Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature feature production of iHeartRadio. I'm your host
Speaker 1: of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology and evolutionary biology,
Speaker 1: and today on the show we're talking about animals with
Speaker 1: missing body parts. Don't worry. These critters haven't been mutilated,
Speaker 1: but rather through evolution, they've ditched certain appendages. Legs don't
Speaker 1: need them, wings forget about it. Tails lose them. Sometimes
Speaker 1: efficiency requires sacrifice and body parts have got to go.
Speaker 1: Discover this and more as we answer the age old
Speaker 1: question how many eggs? It's too many eggs? Joining me
Speaker 1: today's front of the show producer at iHeartRadio, Joe el Monique.
Speaker 2: Welcome, Hi Katie, thanks for having me back.
Speaker 1: I am so excited. We are actually in the studio together,
Speaker 1: which has not happened in over.
Speaker 3: Two years since the beforetime.
Speaker 4: Times.
Speaker 1: We're making direct eye contacts.
Speaker 3: It's super weird, really trying to hold it together. Oh
Speaker 3: my gosh.
Speaker 2: It's nice though, to be back here with you. You know,
Speaker 2: I imagine there will be one there's always one bird.
Speaker 2: I think in all of our conversations.
Speaker 1: You're so lucky. This time there's no birds. There's no birds.
Speaker 1: I feel very lucky, You're you're super lucky. Today it
Speaker 1: was between this and the All Birds All Swarms episode,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know this one, this one just by
Speaker 1: a very thin margin one out. So yeah, Instead we
Speaker 1: were talking about animals who are missing like a key
Speaker 1: body part that you think they should probably have.
Speaker 3: Okay, that's kind of exciting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they got me thinking about what body part humans
Speaker 2: would lose first.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what do we use the least of our major
Speaker 1: body parts?
Speaker 3: What's the one organ they don't know?
Speaker 2: What is there for the senex appendix appendix. I'm surprised
Speaker 2: if that hasn't started, like just missing.
Speaker 1: It, just falling out.
Speaker 3: I feel like it was not.
Speaker 2: Necessary for anything that we can decipher, so, you know,
Speaker 2: check it out of their body.
Speaker 1: There might be something too, Like I keep hearing things
Speaker 1: about like, well maybe it has some immune function. We're
Speaker 1: not sure.
Speaker 3: Okay, all right.
Speaker 2: I keep hearing our thumbs are going to get longer
Speaker 2: because of how we use our phone.
Speaker 1: Ah, thumb longer. Yeah, I could use longer thumb.
Speaker 3: The longer thumb would be helpful, It would be really helpful.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but losing a part seems like I feel like
Speaker 2: I need all the things I want both eyes at least,
Speaker 2: you know, the ten finger seems essential. I mean, there's
Speaker 2: obviously people have been able to adapt and make changes
Speaker 2: and adjust two missing body parts. But like, as a species,
Speaker 2: if we were like we just don't need that anymore.
Speaker 1: I feel like maybe one toe could.
Speaker 2: Go, which I would like on the middle ones, one
Speaker 2: of the middle ones, yeah, for balance, right.
Speaker 1: Like yeah, but you know, well yeah, no, I can't
Speaker 1: think of a body part that I would just want
Speaker 1: to part with voluntarily. But yeah, I mean it is
Speaker 1: interesting when you look at animals who are missing parts
Speaker 1: that you think they should have. I mean a good
Speaker 1: example is like a snubnose monkey. That is a primate
Speaker 1: who's a relative of ours, and their nose is just gone.
Speaker 1: I mean they have their nasal cavities, but the nose
Speaker 1: itself is gone because they live in cold, high altitudes
Speaker 1: and so the sort of frostbite that they'd get from
Speaker 1: the nose is not really worth having the nose, so
Speaker 1: instead they just have like a you know, just these
Speaker 1: little holes in their face. They're still cute. I like
Speaker 1: them still. But our first interesting animal that we are
Speaker 1: going to talk about is a moth actually, and what
Speaker 1: is like the main defining feature of a butterfly or
Speaker 1: a moth. That's right. Yeah, it's the thing that differentiates
Speaker 1: them from a caterpillar in sort of a simplistic way.
Speaker 1: But yeah, they're wings, but some moths are wingless. Specifically,
Speaker 1: the females of a few families of moths have almost
Speaker 1: no wings. They they actually technically do have wings, but
Speaker 1: they are teeny tiny and they don't work.
Speaker 3: Their little baby wings, little baby wings.
Speaker 1: It's sort of like remember a bug story, the classic
Speaker 1: pixar ants who have sort of a worker's revolution, and
Speaker 1: then there's the caterpillar who metamorphosizes into a beautiful butterfly,
Speaker 1: and then it's funny because he's got these tiny wings.
Speaker 3: That chunky caterpillar baby wings.
Speaker 1: It's this, it's the same thing because this moth has
Speaker 1: is very chunky and it has tiny wings that they
Speaker 1: don't even look like wings. They look like little rabbit ears,
Speaker 1: which is cute.
Speaker 3: They do look like little rabbit ears. It sort of
Speaker 3: reminded me on Halloween when girls dress up as very
Speaker 3: but they have like little baby wings.
Speaker 2: Yeah, these wings would not propel you up into the air.
Speaker 2: Are clearly just ornamental? Are these ornamental? In some are
Speaker 2: they designed in the attraction process.
Speaker 1: No, that's what's interesting. Also, when I was a kid
Speaker 1: and there was like the little tiny fairy wings, I
Speaker 1: would get frustrated because I really wanted to see big wings,
Speaker 1: because like that is not going to support a human. No.
Speaker 2: No, And we can see what a proper proportion of
Speaker 2: wing to body looks like in nature. It's why dragons
Speaker 2: have those big giant wings. Exactly, all of that mass
Speaker 2: is gonna need a lot of air support.
Speaker 3: Exactly.
