1 00:00:03,120 --> 00:00:14,200 Speaker 1: Welcome to stuff to blow your mind from how stuff works. Calm, hey, you, 2 00:00:14,200 --> 00:00:15,880 Speaker 1: welcome to stuff to blow your mind. My name is 3 00:00:15,960 --> 00:00:19,040 Speaker 1: Robert Lamb and I'm Christian Seger, and today we're gonna 4 00:00:19,079 --> 00:00:21,000 Speaker 1: talk about something that squicks a lot of people out. 5 00:00:21,400 --> 00:00:25,959 Speaker 1: Slugs and snails. How do they bother you? Well, the 6 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:29,200 Speaker 1: way I've long looked at them is um, snails are okay. 7 00:00:29,600 --> 00:00:33,400 Speaker 1: Slugs are a little disgusting, right, and and slugs are 8 00:00:33,400 --> 00:00:36,360 Speaker 1: always snails. When I discover a snail, I feel like 9 00:00:36,400 --> 00:00:38,159 Speaker 1: it's kind of a treat, like, oh, look there's a 10 00:00:38,200 --> 00:00:40,440 Speaker 1: snail and it's carrying its home on its back, a 11 00:00:40,479 --> 00:00:43,000 Speaker 1: little piece of nature. Yeah. But when the slugs come, 12 00:00:43,040 --> 00:00:45,200 Speaker 1: I feel like the slugs have come just to wig 13 00:00:45,240 --> 00:00:49,720 Speaker 1: me out. Like last last easter, well the easter before last, 14 00:00:49,920 --> 00:00:51,640 Speaker 1: we did the thing where he hid the painted eggs 15 00:00:51,640 --> 00:00:54,600 Speaker 1: in the backyard. We got got my son out there 16 00:00:54,640 --> 00:00:56,880 Speaker 1: to look for him, but the slugs had already found them, 17 00:00:56,880 --> 00:00:59,760 Speaker 1: and the slugs were crawling on the eggs. And so 18 00:00:59,840 --> 00:01:01,160 Speaker 1: the year I had to I had to hide them 19 00:01:01,160 --> 00:01:04,360 Speaker 1: all up high to keep the keep the slugs from 20 00:01:04,360 --> 00:01:07,280 Speaker 1: coming out and engrossing me. That's interesting. I wonder if 21 00:01:07,280 --> 00:01:10,480 Speaker 1: a slug would try to eat an egg if it could. 22 00:01:10,760 --> 00:01:12,360 Speaker 1: I guess it depends on the slugs. Some of the 23 00:01:12,360 --> 00:01:15,319 Speaker 1: ones we're going to talk about today could potentially, but 24 00:01:15,760 --> 00:01:18,200 Speaker 1: I don't know that they would necessarily eat egg yolk. 25 00:01:18,800 --> 00:01:23,000 Speaker 1: I don't know they were on these eggs though. Slugs. 26 00:01:23,480 --> 00:01:25,520 Speaker 1: I do want to say that I'm not the kind 27 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:27,399 Speaker 1: of person who goes around melting slugs. I don't want 28 00:01:27,400 --> 00:01:31,199 Speaker 1: to harm slugs. Slugs are great, They do their job, 29 00:01:31,800 --> 00:01:34,000 Speaker 1: they they have a role to play in the ecosystem. 30 00:01:34,319 --> 00:01:36,959 Speaker 1: I just usually don't like to look at them. There 31 00:01:37,080 --> 00:01:41,360 Speaker 1: is something inherently, I guess alien about them, and the 32 00:01:41,880 --> 00:01:44,000 Speaker 1: idea that the reason why I was attracted to it 33 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:46,040 Speaker 1: and I've been thinking about it is the idea of 34 00:01:46,120 --> 00:01:49,360 Speaker 1: something that only has one foot, Like literally, I didn't 35 00:01:49,400 --> 00:01:51,640 Speaker 1: realize that, but that is how it's referred to. They 36 00:01:51,640 --> 00:01:55,120 Speaker 1: have a foot, and that foot is what just pulls 37 00:01:55,160 --> 00:01:59,040 Speaker 1: them along, and the sort of muscular contraction and flexing 38 00:01:59,080 --> 00:02:01,520 Speaker 1: I think is what freaks people out a little bit. 39 00:02:02,200 --> 00:02:05,360 Speaker 1: Um But then snails are really as We're gonna get 40 00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:08,600 Speaker 1: into the same thing, just with a pretty shell, and 41 00:02:09,120 --> 00:02:11,800 Speaker 1: we're we're okay with them. Well, and then of course 42 00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:13,959 Speaker 1: they're the sea slugs. And we're gonna be talking about 43 00:02:13,960 --> 00:02:18,040 Speaker 1: some sea slugs today and they're often just incredibly beautiful, 44 00:02:18,080 --> 00:02:21,160 Speaker 1: so many different fabulous colors going on, and with many 45 00:02:21,480 --> 00:02:25,960 Speaker 1: other sea gastropods as well. But uh, but yeah, for 46 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:28,920 Speaker 1: some reason, it's the it's the weird gray or sometimes 47 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:33,239 Speaker 1: yellow land slugs that creep me out. And of course 48 00:02:33,280 --> 00:02:36,480 Speaker 1: there's so many. You look at any particular snail or 49 00:02:36,520 --> 00:02:39,359 Speaker 1: slug and their their life cycles are so fascinating, their 50 00:02:39,360 --> 00:02:45,040 Speaker 1: biology is so wondrously grotesque and you can't look away. Yeah, well, 51 00:02:45,080 --> 00:02:47,720 Speaker 1: let's get into that. Actually, like the actual anatomy that's 52 00:02:47,720 --> 00:02:53,040 Speaker 1: sort of genera of gastropods. So, gastropods are a six 53 00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:57,359 Speaker 1: hundred million year old type of mollusk that sometimes have 54 00:02:57,440 --> 00:03:00,760 Speaker 1: a single shell. Those are the snails, and their body 55 00:03:00,840 --> 00:03:02,959 Speaker 1: is asymmetrical. That's something I didn't know. I guess I 56 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:07,400 Speaker 1: always assume that the bodies were symmetrical. As of twenty fifteen, 57 00:03:07,720 --> 00:03:10,760 Speaker 1: we know that there are thirty five thousand species of 58 00:03:10,800 --> 00:03:14,440 Speaker 1: these gastropods. Uh, they vary in structure, they have different 59 00:03:14,480 --> 00:03:17,440 Speaker 1: lifestyles as we're gonna talk about today. The smallest are 60 00:03:17,520 --> 00:03:21,000 Speaker 1: barely visible like there's teens, teensy tiny ones and then 61 00:03:21,080 --> 00:03:23,840 Speaker 1: the largest, which are usually sea slugs can weigh up 62 00:03:23,840 --> 00:03:27,880 Speaker 1: to thirty pounds, and all the gastropods. They can occur 63 00:03:28,040 --> 00:03:32,920 Speaker 1: in marine, fresh water or land habitats. Uh. Most of 64 00:03:32,960 --> 00:03:35,960 Speaker 1: them are what we would classify as hermaphroditic. They can 65 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:39,800 Speaker 1: mate with any other mature animal of their species, and 66 00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:42,240 Speaker 1: they lay eggs. Usually they lay their eggs and water. 67 00:03:42,280 --> 00:03:45,000 Speaker 1: Although we'll talk today about some some kind of oddities 68 00:03:45,040 --> 00:03:48,160 Speaker 1: and the egg laying of snails and slugs on the 69 00:03:48,200 --> 00:03:50,800 Speaker 1: hermaphrodite issue. I do want to point out we have 70 00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:52,760 Speaker 1: an older episode that he did with that I did 71 00:03:52,800 --> 00:03:55,800 Speaker 1: with Julie. It's worth checking out in the archive because 72 00:03:55,800 --> 00:03:59,680 Speaker 1: we go into the topic of slug reproduction and it's 73 00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:04,240 Speaker 1: men strange details at length. Yeah, that particular slug is 74 00:04:04,240 --> 00:04:06,960 Speaker 1: really interesting, and I think you also have a blog 75 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:09,520 Speaker 1: post related to that episode that I found as well. Yeah, 76 00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:11,320 Speaker 1: I mean there's I have a number of blog posts 77 00:04:11,320 --> 00:04:15,200 Speaker 1: devoted to slugs from just the strange ways that they 78 00:04:15,240 --> 00:04:19,040 Speaker 1: reproduce with others or with themselves and uh, and also 79 00:04:19,600 --> 00:04:22,279 Speaker 1: the topic what happens when a slug eats a psychedelic 80 00:04:22,360 --> 00:04:25,240 Speaker 1: mushroom I did for that topic. You know who I 81 00:04:25,279 --> 00:04:26,919 Speaker 1: thought of when I was doing the research for this, 82 00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:30,000 Speaker 1: Mara Hart. We've had on the show before talking about 83 00:04:30,400 --> 00:04:33,360 Speaker 1: marine creepy Crawley's and their sexual habits. Oh, I'm sure 84 00:04:33,400 --> 00:04:36,280 Speaker 1: she can weigh in on some CEA slugs. Yeah. Uh, 85 00:04:36,320 --> 00:04:39,880 Speaker 1: so they have weird bodies that goes without saying. But 86 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:41,640 Speaker 1: just like if you want to sort of map out 87 00:04:41,640 --> 00:04:44,920 Speaker 1: their bodies in accordance to ours, their gills or their 88 00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:49,280 Speaker 1: lungs and their anus are actually above their head and 89 00:04:49,360 --> 00:04:52,640 Speaker 1: they have two separate pairs of tentacles, one for their 90 00:04:52,680 --> 00:04:55,600 Speaker 1: eyes for sight and another for smell. And I mean 91 00:04:55,640 --> 00:04:57,760 Speaker 1: it makes sense the anus above the head because if 92 00:04:57,760 --> 00:05:00,520 Speaker 1: you're gonna if you if you look at this snails 93 00:05:00,960 --> 00:05:03,200 Speaker 1: that their rear portion is in the shell, how are 94 00:05:03,240 --> 00:05:05,360 Speaker 1: you gonna get the waist out exactly? And then once 95 00:05:05,400 --> 00:05:08,719 Speaker 1: they lose the shells and evolve into different forms, they're 96 00:05:08,720 --> 00:05:12,520 Speaker 1: still going to keep the basic plumbing structure totally. Uh. Now, 97 00:05:12,560 --> 00:05:14,960 Speaker 1: here's the thing about snails and slugs that I didn't know, 98 00:05:15,120 --> 00:05:17,640 Speaker 1: and it is going to be important later. But the 99 00:05:17,680 --> 00:05:20,240 Speaker 1: way that they eat is through something called the rodula, 100 00:05:20,440 --> 00:05:23,480 Speaker 1: and it's a ribbon like tongue that has thousands of 101 00:05:23,520 --> 00:05:26,920 Speaker 1: tiny teeth on it, and basically they dragged this tongue 102 00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:30,680 Speaker 1: along the ground and scrape up food. Though there are 103 00:05:30,760 --> 00:05:33,839 Speaker 1: some carnivorous snails and we're gonna talk about one of 104 00:05:33,839 --> 00:05:37,440 Speaker 1: those today, they can bore holes through the shells of 105 00:05:37,560 --> 00:05:41,599 Speaker 1: other mollusks with these rodula to eat their flesh. So 106 00:05:41,600 --> 00:05:45,560 Speaker 1: they basically like suck out the insides of other basically 107 00:05:45,640 --> 00:05:50,800 Speaker 1: any other gastropod and some some mollusks, but usually a 108 00:05:50,839 --> 00:05:53,479 