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Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, Welcome to Creature Feature production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host so many parasites, Katie Golden and today

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Speaker 1: on the show, it's heck another listener Questions episode. You

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Speaker 1: send me your questions, email them to me at Creature

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Speaker 1: Feature Pod at gmail dot com, and guess what I

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Speaker 1: answer them. And that's how this works. And so I

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Speaker 1: am very excited about these questions. I don't know if

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Speaker 1: there's much of a theme to the questions, although I

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Speaker 1: feel like every time I do this, somehow the questions

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Speaker 1: all nicely fitting into each other, like some kind of

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Speaker 1: wonderful animal quilt. So let's get right into it. The

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Speaker 1: first question I got was a nice little quick one

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Speaker 1: from Twitter favorite extinct, extant and crypto animals from Quietus Swain.

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Speaker 1: And another related question is from Vincent on Twitter who

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Speaker 1: asked quats actalists greatest terasaur to ever live or greatest animal.

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Speaker 1: So quats actalist is one of my favorite extinct animals.

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Speaker 1: It was a terasaur related to paro dactyls, but it

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Speaker 1: was the size of a giraffe. It had a long

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Speaker 1: neck and thick, thick neck muscles, so it kind of

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Speaker 1: looked like It went to the gym and did neck

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Speaker 1: day every day of the week, but kind of mislegged day,

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Speaker 1: so it would walk on all fours using the elbows

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Speaker 1: of its wings, and biologists think it could in fact

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Speaker 1: fly despite its gigantic size. In the air, it was

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Speaker 1: the size of a small Cessna aircraft. So a real

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Speaker 1: life dragon bird thing. Not quite a bird, not quite

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Speaker 1: a dinosaur, not quite a dragon, but a giraffe sized terrasaur. Amazing.

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Speaker 1: My favorite extant animal, that is surviving animal is kind

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Speaker 1: of impossible to answer. There are too many wonderful animals.

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Speaker 1: But I will tell you a story about how my

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Speaker 1: interest in animal biology really I mean, I always had

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Speaker 1: an interest in animals ever since I was a real

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Speaker 1: little kid. I would chase after birds and chase after lizards.

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Speaker 1: But I think my most intense interest in animal biology

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Speaker 1: started in the fifth grade when I got a book

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Speaker 1: about naked mole rats and seeing pictures of these weird

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Speaker 1: little dudes that looked like wrinkly little sausages. This bald

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Speaker 1: rodent that lived in a colony built complex underground tunnels,

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Speaker 1: including bathrooms and a birth chamber. They had a giant

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Speaker 1: queen who had just become engorged with babies and constantly

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Speaker 1: be giving birth. Their teeth grow outside their lips. They

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Speaker 1: have these tiny, beady, almost nonfunctional eyes that indicate evolution

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Speaker 1: living underground. They have this really super stretchy, wrinkly skin

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Speaker 1: that it just all blew my mind, both visually and

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Speaker 1: learning about how they lived. It was incredible, and I

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Speaker 1: think it kind of was one of the first times

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Speaker 1: I realized that even if something wasn't cute and maybe

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Speaker 1: even a little gross or weird looking, when you learn

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Speaker 1: about it, you can completely fall in love with those animals.

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Speaker 1: They continue to be fascinating the more I learn about

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Speaker 1: naked mole rats. They are highly resistant to cancer. They

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Speaker 1: have special genes that seem to stop cell replication when

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Speaker 1: cells start to crowd against each other, which helps prevent

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Speaker 1: tumor growth. So just kind of superpower cells that can

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Speaker 1: prevent the growth of cancer. Other reasons for their cancer

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Speaker 1: resistance maybe that their ribosomes, the protein factory of the

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Speaker 1: cell that pumps out new proteins, are more likely to

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Speaker 1: produce are free proteins, so they have a much lower

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Speaker 1: air rate with their protein production, and which is really

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Speaker 1: good when it's protecting against cancer because of course, cancer

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Speaker 1: is usually caused by some air and a protein that

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Speaker 1: causes uncontrolled cell growth. Another potential factor is their low

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Speaker 1: oxygen environment, which is thought to be a contributing factor

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Speaker 1: because when naked mole rats are raised outside of their

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Speaker 1: typical low oxygen underground environment, they have increased cancer rates.