Speaker 1: Give me some big tarosaur wings, please.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're like the little dt ones that come just
Speaker 3: out of your back.
Speaker 2: It's only two and not four, which doesn't make sense Directionally,
Speaker 2: you're gonna have a lot more issues with the two
Speaker 2: as opposed to if you have that second layer down
Speaker 2: low like a butterfly. Uh yeah, wings should be proportionate,
Speaker 2: which is making this more confusing.
Speaker 3: Why what happened to their wings?
Speaker 1: Well, what's interesting is that the males of this species,
Speaker 1: these wingless moths, actually do have wings.
Speaker 3: Sexism.
Speaker 1: Oh man, patriarchy is everywhere. We need moth feminists. So
Speaker 1: they look like typical normal moths. They just you know,
Speaker 1: just kind of plain moths. These are winter months and
Speaker 1: the ones that are pictured. There are these just kind
Speaker 1: of grayish brown moths. They look normal except for the
Speaker 1: females that have these adorable little fluffy baby wings and
Speaker 1: then a huge, chunky body. So this actually occurs in
Speaker 1: a few species in the family geometrod uh And so
Speaker 1: there are some species in which the females do have wings,
Speaker 1: but a few, which are the ones that we're talking about,
Speaker 1: where the females don't have these wings or have these
Speaker 1: little stubby wings. One cute fact, this is a little
Speaker 1: bit of a tangent, but it's too cute not to
Speaker 1: talk about. There's this species of geometric moth where the
Speaker 1: females have typical wings, but the caterpillars in this species
Speaker 1: will cover themselves in little pieces of plants or flowers,
Speaker 1: plant matter to camouflage themselves. So I've sent you a photo.
Speaker 1: There's like this thing that looks like kind of a
Speaker 1: weird I guess like Ley or Bouquet, whoa withered flower
Speaker 1: petals there's a caterpillar under there. What I fashion that was.
Speaker 2: Like, what is this flower here? I was trying to
Speaker 2: figure out what this flower was doing, and then oh,
Speaker 2: my god, that's so weird. I never think there's a
Speaker 2: bug in there. It does look like focatory.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I love this one. Anyways, back onto the
Speaker 1: topic of the wingless moths. Species of geometric moths who
Speaker 1: do have wingless females include the winter moths, bruce spanworm,
Speaker 1: and the fall cankerworm moths. So again, the males of
Speaker 1: these species look pretty typical, pretty normal, They're pretty small,
Speaker 1: they have a wingspan of a couple of centimeters. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it is really interesting that this has evolved in these species.
Speaker 1: The winter moth is found in Europe and mate in
Speaker 1: winter and in cold temperature, and the bruce span worm
Speaker 1: and faulknkerworm does the same in North America. So this
Speaker 1: is actually a key detail that all these moths prefer
Speaker 1: to mate in cold temperatures, and so this is the
Speaker 1: first clue into like why these females don't have these wings.
Speaker 1: Most insects actually avoid the winter. The male moths of
Speaker 1: these species have adapted stronger flight muscles in the males
Speaker 1: to be able to flutter around in cold temperatures, and
Speaker 1: so by adapting to this difficult time, they avoid some
Speaker 1: amount of predation from birds. And you know there are
Speaker 1: bird species who are migratory they go in winter in
Speaker 1: warmer climates. And so while there may be some winter
Speaker 1: birds who remain their avoiding predation from this whole segment
Speaker 1: of birds who are like, this is too cold, we're leaving.
Speaker 1: The females, meanwhile, have gone sort of in this opposite
Speaker 1: direction of the males in terms of like the males
Speaker 1: have these like very strong wings, females ditch the wings.
Speaker 1: Females ditch the wings and they will just sit on
Speaker 1: trees and excrete male attracting pheromones, basically making the males
Speaker 1: come to them. And the females are absolutely crammed with eggs.
Speaker 1: They have almost one hundred and fifty eggs in their
Speaker 1: tiny little bodies. So she has sacrificed both the size
Speaker 1: of her internal organs and her wings and ability to
Speaker 1: fly for sheer volume of eggs. So these males will
Speaker 1: just flutter around, congregate around, females mate with them, and
Speaker 1: it's great. The female doesn't have to do anything thing
Speaker 1: other than sit there basically store these eggs, and then
Speaker 1: lay the eggs once they're fertilized.
Speaker 2: Amazing. Here's why I like her plan. Okay, first, she
Speaker 2: was like, men, not only do you have to come
Speaker 2: to me, but like, please leave when you're done. This
Speaker 2: is my house and it's cool here. It's clearly too.
Speaker 3: Cold for you.
Speaker 2: I don't want to inconvenience you, just get on. I
Speaker 2: love that she's like, I'm just gonna do this by myself.
Speaker 2: One hundred and fifty eggs a lot, like at one time,
Speaker 2: seems like a lot. But if you think about it,
Speaker 2: does she only have to do this once? Can?
Speaker 3: She is a one and done situation.
Speaker 1: Get it done, just get it all done.
Speaker 3: Wonderful, an efficient clean We love her.
Speaker 1: I really like how you see this thing where the
Speaker 1: females have taken on all the storage costs in mating,
Speaker 1: where the males have taken on all the travel costs. Look,
Speaker 1: they're working together. I love to find a solution, right, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: and apple goals for real right. And probably the system
Speaker 1: couldn't work as well if they lived in warmer climates,
Speaker 1: because the female is sitting pretty prone on this tree
Speaker 1: and she can't fly away, say like a bird or
Speaker 1: something is trying to eat her, Whereas in a much
Speaker 1: colder climate she is less likely to encounter a predator
Speaker 1: like a bird, and so she can really invest totally
Speaker 1: in becoming like a storage barge for eggs, whereas these
Speaker 1: males can invest in being like, well, we're basically sperm
Speaker 1: taxis and going around, and so they have this wonderful system.
Speaker 2: Sperm taxis and egg barges. It's a children's book waiting
Speaker 2: to happen. I yes, every time we're here, we think
Speaker 2: of a new animal.