Speaker 1: snail or a slug. Their usual diet is something like 109 00:05:53,520 --> 00:05:58,000 Speaker 1: algae or leaves or lichen, sometimes small insects or tiny 110 00:05:58,080 --> 00:06:01,880 Speaker 1: marine organisms. But we also know that they eat decaying 111 00:06:01,920 --> 00:06:04,920 Speaker 1: plant and animal matter. That's that's usually when we think 112 00:06:04,920 --> 00:06:06,560 Speaker 1: of them, you know, as being like if you've got 113 00:06:06,600 --> 00:06:09,080 Speaker 1: like a compost pile or something like that, they'll show up. Yeah, 114 00:06:09,120 --> 00:06:13,039 Speaker 1: I mean that they're major decomposers, right right, So they're 115 00:06:13,080 --> 00:06:15,800 Speaker 1: important to the food chain. Uh, not just in the 116 00:06:15,839 --> 00:06:19,360 Speaker 1: sense that they eat decaying matter for us, but they 117 00:06:19,440 --> 00:06:23,080 Speaker 1: also serve as a source of food for fish and birds. Now, 118 00:06:23,200 --> 00:06:25,440 Speaker 1: of course, another one of the reasons why people don't 119 00:06:25,480 --> 00:06:28,080 Speaker 1: like them that much is they're all slimy. Uh. And 120 00:06:28,279 --> 00:06:31,080 Speaker 1: for land snails, the slimy thing is important because it 121 00:06:31,120 --> 00:06:35,200 Speaker 1: provides a slime track that helps with their movement. So 122 00:06:35,279 --> 00:06:37,000 Speaker 1: the way to think about this is it's this wave 123 00:06:37,120 --> 00:06:40,719 Speaker 1: like muscular contraction of their one foot, so it's like 124 00:06:40,760 --> 00:06:43,360 Speaker 1: a wave moves under their Imagine if you just had 125 00:06:43,400 --> 00:06:45,839 Speaker 1: one foot, you will cut off one of your legs 126 00:06:46,120 --> 00:06:47,960 Speaker 1: and you've just got the one foot and you don't 127 00:06:48,080 --> 00:06:52,280 Speaker 1: hop on it, but the foot kind of undulates underneath 128 00:06:52,320 --> 00:06:56,120 Speaker 1: you and propels you forward, and you're constantly spitting I guess, 129 00:06:56,120 --> 00:06:59,920 Speaker 1: on the ground to create some track that has less friction. 130 00:07:00,960 --> 00:07:06,599 Speaker 1: That's kind of their game. Okay. But snails also have, 131 00:07:06,839 --> 00:07:10,000 Speaker 1: as we know, outer shells, and these are both their 132 00:07:10,040 --> 00:07:13,440 Speaker 1: homes and their protection. When they're afraid, they'll close up 133 00:07:13,440 --> 00:07:15,160 Speaker 1: in them. And here's something I didn't know about snails. 134 00:07:15,200 --> 00:07:16,840 Speaker 1: I thought it was just like turtles, right, they just 135 00:07:16,880 --> 00:07:19,680 Speaker 1: like sucked up inside of it. They actually have plates 136 00:07:19,760 --> 00:07:23,200 Speaker 1: that are under their bodies that will like help seal 137 00:07:23,280 --> 00:07:26,960 Speaker 1: up that situation to keep them even more protected. And 138 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:29,360 Speaker 1: there's all types. I mean, like when you think about 139 00:07:29,520 --> 00:07:33,360 Speaker 1: snails and slugs, like you've got abalone marine snails that 140 00:07:33,400 --> 00:07:36,200 Speaker 1: people eat. You've got the common garden snail, and then 141 00:07:36,200 --> 00:07:43,080 Speaker 1: you've got those huge conscious conscious conkers conks, Yeah, that 142 00:07:43,160 --> 00:07:46,280 Speaker 1: you mainly know because of how big their shells are 143 00:07:46,320 --> 00:07:50,160 Speaker 1: and people use them for like horns and stuff like that. Um, 144 00:07:50,200 --> 00:07:53,760 Speaker 1: but yeah, there's just there's this huge variety of them. 145 00:07:53,800 --> 00:07:56,240 Speaker 1: They're all over the world there, even in the Arctic 146 00:07:56,360 --> 00:08:00,800 Speaker 1: and antarcticle, which I think is fascinating. Yeah. So there 147 00:08:00,840 --> 00:08:03,880 Speaker 1: are so many fascinating specimens we could talk about here, 148 00:08:04,640 --> 00:08:07,240 Speaker 1: but we know we have limits, both limits in terms 149 00:08:07,280 --> 00:08:09,720 Speaker 1: of time and limits in our ability to gaze deep 150 00:08:09,760 --> 00:08:12,640 Speaker 1: into the gastropod world. Can you imagine if we did 151 00:08:12,640 --> 00:08:14,840 Speaker 1: an episode where we just talked about all thirty five 152 00:08:14,840 --> 00:08:17,440 Speaker 1: thousand species to be a long episode, yeah, yeah, or 153 00:08:17,440 --> 00:08:20,240 Speaker 1: we just have to shout out there and I can't 154 00:08:20,240 --> 00:08:21,640 Speaker 1: do the math in my head, but I wonder how 155 00:08:21,640 --> 00:08:23,600 Speaker 1: long the episode would be. It's a lot of just 156 00:08:23,720 --> 00:08:26,640 Speaker 1: had to shout the Latin names. Yeah, so we're only 157 00:08:26,680 --> 00:08:29,520 Speaker 1: gonna tackle six here in this episode. Um, I think 158 00:08:29,600 --> 00:08:33,680 Speaker 1: most of these are gonna be marine gastropods. The weirdest 159 00:08:33,720 --> 00:08:36,200 Speaker 1: tend to be marine, although there are a few land 160 00:08:36,240 --> 00:08:38,640 Speaker 1: ones that have well we'll get into it. But there's 161 00:08:38,679 --> 00:08:42,920 Speaker 1: some weird evolutionary reasons why they're on land now. So 162 00:08:42,960 --> 00:08:47,600 Speaker 1: we basically chose our rogues gallery of of gastropods here 163 00:08:47,600 --> 00:08:50,520 Speaker 1: that we wanted to cover today, the weirdest ones that 164 00:08:50,559 --> 00:08:52,920 Speaker 1: we found the most interesting. Yeah, and as we go, 165 00:08:53,400 --> 00:08:55,040 Speaker 1: one a little fun game we can play, I think 166 00:08:55,160 --> 00:08:59,360 Speaker 1: is think of a of a Marvel mutant that matches 167 00:08:59,480 --> 00:09:04,280 Speaker 1: up the the grotesque powers of this particular gastropod, right, yeah, 168 00:09:04,320 --> 00:09:07,200 Speaker 1: because they all, yeah, they basically have their own power sets. 169 00:09:08,080 --> 00:09:09,520 Speaker 1: All right, So I'm going to kick it off with 170 00:09:09,559 --> 00:09:13,679 Speaker 1: the first one here. This is a really fascinating specimen 171 00:09:14,080 --> 00:09:18,360 Speaker 1: that is known as the scaly foot gastropod, which is 172 00:09:18,720 --> 00:09:20,480 Speaker 1: not the greatest name. I feel like it's it's a 173 00:09:20,480 --> 00:09:23,240 Speaker 1: little generic sounding. Yeah, we're coming up. We're going to 174 00:09:23,320 --> 00:09:25,679 Speaker 1: have one that I want the audience to help us 175 00:09:25,760 --> 00:09:28,480 Speaker 1: actually come up with a name for. Some of these 176 00:09:28,559 --> 00:09:31,680 Speaker 1: guys have got common names like scally foot ghost slug 177 00:09:31,679 --> 00:09:34,960 Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about later. They could be better though. Yeah, 178 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:38,680 Speaker 1: So the scaly foot gastropod, it's the common name for 179 00:09:39,360 --> 00:09:44,080 Speaker 1: crystal malon squamotherum. Sounds good to me. Yeah, it's a 180 00:09:44,280 --> 00:09:48,520 Speaker 1: it's a deep sea hydrothermal vent snail, and it certainly 181 00:09:48,600 --> 00:09:54,080 Speaker 1: doesn't disappoint on our expectations for alien hydrothermal event biology. 182 00:09:54,120 --> 00:09:57,320 Speaker 1: It's essentially it made me think of like a weapon 183 00:09:57,559 --> 00:10:00,840 Speaker 1: X program snail, and particularly it made me think of 184 00:10:01,120 --> 00:10:05,000 Speaker 1: this this guy Cyber. He's like, what a Wolverine's enemies 185 00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:08,440 Speaker 1: from the nineties, right, like Wolverine. Everybody knows Wolverine because 186 00:10:08,440 --> 00:10:11,120 Speaker 1: Wolverines at the automantium clause. So they were like, what 187 00:10:11,280 --> 00:10:13,840 Speaker 1: we need to make a bad guy that Wolverine can't cut. 188 00:10:13,880 --> 00:10:15,600 Speaker 1: So they came up with this guy who, like, I 189 00:10:15,600 --> 00:10:18,280 Speaker 1: think they doused his skin in automantium or something like that. 190 00:10:18,360 --> 00:10:20,760 Speaker 1: He has an adamantium shell. And I mainly remember him 191 00:10:20,760 --> 00:10:23,240 Speaker 1: because he was in like a Super in Nes Wolverine game. 192 00:10:23,840 --> 00:10:26,080 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and you like fight him in the astral 193 00:10:26,160 --> 00:10:29,079 Speaker 1: plane for some reason. But yeah, but that's who I 194 00:10:29,080 --> 00:10:31,680 Speaker 1: can seem totally disposed of the purpose of his armor. 195 00:10:33,400 --> 00:10:35,600 Speaker 1: Cyber fans and cyber experts will have to to ride 196 00:10:35,600 --> 00:10:39,160 Speaker 1: in with their thoughts so reach The researchers discovered the 197 00:10:39,160 --> 00:10:43,280 Speaker 1: scaly foot gastropod in n during an expedition to its 198 00:10:43,280 --> 00:10:48,720 Speaker 1: home the carry Indian Vent, a series of deep gouges 199 00:10:48,800 --> 00:10:51,960 Speaker 1: in the seafloor along with a volcanic mountain chain below 200 00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:55,080 Speaker 1: the Indian Ocean. So we're talking two point five miles 201 00:10:55,080 --> 00:10:58,719 Speaker 1: beneath the surface. And remember geothermal vents are offen home 202 00:10:58,800 --> 00:11:01,840 Speaker 1: for extreme of file organisms creatures that adapt to high 203 00:11:01,880 --> 00:11:04,640 Speaker 1: temperatures in the dark. For instance, that this is the 204 00:11:04,679 --> 00:11:07,760 Speaker 1: kind of place where find microbes that use chemosynthesis to 205 00:11:07,760 --> 00:11:11,920 Speaker 1: turn vent ecosystem chemicals into energy. And here amid the 206 00:11:12,280 --> 00:11:16,640 Speaker 1: black smokers or geothermal chimneys that boil up into the 207 00:11:16,679 --> 00:11:19,760 Speaker 1: sea and boil the sea. Um, this is where you'll 208 00:11:19,760 --> 00:11:23,679 Speaker 1: find the scaly foot gasterpod. A place where they're high 209 00:11:23,720 --> 00:11:27,800 Speaker 1: temperature fluctuations, high acidity, and there are predators. You have 210 00:11:27,800 --> 00:11:30,200 Speaker 1: to deal with two crabs and other snails. So what 211 00:11:30,679 --> 00:11:35,320 Speaker 1: is your your your average extremeophile gastropod gonna do to survive. Yeah, 212 00:11:35,360 --> 00:11:37,760 Speaker 1: I mean we've gone over this on the show before, 213 00:11:37,800 --> 00:11:41,439 Speaker 1: but that part of the world is really the most 214 00:11:41,520 --> 00:11:44,400 Speaker 1: alien we can get, like on the planet Earth, and 215 00:11:44,440 --> 00:11:48,400 Speaker 1: the things that survive and evolve around those events seem 216 00:11:48,480 --> 00:11:50,319 Speaker 1: to give us some sort of indication of what we 217 00:11:50,400 --> 00:11:54,040 Speaker 1: might expect on other worlds, right, Like I think, um, 218 00:11:54,080 --> 00:11:56,400 Speaker 1: it was it Europa, It might have been or something else, 219 00:11:56,440 --> 00:11:59,760 Speaker 1: Like people were speculating that Europa maybe has similar vents 220 00:12:00,240 --> 00:12:02,760 Speaker 1: under the ice, uh, and that there could be similar 221 00:12:02,800 --> 00:12:06,559 Speaker 1: creatures surrounding their events. Yeah, Joe and I refer to 222 00:12:06,600 --> 00:12:08,960 Speaker 1: a few of the different moons where they have, you know, 223 00:12:09,040 --> 00:12:13,880 Speaker 1: Jovian or or or Saturn moons that have the possibilities 224 00:12:13,960 --> 00:12:17,120 Speaker 1: for that kind of life. And indeed, astrobiologist in trying 225 00:12:17,160 --> 00:12:19,560 Speaker 1: to conceive what life would be like under there if 226 00:12:19,600 --> 00:12:24,760 Speaker 1: it existed, frequently turned to these examples. So what's the 227 00:12:24,840 --> 00:12:28,240 Speaker 1: scaly foot gastropod due to protect itself? Well, like cyber, 228 00:12:28,360 --> 00:12:31,360 Speaker 1: it has some serious body armor. In fact, it has 229 00:12:31,400 --> 00:12:35,839 Speaker 1: a trifold basically a riddle of bodily protection. The outer 230 00:12:35,920 --> 00:12:40,160 Speaker 1: layer is embedded with iron sulfite granules, the middle layer 231 00:12:40,320 --> 00:12:43,160 Speaker 1: is a thick organic layer, and then the inner layer 232 00:12:43,240 --> 00:12:46,800 Speaker 1: is calcified, you know, essentially like a normal snail shell. 