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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of

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Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and

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Speaker 1: this is the Monster Fact, a short form series from

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Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing in on mythical creatures,

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Speaker 1: ideas and monsters in time. The crimes of the Skexies

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Speaker 1: are many on the planet Thraw, from the cracking of

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Speaker 1: the Crystal of Truth to their war of extermination against

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Speaker 1: the Guelfling. While the plight of the Gelflings is of

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Speaker 1: particular note, other species suffered and died under Skexis rule,

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Speaker 1: including the gentle Grunach. As related by Adam Chessery in

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Speaker 1: the Dark Crystal Bestieri. These gray skin flat faced bipeds

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Speaker 1: were a prominent technologically advanced sentient species on Thraw during

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Speaker 1: the Age of Harmony, But as the Skexies rose to

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Speaker 1: power during the Age of Division, the two listed lords

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Speaker 1: of the Crystal decimated the Grunoch. They spared only two

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Speaker 1: individuals to serve as slaves in the Castle of the Crystal.

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Speaker 1: Here they aided the scientists, Skeptech in his vile research,

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Speaker 1: and spoke not a word of their species, lost culture,

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Speaker 1: or the cruelty of the skexies, for their mouths were

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Speaker 1: sown shut in a permanent mournful frown. Now you might

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Speaker 1: wonder how the last grunach carried on without mouths. But

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Speaker 1: the biology of thraw is exotic and diverse, and so

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Speaker 1: is our own here on Earth. So we can turn

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Speaker 1: to our own natural world for possible answers. For starters,

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Speaker 1: are we sure that the grunoch need to eat at all?

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Speaker 1: The Luna moth is an example of a moth that

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Speaker 1: does not eat as an adult. It possesses vestigial mouth parts,

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Speaker 1: but they're functionless as the adult flying forms don't live

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Speaker 1: long enough to require sustenance. They do all of their

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Speaker 1: eating during their larval catapillary stage. While the grunock are

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Speaker 1: clearly vertebrates and not insects, perhaps they go through some

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Speaker 1: sort of metamorphosis and, via a slow metabolism, live off

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Speaker 1: of fat stores from their previous life stage. They are,

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Speaker 1: after all, sloth like in movement and appearance. Of course,

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Speaker 1: it's also possible that they just don't need mouths to feed.

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Speaker 1: From a technological standpoint, it's possible that they're fed through

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Speaker 1: a nasal feeding tube, but they also might absorb nutrients

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Speaker 1: through their skin. The hagfish, for example, can absorb dissolved

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Speaker 1: organic matter across the skin and gill. Other primitive scavenger

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Speaker 1: fish boast this ability as well, so perhaps the grunock

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Speaker 1: boasts some similar evolutionary legacy. Even in human beings, our

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Speaker 1: skin has absorption characteristics. It's also possible that the grunock

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Speaker 1: are an entirely different sort of organism, feeding off say,

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Speaker 1: soil nutrients or the multisolar energy of thraw, or even

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Speaker 1: energy absorbed from the Great Crystal itself. We will, of

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Speaker 1: course never know. The last Grunach could not speak, though

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Speaker 1: they at least succeeded in helping to bring about the

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Speaker 1: downfall of the general skek of Our, who played the

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Speaker 1: central role in the downfall of their species. Tune in

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Speaker 1: to additional episodes of The Monster Fact each week. As always,

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Speaker 1: you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow

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Speaker 1: your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is

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Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for

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Speaker 1: my Heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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