Speaker 1: Children about I you know, I think it is important
Speaker 1: for kids to learn about this stuff. And I you know,
Speaker 1: I think there's like a recent news story about there
Speaker 1: being this controversy because some children and show or some
Speaker 1: schools teaching about how certain species of fish change their sex,
Speaker 1: like clownfish. There's actually several species of fish that do this.
Speaker 1: It's not not that novel, uh, And yet it was
Speaker 1: this big controversy like, oh, you can't teach kids. It's like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, it's just reality. Sorry the fish don't la
Speaker 1: la la.
Speaker 3: We don't want to hear about your trans fishes. Woke mob,
Speaker 3: get out of here.
Speaker 1: Yeah if so, I guess the transgender agenda is so
Speaker 1: powerful it can actually make fish change their sex. That's
Speaker 1: the idea.
Speaker 2: The the power they have given to trans books that
Speaker 2: they definitely do not have. Yeah, it's it's creepy and weird. Yeah,
Speaker 2: leave trans kids alone. Yeah, they're just act You're trying
Speaker 2: to live their lives. They did nothing to those fishes.
Speaker 2: Leave those fishes alone. They're just doing what they're supposed
Speaker 2: to be.
Speaker 3: Yeah, survive. This is good for their species. They don't
Speaker 3: need us to tell them. They're Yeah, yes, bizarre, bizarre.
Speaker 1: Uh, cancel the ocean.
Speaker 3: I guess oh god, I mean we're doing a great
Speaker 3: job of that.
Speaker 1: We are we are our own. Oh no, So what
Speaker 1: is the difference between a snake and a lizard?
Speaker 3: Joel?
Speaker 1: This isn't a setup to a joke. I'm not trying
Speaker 1: to trick you. It's the feet, okayo the I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm doing it in very simplistic terms, right, Like, again,
Speaker 1: this is not like a trick. Yes, So, like, snakes
Speaker 1: don't have legs generally, and lizards do have legs. Of course,
Speaker 1: there are other differences, sure, you know, anatomical differences, but
Speaker 1: this is the main distinguishing difference between snakes and lizards. However,
Speaker 1: have you ever heard of a legless lizard?
Speaker 3: No, because that's a snake. We just went over the.
Speaker 1: I know it sounds like a legless lizard would just
Speaker 1: be a snake. But surprisingly, no, this is not the case.
Speaker 1: So there are lizards who, over many years of evolution,
Speaker 1: have lost their legs or they've been greatly reduced to
Speaker 1: tiny little nubblets. And this has been done independently of snakes.
Speaker 1: So over eight families of lizards containing multiple species have
Speaker 1: independently lost their legs. So this is an evolutionary trend
Speaker 1: that has happened over and over again independently. It's a
Speaker 1: popular thing in the lizard world to just lose your legs.
Speaker 3: It's this appropriation.
Speaker 2: Were they looking at the snakes in there like this
Speaker 2: life seems better and now I'm going to call myself
Speaker 2: a snake. Everyone's like, technically you're a legless lizard. They're like,
Speaker 2: bla la lah, I can't hear you.
Speaker 1: I mean, is it okay to do appropriation? Once you've
Speaker 1: gone so far so deep in, you're willing to give
Speaker 1: up your.
Speaker 3: They become part of the culture.
Speaker 2: They two slither on the ground, okay, they know that
Speaker 2: snake white?
Speaker 3: Okay, really blaring some wines here.
Speaker 1: So snakes and lizards evolved from a common ancestor, a
Speaker 1: reptile squawmate. So the fossil record of the oldest known
Speaker 1: common ancestor to snakes and lizards was found in northern
Speaker 1: Italy in the Alps, and it is a species from
Speaker 1: around two hundred and forty million years ago called mega
Speaker 1: cayrella wac tillari.
Speaker 3: Gosh.
Speaker 1: That is so many consonants jammed into one word.
Speaker 3: Give it to me again, Katie, How does it go?
Speaker 1: Mega, kyrilla, waktillary.
Speaker 3: Wow, okay, big word which means oh, gosh.
Speaker 1: Well Mega means big okay and kyrilla that means something
Speaker 1: for sure.
Speaker 3: It sounds like it's.
Speaker 2: You have a Latin text right right, there's some consonants vowels,
Speaker 2: so probably a word that has a meaning.
Speaker 1: Yes, I never agreed. I never got to the Latin
Speaker 1: what all the Latin words mean in my skewing? But
Speaker 1: what makes legless lizards different from snakes? Well, they are
Speaker 1: technically examples of how snakes evolved from a lizard like ancestor.
Speaker 1: But they are distinct from snakes because legless lizards evolved
Speaker 1: from a different lineage and in a different evolutionary path
Speaker 1: from snakes, as in, legless lizards and snakes don't share
Speaker 1: a recent common ancestor. Oh, and they also have different
Speaker 1: anatomical characteristics. So legless lizards have eyelids and ear holes,
Speaker 1: which snakes do not have, and legless lizards aren't able
Speaker 1: to swallow prey larger than their heads like a snake can.
Speaker 1: So basically, in every way, legless lizards are lizards that
Speaker 1: don't have legs, whereas snakes are evolutionary and physically distinct
Speaker 1: from lizards, not just in the fact that they lack
Speaker 1: their legs.
Speaker 2: I gotta tell you, guys, this is so trippy. So
Speaker 2: first of all, when you're looking at a legless lizard, uh,
Speaker 2: and you're seeing the eyelids, for some reason, it feels
Speaker 2: more anthropomorphized. It's more like human. It's like, what do
Speaker 2: you call those things?
Speaker 3: Not a transfer? No? No, not a transformer, but uh.
Speaker 2: Ah, were they It's like they're transmorphing. Is that the
Speaker 2: book cover where they show like, yeah, yeah, turn into
Speaker 2: a different animal. Yes, it looks like an anamorph and
Speaker 2: it's right in between a lizard may turn into a
Speaker 2: snake and or a human.
