Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature feature production of I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: your host of many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology
Speaker 1: and evolutionary biology, and well, I want to be the
Speaker 1: very best like one was, catch them real, test to them,
Speaker 1: because I will travel across the land searching for and
Speaker 1: why just understand the power that's side creature. Mind, gott it,
Speaker 1: catch your mof I know it's odestiny creature man. Oh,
Speaker 1: you're my best friend in a world we must have
Speaker 1: fan from bad podcast. Oh. Yes, Today we're talking about
Speaker 1: Pokemon animals. These creatures are even more unbelievable than those
Speaker 1: fantastic little pocket monsters. I'm talking cute little critters, more crazy.
Speaker 1: Look at them, Pikachu. See animals that seem too cute
Speaker 1: to be real and behavior that you'd think you'd only
Speaker 1: find in the pokadecks. We'll be looking at ground type,
Speaker 1: water type, and bug type animals, and we'll try to
Speaker 1: see if any Pokemon come close to how wild these
Speaker 1: real animals are. To discover this and more as we
Speaker 1: answer the Agel question, are there cute little bunnies under
Speaker 1: the sea spoilers? Yes, So Pokemon is a great game
Speaker 1: for inspiring people about evolutionary biology. Now, I've got to
Speaker 1: be honest. I never played the card game as a kid,
Speaker 1: but I loved watching the TV show and I absolutely
Speaker 1: adore all those little pocket monsters. As someone who cares
Speaker 1: deeply about evolutionary biology, I love that so many kids,
Speaker 1: and let's be honest, huge numbers of adults are into Pokemon.
Speaker 1: I think it proves that we're deep down biodiversity nerds.
Speaker 1: I love that Pokemon not only shows off creativity and
Speaker 1: imagining what creatures look like, but their behaviors as well,
Speaker 1: their defensive strategies, their strengths and weaknesses, their natural predators.
Speaker 1: Is Pokemon secretly training an army of young evolutionary biologists?
Speaker 1: Joining me to discuss this nerdy conspiracies? Audio engineer, editor
Speaker 1: and producer right here at iHeart Radio, Dan Goodman, Katie,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for having me. Of course, it's
Speaker 1: long overdue, you said at this podcasts, I never gave
Speaker 1: you a shout out. That's wrong of me. It was
Speaker 1: a pleasure to edit your podcast. Every episode was oh
Speaker 1: before we begin. I'm trying to do this at the
Speaker 1: top now because I read a thing that says people
Speaker 1: listen to you more at the beginning of podcast. Maybe
Speaker 1: I don't know, but here we go, and anyways, please
Speaker 1: rate like wait no, like isn't a thing that you
Speaker 1: can do on a podcast, but rate, subscribe and review
Speaker 1: the podcast. We do hope that they like I do.
Speaker 1: I want you to like it, but that's not something
Speaker 1: you can like. I can force you to do these.
Speaker 1: I can force you to do somehow. So it actually
Speaker 1: really helps a whole lot to get this podcast up
Speaker 1: in those Master rankings, to do to do those things,
Speaker 1: press those buttons, those little stars. Every star actually I
Speaker 1: feel it. I feel it in my in my body.
Speaker 1: And if you get five stars, you get a special prize.
Speaker 1: I do what is that prize? My My appreciation isn't done.
Speaker 1: So now onto the Pokemon. Gosh, I'm so excited. This
Speaker 1: is This is uh long an episode I've long wanted
Speaker 1: to do, actually, and I'll probably do another one like
Speaker 1: this again at some point because there's just too many
Speaker 1: animals who look like Pokemon. Part of the reason is
Speaker 1: I think that the creators of Pokemon are really creative
Speaker 1: and they actually draw inspiration from nature, and I just
Speaker 1: love that. It's it's really amazing. So first, let's talk
Speaker 1: about I guess everyone's favorite Pokemon Pikachu um sweet little
Speaker 1: sweet little electric type. Yes, and like the Piachu is
Speaker 1: another one, the little one. So I found an animal
Speaker 1: who looks like kind of like a peach mixed with
Speaker 1: a cinda quill and yeah yeah, so like it's like
Speaker 1: a spiky Pikachu or Peachu. So this is the Lowland
Speaker 1: streaked tin Ric. Oh that's a wow. Yeah, that's adorable
Speaker 1: and also dangerous. Look it is. So the Lowland streaked
Speaker 1: tin ric is found on the island of Madagascar. It
Speaker 1: looks like fifty true fifty porcupine and Pokemon. It is
Speaker 1: about five inches long in a ways about six ounces,
Speaker 1: so it's just fits in the palm of your hand.