233 00:12:46,920 --> 00:12:49,840 Speaker 1: So this is like the plate mail of the snail world. Like, 234 00:12:49,880 --> 00:12:53,880 Speaker 1: it's got three separate layers of dense material protecting it. 235 00:12:54,160 --> 00:12:56,480 Speaker 1: And it's not just again, it's not just the shell. 236 00:12:56,679 --> 00:12:58,760 Speaker 1: Like if you look at the scaly foot like it's 237 00:12:58,760 --> 00:13:02,480 Speaker 1: got these these armor dridges coming out of its sides. Yeah, 238 00:13:02,480 --> 00:13:04,880 Speaker 1: and the each layer is interesting in and of itself, 239 00:13:05,440 --> 00:13:08,720 Speaker 1: but the really fascinating thing is the way they work together. 240 00:13:09,240 --> 00:13:11,520 Speaker 1: So I'm gonna go through each layer here real quick. 241 00:13:11,720 --> 00:13:17,280 Speaker 1: So the outer layer, we're essentially talking about iron sulfide nanoparticles, 242 00:13:17,720 --> 00:13:20,680 Speaker 1: and the scaby foot gastropod or or SFG if you will, 243 00:13:20,840 --> 00:13:23,640 Speaker 1: is the only organism we know of to really incorporate 244 00:13:23,720 --> 00:13:26,760 Speaker 1: these into its shell. Here. Uh, it's it's able to 245 00:13:26,800 --> 00:13:29,959 Speaker 1: acquire these particles from the water around the black smokers, 246 00:13:30,480 --> 00:13:35,000 Speaker 1: which is rich with the with these particles interesting from 247 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:38,360 Speaker 1: the environment to build it neat. Yeah, and uh, this 248 00:13:38,440 --> 00:13:40,280 Speaker 1: is also a very thin layer. It's the thinnest of 249 00:13:40,320 --> 00:13:43,000 Speaker 1: these three layers, but it's the strongest. Now, when force 250 00:13:43,120 --> 00:13:45,520 Speaker 1: is applied to the outside, such as you know when 251 00:13:45,520 --> 00:13:49,840 Speaker 1: a crab comes a clawn, the outer layer cracks, But 252 00:13:49,920 --> 00:13:53,040 Speaker 1: the cracks are are are fine, they're tiny. They dissipate 253 00:13:53,080 --> 00:13:56,280 Speaker 1: the energy and prevent larger shell shattering cracks from occurring. 254 00:13:57,160 --> 00:14:00,920 Speaker 1: And the tough iron also grinds back against the tackers weapon. 255 00:14:01,400 --> 00:14:04,160 Speaker 1: So this is like you remember that science experiment that 256 00:14:04,200 --> 00:14:06,079 Speaker 1: we all had to do in high school where you 257 00:14:06,480 --> 00:14:08,840 Speaker 1: had to drop an egg off of your the roof 258 00:14:08,880 --> 00:14:11,640 Speaker 1: of your school. Did you do that one? I don't 259 00:14:11,640 --> 00:14:13,360 Speaker 1: remember us ever getting to go up on the roof 260 00:14:13,440 --> 00:14:15,240 Speaker 1: and do it. I remember seeing it on TV. Like 261 00:14:15,360 --> 00:14:17,640 Speaker 1: Mr Wizard, I went to two separate high schools, and 262 00:14:17,640 --> 00:14:19,120 Speaker 1: then we did it at both of them. You know, 263 00:14:19,480 --> 00:14:21,120 Speaker 1: so they give you an egg and they say, you've 264 00:14:21,120 --> 00:14:23,480 Speaker 1: got to figure out a way using science to drop 265 00:14:23,560 --> 00:14:25,920 Speaker 1: this off. I think the way like I ended up 266 00:14:25,960 --> 00:14:27,480 Speaker 1: doing it was putting it in a jar of peanut 267 00:14:27,480 --> 00:14:30,320 Speaker 1: butter and having the peanut butter absorbed the shock. But 268 00:14:30,440 --> 00:14:33,000 Speaker 1: this seems like a smart way to do it, right. 269 00:14:33,040 --> 00:14:36,880 Speaker 1: You've got that first outer layer that absorbs and spreads 270 00:14:37,120 --> 00:14:41,240 Speaker 1: the connect energy across these cracks exactly. And yeah, yeah, 271 00:14:41,280 --> 00:14:43,280 Speaker 1: I mean it comes down to the situation with the 272 00:14:43,360 --> 00:14:46,960 Speaker 1: with the egg experiment. Children are trying to you know, 273 00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:50,440 Speaker 1: maybe a science teacher trying to solve this engineering problem. 274 00:14:50,640 --> 00:14:53,400 Speaker 1: How do you cushion the egg? But as always, you 275 00:14:53,400 --> 00:14:57,280 Speaker 1: can look to evolution. Evolution has spent millions and millions 276 00:14:57,280 --> 00:15:00,920 Speaker 1: of years cracking these problems. No punting life will find 277 00:15:00,920 --> 00:15:03,240 Speaker 1: a way, all right. So that's the outer layer. The 278 00:15:03,280 --> 00:15:07,120 Speaker 1: middle layer soft and spongy, just you know, nothing but 279 00:15:07,240 --> 00:15:10,000 Speaker 1: snail flesh, and it absorbs the force of the blow 280 00:15:10,120 --> 00:15:13,240 Speaker 1: and dissipates the impact even more before it hits that 281 00:15:13,320 --> 00:15:17,360 Speaker 1: inner layer. And again that inner layer is just calcium carbonate, 282 00:15:17,640 --> 00:15:20,680 Speaker 1: which is in keeping with most snail shells. But here's 283 00:15:20,720 --> 00:15:22,640 Speaker 1: the thing. Remember how I mentioned that this environment is 284 00:15:22,720 --> 00:15:24,840 Speaker 1: very acidic. Well, if it was, if you just had 285 00:15:24,880 --> 00:15:27,360 Speaker 1: a normal snail and a normal snail shell out there, 286 00:15:27,560 --> 00:15:30,800 Speaker 1: the shell would dissolve away in the acidic waters of 287 00:15:30,600 --> 00:15:35,040 Speaker 1: the vent environment. So the outer layers seal this inner 288 00:15:35,120 --> 00:15:38,120 Speaker 1: layer in from the acidic water and guard it from 289 00:15:38,120 --> 00:15:42,280 Speaker 1: bursts of intense heat that might cook it. Oh wow, okay, okay, yeah, 290 00:15:42,320 --> 00:15:44,400 Speaker 1: that would be very convenient for the predators. It's just 291 00:15:44,480 --> 00:15:49,080 Speaker 1: dead cooked snails floating self cooking snack. So so yeah, 292 00:15:49,160 --> 00:15:52,080 Speaker 1: all three layers, they work together, and they're also potential 293 00:15:52,360 --> 00:15:57,240 Speaker 1: bio mimetic approaches and applications here where where scientists think 294 00:15:57,240 --> 00:15:58,920 Speaker 1: we could we could look at this and we could 295 00:15:58,960 --> 00:16:03,360 Speaker 1: develop better body armor, better vehicle armoring based on this 296 00:16:03,520 --> 00:16:06,240 Speaker 1: wonderfully evolved design. Yeah, that was one of the things 297 00:16:06,240 --> 00:16:09,160 Speaker 1: that I remember reading about the scalaly foot, and it's 298 00:16:09,240 --> 00:16:13,840 Speaker 1: it's fascinating in many of these examples of these weird snails, 299 00:16:14,080 --> 00:16:16,480 Speaker 1: how we're now looking at them and we're saying, like, Okay, 300 00:16:16,520 --> 00:16:19,440 Speaker 1: that's cool, that superpower is cool. How do we apply 301 00:16:19,520 --> 00:16:22,480 Speaker 1: that to our technology and take advantage of it. But 302 00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:25,960 Speaker 1: at the same time, they're usually in these environments that 303 00:16:26,040 --> 00:16:29,040 Speaker 1: are under threat and they could possibly go extinct. So 304 00:16:29,080 --> 00:16:32,000 Speaker 1: there's this like weird situation where I don't know about 305 00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:33,520 Speaker 1: the scaly foot, but some of the other ones are 306 00:16:33,520 --> 00:16:37,120 Speaker 1: gonna talk about later, where they're in areas where they're threatened, 307 00:16:37,520 --> 00:16:40,000 Speaker 1: and we have to say, well, like, we've got to 308 00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:42,400 Speaker 1: protect this area so that we have enough time with 309 00:16:42,480 --> 00:16:45,600 Speaker 1: the actual animal and researching it so that we can 310 00:16:45,640 --> 00:16:49,840 Speaker 1: then duplicate those efforts into our you know, iron Man technology. 311 00:16:49,920 --> 00:16:51,760 Speaker 1: I do hope that if they create a suit of 312 00:16:51,800 --> 00:16:54,240 Speaker 1: power armor based on this, it is some sort of 313 00:16:54,680 --> 00:16:59,440 Speaker 1: genetically engineered living mollss living gastro pod that you just 314 00:16:59,480 --> 00:17:02,440 Speaker 1: kind of swim into, that would be very cool. I'm 315 00:17:02,440 --> 00:17:05,680 Speaker 1: thinking of, um, do you remember that, Uh, We're gonna 316 00:17:05,680 --> 00:17:07,359 Speaker 1: talk about this in the other episode this week to 317 00:17:07,520 --> 00:17:11,480 Speaker 1: the the Great Ten, that superhero team from China the 318 00:17:11,520 --> 00:17:14,080 Speaker 1: August General and Iron he kind of has that thing 319 00:17:14,080 --> 00:17:16,680 Speaker 1: going on. He's got the weird like mollusky shell kind 320 00:17:16,680 --> 00:17:20,000 Speaker 1: of thing. Yeah, yeah, I like it. Somebody needs to 321 00:17:20,040 --> 00:17:23,960 Speaker 1: get started on this. Yeah, it started on the next 322 00:17:24,200 --> 00:17:28,560 Speaker 1: big gastropod based superhero. Well, from that one, we're going 323 00:17:28,600 --> 00:17:32,359 Speaker 1: to jump to my pick first off, which is the 324 00:17:32,560 --> 00:17:37,879 Speaker 1: selino clamis is brid ya, which is notoriously difficult to 325 00:17:37,880 --> 00:17:41,880 Speaker 1: say because it's a amllegation of Welsh and Latin uh 326 00:17:41,920 --> 00:17:44,800 Speaker 1: and it for short. Though people call this the ghost slug, 327 00:17:45,680 --> 00:17:48,200 Speaker 1: and the ghost slug is relatively new, so it has 328 00:17:48,680 --> 00:17:52,600 Speaker 1: no eyes, it's completely white, and it lives underground where 329 00:17:52,600 --> 00:17:55,800 Speaker 1: it feeds on earthworms. So remember what we were saying earlier, 330 00:17:55,840 --> 00:17:58,800 Speaker 1: most of them aren't carnivorous, but this is a carnivorous one. 331 00:17:59,280 --> 00:18:03,879 Speaker 1: It kills these earthworms with powerful blade like teeth. And 332 00:18:04,520 --> 00:18:07,560 Speaker 1: this multiple places referred to this said that when it 333 00:18:07,560 --> 00:18:11,399 Speaker 1: eats them, it sucks them in like spaghetti. Uh. It 334 00:18:11,440 --> 00:18:14,159 Speaker 1: won't even eat other plants like other slugs. It's like 335 00:18:14,200 --> 00:18:17,520 Speaker 1: it's exclusive to earthworms. I think I've seen I have 336 00:18:17,640 --> 00:18:21,240 Speaker 1: seen videos of this slug in action. It's it's richly disturbing. 