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Speaker 1: So another really cool thing about these little guys is

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Speaker 1: they live a really long time for a rodent, so

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Speaker 1: up to around thirty years. They have increased DNA repair capabilities,

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Speaker 1: and they can slow their metabolism during times of scarcity.

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Speaker 1: So you compare a naked mole rat to another rodent

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Speaker 1: like a mouse, which can live maybe three to four

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Speaker 1: years in captivity, probably even shorter in the while, or

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Speaker 1: something like a rat which has a pretty short lifespan. Uh,

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Speaker 1: And these guys can live enough to thirty years. It's

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Speaker 1: it's pretty incredible. Another thing that makes them just superpowered

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Speaker 1: is that their skin is pain resistant to superficial injuries

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Speaker 1: such as acid. This means their skin doesn't get itchy

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Speaker 1: or uncomfortable in their environment, which may be important because

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Speaker 1: the lack of ventilation in their tunnel systems could lead

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Speaker 1: up to a build up of acid in their skin. Tissues,

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Speaker 1: which would normally be quite unpleasant, but because they don't

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Speaker 1: have these superficial pain receptors on their skin, that acid

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Speaker 1: does not bother them. They are also highly efficient breathers.

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Speaker 1: They are able to very efficiently respirate in their low

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Speaker 1: oxygen levels in these these underground tunnels, and they can

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Speaker 1: live for almost twenty minutes in a zero oxygen atmosphere.

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Speaker 1: It is a comp completely incredible, hardy little animal, very

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Speaker 1: strange looking, but I think the more you kind of

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Speaker 1: look at them, the cuter they get. At least in

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Speaker 1: my mind. They seem like mythical, amazing creatures to me. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Speaking of myth the question asker also requested my favorite cryptid.

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Speaker 1: I feel like cryptids are interesting to me because whenever

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Speaker 1: I think about a cryptid, I think there's probably a

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Speaker 1: real animal that's just as incredible then naked mole rat

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Speaker 1: to me, seems more unbelievable than most cryptid stories. But

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Speaker 1: one of my favorite cryptid stories is Stellar's see ape So.

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Speaker 1: In seventeen forty one, a German zoologist by the name

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Speaker 1: of George Stellar's traveled to the Shumagen Islands of Alaska,

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Speaker 1: and there he spotted a very peculiar sea monster, a

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Speaker 1: furry five ft long creature with a dog's head, law

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Speaker 1: long whiskers, no fore limbs, and a fish's tail. The

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Speaker 1: monster was playful and curious, so Stellar likened it to

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Speaker 1: a monkey, thus came up with the name see ape.

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Speaker 1: It sounds truly fantastical until you realize that George Stellar

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Speaker 1: just saw a fur seal with its front flippers tucked

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Speaker 1: against its body, as it often does. But George Stellar

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Speaker 1: didn't realize this thought it just was this weird fish

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Speaker 1: ape monster. But some of the art imagining George Stellar

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Speaker 1: sea ape based solely on his descriptions is really hilarious

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Speaker 1: and or terrifying, especially when you realize he just saw

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Speaker 1: a fur seal and a little cutie popping enough to

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Speaker 1: say hello. So another question I got on Twitter is

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Speaker 1: do gong versus manity? Why are they so similar yet different?

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Speaker 1: And is a do go basically a whale or dolphin

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Speaker 1: that got lazy halfway through evolving? And this is from

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Speaker 1: Michael Thank you for your question. Uh so, yes, speaking

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Speaker 1: of mistaken sea creatures as sea monsters, do gongs and

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Speaker 1: manatees are famous for being misidentified as mermaids. In fact,

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Speaker 1: the order that contains both do gongs and manatees is

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Speaker 1: called Syrenia, after the Greek term for sirens or mermaids.

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Speaker 1: But you know who could blame those old sailors because

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Speaker 1: do gongs and manatees are truly beautiful and gorgeous. So first,

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Speaker 1: the difference between do gogs and manities, They are indeed

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Speaker 1: different species. Uh so, do gongs are one of the

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Speaker 1: five species of Sirenians. The other four are the Western

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Speaker 1: Indian manity, the African manity, the Amazonian manity, and the

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Speaker 1: extinct Stellar's sea cow. That's right, the same George Stellar

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Speaker 1: who came up with sea ape, who seems to have

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Speaker 1: the same naming convention for every animal he quote unquote discovered,

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Speaker 1: like see ape sea cow. Probably if he discovered sting rays,

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Speaker 1: he would have called them sea pancakes, and porpoises would

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Speaker 1: have been sea donkeys. Great job, George Stellar really nailed it,

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Speaker 1: nailed the naming. But yeah, so, so there are four

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Speaker 1: species in the Sirenian family that are manatees called manatees,

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Speaker 1: and then one species that is called a doo gong,

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Speaker 1: and uh they are the only living member of the

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Speaker 1: family do gang day and the rest are unfortunately extinct.

