Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren vog obam Here a rub against
Speaker 1: some macineel trees and you're in trouble. Eat a wild
Speaker 1: blue dart frog and you're in bigger trouble. Both species
Speaker 1: are poisonous, meaning they administer toxic substances that can be inhaled, touched,
Speaker 1: or swallowed. Venomous creatures take a different approach. Jellyfish, rattlesnakes,
Speaker 1: and other venom wielders have to inject their targets with
Speaker 1: harmful cocktails, whether by feang, by stinger, or by some
Speaker 1: other means. For the HeLa monster taxonomical name Hiloderma suspect um,
Speaker 1: a quick little bite won't do the trick. Instead, the
Speaker 1: largest lizard native to the United States and venoms attackers
Speaker 1: by chewing on them while he live. Venom rarely kills
Speaker 1: human beings, the oral assault is still none too pleasant.
Speaker 1: After one scientist was not on by a baby helo monster,
Speaker 1: he compared the experience to getting repeatedly struck with a hammer.
Speaker 1: The good news is that HeLa monsters typically avoid people.
Speaker 1: Desert recluses through and through. They spend most of their
Speaker 1: lives hold up in underground layers. Yet the secretive creatures
Speaker 1: have been enlisted in the fight against diabetes, all thanks
Speaker 1: to the venom they carry. Besides the HeLa monster, the
Speaker 1: Heloderma genus includes outwardly similar reptiles called bearded lizards. Herpetologists
Speaker 1: are struggling to get a definitive head count of species
Speaker 1: within that genus. Many regions in North and Central America
Speaker 1: have distinctive looking bearded lizard populations. To date, it's unclear
Speaker 1: whether some of these animals represent separate species or not.
Speaker 1: Various Heloderma lizards can be found from Guatemala to the
Speaker 1: Mormon Corridor. The HeLa monster stands alone, however, as the
Speaker 1: only species natively found on US soil. The animal's natural
Speaker 1: range includes arts of New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah,
Speaker 1: and the Mexican state of Sonora. Oh And, in case
Speaker 1: you're wondering the name Heila monster, it's probably a nod
Speaker 1: to the Heila River in southern Arizona and New Mexico.
Speaker 1: Capable of growing up to twenty two inches or fifty
Speaker 1: cis long, Heila monsters have tiny bones embedded in many
Speaker 1: of their scales. Giving the lizards a heavily appearance. Their
Speaker 1: color schemes include Southwestern hughes with oranged pinkish bands, dots
Speaker 1: or blotches popping out against a charcoal backdrop. Patterns may
Speaker 1: vary from one individual to the next. Heila monsters learn
Speaker 1: about their environments by gathering airborne flavor particles on their
Speaker 1: forked tongues. They share this treat with monitor lizards like
Speaker 1: the famed Komodo dragon, and with many snakes. For the article,
Speaker 1: this episode is based on How Stuff Works. Spoke by
Speaker 1: email with Arizona State University life scientist L. Donardo, He said,
Speaker 1: unlike rattlesnake, Helo monsters do not have fangs. Rattler fangs
Speaker 1: are basically syringes hollowed teeth designed to inject venom with
Speaker 1: rapid efficiency. A Heila monster's venom is produced by quote
Speaker 1: relatively large glands around the lower jaw bones. This toxic
Speaker 1: material comes oozing out as the animal choose. The pearly
Speaker 1: whites contain vertical grooves that help channel the substance, and
Speaker 1: DiNardo said furthermore, to help deliver the venom components into
Speaker 1: the target, the teeth on the lower jaw are somewhat enlarged.
Speaker 1: With each squeeze of the jaws, saliva, including venom, is
Speaker 1: released into the mouth, and some of it moves via
Speaker 1: capillary action up the teeth and into whatever is being bitten.
Speaker 1: While not as sophisticated as rattlesnake venom delivery, it is
Speaker 1: still quite effective. And then there's that twist I mentioned earlier.
