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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hi everyone, this is a special omnibus episode of Animalia's Stupendium.

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Speaker 2: We're going to be hearing from the wizard Argomandanese here

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Speaker 2: as he applies his fantasy world enthusiasm for biological wonder,

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Speaker 2: but not to dragons and ogres and so forth, but

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Speaker 2: rather to the creatures of our world. So first up,

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Speaker 2: let's hear about the mantis shrimp.

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Speaker 3: Welcome to animalias Stupendium. My name is Agromandanese, Wizard to

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Speaker 3: the Five Crowns. Who is it for now? Inventor of

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Speaker 3: the magic missile and tireless creature chronicler. However, mere monsters

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Speaker 3: hold no mystery for me these days. Dragons are drab,

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Speaker 3: mantic cores are me. Instead, I turn my attention once

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Speaker 3: more to the strange fauna of a land called Earth.

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Speaker 3: Travel with me, gentle reader, as we consider the mighty mantis.

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Speaker 2: Shrimp common name mantis shrimp. Scientific classification various species of

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Speaker 2: the order Stomatopod, frequency and range, Indian and Pacific ocean size,

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Speaker 2: small diet, various gastroparts, crabs and mosques, treasure work, eggs, challenge, rading, eleven.

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Speaker 2: How might I describe these tiny aquatic wonders so unlike

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Speaker 2: the boring mervfork and hippocampi i'd study previously, Most specimens

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Speaker 2: are no longer than ten centimeters three point nine inches,

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Speaker 2: or roughly two lengths of a wizard's finger. It is,

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Speaker 2: of course, a burrow dwelling crustation, with an elongated body,

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Speaker 2: stopped eyes, slender legs, and long antennae. Its appearance compares

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Speaker 2: favorably to other shrimp, though their front appendages resemble the

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Speaker 2: raptorial legs of the also excellent terrestrial insect predator, the

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Speaker 2: preying mantis its namesake, ah, But the colors. The so

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Speaker 2: called peacock mantishrimp, for example, is so named because it

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Speaker 2: features bright shades of red, green, orange, and blue. Such

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Speaker 2: a creature would not seem out of place in the

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Speaker 2: chromatic realm, But its eyes are even more curious what

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Speaker 2: colors do they see? While human eyes have only three

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Speaker 2: types of photoreceptor cells to process colors, mantis shrimp both

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Speaker 2: between twelve and sixteen. This has led to much speculation

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Speaker 2: on exactly what a mantishrimp sees when it beholds its

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Speaker 2: aquatic world. Might it in fact, glimpse colors beyond the

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Speaker 2: realm of human senses. It's entirely possible, but researchers increasingly

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Speaker 2: urge caution on grand generalizations about how and what these

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Speaker 2: curious creatures see. Without access to a good polymorphs spell,

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Speaker 2: human scientists are largely in the dark. Many mysteries remain. Certainly,

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Speaker 2: manti shrimp may very well recognize subtle coloration differences in

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Speaker 2: other mantis shrimp predators or choral environments. It's also possible

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Speaker 2: that color perception is just one part of an elaborate

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Speaker 2: sensory network, and we do it a vast disservice to

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Speaker 2: put too much emphasis on vision, though this, of course

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Speaker 2: is an understandable mistake given that we are such sight

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Speaker 2: dependent creatures. Researchers point out that in experiments, some manti

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Speaker 2: shrimp seem to depend more on shape than colorization in

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Speaker 2: judging various targets in their environment. Still, what are those

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Speaker 2: eyes capable of sea? And how might we claim these

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Speaker 2: powers for our own I have a notion in mind

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Speaker 2: for a pair of magical goggles, but scientists have explored

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Speaker 2: ways they might technologically mimic mantis shrimp eyes to create

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Speaker 2: improved optical senses to do everything from improved cell phone

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Speaker 2: cameras to aid doctors in the detection and removal of tumors.

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Speaker 3: But let us consider the weaponry of the mantis shrimp.