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Speaker 1: Manatees are in the family tried Kekus. And aside from

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Speaker 1: the taxonomic differences, do gongs differ from manites? And that

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Speaker 1: doo gongs are exclusively marine animals. They do not live

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Speaker 1: in fresh waters as well, so manatees can be both

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Speaker 1: in seawater or freshwater, whereas do gongs only live in

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Speaker 1: sea water, so they live so do gangs live in

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Speaker 1: the Western Pacific and Indian oceans, while manatees can either

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Speaker 1: live in Western Atlantic coastal seas or freshwater rivers. Do

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Speaker 1: gong tails are pointier than the manatees rounded tails? And

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Speaker 1: also do gongs are a bit smaller than manatees in general?

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Speaker 1: Other than that they have a lot of similarities. They

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Speaker 1: both have very tiny brains and are very slow moving animals.

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Speaker 1: They're herbivores with a very chill, laid back, gentle lifestyle,

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Speaker 1: so the adults lack natural predators they're just too big.

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Speaker 1: Both do gongs and manatees, though, face threats from humans,

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Speaker 1: either through hunting, habitat destruction, or boat traffic accidents. So

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Speaker 1: in terms of the second part of the question, are

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Speaker 1: our manites and do gongs just whales that got lazy

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Speaker 1: halfway through evolving. So first let's talk a little bit

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Speaker 1: about way sales how they evolved. So all whales, from

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Speaker 1: the toothed whales like dolphins and killer whales to the

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Speaker 1: enormous baling whales like blue whales, they all evolved from

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Speaker 1: land mammals. They started from little deer like mammals which

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Speaker 1: eventually evolved into larger, more terrifying semi aquatic carnivores that

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Speaker 1: look like a nightmare version of an otter mixed with

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Speaker 1: a crocodile. And these were called the ambulu sedus so

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Speaker 1: ambula stas. There were many species of them, and they

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Speaker 1: had limbs that worked both on land and underwater, much

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Speaker 1: like a river otter. Not related to the river otter, however,

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Speaker 1: so species in the Ambulo citis genus ranged from four

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Speaker 1: ft to over ten ft long or about one point

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Speaker 1: two to three meters long. And by the way, somewhere

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Speaker 1: along the evolutionary path from those little deer to the

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Speaker 1: Ambulu cetus to whales, hippo's actually branched off and are

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Speaker 1: actually the closest living relative to cetaceans to whales, So

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Speaker 1: hippos and whales close relatives. Ish uh compared to what

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Speaker 1: you would think. So like a whale is more closely

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Speaker 1: related to a hippo than it is to other marine

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Speaker 1: mammals like seals or manatees and doo gongs uh Sirenians.

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Speaker 1: Manities and doo gongs have a different evolutionary story. They're

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Speaker 1: not closely related to whales. In fact, it may be

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Speaker 1: that their closest living relatives are actually elephants. So this

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Speaker 1: is wild whales more closely related to hippos than they

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Speaker 1: are to manities, and manities are more closely related to

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Speaker 1: elephants than they are to whales. It's it's mind blowing,

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Speaker 1: especially given the difference in terms of their intelligence and manity. Look,

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Speaker 1: I love manatees. I think they're precious little blubber babies

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Speaker 1: who deserve to be loved and protected. But they're not

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Speaker 1: that intelligent, whereas elephants are highly highly intelligent, and whales

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Speaker 1: and dolphins to to be highly intelligent as well. But

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Speaker 1: that doesn't mean that they are. Just because they're more similar,

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Speaker 1: maybe or you would think that. You know that whales

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Speaker 1: and manatees are more morphologically similar, just doesn't mean that

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Speaker 1: they are more related in terms of their evolutionary history,

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Speaker 1: So unfortunately, uh Sirenian evolutionary history is not as easily