Speaker 3: Boy, it's a very weird but kind of cool looking. Yes.
Speaker 3: Their bodies also seem like.
Speaker 2: Thicker as compared to their heads, Like I feel like
Speaker 2: a snake's head is typically like a little more tapered
Speaker 2: than than this is it is it is it like
Speaker 2: bonier than a snake.
Speaker 1: It looks I mean, if you count the like la like,
Speaker 1: there's probably more sort of vestigial leg architecture going on,
Speaker 1: so like a pelvic girdle they will probably have, whereas
Speaker 1: a snake doesn't necessarily have the pelvic girdle. But in
Speaker 1: terms of like snakes do actually have a rib cage
Speaker 1: all the way down. Yeah, but it's much I feel
Speaker 1: like they're much more expandable than the lakeless lizards. So
Speaker 1: legless lizard is a little more structured, whereas a snake
Speaker 1: is a little more like the its skeleton really allows
Speaker 1: for a lot of expansion because of the whole like
Speaker 1: eating food larger than its head and can really widen
Speaker 1: its jaws. It's a it's kind of a misnomer to
Speaker 1: say they dislocate their jaws because their jaws are just
Speaker 1: naturally not a Yeah, they're not not a fused like
Speaker 1: our jaws are, and so they can open their mouths
Speaker 1: really really wide, and also their rib cages can are
Speaker 1: more flexible. They can expand to a lot of these
Speaker 1: big big meals, So that's why they can eat stuff
Speaker 1: that's like way bigger than their bodies.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like looking at it, because I would see like
Speaker 2: a snake. Sometimes some synaks have more of like an
Speaker 2: s curve when they slither, whereas this feels like it
Speaker 2: would be much more like wavy and less of a
Speaker 2: defined curve like it wouldn't maybe I guess more like
Speaker 2: this is like kind of turn reading ass Is that what.
Speaker 3: I'm looking for?
Speaker 1: I mean, it's they probably do move a little differently,
Speaker 1: although they do. They do slither essentially like a snake does.
Speaker 1: And you know they are they come in all sorts
Speaker 1: of different sizes. So this first photo that I've shared
Speaker 1: with you, All of these pictures will be in the
Speaker 1: show notes. This is a glass lizard and it is
Speaker 1: one of the bigger species of legless lizards. It's this
Speaker 1: it's I think it's quite beautiful. It's sort of this
Speaker 1: pale tan color. It's got these like weird it's not injured.
Speaker 1: I know, it kind of looks like someone slashed It's
Speaker 1: that's a natural part of this species. It's just sort
Speaker 1: of a skin fold. So yeah, it's called the shell
Speaker 1: top who sick. It is one of the largest species
Speaker 1: of legless lizards in the world, found in southern Europe
Speaker 1: and Central Asia. It is it grows to be a
Speaker 1: little under four and a half feet or one hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty five centimeters. And yeah, that that groove is
Speaker 1: sort of folded skin, so it's it's normal.
Speaker 3: It looks badass.
Speaker 1: Looks wise. It looks like a white like, you know,
Speaker 1: sort of the There are various dragons. I think some
Speaker 1: of them are called like worms or something like, aren't
Speaker 1: there dragons where it's they don't have wings and they
Speaker 1: just kind of like slither through the air.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, they fly, but there's
Speaker 2: definitely they sort of resemble like a komodo dragon, but
Speaker 2: like in fantasy terms, so they're yeah large, and they're
Speaker 2: like clod you know, and typically instead of the almost
Speaker 2: dinosaur like head, it's more lizard like.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Typically, Yeah, you definitely have those types of dragons which
Speaker 2: are cool, Like kmodo dragons are cool.
Speaker 1: They are very cool.
Speaker 3: These lizards are cool.
Speaker 2: I think what makes so like, what's terrifying about a
Speaker 2: snake and cute about these legless lizards is a snake
Speaker 2: can like prop itself up, you know, what I mean,
Speaker 2: and like really confront you. You're like, you're should not
Speaker 2: be facing me like this. Okay, you could just go
Speaker 2: on the ground and then up in the air and
Speaker 2: look me in my eye while you kill me.
Speaker 3: Horrifying. This little guy's.
Speaker 2: Killing he is not going to get it. Doesn't look
Speaker 2: like he can prop himself up.
Speaker 1: I don't think, yeah, I don't think. They coil in
Speaker 1: this defensive manner that snakes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, that's much cuter. That plus eyelids equals to snake.
Speaker 3: I could rock.
Speaker 1: Can't blink at you?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it could wink at you could flirt. It's cute.
Speaker 1: It could flirt. What you need for flirting is eyelids,
Speaker 1: and if you don't got them, you can't.
Speaker 3: The ability is gone.
Speaker 2: These little guys are also kind of like the one
Speaker 2: with the tiny fettle legs.
Speaker 1: They are so cute. Yes, so there's the small one
Speaker 1: of the smaller species of legless lizards, or the southern
Speaker 1: California legless lizards who are small enough to be mistaken
Speaker 1: for earthworms. They are just little, tiny guys. Uh so cute.
Speaker 1: And then some species of lizards have not fully lost
Speaker 1: their legs. These are actually my favorites. But they are
Speaker 1: going in that direction though, so like they have legs
Speaker 1: with their teeny teeny teeny teeny days.
Speaker 2: If you saw Deadpool and these little tiny baby feet,
Speaker 2: it's exactly what you're thinking of.
Speaker 3: They're so little.
Speaker 2: Do these like help them propel or is this just
Speaker 2: a slow form of evolution, like we're getting rid of them?
Speaker 3: It just takes time.