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Speaker 3: The mantis shrimp makes use of two attacks via its

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Speaker 3: raptorial front appendages, but the type of damage depends on

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Speaker 3: the species. Some mantis shrimp, including the peacock mantis shrimp,

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Speaker 3: pack a pair of dactile clubs which strike with bullet

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Speaker 3: like speeds to kill or stung enemies by impact and

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Speaker 3: or shock wave bludgeoning damage. This punch is actually fast

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Speaker 3: enough to do superheated vapor bubbles in the surrounding waters,

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Speaker 3: and these cavitation forces may apply additional damage. The majority

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Speaker 3: of mantis shrimp, however, have barbed frontal appendages to pierce

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Speaker 3: their prey at lower attack speeds, while the clubbing mantis

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Speaker 3: shrimp depend on a spring loaded mechanism. Spearing mantis shrimp

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Speaker 3: are divided between spring loaded stabbers and active muscle movement stabbers.

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Speaker 3: In either case, the stab happy mantis shrimp varieties ambush

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Speaker 3: their prey from cover, while clubbers launch more of a

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Speaker 3: full frontal assault.

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Speaker 2: Sources for this episode included the National Aquarium, the Great

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Speaker 2: Barrier Re Foundation, Michael Irvings How the deadly mantis shrimp

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Speaker 2: keeps cracks in its club in Czech published on New

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Speaker 2: Atlas in twenty eighteen. Jessica Morrison's mantis shrimp supercolour vision

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Speaker 2: debunked published in Nature twenty four, Kroninetl's color vision in

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Speaker 2: stomatopod crustaceans published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society

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Speaker 2: b twenty twenty two. And patel at All's mantis shrimp

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Speaker 2: identify an object by its shape rather than its color

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Speaker 2: during visual recognition, published in the Journal of Experimental Biology

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty one. Okay, let's move on to the next selection,

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Speaker 2: the anglerfish. Travel with me, gentle reader, as we consider

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Speaker 2: the amazing courtship of the deep sea anglerfish common name anglerfish.

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Speaker 2: Scientific classification multiple species of the teleost order lopoformes, frequency

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Speaker 2: and range, deep sea environments worldwide and tropical to temperate latitudes.

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Speaker 2: Size up to four feet or one point two meters,

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Speaker 2: diet crustaceans and small fish treasure Hoarde Male Breeding Partners

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Speaker 2: Challenge rating three.

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Speaker 3: To be sure, there is no singular deep sea angler

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Speaker 3: fish in fact, there are more than two hundred known species.

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Speaker 3: This includes the sea toads or coffin fish, as well

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Speaker 3: as the black sea devils, among many others. These outrageous names,

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Speaker 3: of course, dim from the sometimes froglike and sometimes frightening

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Speaker 3: appearance of these bony fish. Meals can be scarce in

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Speaker 3: the deep ocean, and so many species boast adaptations to

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Speaker 3: help them eat any suitable prey they might encounter. This

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Speaker 3: includes large mouths, large stomachs, and long needlelike translucent teeth

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Speaker 3: piercing damage. The anglerfish can also depress its long teeth

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Speaker 3: at will to allow unobstructed travel down the predator's throat,

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Speaker 3: and can likewise be raised again like the bars of

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Speaker 3: a cage, to prevent engulfed prey from escaping. Anglerfish are

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Speaker 3: ambush predators, and their name comes from the bioluminescent lure appendage,

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Speaker 3: a modified ray fin that they can unsheath to lure

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Speaker 3: prey into gobbling range, so much like a glowing wizard's

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Speaker 3: wand the lure is actually powered by symbiant photobacteria, which

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Speaker 3: reside in the lure by the millions. How they first

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Speaker 3: acquire the bacteria long remained an open question. With scientists

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Speaker 3: unsure if developing anglerfish encounter them in the open ocean

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Speaker 3: or are inoculated with them by apparent during spawning, but

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Speaker 3: some recent recent search points more toward the former. Either way,

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Speaker 3: it would appear to be a mutually beneficial relationship, as

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Speaker 3: the bacteria benefit from protection and nutrients as the angler

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Speaker 3: moves throughout its environment. But today or today is Valentine's Day,

