun shows.
Speaker 1: So that's where you can find us. Thank you guys
Speaker 1: so much for joining me today. If you think you
Speaker 1: have a guest to the Mystery Animal sound game, you
Speaker 1: can write to me at Creature feature Pod at gmail
Speaker 1: dot com, Creature feature Pod on Instagram, or Creature feet
Speaker 1: Pod on Twitter. That's f T nott epet. That is
Speaker 1: something very different, uh, and thank you guys so much.
Speaker 1: And thank you to the Space Classics for their super
Speaker 1: awesome song Exo Lumina. Creature features a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio or more podcasts like the one you just
Speaker 1: heard is the I Heart Radio app Apple Podcast or
Speaker 1: Hey guess one? Where have you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1: I'm not judging you, I'm not staring at you from
Speaker 1: the corner of a Conchell. See you next Wednesday.