Speaker 1: It's they probably have some positive use. Otherwise it's I mean,
Speaker 1: they could be vestigial, but I believe for these like
Speaker 1: it helps them a little bit. The rear legs probably
Speaker 1: helps with mating. The four legs probably helps a little
Speaker 1: bit in terms of burrowing or something. But I don't
Speaker 1: think that they're super super functional or helpful. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean they might. They just have a
Speaker 1: sort of different evolutionary path. They may never like if
Speaker 1: you gave them another you know, million years, they may
Speaker 1: never lose their legs, or they may lose them. But yeah,
Speaker 1: this is called the Italian skink, which sounds like an
Speaker 1: anti Italian slur, but it's not. Apparently that's a great name.
Speaker 2: What a bad but I love it, oh man, the
Speaker 2: Italian skink wonderful.
Speaker 1: So I think one of The most interesting things about
Speaker 1: this is like the way in which these legs have
Speaker 1: been lost in lizards and snakes over and over again.
Speaker 1: So why do both snakes in some species of lizards
Speaker 1: lose their legs because legs seem pretty useful. The most
Speaker 1: likely reason is that burrowing or hunting in burrows made
Speaker 1: legs less efficient, So sliding into burrows is easy when
Speaker 1: you don't have any legs in that way, so they
Speaker 1: can just slide in, grab a baby, go for eat it,
Speaker 1: and slide out. Early snakes slowly lost their legs, they
Speaker 1: still had hind legs in some species for a while,
Speaker 1: and in modern BoA's they still actually have little tiny
Speaker 1: you can't even barely see them. What, Yeah, you really
Speaker 1: can't see them very well. It's just like they almost
Speaker 1: look like little tiny like clothing and that is it's
Speaker 1: like called a clasper and they can clasp in during
Speaker 1: mating and it helps them kind of like attach on
Speaker 1: to the female.
Speaker 3: Bowls just got two more terrifying.
Speaker 2: I didn't know they I really didn't know they were
Speaker 2: using hooks for sex.
Speaker 3: They very advanced creature fish.
Speaker 4: Like don't kink shame the bowl community.
Speaker 1: So Joel, I can I make the assumption that you
Speaker 1: might be, you know, a little bit wary of scorpions.
Speaker 2: Definitely wary of scorpions. Definitely if I saw one, I
Speaker 2: would move in the other direction. I don't want to
Speaker 2: harm them, but you know, if we never cross back.
Speaker 2: It's how I feel about birds, people all over there.
Speaker 2: And it's really good that you have that space, and
Speaker 2: I don't want to take any from you. In fact,
Speaker 2: I think we should preserve your space. But I would
Speaker 2: not like to be in that space with you. What
Speaker 2: I wouldn't want you in my space.
Speaker 1: Scorpions are the birds of the ground, according to Joel,
Speaker 1: because yes, you're afraid of birds as well. Yes, for
Speaker 1: I mean, you've been on the show multiple times, so
Speaker 1: I help people would know that about you by now.
Speaker 1: But yes, afraid of birds, afraid of scorpions makes sense.
Speaker 1: You know, the scorpion is quite scary. What is the
Speaker 1: scariest part of the scorpions?
Speaker 3: Thinky part? Yes, y'a overted at you.
Speaker 2: It's got like a big needle at the bottom that
Speaker 2: can stab you.
Speaker 3: And then it's poisonous snow. Yes, yes, yeah that seems bad.
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, I I like scorpions, but I so I
Speaker 1: grew up sort of next to a canyon, and for
Speaker 1: whatever reason, my room would get infiltrated by critters all
Speaker 1: the time, which was fun. It felt like it happened
Speaker 1: to my room the most. Maybe they they sensed my
Speaker 1: creature feature vibes. And yet I accepted some of them.
Speaker 1: But the scorpions, no, I couldn't. I could not accept
Speaker 1: living in my midst It was. It was very It
Speaker 1: was they were tiny. They were like these little, tiny
Speaker 1: tan scorpions. But like, even if it was scorpions small,
Speaker 1: that doesn't necessarily mean it's harmless because it could have venom.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it was. I I was quite afraid of them.
Speaker 1: And yeah, it's all because of that fierce, sort of
Speaker 1: syringe like tail that they would chode you. As you
Speaker 1: point out, Uh so it is kind of funny to
Speaker 1: me that there is an animal called the tailless whip scorpion,
Speaker 1: which minute yes, which looks like a kind of horrifying
Speaker 1: crab scorpion, but it's got no tail.
Speaker 2: Okay here already, I'm so confused because if I think
Speaker 2: of a scorpion and anything whippy, it's that tail. Yeah,
Speaker 2: this one is whippy without the tail. Yeah, Diva is this.
Speaker 1: So the whip part of it I think comes from
Speaker 1: the fact that it has these like really long antenna
Speaker 1: like structures that good large. Then yeah, it is a
Speaker 1: horrifying looking Arthur pod. It does not have that tail
Speaker 1: though that scorpions often have.
Speaker 3: Scorpions can be terrifying in an entirely different way. People.
Speaker 3: I just want to let you know if.
Speaker 2: You were scared at the tail, you didn't know, Uh,
Speaker 2: it could have crab like claws. Oh my god, I
Speaker 2: just know some like alien creature designer has been looking
Speaker 2: at these like my time is coming, Like I'm going
Speaker 2: to implement this into a horror film.
Speaker 3: Yes, and terrified.
Speaker 2: P This is so weird and scary and big. I
Speaker 2: would scream so loud if I saw this in nature.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, Katie, where are they? So I never
Speaker 2: go near that.
Speaker 1: Well, they are found kind of throughout the world because
Speaker 1: they are actually multiple species with an order called ambly page. Uh.
Speaker 1: And it is actually not a true scorpion, so it's
Speaker 1: in the eracted class, which includes scorpions and spiders.
Speaker 3: I can see that.
Speaker 1: But the tail is whip scorpion, while being a relative
Speaker 1: of both scorpions and spiders, is neither a scorpion nor
Speaker 1: a spider.
Speaker 2: Now, animals, I really need you to get into. How
Speaker 2: are you both related to both of these but also
Speaker 2: classified as neither.