Speaker 1: Their venom is being investigated in the fight against type
Speaker 1: two diabetes. Among the many components of helo monster venom
Speaker 1: is the peptide extending four. Chemically, it resembles g lp one,
Speaker 1: a glucose regulating hormone found in the human digestive tract.
Speaker 1: The discovery of extending four in Heila monsters led to
Speaker 1: the development of an FDA approved drug for type two
Speaker 1: diabetes called accnatide, sold under a couple of brand names.
Speaker 1: This medication was first released in two thousand five and
Speaker 1: is now used by more than two million people. Wild
Speaker 1: HeLa monsters are rather stingy with their venom. It's reserved
Speaker 1: for self defense purposes. Weapon the lizard's deploy against coyotes,
Speaker 1: birds of prey, and over curious humans. Keep your hands
Speaker 1: to yourself, folks, They don't generally use it for hunting
Speaker 1: because their prey include things that can be subdued without it.
Speaker 1: DeNardo said. Adult HeLa monsters are near exclusive raiders of
Speaker 1: vertebrate nests, eating quail eggs, rabbit pups, rodent pups, lizard eggs,
Speaker 1: and tortoise eggs. Alas is known about the diets of
Speaker 1: baby helas, they seem to have a taste for eggs
Speaker 1: laid by smaller lizards. Hatcheling Heila monsters were the focus
Speaker 1: of a twenty eighteen paper DeNardo co authored. The lizards
Speaker 1: are committed home bodies, rarely leaving the safety and comfort
Speaker 1: of burrows or rocky dens. Unable to warm themselves like
Speaker 1: humans and other mammals do, Heila monsters derive heat from
Speaker 1: their surroundings. Their ideal body temperature is about eighty four
Speaker 1: degrees fahrenheit that's twenty nine celsius, DeNardo said. In the summer,
Speaker 1: underground temperatures are very close to this throughout the day
Speaker 1: and night. Thus, the borough provides a very good environment
Speaker 1: for the HeLa monster. Become wintertime, the thermometer plummets, even
Speaker 1: though burrows tend to remain warmer than the outside air.
Speaker 1: They made dropped temperatures of just forty five degrees fahrenheit
Speaker 1: that's twelve celsius during the cold months. These cold spells,
Speaker 1: while tolerable, pose logistical problems for infant Heila monsters. Females
Speaker 1: lay clutches of three to nine eggs in midsummer and
Speaker 1: deposited under round Their eggs hatched during the fall when
Speaker 1: the desert grows chilly. By observing artificially warmed eggs and
Speaker 1: a wild clutch found near a construction site, DeNardo and
Speaker 1: his twenty eighteen co authors realized HeLa monsters practice over wintering.
Speaker 1: Food is hard to come by in the autumn season,
Speaker 1: so newborn babies stay put for months on end until
Speaker 1: the weather outside gets warmer and many options increase. Only
Speaker 1: then the hatchlings seek out their first meals. Now, we'd
Speaker 1: be remiss if we didn't mention the prequel to egg
Speaker 1: laying mating behavior, DeNardo said. If they come into contact
Speaker 1: with each other during the breeding season early summer, males
Speaker 1: will fight. The battle is mostly a wrestling match, but
Speaker 1: they can inflict wounds with their bites, often on the
Speaker 1: tops of the head. Meanwhile, as an epilogue, lizards and
Speaker 1: ice skating might seem like a questionable combo unless you're
Speaker 1: the Vegas Golden Nights. This National Hockey League franchise played
Speaker 1: its for game. In the Club's official mascot is Chance,
Speaker 1: an anthropomorphic cula monster. Hey, at least the species is
Speaker 1: indigenous to Nevada. Today's episode is based on the article
Speaker 1: the Reclusive HeLa Monster Packs of Venomous Punch on how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot Com, written by Mark Vancini. Brain Stuff
Speaker 1: is production of I Heart Radio in partnership with how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot Com, and it is produced by Tyler Klein.
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