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Speaker 3: so we must speak the love language of the anglerfish,

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Speaker 3: making check again. There are numerous anglerfish species to consider,

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Speaker 3: but many species boast extreme sexual dimorphism. The female is

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Speaker 3: larger and fiercer by a considerable margin, and the male's

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Speaker 3: main purpose is to provide sperm for sexual reproduction. For

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Speaker 3: black sea devils, the male is free swimming but doesn't

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Speaker 3: even feed as an adult. In other species, the small

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Speaker 3: male is parasitic in nature, attaching to the female's body

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Speaker 3: and fusing with her. See. Just as prey encounters in

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Speaker 3: the deep ocean are rare, so two are mating matches.

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Speaker 3: The miniature males put all their effort into seeking out

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Speaker 3: and finding a potential mate, and then in some species

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Speaker 3: attach themselves initially via a byte and eventually become a

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Speaker 3: grafted on reproductive organ such devotion. In some species, a

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Speaker 3: female may acquire multiple parasitic males. These males continue to live,

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Speaker 3: but become entirely dependent on the females for nutrients and blood.

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Speaker 3: The upside for her is they don't take up much space,

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Speaker 3: They require comparably little nourishment, and are ready to provide

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Speaker 3: sperm whenever she is ready to reproduce. Their reproduction and

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Speaker 3: by the way, is carried out externally via spawmen. The

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Speaker 3: female releases her eggs, the males release their sperm, and

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Speaker 3: the fertilized eggs drift off in the water column. The

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Speaker 3: males remain and are ready to help out the next

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Speaker 3: time around as well.

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Speaker 2: Sources for this episode included Osceania dot org, the Monterey

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Speaker 2: Bay Aquarium, Emily Osterroloft's The Bizarre love Life of the Anglerfish,

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Speaker 2: published on the website of the Natural History Museum London, lk.

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Speaker 2: Wards meet the tiny bacteria they give anglerfishes their spooky glow,

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Speaker 2: published twenty sixteen on Smithsonian's Ocean and Krishna Ramanaja's study

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Speaker 2: Eliminates link between anglerfish bacteria published twenty nineteen on the

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Speaker 2: Cornell Chronicle. All Right, let's move on to the next selection,

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Speaker 2: the glass frog.

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Speaker 3: Travel with me, gentle reader, as we consider the glorious glass.

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Speaker 2: Frog common name glass frog, scientific classification some one hundred

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Speaker 2: and forty seven species of the family central Linidae, frequency

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Speaker 2: and range Central and South America. Size small, generally two

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Speaker 2: inches or five centimeters in length. Diet various small arthropods

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Speaker 2: and smaller frogs. Treasure horde, egg clutches laid on leaves

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Speaker 2: or branches overhanging small bodies of water Challenge rating three.

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Speaker 3: Through my travels in magical realms, I even countered no

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Speaker 3: shortage of invisible creatures. Various spirits, demons, and fay that

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Speaker 3: lurk in the shadows, become the shadows and creep upon

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Speaker 3: unsuspecting adventurers. So too, I have met many a rogue

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Speaker 3: who survived encounters due to their ability to blend into

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Speaker 3: their environment and remain unseen. And yet never have I

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Speaker 3: seen a wondrous treasure, not even in a dragon's splendid

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Speaker 3: horde as precious as the glass frog. Most of these

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Speaker 3: are arboreal denizens of the cloud forest, boast a semi

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Speaker 3: translucent skin, thus their name, and through their glass like

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Speaker 3: skin one may glimpse their very organs and the coursing

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Speaker 3: of red blood through their veins. Indeed, did I not

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Speaker 3: know better, I might assume that some careless apprentice had

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Speaker 3: dripp'd the very ink of animation upon the pages of

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Speaker 3: an anatomy text book. But I assure you these frogs

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Speaker 3: are quite real. And since glass frogs are products of

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Speaker 3: evolution and not accidental wizardry, you might ponder why they

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Speaker 3: acquired translucent skin and visible organs, because surely it is

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Speaker 3: a careless adventure who strolls into an enemy's stronghold with