Speaker 3: That's interesting.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just its distinct order. So scorpions have
Speaker 1: its order of species, spiders have its own order, and
Speaker 1: so this one has its distinct order. They're just all
Speaker 1: kind of cousins, you know.
Speaker 2: Wow, Okay, those guys in class of his own, and
Speaker 2: to be fair looking at it deserves to be, has
Speaker 2: earned its own space title and recognition.
Speaker 1: So what Joel is reacting to is that this thing
Speaker 1: looks like you crossed a crab, a spider, and a
Speaker 1: scorpion and it created kind of a horrible alien. So
Speaker 1: the this has these long legs, very long and skinny,
Speaker 1: kind of like a spider. It has an antenna very
Speaker 1: long and sort of skinny like I don't know, just
Speaker 1: really long antenna, kind of like a lobster. And then
Speaker 1: it has these two long, skinny legs that end in
Speaker 1: these little pincer claws.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: And it is yeah, it's it's I think it's cool,
Speaker 1: but I acknowledge that it's unpleasant looking. And they also
Speaker 1: scuttle kind of like a crab. Oh, scuttling is something
Speaker 1: that turn some people off, and so yeah it is.
Speaker 1: They are basically a spooky, slender version of a crab,
Speaker 1: spider or spider crab or whatever. They can get to
Speaker 1: be quite big, usually spanning larger than an adult's palm. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, the damon.
Speaker 3: I think, not Katie what.
Speaker 1: So for instance, the daemon Diadema tailus whip scorpion of
Speaker 1: Central Africa has a body that's only a little over
Speaker 1: an inch long or twenty eight millimeters, but its leg
Speaker 1: span gets to be up around eight inches or twenty centimeters.
Speaker 2: I don't I don't want to be near his body
Speaker 2: is so creepy. It's really like the legs are so
Speaker 2: spread out, and I feel like, as a human, my
Speaker 2: eyes are like which one do I need to focus on?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: With a scorpion, they have the courtesy of being like,
Speaker 2: here's one tail, don't lose sight of it. Okay, these guys,
Speaker 2: they're like danger could come from anywhere at any time.
Speaker 2: And also I scuttle, I can move in any direction
Speaker 2: at any time.
Speaker 3: I don't think so.
Speaker 1: It's three hundred and sixty degrees of no. So they
Speaker 1: may look horrifying, and yes they do, but they actually
Speaker 1: have no venom. They're very shy, and they generally don't bite.
Speaker 1: The most you have to fear from them is getting
Speaker 1: pinched by their pair of long, pinchy pincers if you
Speaker 1: scare them or antagonize them.
Speaker 3: Por Phone crawls over you while you're sleeping, and you
Speaker 3: just scream yourself.
Speaker 1: But you know, it's like a crab where it can pinch,
Speaker 1: you can kind of hurt. These can, you know, make
Speaker 1: little tiny puncture wounds, sort of like if you get
Speaker 1: pricked by a thorn or something. But there's no venom,
Speaker 1: so it's not dangerous. It's not dangerous at all. They
Speaker 1: just look like they could kill you and latch onto
Speaker 1: your face, rip your eyeballs out, but they can't.
Speaker 2: Millions of years of human evolution has told you you
Speaker 2: should not touch or be near this thing. Okay, your
Speaker 2: body knows even though even though your brain may know better.
Speaker 2: Be like, listen, you could survive a pinch and be fine.
Speaker 2: Your body said, we will not be putting in this way.
Speaker 1: So it's interesting because these legs are very They are
Speaker 1: arachnids and they have eight legs, but it looks like
Speaker 1: they only have six, but that is because one pair
Speaker 1: of their legs have been modified into the antenna, so
Speaker 1: those really long antenna that get them. The name of
Speaker 1: whip scorpion is the modified front legs that have grown
Speaker 1: extra sensory neurons and actually is now used as antenna.
Speaker 1: The pincers, the little what looks like little legs with pincers,
Speaker 1: are actually modified petipalps. Pelps are when you look at
Speaker 1: a spider. Sometimes they have what look like tiny little
Speaker 1: arms near their mouth that kind of go like yeah,
Speaker 1: which I think are cute, but yeah, those have become
Speaker 1: really elongated and have the cool addition of pincers, and
Speaker 1: they use those like a crab wood where they grab food,
Speaker 1: grab prey. Sometimes they even stab the prey with them
Speaker 1: and then bring it up to their mouth and then
Speaker 1: they eat it with their chillicera.
Speaker 3: May I ask what their diet consists.
Speaker 1: Of small invertebrates. Usually they will occasionally eat a small
Speaker 1: vertebrate if the opportunity arises, but generally they only mess
Speaker 1: around with other arthropods.
Speaker 2: I don't like when they start eating the vertebrates. It's
Speaker 2: really terrifying to me. I will say, this is my
Speaker 2: love hate relationship with the whole spider and spider esque community.
Speaker 3: Okay, y'all eat the little bugs.
Speaker 2: That bite me that I hate, and you keep my
Speaker 2: house clear of them, and that's good, that's good for
Speaker 2: all of us.
Speaker 3: But then you are also terrifying. I have to deal
Speaker 3: with that.
Speaker 2: I've been getting pretty good about not killing the spiders
Speaker 2: in my house for those of you who are really
Speaker 2: about like you.
Speaker 3: Just said it free.
Speaker 2: I can't touch them because it weirds me out, but
Speaker 2: I will go get someone else in my household, Like,
Speaker 2: will you just gently transfer this thing far outside of
Speaker 2: our door so it can come back in, but also
Speaker 2: it can just continue to do what it needs to do.
Speaker 3: This one.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, buddy, if you come in my house, you
Speaker 2: have to die. It's not I can't cohabitate even for
Speaker 2: a second.
Speaker 3: It's so creepy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean some people keep them as pets in.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this thing can't show you affection. That's not a pet.
Speaker 1: Pinch your cheek with it's a little cloth.