337 00:18:21,280 --> 00:18:24,760 Speaker 1: And I think it's probably what inspired that sequence in 338 00:18:24,800 --> 00:18:28,720 Speaker 1: Peter Jackson's King Kong where Andy Circus gets his head 339 00:18:28,720 --> 00:18:31,719 Speaker 1: eaten by a giant slug. Oh yeah, I forgot all 340 00:18:31,760 --> 00:18:36,080 Speaker 1: about that. I can't because it doesn't and well, Andy 341 00:18:36,119 --> 00:18:38,159 Speaker 1: Circus got to keep acting though, wasn't he just like 342 00:18:38,240 --> 00:18:41,080 Speaker 1: King Kong himself too? Well? Yes, yes, but just it 343 00:18:41,160 --> 00:18:43,800 Speaker 1: wasn't actually Andy Circus. But I forget. I forget most 344 00:18:43,840 --> 00:18:46,880 Speaker 1: things about that movie except that scene where Andy Circus 345 00:18:46,920 --> 00:18:51,240 Speaker 1: is eaten by a giant, disgusting slug creature. Have you 346 00:18:51,280 --> 00:18:53,680 Speaker 1: seen the New Kong movie? No? I haven't. Oh, I 347 00:18:53,680 --> 00:18:56,320 Speaker 1: think you'll dig it. There's some full monster scenes in it. 348 00:18:56,320 --> 00:19:00,119 Speaker 1: It's it is a great like like Big dumb on 349 00:19:00,240 --> 00:19:03,399 Speaker 1: popcorn monster movie. I mean like I was surprised at 350 00:19:03,400 --> 00:19:05,800 Speaker 1: how gory it was and the crazy creatures they came 351 00:19:05,880 --> 00:19:07,880 Speaker 1: up with on a skull island to check it out. 352 00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:11,000 Speaker 1: But there were no ghost slugs. So the ghost slug 353 00:19:11,040 --> 00:19:13,800 Speaker 1: it has this anatomy that is slightly different in that 354 00:19:14,119 --> 00:19:16,879 Speaker 1: the breathing hole for the ghost slug is actually in 355 00:19:16,960 --> 00:19:20,680 Speaker 1: its tail. And get this, it can retract its head 356 00:19:20,920 --> 00:19:26,399 Speaker 1: inside out. Uh. The reason why is that this ability 357 00:19:26,520 --> 00:19:30,600 Speaker 1: helps them extend into earthworm burrows. So the way that 358 00:19:30,680 --> 00:19:34,000 Speaker 1: you tell a ghost slug apart from other white slugs 359 00:19:34,520 --> 00:19:37,320 Speaker 1: is that it has a disc shaped mantle on the 360 00:19:37,359 --> 00:19:40,679 Speaker 1: rear of its body. Usually other slugs have the mantle 361 00:19:40,760 --> 00:19:42,360 Speaker 1: of sort of over what we would refer to as 362 00:19:42,359 --> 00:19:46,320 Speaker 1: the shoulders of the slug. And get this, the tentacles 363 00:19:46,320 --> 00:19:48,240 Speaker 1: that I referred to earlier, we all know those little 364 00:19:48,280 --> 00:19:51,160 Speaker 1: like snail slug tentacles that we think of. These ones 365 00:19:51,200 --> 00:19:53,120 Speaker 1: don't have any eye spots, so that's the other way 366 00:19:53,160 --> 00:19:55,560 Speaker 1: to tell them apart. There's no little, you know, dark 367 00:19:55,600 --> 00:19:59,520 Speaker 1: holes where they were technically see through. It possibly indicates 368 00:19:59,560 --> 00:20:02,920 Speaker 1: that this is an animal that evolved inside a cave 369 00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:05,520 Speaker 1: system before it got to where it is today. It 370 00:20:05,560 --> 00:20:10,639 Speaker 1: can also extend itself up to a hundred and ten millimeters, 371 00:20:10,680 --> 00:20:13,159 Speaker 1: So I mean, that's not that big, but it sounds 372 00:20:13,280 --> 00:20:15,560 Speaker 1: sounds big when you think about big a millimeter is 373 00:20:16,359 --> 00:20:18,760 Speaker 1: this is a garden slug. Basically all of that is 374 00:20:18,880 --> 00:20:22,440 Speaker 1: legitimately making my my stomach feel a little uneasy. Yeah there, Well, 375 00:20:22,520 --> 00:20:25,040 Speaker 1: that's the thing is and I highly recommend you know, 376 00:20:25,080 --> 00:20:27,080 Speaker 1: if you're listening to this episode, you're nearby a computer 377 00:20:27,200 --> 00:20:29,720 Speaker 1: or your phone or something. Take a look at what 378 00:20:29,800 --> 00:20:32,280 Speaker 1: these look like on Google image searches. We're going through them. 379 00:20:32,280 --> 00:20:36,840 Speaker 1: The ghost slug is unsettling. There's something very unsettling about it, 380 00:20:36,960 --> 00:20:41,960 Speaker 1: especially the white flesh of a I don't know how 381 00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:44,600 Speaker 1: you describe slug flesh. I've been I've been thinking about 382 00:20:44,600 --> 00:20:47,399 Speaker 1: this a lot lately because it is fleshy in the 383 00:20:47,480 --> 00:20:50,840 Speaker 1: same way as human flesh, but it's I don't know, 384 00:20:50,880 --> 00:20:53,439 Speaker 1: it's it's got some textures, some tactile nature to it. 385 00:20:53,520 --> 00:20:58,280 Speaker 1: That's repellent. M slug like, Yeah, that that's that's the 386 00:20:58,480 --> 00:21:00,640 Speaker 1: Oh and by the way of any and out there 387 00:21:00,680 --> 00:21:03,720 Speaker 1: does want to see pictures of these creatures, I'll try 388 00:21:03,720 --> 00:21:06,119 Speaker 1: to have an image of each one on the landing 389 00:21:06,119 --> 00:21:07,880 Speaker 1: page for this episode. It stuff to blow your mind 390 00:21:07,920 --> 00:21:12,080 Speaker 1: dot awesome. Okay, So the ghost slug was actually first 391 00:21:12,119 --> 00:21:15,840 Speaker 1: noticed in two thousand seven in Cardiff Whales. So that 392 00:21:15,960 --> 00:21:18,719 Speaker 1: makes me think that it couldn't have been an inspiration 393 00:21:18,880 --> 00:21:22,119 Speaker 1: for for that cong movie because didn't that come out 394 00:21:22,160 --> 00:21:26,360 Speaker 1: in like two thousand five? Yeah? Um, but there's other 395 00:21:26,400 --> 00:21:30,359 Speaker 1: white slugs anyways. So they found it in Cardiff. It 396 00:21:30,480 --> 00:21:33,560 Speaker 1: was named by experts at the National Museum there and 397 00:21:33,600 --> 00:21:35,879 Speaker 1: they basically figured out like, Okay, this thing lives in 398 00:21:36,080 --> 00:21:39,399 Speaker 1: meter deep soil. The name, remember I said, it has 399 00:21:39,480 --> 00:21:43,360 Speaker 1: this combination. Welsh name is bridge. Yet I know I'm 400 00:21:43,359 --> 00:21:45,720 Speaker 1: butchering that, but I'm sorry, guys, I'm not well like 401 00:21:45,760 --> 00:21:49,280 Speaker 1: a dark slug. Gods, it has a really cool origin 402 00:21:49,359 --> 00:21:52,080 Speaker 1: for its name. So that is the Welsh word for 403 00:21:52,280 --> 00:21:57,000 Speaker 1: ghost is brid uh and because of it being a 404 00:21:57,040 --> 00:22:00,240 Speaker 1: spooky nocturnal hunter, that's why they named it that way. 405 00:22:00,720 --> 00:22:04,840 Speaker 1: The selenea Clamas name uses the Greek words for cloak 406 00:22:05,200 --> 00:22:08,080 Speaker 1: and Selene, the goddess of the moon. So the technical 407 00:22:08,160 --> 00:22:10,680 Speaker 1: name for this thing is ready for it, the moon 408 00:22:10,840 --> 00:22:14,439 Speaker 1: cloaked ghost slug. Oh man, that is good. That's like 409 00:22:14,760 --> 00:22:18,400 Speaker 1: classic D and D monster anal territory um. So they 410 00:22:18,440 --> 00:22:22,240 Speaker 1: think it was introduced to Britain actually through potted plants, 411 00:22:22,280 --> 00:22:25,080 Speaker 1: which means it's alien to the region. It belongs to 412 00:22:25,119 --> 00:22:29,400 Speaker 1: a subspecies that's called Trio gon no clama d day. 413 00:22:31,240 --> 00:22:33,720 Speaker 1: Let's hope I got that right. Uh. And this is 414 00:22:33,760 --> 00:22:38,920 Speaker 1: specifically found in Turkey and Georgia, but not whales, so uh. 415 00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:42,440 Speaker 1: In there is actually a research paper that was published 416 00:22:42,560 --> 00:22:47,520 Speaker 1: they narrowed down its origin to the crimea area, and 417 00:22:47,560 --> 00:22:49,960 Speaker 1: a lot of what we've learned about the ghost slug 418 00:22:50,440 --> 00:22:53,720 Speaker 1: since then has been through citizen science. This is kind 419 00:22:53,720 --> 00:22:57,040 Speaker 1: of cool. So people have been networking with British experts 420 00:22:57,040 --> 00:23:00,520 Speaker 1: through social media, taking pictures and sending them over two 421 00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:03,680 Speaker 1: teams that are working on, you know, gathering up taxonomy 422 00:23:03,720 --> 00:23:06,840 Speaker 1: information about the ghost slug. Over three people have sent 423 00:23:06,880 --> 00:23:10,600 Speaker 1: in responses. Most of them have been misidentifications, but they 424 00:23:10,640 --> 00:23:13,960 Speaker 1: have now narrowed down twenty five populations of ghost slugs 425 00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:17,000 Speaker 1: in Wales. Most of them live in gardens. They're they're 426 00:23:17,160 --> 00:23:20,600 Speaker 1: fine around human beings. But hey, if you're an earthworm, 427 00:23:20,640 --> 00:23:23,119 Speaker 1: watch out. It just makes me want to protect the 428 00:23:23,160 --> 00:23:27,840 Speaker 1: earthworms from because it's spaghetti time. If you're an earthworm, 429 00:23:28,000 --> 00:23:29,640 Speaker 1: you want to take a break, let's do it. Let's 430 00:23:29,640 --> 00:23:32,560 Speaker 1: take a quick break to collect ourselves after all of that, 431 00:23:32,640 --> 00:23:34,879 Speaker 1: and when we come back, we will we will just 432 00:23:35,080 --> 00:23:43,000 Speaker 1: we will explore the world of the geographer Cone. Alright, 433 00:23:43,040 --> 00:23:46,040 Speaker 1: we're back. You know, as terrifying as that last slug was, 434 00:23:46,560 --> 00:23:50,320 Speaker 1: as you mentioned, it's absolutely no threat to humans. Yeah, 435 00:23:50,320 --> 00:23:53,080 Speaker 1: it's just gross. Yeah, the same cannot be said. However, 436 00:23:53,320 --> 00:23:57,200 Speaker 1: for the geographer Cone, this sounds like something that John 437 00:23:57,240 --> 00:24:00,320 Speaker 1: d would have like laying around on his alchemy table. 