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Speaker 3: invisible flesh but visible viscera. It might shock and confuse

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Speaker 3: your adversaries in the short term, but they'll certainly know

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Speaker 3: where you are. They'll wise up, and you might not

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Speaker 3: like where they aim their arrows. I am somewhat reminded

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Speaker 3: of the crystal flesh Ghuls of Nuan in this as well,

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Speaker 3: but that is beside the point. Indeed, scientists long pondered

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Speaker 3: the nature and effectiveness of the glass frog's camouflage. There

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Speaker 3: are two amazing factors we must consider here. First of all,

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Speaker 3: while their central bodies reveal therein eternal organs, their legs

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Speaker 3: are generally a great deal more translucent as are the

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Speaker 3: edges of their bodies. Thus, when the frog bunches itself

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Speaker 3: up on a leaf, the edges of its balk blend

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Speaker 3: into its surroundings, be it dark or light. This is

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Speaker 3: called edge diffusion, the softening of line separation between the

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Speaker 3: creature and its background. Think of it as a blurring

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Speaker 3: of the visible boundary between the individual and the surroundings.

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Speaker 3: Stealth check, and there's more. Quite recently, scientists discovered something

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Speaker 3: very exciting about the glass frog's blood. Yes, when the

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Speaker 3: frog is active, the visible veins of coursing red certainly

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Speaker 3: mark the frog for potential sighted predators. But when the

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Speaker 3: frog is asleep, most of its red blood cells pool

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Speaker 3: within the creature's live swelling the organ by some forty

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Speaker 3: percent and amassing an estimated eighty nine percent of the

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Speaker 3: creature's red blood cells a virtual liver of holding. As

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Speaker 3: a result, the frog's overall translucency increases by as much

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Speaker 3: as half or even more. Success It's an extreme adaptation,

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Speaker 3: and scientists ponder how they might learn from it in

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Speaker 3: the treatment and prevention of blood clots. For the frogs

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Speaker 3: carry out this daily feet without suffering clots of their own.

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Speaker 3: Further study may lead to the development of new ante coagulants.

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Speaker 3: Glass Frog coloration and translucency varies from species to species,

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Speaker 3: as do some of their other adaptations. At least one

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Speaker 3: species produces bright red tadpoles that bury themselves in mud

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Speaker 3: and leaf litter for completing their metamorphosis.

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Speaker 2: Thanks to my son Sebastian for suggesting the topic of

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Speaker 2: glass frogs, which he read about in the twenty twenty

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Speaker 2: two Kingfisher Animal Encyclopedia, which also served as a source

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Speaker 2: for this episode. Other sources include Imperfect Transparency and Camouflage

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Speaker 2: in glass Frogs by Ryan at All, published in the

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Speaker 2: Journal Biological Sciences twenty twenty and glass Frogs Concealed blood

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Speaker 2: in their liver to maintain transparency by Kaboada at All,

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Speaker 2: published in the Journal Science twenty twenty two. All Right

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Speaker 2: one final selection for this episode, and it's the common Kingfisher.

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Speaker 2: Travel with me, gentle reader, as we consider the common

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Speaker 2: kingfisher common name Eurasian kingfisher, common kingfisher, or river kingfisher.

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Speaker 2: Scientific classification alcedo Athys, frequency and range Europe, Northern Africa,

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Speaker 2: Central and Southern Asia. Size up to six inches or

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Speaker 2: fifteen centimeters long, diet small fish, along with some aquatic insects,

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Speaker 2: treasure horde, bone littered burrows and eggs challenge rating one.

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Speaker 3: Some ninety two kingfisher species populate the Earth and are

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Speaker 3: found on every continent except for Antarctica. Of these, a

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Speaker 3: good half prey upon lizards and other small land animals

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Speaker 3: and their kin. The beaters, as their name suggests, snatch

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Speaker 3: bees and wasps right out of the air, then smack

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Speaker 3: them against a branch to dislodge the venom before gobbling

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Speaker 3: them down. But I digress. A good half of known

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Speaker 3: kingfisher species do what they are most famous for, and

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Speaker 3: that is catch and eat fish. Such is the case

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Speaker 3: of the European kingfisher, a beautiful bird with an almost

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Speaker 3: comically large head, long bill, short legs, and a stubby tail.