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Speaker 1: traced as that of whales. But it's thought that their

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Speaker 1: early ancestor was a land dwelling herbivore that turned into

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Speaker 1: a semi aquatic herbivore that looked like a mix between

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Speaker 1: a pig and an otter and a hippo, although not

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Speaker 1: related to hippos. This was called Porostomus and it lived

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Speaker 1: forty million years ago off the coast of Jamaica or

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Speaker 1: within sort of watery regions near Jamaica. And they were

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Speaker 1: extremely cute, very very adorable, very silly looking kind of

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Speaker 1: like a manity but with stubby little legs. So while

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Speaker 1: whales and Sirenians both of all from land mammals, they

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Speaker 1: evolved separately, which is an example of convergent evolution, which

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Speaker 1: is always really fascinating when evolution seems to take a

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Speaker 1: similar path but a different one. And I think it

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Speaker 1: really speaks to the evolutionary pressures and how powerful they

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Speaker 1: can be. It's just like how flying squirrels and bats.

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Speaker 1: They are an example of convergent evolution. They didn't evolve

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Speaker 1: from each other, they don't share the same evolutionary path necessarily, so,

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Speaker 1: just to preface this email, the episode this listener refers

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Speaker 1: to in his question is the recent episode called Whale

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Speaker 1: of a Tail where we talked about the Kinderu otherwise

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Speaker 1: known as the penis fish, which is a very real

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Speaker 1: fish that lives in the Amazon that is purported to

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Speaker 1: swim up peace streams into your urethra. However, that are

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Speaker 1: to the story has been proven to be false. The

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Speaker 1: only way a candio could potentially get up your your

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Speaker 1: your retra is if your p zone is fully submerged

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Speaker 1: in water, and even then the evidence that this has

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Speaker 1: even ever happened is questionable. If you want to hear

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Speaker 1: more about it, listen to that episode Wail of a Tale.

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Speaker 1: But here's this email. Your episode this week reminded me

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Speaker 1: of a story my stepdad told me. He told me

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Speaker 1: when he was in Vietnam, he was waiting through rice

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Speaker 1: patties and someone got a leech in there your wreathra.

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Speaker 1: He had to be metavact out to get it surgically removed.

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Speaker 1: After that, everybody wore condoms when they were waist deep

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Speaker 1: in water. Would it surprise me if my stepfather misremembered

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Speaker 1: or lied? No? Could it be true. Maybe I don't

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Speaker 1: know anything about leeches. You're the one that loves parasites.

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Speaker 1: I love your podcast, will h thank you so much

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Speaker 1: for sharing your story. Will and And I cannot confirm

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Speaker 1: or deny the story your stepdad told you, but I

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Speaker 1: can give you info on whether it's possible for a

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Speaker 1: leech to get inside your your wreathrough because you are

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Speaker 1: absolutely right. I love parasites. But if you don't love

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Speaker 1: parasites and your squeamish, you might now want to listen

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Speaker 1: to this part of the episode because we're gonna talk

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Speaker 1: about leeches in human orifices. Uh so you know that's

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Speaker 1: that's what to expect. Do not google this. I highly

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Speaker 1: highly recommend against googling this. I have a high gross

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Speaker 1: out threshold, and even I found these images to disturbing,

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Speaker 1: so uh yeah, I wouldn't do it. I'll just describe

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Speaker 1: to you in beautiful detail what happens here so you

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Speaker 1: don't need to look it up. So here we go.

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Speaker 1: Leeches can indeed get into unwanted places in the human body.

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Speaker 1: Typically they just hang off of your skin. They'll bite

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Speaker 1: you and sip at your blood. It's not great, but

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Speaker 1: you know they are at least just a ectoparasite, meaning

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Speaker 1: they're on the outside of your body on just on

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Speaker 1: the surface of your skin and uh. However, in regions

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Speaker 1: where leeches are common and people bathe or swim in

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Speaker 1: leech infested waters, such as in tropical areas, occasionally your

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Speaker 1: leeches will manage to make their way inside the human body.