438 00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:04,600 Speaker 1: It does sound slightly alchemical, doesn't it. Uh So, there 439 00:24:04,600 --> 00:24:08,400 Speaker 1: are roughly six hundred and forty known species of cone snails, 440 00:24:09,040 --> 00:24:13,440 Speaker 1: but this one, in particular, Conus Geographists, is by far 441 00:24:13,560 --> 00:24:18,600 Speaker 1: the deadliest. So the cone shell itself is uh four 442 00:24:18,640 --> 00:24:23,080 Speaker 1: inches ten centimeters to six inches fifteen centimeters long, and 443 00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:25,480 Speaker 1: it's not that impressive really. If you spent much time 444 00:24:25,560 --> 00:24:28,600 Speaker 1: hunting shells at beaches, you've likely seen some form of 445 00:24:28,600 --> 00:24:31,159 Speaker 1: a cone shell before. It always makes me think of 446 00:24:31,200 --> 00:24:32,960 Speaker 1: a hot dog bun for some reason, you know what 447 00:24:33,040 --> 00:24:36,280 Speaker 1: kind of do Yeah? I think hopefully everyone's a picturing 448 00:24:36,320 --> 00:24:39,080 Speaker 1: the what I'm talking about here. Otherwise, check out the 449 00:24:39,080 --> 00:24:41,880 Speaker 1: picture on the landing page. It's not a perfect description, 450 00:24:41,960 --> 00:24:45,000 Speaker 1: but it's roughly the shape. It's not a it's it's 451 00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:48,320 Speaker 1: not not that it's an ugly shell. It's just not 452 00:24:49,119 --> 00:24:51,720 Speaker 1: generally what you think of is just a you know, 453 00:24:51,800 --> 00:24:55,880 Speaker 1: put on the shelf, beautiful kind of just yeah. So, 454 00:24:56,680 --> 00:25:00,639 Speaker 1: the geographer is another one of these um snails that 455 00:25:00,760 --> 00:25:04,760 Speaker 1: is a stone cold carnivore, and it feeds on mollusks. 456 00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:07,000 Speaker 1: It feels it feeds on worms. But here, get this, 457 00:25:07,080 --> 00:25:11,520 Speaker 1: It even feeds on fish, live fish. They're slow movers 458 00:25:11,600 --> 00:25:17,640 Speaker 1: that they pack a deadly toxin laced harpoon. I'm trying 459 00:25:17,640 --> 00:25:19,719 Speaker 1: to all right, let's let's walk us through this. So 460 00:25:19,840 --> 00:25:22,400 Speaker 1: this snail shoots a harpoon out of its body through 461 00:25:22,440 --> 00:25:24,920 Speaker 1: the water, up out of fish that's nearby. Yeah, that's 462 00:25:24,960 --> 00:25:27,240 Speaker 1: exactly how it goes down. Now, of course you're wondering 463 00:25:27,280 --> 00:25:30,200 Speaker 1: where it does a where is a geographer cone get 464 00:25:30,280 --> 00:25:33,720 Speaker 1: its harpoon? Well, you mentioned we talked about its mouth part, 465 00:25:33,800 --> 00:25:39,240 Speaker 1: the snail mouth parts earlier, about that that kitanus radula. Right, 466 00:25:39,960 --> 00:25:43,720 Speaker 1: it's essentially a small tooth, essentially a snail tooth. So 467 00:25:43,880 --> 00:25:47,800 Speaker 1: when the geiograt geographer cone senses its prey, it loads 468 00:25:47,880 --> 00:25:51,879 Speaker 1: one of these uh these teeth into their probiscus and 469 00:25:51,920 --> 00:25:55,080 Speaker 1: then they coat them with this special venom cocktail, and 470 00:25:55,119 --> 00:25:58,239 Speaker 1: then they shoot it to the passing creature, paralyzing it, 471 00:25:58,400 --> 00:26:02,240 Speaker 1: and then they eat the prey along with the harpoon. Wow. Okay, 472 00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:05,199 Speaker 1: so this is like if I I'm going to do 473 00:26:05,240 --> 00:26:07,600 Speaker 1: a human analysis here, Okay, if I yanked out one 474 00:26:07,640 --> 00:26:10,159 Speaker 1: of my canine teeth and I shoved it up my 475 00:26:10,280 --> 00:26:14,040 Speaker 1: nose and then I like did a snot rocket shooting 476 00:26:14,040 --> 00:26:16,879 Speaker 1: it across the room, but it like kills a fish. 477 00:26:17,119 --> 00:26:20,240 Speaker 1: The velocity is so fast that it pierces the fish, 478 00:26:20,560 --> 00:26:23,360 Speaker 1: and the mucus from my nose is poisonous to the fish. Yeah, 479 00:26:23,600 --> 00:26:26,920 Speaker 1: and you would also be in a Cronenberg film, I think. Yeah. Yeah. 480 00:26:26,960 --> 00:26:29,920 Speaker 1: In fact, wasn't the existence right? They have the gun, 481 00:26:29,960 --> 00:26:32,640 Speaker 1: they have human teeth. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, we've talked 482 00:26:32,640 --> 00:26:35,520 Speaker 1: about that on the show before. Well, basically the same thing, 483 00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:40,480 Speaker 1: very cronin Berger creature, this geographer cone. Now the venom 484 00:26:40,520 --> 00:26:43,359 Speaker 1: in question is quite remarkable as well. It's a poisonous 485 00:26:43,400 --> 00:26:47,280 Speaker 1: mixture of a hundred different toxins, and if you look 486 00:26:47,280 --> 00:26:50,560 Speaker 1: at all the cone snail species out there, scientists say 487 00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:54,880 Speaker 1: they are probably fifty thousand different toxins among all of them. 488 00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:58,960 Speaker 1: So this cocktail makes for a potent neurotoxin, dangerous enough 489 00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:02,480 Speaker 1: to take out any natural prey animal that the comb 490 00:27:02,480 --> 00:27:06,280 Speaker 1: would be encountering, but it can also take out a human. 491 00:27:06,840 --> 00:27:10,280 Speaker 1: According to BBC, they're around a thirty known human deaths 492 00:27:10,440 --> 00:27:13,960 Speaker 1: from geographer cones, and a person has about a thirty 493 00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:18,080 Speaker 1: percent chance of surviving if you get stung by one. Wow, 494 00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:22,160 Speaker 1: So I'm thinking of like umu, the tetra to talks 495 00:27:22,240 --> 00:27:24,840 Speaker 1: in that we've talked about before that is used in 496 00:27:25,160 --> 00:27:28,440 Speaker 1: Haitian rituals, to the whole zombie thing that we talked 497 00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:30,960 Speaker 1: about in the Serpent in the Rainbow episode. Yeah, it's 498 00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:34,040 Speaker 1: probably similar to that, although that tetra to talk comes 499 00:27:34,040 --> 00:27:37,320 Speaker 1: from a puffer fish, I think, yeah, how Yeah, you know, 500 00:27:37,880 --> 00:27:42,200 Speaker 1: it's certainly the comparable situation there, But for the most part, 501 00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:44,640 Speaker 1: you don't have to worry about this creature unless you're 502 00:27:44,680 --> 00:27:47,600 Speaker 1: hanging out in the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, various 503 00:27:47,640 --> 00:27:51,920 Speaker 1: Indo Pacific reefs, the Australian coast, and um you know, 504 00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:53,240 Speaker 1: if I were to stick with the go back to 505 00:27:53,320 --> 00:27:55,840 Speaker 1: the Marvel theme, I guess this creature would kind of 506 00:27:55,880 --> 00:27:58,080 Speaker 1: be Merrow. Isn't that the one that shoots bones out 507 00:27:58,080 --> 00:28:01,600 Speaker 1: of the marrow? Her power was that, like she could 508 00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:04,280 Speaker 1: grow any of her bones out and just pull bones 509 00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:06,320 Speaker 1: right out of her body and use them as various 510 00:28:06,320 --> 00:28:11,600 Speaker 1: weapons harpoons. Yeah, yeah, well how about the ghost us 511 00:28:11,640 --> 00:28:15,399 Speaker 1: now we forgot to Yeah, the ghost snail is tough, 512 00:28:15,600 --> 00:28:17,560 Speaker 1: but I guess the closest one I could think of 513 00:28:17,640 --> 00:28:20,960 Speaker 1: from from sort of x Men is uh, do you 514 00:28:20,960 --> 00:28:25,400 Speaker 1: remember Caliban? He was actually in the more recent Logan 515 00:28:25,480 --> 00:28:29,880 Speaker 1: movie Stephen Merchant. He's at the leader. But yeah, he's 516 00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:34,600 Speaker 1: like an albino who is able to detect other mutants 517 00:28:35,040 --> 00:28:37,040 Speaker 1: I think, like through pheromones or something like that. And 518 00:28:37,040 --> 00:28:40,880 Speaker 1: the ghost slug mainly uses chemo receptors to find these 519 00:28:40,880 --> 00:28:43,720 Speaker 1: earthworms and chew them up. So yeah, alright, so we've 520 00:28:43,720 --> 00:28:46,360 Speaker 1: got we've got some real obscure X Men characters here 521 00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:51,040 Speaker 1: so far, Cyber Caliban and Marrow. All right, what's up next? 522 00:28:51,600 --> 00:28:55,280 Speaker 1: Another difficult to pronounce name and this stuff to blow 523 00:28:55,320 --> 00:28:59,440 Speaker 1: your mind? Listeners, this is your opportunity. We can contribute together. 524 00:28:59,600 --> 00:29:02,360 Speaker 1: Come together, let's come up with a good name for 525 00:29:02,400 --> 00:29:04,320 Speaker 1: this weird thing I'm about to present you, because it 526 00:29:04,360 --> 00:29:07,640 Speaker 1: does not have a common name. Its name right now 527 00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:14,120 Speaker 1: is opice those toma verum iculum, and the word verum 528 00:29:14,280 --> 00:29:18,560 Speaker 1: iculum literally means wormy. So that's that's not a whole 529 00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:20,560 Speaker 1: you know that, that's that's not very descriptive. We can 530 00:29:20,600 --> 00:29:22,640 Speaker 1: do better than that, So help us out here, guys, 531 00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:26,480 Speaker 1: because this this thing is crazy. When we think of 532 00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:30,080 Speaker 1: a snail shell, we're usually picturing something that spirals and 533 00:29:30,200 --> 00:29:34,040 Speaker 1: coils in a logarithmic manner around a single access, but 534 00:29:34,520 --> 00:29:39,120 Speaker 1: shells are part of a snail's interface and how they survive. 