Speaker 2: No no, no, no.
Speaker 1: So they actually, despite I guess being nightmare fuel, they
Speaker 1: are very much introverts. Mating consists of the male depositing
Speaker 1: his sperm packets on the grid and gently guiding the
Speaker 1: female over with the hopes that she'll pick up the
Speaker 1: sperm packets, in seminate herself and bear offspring.
Speaker 3: So yeah, Wins could learn a lesson, is all I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Sorry, Katie said, please explain. I'm just saying I think
Speaker 2: this is a much clearer way of doing things, just
Speaker 2: to be like, if.
Speaker 3: You want to, it's here, but don't eat, no stress.
Speaker 2: I disagree, and the lady's like you, I think I
Speaker 2: will pick it up and then just like he.
Speaker 1: Leaves his sperm on the ground in like little packets,
Speaker 1: like here you.
Speaker 3: Go, guide you back to you can.
Speaker 1: Take a sperm, leave a sperm.
Speaker 3: In that lock.
Speaker 2: You'll learn about whether this is the kind of person
Speaker 2: whose children you want to carry or not.
Speaker 1: You know, Yeah, I strong disagree. I don't want to
Speaker 1: trip over random sperm packets.
Speaker 3: Are you saying? Dating and La has warped me? This
Speaker 3: is the earlier problem.
Speaker 1: It's one of those little robots that delivers food now,
Speaker 1: but for sperm packets. Yeah sounds great.
Speaker 3: Perfect.
Speaker 1: After the eggs hatch, the tiny baby tailless whip scorpions
Speaker 1: will actually climb onto their mother's back until they are
Speaker 1: old enough to be on their own and their mother
Speaker 1: and the babies communicate using their weird antenna legs, which
Speaker 1: is a rare social behavior from arachnids.
Speaker 3: That is kind of huge. Yeah, communicate through touch me
Speaker 3: to you guys.
Speaker 1: Behaviorally, they're actually really sweet. They're just very kind of shy.
Speaker 1: They are not aggressive at all because they don't really
Speaker 1: have that much to defend themselves with. Like, yeah, they
Speaker 1: can pinch you, and they will if they feel threatened,
Speaker 1: but you know, it's not much. So they generally are
Speaker 1: very very shy, very reserved. They're clearly very shy in
Speaker 1: the dating pool. They just they want to hold hands,
Speaker 1: like basically take a walk and hold hands is like
Speaker 1: the equivalent of sex for them, and then they like
Speaker 1: are communicate with their babies. It's very cute.
Speaker 2: Okay, So as long as one of these doesn't sneak
Speaker 2: up on me in my own house, maybe I can
Speaker 2: get somebody else to come take care of them and
Speaker 2: escort them outside.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I can't. You're like, pinch me. I must
Speaker 1: be having a nightmare. It's like, okay, we'll do.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 1: Before we go, we've got to play a little game,
Speaker 1: and that game is called.
Speaker 3: Guess Who's squawking?
Speaker 1: The Mystery animal sound game.
Speaker 3: I love this game.
Speaker 1: Every week I play a mystery animal sound and you,
Speaker 1: the listener, and you the guest, try to guess who
Speaker 1: is squawking. So first, last week's mystery animal sound, the
Speaker 1: hint was this, this patriotic bird often doesn't get credit
Speaker 1: for its work. Oh yeah, that came through.
Speaker 3: I almost pit water all over this sec. I didn't engineer.
Speaker 3: I was so good. I did not, but I was
Speaker 3: very close. Oh my god.
Speaker 2: Uh because patriot, he said, as patriotic, Uh eagle, and
Speaker 2: he said.
Speaker 3: It was hard.
Speaker 1: It often doesn't get credit for its work. Is it.
Speaker 2: A it's a government government eagle?
Speaker 1: I love that. I really wish there was a species
Speaker 1: of rapper called the government eagle. So this is it's
Speaker 1: not a government eagle. You're doing in the right zone. Now,
Speaker 1: this is actually the red tailed hawk. So congratulations to
Speaker 1: the three fastest guessers Auntie Bee, Joey P, and Emily
Speaker 1: M who all wrote in and guessed correctly.
Speaker 3: Smart folks.
Speaker 1: Yes, so, red tailed hawks are raptors found throughout North America.
Speaker 1: They're a medium sized brown hawk with a white underbelly
Speaker 1: and rusty red tail. Their majestic call is often stolen
Speaker 1: and used as the call for bald eagles in movies
Speaker 1: or TV show, which is their larger, more famous raptor.
Speaker 2: Yes, okay, because when I heard it, I was like,
Speaker 2: this definitely sounds like an eagle. Yeah, and what I
Speaker 2: know of eagles it the call is very uh, unique
Speaker 2: and specific.
Speaker 3: When you hear it, you're like, okay, attention. So I
Speaker 3: can see.
Speaker 2: Why they were like, I don't know what sounds the
Speaker 2: bald eagle is making, but it's not this.
Speaker 1: It's not this. You want to hear what sounds the.
Speaker 3: Bald Yeah, well that is adorable. Yes, that is listen
Speaker 3: here in America.
Speaker 2: If you're not from here and have not seen the
Speaker 2: way we use a bald evil, they're majestic sharpshooters, yeah,
Speaker 2: in the sky who cut the sky with their wings
Speaker 2: and then dive on their prey.
Speaker 3: They're very manly.
Speaker 2: We put them on a lot of our war vehicles.
Speaker 2: That adorable chirping does not match the mental image we
Speaker 2: have as Americans of our country's bird, the bald eagle.
Speaker 2: So we did we as we typically do. We had
Speaker 2: to steal it from something much cooler. And not acknowledge
Speaker 2: that species.
Speaker 1: I know, but the red tailed hawk is also found
Speaker 1: in North America. It's an American species. We're just like,
Speaker 1: you're not big enough. We really need an It's like
Speaker 1: this manufactured symbol, right, like they eat an eagle that
Speaker 1: looks big and fierce, and the bald eagle is pretty big,
Speaker 1: sharp eyes, just got those sharp byes, got those big claws.