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Speaker 1: They've been reported being found by doctors in the nose, throat, vaginal, canal, rectum,

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Speaker 1: and yes, even the bladder. And you know there's oh

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Speaker 1: one way to get to the bladder, and that is

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Speaker 1: through the urethra. So if your image of a leech

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Speaker 1: is this, like big fat slug uh, you may be

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Speaker 1: wondering how on earth could it get into a space

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Speaker 1: as small as a urethra. But leeches actually very in size,

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Speaker 1: greatly both depending on the species, the age, and how

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Speaker 1: much blood it's head. So a leech can start out

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Speaker 1: very thin and expand after having a blood meal. But

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Speaker 1: they can be very very tiny, very slender, and actually

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Speaker 1: can easily get into well maybe not easily, but they

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Speaker 1: can feasibly get into a urethra. And their bodies are

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Speaker 1: also very soft, so unlike the candero, whose skeleton and

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Speaker 1: size makes it very unlikely for it to be able

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Speaker 1: to get into urethra. Uh. The leech has a very soft,

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Speaker 1: flexible body. They can be very thin, and so they

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Speaker 1: can actually get in there. Um just like the candaru.

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Speaker 1: They cannot swim up a peace stream. So if you're peeing,

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Speaker 1: you gotta got a nice peace stream. A leech isn't

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Speaker 1: gonna like swim up your your peace stream into your urethra.

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Speaker 1: Physics just won't let that happen, Thank you, physics. But

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Speaker 1: if you are submerged in water, they could conceivably get

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Speaker 1: into your urethra. It is not common. Uh, there have

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Speaker 1: only been a few documented cases, but it does happen,

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Speaker 1: and it has been cited in modern medical literature numerous times.

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Speaker 1: And indeed, uh, to the email writer, will, this has

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Speaker 1: happened in Vietnam. It is one of the countries in

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Speaker 1: which this medical phenomenon has been documented. Now, what is

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Speaker 1: even more rare is for the leach to stay inside

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Speaker 1: of the urethra. Typically, it either comes out or it

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Speaker 1: goes all the way up into your bladder, but remaining

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Speaker 1: inside the urethra is extremely uncommon. Even amongst these already

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Speaker 1: very uncommon cases of the leach getting getting into that

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Speaker 1: area in the first place, which I guess, you know,

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Speaker 1: I guess I'd rather have the leach either out or

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Speaker 1: in the bladder than in the URETHRAA it sounds less uncomfortable,

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Speaker 1: but I don't know. I still don't, you know, I

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Speaker 1: don't want anybody in my bladder. Essentially, either way, it

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Speaker 1: is necessary to get it removed, which doctors can typically

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Speaker 1: do with catheterization in irrigation of the bladder, just basically

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Speaker 1: flushing it out. And the rare cases in which the

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Speaker 1: leeches actually stuck inside the urethra, doctors have used forceps

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Speaker 1: to get it out, which just sounds lovely. So again,

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Speaker 1: don't look up pictures of this, trust me, you don't

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Speaker 1: want to see him. It's just like surgery photos of

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Speaker 1: people pulling leeches out of places that you don't want

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Speaker 1: the leeches to be. So to answer your question, will

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Speaker 1: your stepfather's story is definitely possible, but whether it's the

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Speaker 1: truth is between him you and I guess the leeches.

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Speaker 1: So thank you guys so much for listening to this

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Speaker 1: little listener question episode. If you would like your questions

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Speaker 1: to be answered on the show, you just gotta send

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Speaker 1: me an email at Creature Feature Pod act gmail dot com.

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Speaker 1: You can tweet at me at Creature feet Pod. That's

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Speaker 1: ep EPI see that is something very different. Also on

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Speaker 1: Instagram Creature Feature Pod on Instagram. And yeah, just send

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Speaker 1: me in your questions, your your your pet, pictures, your

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Speaker 1: Please don't send me pictures of leeches though. That's that's

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Speaker 1: all right. I don't need to see that. And if

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Speaker 1: you're enjoying the show, uh, leave me writing a review,

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Speaker 1: you know that's great. I really read all the reviews.

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Speaker 1: They make me happy. If you have any suggestions like

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Speaker 1: if you want more listener questions episodes, fear listener questions episodes,

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Speaker 1: want me to talk about stuff? If you write it

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Speaker 1: in a review, I guarantee I will read it. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And I take note of everything you write. And I

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Speaker 1: really appreciate all of those reviews. Thank you so much,

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Speaker 1: and thanks to the Space Costics for their super awesome song.

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Speaker 1: X Aluminum Creature features a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: For more podcasts like the one you just heard, visit

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