535 00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:43,720 Speaker 1: Some marine vermitids can deviate away from this, and they 536 00:29:43,800 --> 00:29:46,720 Speaker 1: have been known to have up to two or three 537 00:29:47,120 --> 00:29:51,800 Speaker 1: different axes that the snail shell spins around. Okay, and 538 00:29:51,880 --> 00:29:56,320 Speaker 1: while most shells spin in a right handed manner, there's 539 00:29:56,360 --> 00:30:00,560 Speaker 1: also something that's referred to as sinestroid spirals. Wow, it's 540 00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:02,680 Speaker 1: trying to go d C on us. It doesn't sound 541 00:30:02,800 --> 00:30:06,400 Speaker 1: like that, right, Yeah, And these go their left handed 542 00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:11,320 Speaker 1: and usually shell whorls that's an official term w h 543 00:30:11,440 --> 00:30:15,640 Speaker 1: O r l s. Wharrels do not reattach to their 544 00:30:15,720 --> 00:30:20,000 Speaker 1: preceding quarrels. You're kind of channeling the room there a 545 00:30:20,040 --> 00:30:23,680 Speaker 1: little bit. Yeah. Um. So this gastropod that we're talking 546 00:30:23,720 --> 00:30:26,760 Speaker 1: about here, though, is super atypical and it's real puzzling. 547 00:30:26,920 --> 00:30:31,720 Speaker 1: It actually has four discernible coiling accesses and its worlds 548 00:30:32,120 --> 00:30:38,520 Speaker 1: reattached to themselves. One scientist described this as biological madness. Uh, 549 00:30:38,560 --> 00:30:41,000 Speaker 1: it's really hard to study because it's only a few 550 00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:44,440 Speaker 1: millimeters high, and every time they've been collected they just die. 551 00:30:44,840 --> 00:30:47,080 Speaker 1: So we don't know a whole lot about how they live. 552 00:30:47,840 --> 00:30:50,920 Speaker 1: This thing. Based on our Geiger episode we're talking about, 553 00:30:50,920 --> 00:30:53,600 Speaker 1: I think this thing would give give hr Geeger and 554 00:30:53,680 --> 00:30:57,400 Speaker 1: jungi Edo nightmares. It looks something straight out of one 555 00:30:57,440 --> 00:31:01,760 Speaker 1: of Geeger's paintings. It's like this weird organic plumbing pipe 556 00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:04,880 Speaker 1: or rocket engine kind of thing, and it spins around 557 00:31:04,920 --> 00:31:09,760 Speaker 1: in swirls in different formations. Now, scientists have been trying 558 00:31:09,800 --> 00:31:13,280 Speaker 1: to figure out why this is, and they've ruled out 559 00:31:13,400 --> 00:31:17,640 Speaker 1: hybridization as a possibility because they examined multiple subjects and 560 00:31:17,680 --> 00:31:21,960 Speaker 1: they found similar strict developmental genetic control between all of 561 00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:25,040 Speaker 1: the subjects. They've looked at the shells evolved for a 562 00:31:25,160 --> 00:31:29,120 Speaker 1: variety of reasons, mainly for either and this is just 563 00:31:29,320 --> 00:31:32,680 Speaker 1: general snail shells, not this particular one. They can evolve 564 00:31:32,680 --> 00:31:36,440 Speaker 1: for coping with predation, for feeding to make movement easier, 565 00:31:36,600 --> 00:31:39,760 Speaker 1: and even for sexual selections. So I suppose that like, 566 00:31:40,040 --> 00:31:42,200 Speaker 1: you know, one snail looking at another snail shell and 567 00:31:42,240 --> 00:31:46,800 Speaker 1: say like that's kind of hot, I'm interested, let's move on. Uh, 568 00:31:46,960 --> 00:31:51,600 Speaker 1: But why this snails shell uncoils is totally unclear. It 569 00:31:51,760 --> 00:31:55,320 Speaker 1: might even hinder its movement and leave the shell even 570 00:31:55,320 --> 00:31:57,920 Speaker 1: more vulnerable the structural damage. This is like the opposite 571 00:31:57,920 --> 00:32:00,760 Speaker 1: of the scaly foot gastropod. It's develop up this snail 572 00:32:00,920 --> 00:32:04,560 Speaker 1: shell that we don't know what its purpose serves. It 573 00:32:04,600 --> 00:32:08,680 Speaker 1: actually makes it slower and weaker, but it looks really weird. 574 00:32:09,680 --> 00:32:12,960 Speaker 1: They are found in Malaysia, and unlike any of the 575 00:32:13,040 --> 00:32:17,960 Speaker 1: other multi access snails, this one's a land dweller. There's 576 00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:22,440 Speaker 1: some concern that the escalation of limestone quarrying in this 577 00:32:22,640 --> 00:32:25,880 Speaker 1: area in Malaysia may actually cause its extinctions. So this 578 00:32:25,960 --> 00:32:28,560 Speaker 1: is related to what I was talking about earlier, or 579 00:32:28,600 --> 00:32:31,240 Speaker 1: that there may be new undiscovered species that they could 580 00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:35,400 Speaker 1: be studying. The area was formed by erosion from an 581 00:32:35,440 --> 00:32:38,800 Speaker 1: ancient marine sediment, So the idea here they think that 582 00:32:38,840 --> 00:32:42,400 Speaker 1: what happened was that the snail originally evolved to help 583 00:32:42,440 --> 00:32:46,800 Speaker 1: with flotation in a marine environment, and then the sediment 584 00:32:47,040 --> 00:32:49,920 Speaker 1: eroded away, the water went away, they were left in 585 00:32:49,920 --> 00:32:53,880 Speaker 1: the ground, and now we've got these bizarre four axes 586 00:32:54,280 --> 00:32:59,280 Speaker 1: snails that are really just I mean, they're not evolved 587 00:32:59,280 --> 00:33:02,560 Speaker 1: to cope with or environment. You know, I can't like, 588 00:33:02,560 --> 00:33:05,320 Speaker 1: like I said, they've never captured a living one, and 589 00:33:05,360 --> 00:33:07,400 Speaker 1: so I'm trying to imagine like how it even moves 590 00:33:07,440 --> 00:33:09,800 Speaker 1: through the ground because it's got this basically looks like 591 00:33:09,800 --> 00:33:15,280 Speaker 1: a pretzel. Uh this uh, this bizarre snail piping thing 592 00:33:15,360 --> 00:33:18,880 Speaker 1: that's on it. Well, the genti edo comparison seems rather 593 00:33:18,920 --> 00:33:22,160 Speaker 1: apt because a lot of the horrors that he creates, 594 00:33:22,160 --> 00:33:24,560 Speaker 1: you just look at it and it's not it's not 595 00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:28,000 Speaker 1: it's not like so many monsters and creations where you're like, oh, 596 00:33:28,080 --> 00:33:30,120 Speaker 1: I can see how that thing moves and exists, and 597 00:33:30,160 --> 00:33:36,160 Speaker 1: it's basically a a a real world predator that's been transformed. 598 00:33:36,360 --> 00:33:38,400 Speaker 1: Like his stuff looks like it should not be and 599 00:33:38,560 --> 00:33:42,080 Speaker 1: just doesn't jive with reality totally. And he's got that 600 00:33:42,400 --> 00:33:47,000 Speaker 1: whole book about spirals Zumaki, and it's like the horror 601 00:33:47,080 --> 00:33:49,800 Speaker 1: of the book is that, like people keep seeing spirals 602 00:33:49,840 --> 00:33:54,280 Speaker 1: in varying parts of nature, sometimes in people's hair, sometimes 603 00:33:54,320 --> 00:33:57,040 Speaker 1: in I can't even remember. There might be one that's 604 00:33:57,040 --> 00:34:00,920 Speaker 1: a snail shell. But these things basically drive people into madness. Now, 605 00:34:00,920 --> 00:34:04,120 Speaker 1: if they saw one of these in Gengo's stories, they 606 00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:05,480 Speaker 1: to be done with. Well, maybe it should be the 607 00:34:05,560 --> 00:34:11,480 Speaker 1: Gungi snail, Yeah, I like that, or the Zamaki snail. Yeah, Okay, 608 00:34:11,600 --> 00:34:14,520 Speaker 1: Now if it were a Marvel mutant who to be 609 00:34:14,800 --> 00:34:17,640 Speaker 1: this is tough. The first one that comes to mind 610 00:34:17,719 --> 00:34:20,799 Speaker 1: for me. Do you remember this guy? He was in 611 00:34:20,840 --> 00:34:23,840 Speaker 1: the Generation X team in the nineties. His name was 612 00:34:24,200 --> 00:34:28,480 Speaker 1: Skin and his power was that his skin was bigger 613 00:34:28,520 --> 00:34:30,680 Speaker 1: than the rest of his body, Like it was too 614 00:34:30,719 --> 00:34:32,759 Speaker 1: big for his the frame of his body, so he 615 00:34:32,800 --> 00:34:35,719 Speaker 1: could like stretch his skin out really far. And it 616 00:34:35,760 --> 00:34:38,960 Speaker 1: wasn't like Mr Fantastic where he was like elastic. He 617 00:34:39,280 --> 00:34:41,759 Speaker 1: the rest of his body was normal, but it's just 618 00:34:41,800 --> 00:34:44,239 Speaker 1: like his skin was really long, so he could like 619 00:34:44,320 --> 00:34:47,680 Speaker 1: wrap his skin up around himself into weird configurations and 620 00:34:47,760 --> 00:34:51,000 Speaker 1: like he's like I am elbow flesh Man. Yeah, basically, 621 00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:55,680 Speaker 1: like he just had like hanging flesh all over his body. Yeah. Yeah, 622 00:34:55,840 --> 00:34:57,640 Speaker 1: I think I think he's the best I've got. I 623 00:34:57,680 --> 00:35:00,319 Speaker 1: don't know. There's gotta be. There's gotta be I'm weird 624 00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:03,200 Speaker 1: mutant out there that's got like a weird twisty shell, 625 00:35:03,280 --> 00:35:05,480 Speaker 1: but I can't think of them. All right, Well, let's 626 00:35:05,480 --> 00:35:07,440 Speaker 1: take one more break and then when we come back, 627 00:35:07,640 --> 00:35:12,320 Speaker 1: we'll explore two more amazing specimens from the gastro pod world. 628 00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:19,400 Speaker 1: All right, we're back, So we have two more to 629 00:35:19,440 --> 00:35:22,680 Speaker 1: cover here, and again we'll put pictures up at us 630 00:35:22,760 --> 00:35:24,680 Speaker 1: at the at the landing page for this episode stuff 631 00:35:24,680 --> 00:35:27,680 Speaker 1: to blow your mind dot com. But uh I for 632 00:35:27,840 --> 00:35:31,000 Speaker 1: my final specimen that I'm covering here, I wanted to 633 00:35:31,040 --> 00:35:34,920 Speaker 1: cover a solid gastro pod rogue. Uh So I was 634 00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:41,160 Speaker 1: tempted to cover the beautiful blue dragon or Glaucus atlanticus. 635 00:35:41,600 --> 00:35:45,200 Speaker 1: This is that weird, almost bird like alien looking creature 636 00:35:45,320 --> 00:35:48,759 Speaker 1: with six appendages and a brilliant blue cover its color. 