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Speaker 3: Its plumage is absolutely resplendent, an orange belly the color

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Speaker 3: of a brilliant sunset, and turquoise wings and head. Such

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Speaker 3: a splendid little avian gym, you will find it not

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Speaker 3: in treasure chess, but on branches overhanging, clear, slow moving

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Speaker 3: streams and rivers. Their vision is superb highly adapted to

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Speaker 3: watch for fish under the surface of the water, adjusting

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Speaker 3: for refraction and making out prey a good one hundred

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Speaker 3: yards or ninety meters away perception check success, the kingfisher

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Speaker 3: dives into the water, snatches its prey in its beak,

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Speaker 3: and then flies back to its perch, where it stuns

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Speaker 3: the fish against a branch before swallowing it head first,

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Speaker 3: bludgeoning damage. Now it's easy to dismiss this hunting spectacle,

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Speaker 3: at least until you try to do it for yourself. No,

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Speaker 3: I don't refer to any of my polymorph duels with

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Speaker 3: various witches, but rather to the kingfisher's place in the

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Speaker 3: human science of biomimicry. This is, of course, the discipline

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Speaker 3: of solving complex human problems by looking at the way

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Speaker 3: nature has solved similar problems over the course of evolutionary time.

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Speaker 3: The human design problem here has nothing to do with

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Speaker 3: catching fish or diving into the water, but rather with

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Speaker 3: maximizing the design of Japanese bullet trains. See Early in

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Speaker 3: their use, the high speed trains generated a pressure boom

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Speaker 3: when exiting tunnels due to build up and compressed air

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Speaker 3: at the front of the speeding train, an effect that

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Speaker 3: also served to slow the trains down at least this

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Speaker 3: was the case until engineers studied the head and beak

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Speaker 3: structure of the common kingfisher, which in turn has evolved

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Speaker 3: for maximal stream lined entry into the water. The scientists

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Speaker 3: were able to apply these design principles to the front

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Speaker 3: of the train, and presto, no more boom. Finally, I

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Speaker 3: would like to mention the layer or burrow of the

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Speaker 3: common kingfisher. It is assumed that this species does not

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Speaker 3: collect and use nesting materials, but rather digs nest burrows

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Speaker 3: in the banks of streams or rivers, the entryway sloping

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Speaker 3: to prevent rain and floodwaters from flowing into it. And

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Speaker 3: here inside, certainly you may find the birds and their eggs,

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Speaker 3: but you will also find a great midden of fish

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Speaker 3: bones see. The common kingfisher will frequently cough up indigestible

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Speaker 3: bits of bone and scale which accumulate in the burrow.

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Speaker 3: Other varieties of fish eating kingfisher, however, may make more

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Speaker 3: active use of the bones in their burrow.

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Speaker 2: Construction sources for this one included David Bernie's Kingfisher Animal

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Speaker 2: Encyclopedia twenty twenty two, San Diego Zoo dot Org, BBC's

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Speaker 2: how a Kingfisher helped reshape Japan's Bullet Train, a video

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Speaker 2: produced by Jennifer Green and Anadobal and animated by Jules

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Speaker 2: Bartell twenty nineteen. And Sorry vs. Sarah McGarry's BioMedics Applications

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Speaker 2: in Structural Design, published in the International Journal of Innovative

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Speaker 2: Research and Science, Engineering and Technology, twenty twenty one.

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Speaker 3: For now I must retire my wizard's quill and allow

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Speaker 3: my familiars some respite. But I shall return with even

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Speaker 3: more wonders of the natural world.

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Speaker 2: Indeed, the Wizard shall return for more animal profiles in

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Speaker 2: the future. And you can certainly write in with suggestions

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Speaker 2: and we will forward them to him. You can email

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Speaker 2: us as always at contact at stuff to Blow your

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Speaker 2: Mind dot com.

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Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

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Speaker 1: more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.