Speaker 1: And the red tailed hawk is not nothing. It's a
Speaker 1: you know, fierce predator, but it's smaller. It's you know,
Speaker 1: not as striking looking, I guess, but it's called it's
Speaker 1: much more majestic then the bald eagles are. Link it's cute, though.
Speaker 3: I love the eagles sounding. I'm not gonna.
Speaker 1: It's just like they makes them sound like a little
Speaker 1: like you know, it's like little kitty laugh or.
Speaker 2: You want to get out a tea set and not
Speaker 2: go to war though, so uh.
Speaker 1: You know how Americans feel about tea.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we put that in the bay.
Speaker 3: Okay, So now what does the he says, the red
Speaker 3: tailed hawk? Yeah, what do these things look like?
Speaker 1: They look like a typical hawk. They just kind of
Speaker 1: they're not you know, you know what a hawk looks like.
Speaker 1: I do. It's it's they're kind of brown. They they're
Speaker 1: sometimes called chicken hawks. They don't actually prey on chickens,
Speaker 1: so that's not that's a misnomer. But yeah, they they're
Speaker 1: just very hawk looking hawk.
Speaker 2: Okay, here's why I'm upset for the red tailed hawk
Speaker 2: right now. They've got the same eyes as the eagles,
Speaker 2: which we've just described as one of the key elements
Speaker 2: of what makes the eagle look badass. We gonna put
Speaker 2: this on war vehicles, you know. I'm just saying, like,
Speaker 2: it's got all of the same energy. It's a little smaller,
Speaker 2: you know. Yeah, but it's got that burly chick. You
Speaker 2: can pay metals to this bird. Check it's so early.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 1: I have mixed feelings because I do want the red
Speaker 1: tailed hawk to be more recognized, but also I'm a pacifist,
Speaker 1: so using it like, Look, the problem is we have
Speaker 1: the wrong symbol on our on our drones.
Speaker 3: Right exactly. Yeah, put the red tail hawk on here.
Speaker 1: It's the wrong species of birds America.
Speaker 3: Listen, I vibe with it.
Speaker 2: This bird is actually kind of cute, and you guys
Speaker 2: aren't know how I feel about birds. With this one.
Speaker 2: It looks together with it. Oh, not like the craziness
Speaker 2: of a turkey.
Speaker 3: Yeah, or.
Speaker 2: The absolute chaotic nature of an owl. Why are you
Speaker 2: turning your head around to look at me? So you
Speaker 2: turn your whole body with some respect. Okay, No, that's right.
Speaker 1: I lied to you. I said there would be no
Speaker 1: birds in this here.
Speaker 3: We are right in the end. She's snuck it in
Speaker 3: right in there.
Speaker 2: Wow, I learned something today.
Speaker 1: Well onto this week's mystery animal. Sound the hint. This
Speaker 1: hairy animal doesn't want his picnic on a rainy day.
Speaker 3: That is a big baby. Whoa.
Speaker 2: It sounds like me that I get woken up from
Speaker 2: a nap. I'm very upset. Why is it raining here? Okay,
Speaker 2: it's some kind of bear. I feel confident in that lane.
Speaker 2: It's harry and it doesn't want to get what Afro
Speaker 2: bear hit it.
Speaker 3: I did.
Speaker 1: Friends with Government eagle their best.
Speaker 3: Because they own all the war vehicles.
Speaker 1: Add that one to the list of animals I wish existed.
Speaker 3: Afro bear meats.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine?
Speaker 3: I can't?
Speaker 1: And he is fabulous, wonderful, wonderful. Well, that is an
Speaker 1: incredible guess and we will find out next time on
Speaker 1: Creature feature. Who is making that sound. If you out
Speaker 1: there think you know who the mystery animal is this week,
Speaker 1: write me an email at Creature Featurepod at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: You can also write questions to me and sometimes I
Speaker 1: have listener questions episodes, or respond to your emails or
Speaker 1: you know, send me pictures of your pets.
Speaker 3: Always love those.
Speaker 1: Yep. I get a lot of cute animals in my
Speaker 1: inbox and I love it, so Thank you guys so
Speaker 1: much for listening. Joe Well, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: coming on the show. It's so lovely to see you
Speaker 1: in person in three D.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me. It's good to
Speaker 3: see you too.
Speaker 2: And now I know when you see a crab like spider,
Speaker 2: it's probably just an introvert and it doesn't want to
Speaker 2: be near you as much as you don't want to
Speaker 2: be near it. So I've really I guts to take
Speaker 2: that inform home and protect additional spiders, which is an
Speaker 2: insane thing I never thought I would do.
Speaker 1: Well. Where can people find you?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Will you guys tell me you can find me all
Speaker 2: over the internet at Due Monique It's Joelle em O and.
Speaker 3: iQue you.
Speaker 1: Well. Thank you so much, and thanks to Graham for
Speaker 1: doing the audio on this episode. I'm usually flying solo abroad,
Speaker 1: but I am so happy to pop into the studio
Speaker 1: and thank you guys so much for listening. If you
Speaker 1: are enjoying the show, you can leave a rating or
Speaker 1: review and I read every single review and all the
Speaker 1: ratings really do help the show. Or tell a friend
Speaker 1: you know, just like say like, hey, you want to
Speaker 1: learn about weird crab spiders that can pinch you like,
Speaker 1: tell them, let them know, spread the word, and thanks
Speaker 1: to the Space Classics for their super awesome song XO
Speaker 1: loom Enough Creature features a production of iHeartRadio. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts like the one you just heard, visit the iHeartRadio
Speaker 1: app Apple Podcasts, or hey, guess.
Speaker 4: What for me?
Speaker 1: Listen to your favorite shows. I don't care. See you
Speaker 1: next Wednesday.