637 00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:51,520 Speaker 1: It looks like a slug bird. Yeah. I saw pictures 638 00:35:51,520 --> 00:35:53,080 Speaker 1: of this one when I was looking at the various 639 00:35:53,080 --> 00:35:55,799 Speaker 1: slugs for us to cover. It's gorgeous. Yeah, and they 640 00:35:55,840 --> 00:35:58,520 Speaker 1: they they're interesting too. And then they feed on Portuguese 641 00:35:58,560 --> 00:36:01,640 Speaker 1: Man of Wars, you know, which is insane the jelly 642 00:36:01,640 --> 00:36:07,360 Speaker 1: fish feature, and it absorbs their stinging nematicis cells for 643 00:36:07,400 --> 00:36:10,640 Speaker 1: their own protection. So that's a pretty good rogue. But 644 00:36:11,400 --> 00:36:15,040 Speaker 1: I I could not ignore the the the allure of 645 00:36:15,080 --> 00:36:19,600 Speaker 1: the green sea slug or the Elysia chlorotica. Now, what 646 00:36:19,719 --> 00:36:23,120 Speaker 1: makes the green sea slug fascinating is that it actually 647 00:36:23,239 --> 00:36:28,239 Speaker 1: steals the power of photosynthesis from algae. Yeah, and it 648 00:36:28,320 --> 00:36:31,360 Speaker 1: stands apart from pretty much everything because it's not merely 649 00:36:31,400 --> 00:36:34,680 Speaker 1: one creature housing another and and uh and taking on 650 00:36:34,719 --> 00:36:37,480 Speaker 1: some sort of forced symbiotic relationship, because I think we 651 00:36:37,520 --> 00:36:39,719 Speaker 1: can all think of examples of that, right, I mean, 652 00:36:40,000 --> 00:36:42,520 Speaker 1: to a certain extent, each of us is an example 653 00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:47,040 Speaker 1: of that. So no, in this case, it only takes 654 00:36:47,080 --> 00:36:52,400 Speaker 1: the photosynthesizing or organelles called chloroplasts from the algae it 655 00:36:52,560 --> 00:36:55,800 Speaker 1: feeds on. And it does this by puncturing the algial 656 00:36:55,920 --> 00:36:59,840 Speaker 1: cell wall with its radula and sucking out the goods. 657 00:37:00,800 --> 00:37:03,560 Speaker 1: And then these bits are incorporated into the green slugs 658 00:37:03,680 --> 00:37:06,279 Speaker 1: own body and it and it keeps them here in 659 00:37:06,400 --> 00:37:09,000 Speaker 1: working order for the remainder of its life for about 660 00:37:09,040 --> 00:37:15,560 Speaker 1: a year. So through the process of pacosytosis see slug 661 00:37:15,680 --> 00:37:18,840 Speaker 1: cells engulf the cells of the algae and make the 662 00:37:18,920 --> 00:37:23,000 Speaker 1: chloroplasts a part of their own cellular content. Wow. Okay, 663 00:37:23,400 --> 00:37:27,879 Speaker 1: so they're essentially gene thieves. And can they subsequently use 664 00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:32,000 Speaker 1: the energy that the chloroplasts or absorbing. Yeah, they don't. 665 00:37:32,080 --> 00:37:33,560 Speaker 1: They don't have to eat again for the rest of 666 00:37:33,600 --> 00:37:38,279 Speaker 1: their lives. That is useful. Yeah. Now, the chloroplasts seem 667 00:37:38,360 --> 00:37:42,040 Speaker 1: to partially run on stored up supplies, but they also 668 00:37:42,200 --> 00:37:45,960 Speaker 1: function so in the slugs even passed the chlorophyll producing 669 00:37:46,360 --> 00:37:49,879 Speaker 1: trait onto their young their offspring. Though they had those 670 00:37:49,960 --> 00:37:51,600 Speaker 1: offsprings still have to eat a bunch of algae to 671 00:37:51,600 --> 00:37:54,920 Speaker 1: actually carry out the photosensor systems where kickstart everything. You know, 672 00:37:54,960 --> 00:37:57,279 Speaker 1: what I'm curious about is if some more research was 673 00:37:57,360 --> 00:37:59,200 Speaker 1: done on this particular one, if it's going to be 674 00:37:59,400 --> 00:38:02,000 Speaker 1: like the um pomp pomp crab that we talked about 675 00:38:02,040 --> 00:38:05,319 Speaker 1: a couple episodes ago, and that they take algae from 676 00:38:05,360 --> 00:38:08,320 Speaker 1: each other as well, that would be interesting. Yeah, because certainly, 677 00:38:08,960 --> 00:38:12,520 Speaker 1: as we've explored the gastropod lord what world is, it 678 00:38:12,600 --> 00:38:15,440 Speaker 1: can be a cruel place, So it would not surprise me. Now, 679 00:38:15,520 --> 00:38:18,040 Speaker 1: these creatures live in the salt marshes of New England 680 00:38:18,120 --> 00:38:20,760 Speaker 1: and Canada, so they know they're not too far away 681 00:38:20,800 --> 00:38:24,280 Speaker 1: from us. They're they're not as distant a species. Okay, 682 00:38:24,440 --> 00:38:26,080 Speaker 1: so we got to come up with a mutant here. 683 00:38:26,120 --> 00:38:29,840 Speaker 1: You've got any ideas well? I instantly think of of 684 00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:32,800 Speaker 1: like DC characters like swamp Thing, and yeah, who's the 685 00:38:33,440 --> 00:38:38,760 Speaker 1: vegetable man man, oh, the fluoronic Man, and then Marvel's 686 00:38:38,840 --> 00:38:42,360 Speaker 1: version is man Thing. Uh. In the X Men universe, 687 00:38:42,440 --> 00:38:45,040 Speaker 1: I think there's a character called a no la, but 688 00:38:45,160 --> 00:38:47,480 Speaker 1: I think it's like more like a lizard guy and 689 00:38:47,600 --> 00:38:51,040 Speaker 1: he has this kind of thing like where lizards regrow 690 00:38:51,120 --> 00:38:52,640 Speaker 1: limbs and things like that. But I don't know if 691 00:38:52,640 --> 00:38:57,120 Speaker 1: it's connected to plant uh physiology in any way. Well, 692 00:38:57,160 --> 00:39:00,080 Speaker 1: it's it's essentially a hybrid of plant and animal. So 693 00:39:00,200 --> 00:39:02,560 Speaker 1: is there a plant animal mutant not that I can 694 00:39:02,640 --> 00:39:04,600 Speaker 1: think of off the top of my head. There's gotta be, 695 00:39:04,719 --> 00:39:06,879 Speaker 1: and I'm just not I don't know it. Often Yeah, 696 00:39:08,040 --> 00:39:11,800 Speaker 1: carrot man. Maybe there's there's a what's his name, Captain Carrott. 697 00:39:11,800 --> 00:39:14,719 Speaker 1: I think that's a guy flaming carrot. Flaming Carrot. Oh 698 00:39:15,160 --> 00:39:18,319 Speaker 1: is that Marvel? No, it's like an independent like como. Yeah, 699 00:39:18,440 --> 00:39:20,359 Speaker 1: I feel like I've seen that before, but I went 700 00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:24,040 Speaker 1: sure where it belongs in the pantheon. Alright, Yeah, help 701 00:39:24,120 --> 00:39:26,279 Speaker 1: us out here if you've got one, If you know 702 00:39:26,520 --> 00:39:29,320 Speaker 1: your mutant lore better than we do, there's gotta be 703 00:39:29,400 --> 00:39:30,960 Speaker 1: somebody out there. But I think you're right. I think 704 00:39:31,120 --> 00:39:32,920 Speaker 1: this is a moment where I think a swamp thing 705 00:39:33,040 --> 00:39:35,640 Speaker 1: or man thinking team up with the X Men and 706 00:39:35,840 --> 00:39:38,960 Speaker 1: join the team for a little bit, because they absolutely 707 00:39:39,000 --> 00:39:43,919 Speaker 1: are basically made out of marsh muck, all right, last 708 00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:46,800 Speaker 1: one here. This one's got a very pretty name. The 709 00:39:46,960 --> 00:39:51,440 Speaker 1: moon snail or not a side. The moon snail is 710 00:39:51,640 --> 00:39:53,719 Speaker 1: predacious as well. You can see Robert and I are 711 00:39:53,760 --> 00:39:55,760 Speaker 1: going for a theme here. We're going for the stone 712 00:39:55,760 --> 00:39:59,640 Speaker 1: cold killers. Uh. It's a marine snail. It searches for 713 00:40:00,120 --> 00:40:04,040 Speaker 1: other bivalves under sandy shores. So the way it does 714 00:40:04,160 --> 00:40:07,040 Speaker 1: this is it wraps its foot around its prey and 715 00:40:07,239 --> 00:40:10,719 Speaker 1: suffocates it. But if this fails, it then uses a 716 00:40:10,840 --> 00:40:15,640 Speaker 1: gland to secrete acid and enzymes that soften up the shell. 717 00:40:16,200 --> 00:40:20,479 Speaker 1: So it goes for any other mollusks. It will even 718 00:40:20,600 --> 00:40:25,520 Speaker 1: go for other moon snails. It basically wraps itself around them. 719 00:40:25,840 --> 00:40:28,560 Speaker 1: If it can't suffocate them, then what it does is 720 00:40:28,640 --> 00:40:33,560 Speaker 1: it excretes these acids, bores a hole through the shell 721 00:40:34,120 --> 00:40:37,920 Speaker 1: using its ridula, it drills into the victims, and then 722 00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:40,359 Speaker 1: it eats them from within. It's an I drink your 723 00:40:40,400 --> 00:40:43,480 Speaker 1: milkshake kind of thing, so it literally like puts the 724 00:40:43,560 --> 00:40:45,920 Speaker 1: hole in and then it just sucks everything out of 725 00:40:45,960 --> 00:40:49,800 Speaker 1: the inside of the snail shell. Goodness um. And this 726 00:40:50,160 --> 00:40:53,120 Speaker 1: leaves behind these nice little beveled holes. So if you 727 00:40:53,200 --> 00:40:56,600 Speaker 1: ever find a shell on the beach and it has 728 00:40:56,680 --> 00:40:59,440 Speaker 1: like this perfect little drilled hole in it. That might 729 00:40:59,520 --> 00:41:02,320 Speaker 1: be why because because it was killed by one of 730 00:41:02,400 --> 00:41:04,520 Speaker 1: these moon snails. My son a looves to find those 731 00:41:04,560 --> 00:41:07,040 Speaker 1: because you can you can instantly make a necklace out 732 00:41:07,040 --> 00:41:09,239 Speaker 1: of them. Imagine, imagine. Know the people have done that 733 00:41:09,280 --> 00:41:11,040 Speaker 1: as well. I think that's part of what the moon 734 00:41:11,120 --> 00:41:16,279 Speaker 1: snail economy works on, is necklace making. It's actually thought 735 00:41:16,360 --> 00:41:18,000 Speaker 1: that the way that they find their victims is through 736 00:41:18,080 --> 00:41:21,880 Speaker 1: chemo reception, although my understanding is most snails and slugs 737 00:41:21,920 --> 00:41:24,759 Speaker 1: and other gastropods they're all using chemo reception through the 738 00:41:25,600 --> 00:41:30,520 Speaker 1: scent tentacles. Okay, this is where it gets gross. Let's 739 00:41:30,560 --> 00:41:33,840 Speaker 1: take something as an example that we all know, a clam. Okay, 740 00:41:34,400 --> 00:41:37,000 Speaker 1: it can eat an entire clam over the period of 741 00:41:37,040 --> 00:41:40,600 Speaker 1: a day, and it will keep going. If you put 742 00:41:40,640 --> 00:41:42,719 Speaker 1: a bunch of clams in front of it, it will 743 00:41:42,800 --> 00:41:47,920 Speaker 1: eat one five centimeter clam every four days. So it 744 00:41:48,080 --> 00:41:52,160 Speaker 1: just keeps chugging these things down. And it's important because 745 00:41:52,320 --> 00:41:55,440 Speaker 1: it has this other bizarre ability where it can inflate 746 00:41:55,600 --> 00:41:59,400 Speaker 1: its body to several times the size of its shell. Uh. 747 00:41:59,480 --> 00:42:02,320 Speaker 1: The way that does this is it has tissues that 748 00:42:02,400 --> 00:42:06,399 Speaker 1: are like hollow sinuses, and it draws seawater up into them, 749 00:42:06,920 --> 00:42:09,800 Speaker 1: and that makes it up to thirteen centimeters long, so 750 00:42:09,960 --> 00:42:12,000 Speaker 1: it's like that's how it helps it make it so 751 00:42:12,160 --> 00:42:14,960 Speaker 1: much bigger so it can do the suffocating thing. Normally 752 00:42:15,040 --> 00:42:17,320 Speaker 1: there are only two centimeters long. So this thing is 753 00:42:17,440 --> 00:42:21,319 Speaker 1: like swelling up to this massive size so they can 754 00:42:21,440 --> 00:42:26,680 Speaker 1: wrap itself around its victims. Now, for movement, it uses 755 00:42:26,760 --> 00:42:29,920 Speaker 1: the front part of the foot like a plow, so 756 00:42:30,080 --> 00:42:31,960 Speaker 1: it's like it's sort of like a I think of 757 00:42:32,040 --> 00:42:35,319 Speaker 1: it as like a cow catcher, and its scraping them up. Yeah, 758 00:42:35,400 --> 00:42:38,040 Speaker 1: and it like shoves its way through the dirt. Part 759 00:42:38,080 --> 00:42:40,680 Speaker 1: of the foot also protects its head like a shield 760 00:42:40,760 --> 00:42:43,600 Speaker 1: while it's moving through, and so you can see where 761 00:42:43,680 --> 00:42:46,080 Speaker 1: they've moved through under the sand because they leave these 762 00:42:46,120 --> 00:42:49,600 Speaker 1: little trails underword. But when they move by. Now, when 763 00:42:49,640 --> 00:42:52,200 Speaker 1: it lays eggs, this is a cool, uh sort of 764 00:42:52,280 --> 00:42:55,400 Speaker 1: reproductive fact. The moon snail. What it does is it 765 00:42:55,520 --> 00:42:59,720 Speaker 1: embeds mucus from its body and sand together and forms 766 00:42:59,719 --> 00:43:03,680 Speaker 1: a latinous sheet that hardens on the sand. And at 767 00:43:03,719 --> 00:43:07,000 Speaker 1: the center of this the snail will lay their eggs 768 00:43:07,160 --> 00:43:11,080 Speaker 1: in a collar formation. Each collar it's like this little 769 00:43:11,200 --> 00:43:16,120 Speaker 1: sheet of gelatinous sand contains thousands of eggs, and as 770 00:43:16,239 --> 00:43:18,840 Speaker 1: they hatch, they disintegrate. So and a lot of the 771 00:43:18,960 --> 00:43:20,719 Speaker 1: articles I read about this they said, look, look, if 772 00:43:20,760 --> 00:43:23,560 Speaker 1: you find one of these things, you know it's on 773 00:43:23,680 --> 00:43:25,400 Speaker 1: the ground, you can see, you can touch it. Like 774 00:43:25,520 --> 00:43:28,320 Speaker 1: that means there's still thousands of eggs in it. Don't 775 00:43:28,400 --> 00:43:30,839 Speaker 1: like pick it up and take it home, like wait 776 00:43:30,920 --> 00:43:33,600 Speaker 1: and let it dissolve in the eggs will hatch and 777 00:43:33,719 --> 00:43:37,480 Speaker 1: move on their way. Uh. But if you see a 778 00:43:37,640 --> 00:43:41,279 Speaker 1: moon snail shell on the surface, it's probably not a 779 00:43:41,360 --> 00:43:45,520 Speaker 1: moon snail. It's probably a hermit crab. So that's another factory. 780 00:43:45,520 --> 00:43:49,120 Speaker 1: Because they're usually drilling around underground. Mostly they're found around 781 00:43:49,120 --> 00:43:51,960 Speaker 1: the tropics, but these ones are also residents of the 782 00:43:52,040 --> 00:43:56,680 Speaker 1: waters beyond both the Arctic and Antarctic circles. They move 783 00:43:56,800 --> 00:44:00,680 Speaker 1: out into deeper waters during the winter, so they're they're 784 00:44:01,160 --> 00:44:04,160 Speaker 1: really fascinating. I mean, it sounds like they're brutal serial 785 00:44:04,280 --> 00:44:09,160 Speaker 1: killers of the gastropod world, but they they live everywhere. Wow. Yeah, 786 00:44:09,200 --> 00:44:13,479 Speaker 1: that is a that is a a terrifying specimen. Yeah, 787 00:44:13,800 --> 00:44:15,719 Speaker 1: now I know which mutant would it be? The whole 788 00:44:15,800 --> 00:44:18,320 Speaker 1: making its body bigger made me think of the block 789 00:44:18,560 --> 00:44:20,600 Speaker 1: right right, because can't he do that? I think his 790 00:44:20,719 --> 00:44:24,200 Speaker 1: body is just already big yeah. Um. But the one 791 00:44:24,280 --> 00:44:26,560 Speaker 1: I thought of was Toad. Do you remember him. He's 792 00:44:26,600 --> 00:44:28,600 Speaker 1: in the movies. He's played by that guy who played 793 00:44:28,680 --> 00:44:32,640 Speaker 1: Darth maul Um. Because Toad has like the super long 794 00:44:32,760 --> 00:44:35,480 Speaker 1: tongue and then, like some versions of him, can spit acid. 795 00:44:36,040 --> 00:44:38,560 Speaker 1: So I envisioned that, like, yeah, like similar to the 796 00:44:39,080 --> 00:44:42,880 Speaker 1: moon snail. He spits on like a shell and then 797 00:44:42,920 --> 00:44:45,120 Speaker 1: he just shoves his tongue down there and sucks things 798 00:44:45,160 --> 00:44:47,040 Speaker 1: out from the inside. So maybe like if you wanted 799 00:44:47,040 --> 00:44:51,120 Speaker 1: to eat Colossus, he wraps himself around Colossus and he 800 00:44:51,239 --> 00:44:54,839 Speaker 1: spits on colossus Is back. The acid burns through Colossus's 801 00:44:54,920 --> 00:44:57,239 Speaker 1: metal back, and then he puts his tongue into that 802 00:44:57,360 --> 00:45:01,160 Speaker 1: one little hole and just drinks, rinks up, slurps up 803 00:45:01,239 --> 00:45:05,919 Speaker 1: colossus meat. Well there you go. Yep. So gastropods fun. 804 00:45:06,160 --> 00:45:09,560 Speaker 1: We've got it. We've got a gross little team here. Yeah, 805 00:45:09,719 --> 00:45:11,279 Speaker 1: And and I mean the great thing about this is 806 00:45:11,560 --> 00:45:14,200 Speaker 1: there's so many out there. So if if everyone out 807 00:45:14,239 --> 00:45:18,160 Speaker 1: there is just really enamored by gastropods today, uh yeah, 808 00:45:18,239 --> 00:45:22,080 Speaker 1: we can we can totally uh get together another team. Yeah, 809 00:45:22,280 --> 00:45:24,000 Speaker 1: well this and you and I were talking about this 810 00:45:24,040 --> 00:45:26,440 Speaker 1: before him. But there is of course an X Men 811 00:45:26,560 --> 00:45:29,279 Speaker 1: character that is pretty much reviled by everybody whose name 812 00:45:29,360 --> 00:45:32,680 Speaker 1: is simply Maggot, and his power is he has to 813 00:45:33,560 --> 00:45:37,040 Speaker 1: like bio organic slugs that live inside his body and 814 00:45:37,200 --> 00:45:40,200 Speaker 1: he shoots them out and they run around and eat 815 00:45:40,239 --> 00:45:42,560 Speaker 1: through things and then come back and climb inside his body. 816 00:45:42,680 --> 00:45:45,480 Speaker 1: So you were telling me about this and it I 817 00:45:45,600 --> 00:45:47,400 Speaker 1: had not seen a picture of this character before, so 818 00:45:47,440 --> 00:45:51,960 Speaker 1: I instantly thought of the character in Clive Barker's Nightbreed, 819 00:45:52,200 --> 00:45:55,239 Speaker 1: his movie adaptation of Cabal, and I can't remember the 820 00:45:55,320 --> 00:45:59,040 Speaker 1: character's name, but there's one of the the Night Breed characters. 821 00:45:59,080 --> 00:46:01,879 Speaker 1: So it's like stomachs snakes that come out, and they're like, oh, 822 00:46:01,920 --> 00:46:05,040 Speaker 1: well that's that's cool. That sounds like it's basically that character, 823 00:46:05,160 --> 00:46:07,879 Speaker 1: but no, this is a crazy looking character design. Yeah, 824 00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:11,000 Speaker 1: he's like, um, he turns blue, and he's got like 825 00:46:11,120 --> 00:46:12,920 Speaker 1: kind of a like not a mohawk, but like a 826 00:46:13,000 --> 00:46:16,960 Speaker 1: weird kind of clipped little white hair thing hanging off. Uh. 827 00:46:17,080 --> 00:46:19,120 Speaker 1: And yeah, he was not popular. I don't think he 828 00:46:19,239 --> 00:46:21,759 Speaker 1: lasted very long. I think it was around like mid 829 00:46:21,920 --> 00:46:25,239 Speaker 1: late nineties that Maggot showed up around with Merrow, that 830 00:46:25,360 --> 00:46:28,560 Speaker 1: one that we mentioned earlier. Those two were introduced around 831 00:46:28,560 --> 00:46:30,439 Speaker 1: the same time. Well, Merrow at least made it into 832 00:46:30,560 --> 00:46:35,200 Speaker 1: the Street Fighter versus capcom games, remember counter there. I 833 00:46:35,280 --> 00:46:38,120 Speaker 1: think Merrow was more popular because of this the general 834 00:46:38,360 --> 00:46:41,280 Speaker 1: you know, brutal idea of like ripping your own bones 835 00:46:41,320 --> 00:46:43,719 Speaker 1: out and killing people with them like that kind of thing. 836 00:46:44,239 --> 00:46:47,160 Speaker 1: But this, uh, this Maggot guy, he doesn't like the 837 00:46:47,520 --> 00:46:50,239 Speaker 1: maggots or the creatures that he has. They don't even 838 00:46:50,400 --> 00:46:52,920 Speaker 1: really look like slugs or snails. No, they look like 839 00:46:53,040 --> 00:46:55,920 Speaker 1: little like robots kind of Yeah. So I just had, 840 00:46:56,040 --> 00:46:57,440 Speaker 1: like looking at a picture of it, just had a 841 00:46:57,480 --> 00:47:00,160 Speaker 1: hard time figuring out what I was supposed us to 842 00:47:00,239 --> 00:47:03,719 Speaker 1: feel about this character. He is technically a good guy, 843 00:47:03,960 --> 00:47:06,160 Speaker 1: as it were, but I don't believe that he's been 844 00:47:06,280 --> 00:47:08,160 Speaker 1: used very much in the comics for a long time. 845 00:47:08,640 --> 00:47:13,600 Speaker 1: But yeah, so if you just want your generic slug superhero, 846 00:47:13,800 --> 00:47:18,239 Speaker 1: that's the one to go for good to know. All right, Well, hey, 847 00:47:18,360 --> 00:47:20,120 Speaker 1: if you again, if you want to see pictures of 848 00:47:20,160 --> 00:47:22,440 Speaker 1: these creatures, head on over to stuff to Blow your 849 00:47:22,480 --> 00:47:24,560 Speaker 1: Mind dot com. That's where you'll find a landing page 850 00:47:24,560 --> 00:47:27,520 Speaker 1: for this episode, plus you'll find all the past episodes, 851 00:47:27,520 --> 00:47:30,120 Speaker 1: will find videos, you'll find blog posts, uh, and I 852 00:47:30,160 --> 00:47:34,160 Speaker 1: will include links to related slug and snail matters on 853 00:47:34,280 --> 00:47:36,360 Speaker 1: that landing page as well. And if you want to 854 00:47:36,440 --> 00:47:38,640 Speaker 1: write into us and let us know what we should 855 00:47:38,719 --> 00:47:43,239 Speaker 1: call that weird for access snail, well, there's lots of 856 00:47:43,280 --> 00:47:45,360 Speaker 1: ways to do it. We're on Facebook, we're on Twitter, 857 00:47:45,600 --> 00:47:48,560 Speaker 1: we are on Tumbler, and we're on Instagram. I guess 858 00:47:48,600 --> 00:47:51,520 Speaker 1: you could take a picture on Instagram of your name, 859 00:47:51,760 --> 00:47:55,440 Speaker 1: or maybe you could draw this, uh, this crazy thing 860 00:47:55,520 --> 00:47:57,520 Speaker 1: once you've looked at it, and give it a name. 861 00:47:58,040 --> 00:48:01,400 Speaker 1: But I like the Usamaki snail. I'm leaning towards that. 862 00:48:01,560 --> 00:48:04,440 Speaker 1: But there's there's got to be something cool out there. Uh. 863 00:48:05,000 --> 00:48:06,680 Speaker 1: Or hey, you can just do it the old fashioned 864 00:48:06,719 --> 00:48:08,440 Speaker 1: way and you can just write us a letter at 865 00:48:08,520 --> 00:48:21,360 Speaker 1: blow the Mind at how stuff works dot com for 866 00:48:21,520 --> 00:48:24,360 Speaker 1: moralness and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff 867 00:48:24,400 --> 00:48:32,440 Speaker 1: works dot com The