Speaker 1: It could fit in your pocket like some kind of
Speaker 1: pocket monster. It is covered in sharp quills, and most strikingly,
Speaker 1: it is bright yellow with black streaks. It is uh
Speaker 1: Pikachu or pechu coloring interesting and it has a fan
Speaker 1: of bright yellow quills on its head. And as a
Speaker 1: tin ric, it is a family of mammals endemic to Madagascar,
Speaker 1: meaning they're only found there. And even though they look
Speaker 1: kind of like a hedgehog and a shrew sort of
Speaker 1: got busy and made a weird offspring. The similarities in
Speaker 1: looking like hedgehog or shrew or porcupine is actually convergent evolutions.
Speaker 1: So while they all distantly share a common ancestor way back,
Speaker 1: they actually evolved their spines and their look independently from
Speaker 1: shrews and hedgehogs. Yeah, so the Lowland streaked tin ric
Speaker 1: has a few interesting behaviors on top of it looking
Speaker 1: straight up like a pokemon. So they eat earthworms and
Speaker 1: they stamp on the ground to trick the worms into surfacing,
Speaker 1: which we've actually talked about this on this show before.
Speaker 1: It's something humans do. It's called worm fiddling, worm fiddling,
Speaker 1: worm fiddling. Actually, people have a contests worm fiddling contests
Speaker 1: where you like trying to get the most earthworms out
Speaker 1: of the ground. Yeah, yes, they're different earth fiddling techniques.
Speaker 1: Like you can play music. Some people like drive a
Speaker 1: fork into the ground and like hit the fork and
Speaker 1: the most earthworms winds. I'm fascinated by the idea of that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's a tactic that humans have used for a
Speaker 1: while to get worms for things like fishing and so on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and animals use it all the time. Birds other insectivorous
Speaker 1: animals who eat earthworms will use it. I feel like
Speaker 1: that's the so is that Pardon me if this is uh?
Speaker 1: I mean, is that kind of like where tippy taps
Speaker 1: come from? Like you see you see like birds doing
Speaker 1: tippy taps and stuff like that, and that could be Yeah,
Speaker 1: definitely could be related. They do do tippy taps. It
Speaker 1: is tippy tap behavior. I'm sure is varied, but this
Speaker 1: is one case of tippy tap behavior. Yes. And and
Speaker 1: the reason the tippy taps works is that it actually
Speaker 1: vibrates the soil and it tricks the earth worms into
Speaker 1: thinking that rain is coming or maybe a subterranean predator
Speaker 1: like a mole, So they come out of the ground.
Speaker 1: They like, they gotta scoop because they don't want it.
Speaker 1: Like if rain permeates the ground, they can actually drown,
Speaker 1: so they want to get up to the surface. But then, oh,
Speaker 1: is the streak tin ric and it's cute little face
Speaker 1: eating them up? Want want? Yes. So. Also another cute
Speaker 1: thing these guys do is they rub their quills together
Speaker 1: to produce a high frequency sound, thought to be used
Speaker 1: by tin ricks to warn one another of danger, or
Speaker 1: by mothers to communicate with her young. Yes, yeah, does
Speaker 1: that seem like a made up thing? Like, oh this
Speaker 1: Pokemon like rubs her quills together. Sound it seems like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it seems very animates. Yeah, they're actually the only mammal
Speaker 1: known to use stridulation, which is where you produce sound
Speaker 1: by rubbing body parts together. So that's something crickets do.
Speaker 1: Rattle stinks, Do crickets rub their leg parts or sorry no,
Speaker 1: I actually think their wing parts together. Rattlesnakes rubbed their tail,
Speaker 1: and the club winged mannequin, which is a bird, actually
Speaker 1: vibrates its wings in a way that causes strigulation. But yeah,
Speaker 1: this is one of the only mammals, or actually think
Speaker 1: it is the only mammal we know of that does
Speaker 1: that except for humans. Uh. They they also stick out
Speaker 1: their quills and vibrate them as a defensive method when
Speaker 1: they encounter an enemy or predator, which again is just
Speaker 1: so I don't know Pokemon like, yes, I mean keep
Speaker 1: saying that again over and over this episode, but it
Speaker 1: is just cartoonishly cute, like don't bother me and just
Speaker 1: like sticks out its quills and spikes out all cute?
Speaker 1: Does it also go turn turn? I wish I wish
Speaker 1: that's another thing. I want to do a whole episode
Speaker 1: on animals whose name is the same as just the
Speaker 1: sound they made, like whipper wills, Yeah, oh my god,
Speaker 1: what or the go away bird. There's a great go
Speaker 1: away bird that in the reason it's called the Great
Speaker 1: go away bird is it has a call that sounds
Speaker 1: like are you serious? I'm serious, it's called the Great
Speaker 1: goat away. It's like, I'm all about that. There's a
Speaker 1: video that my friend showed me where it's a cat
Speaker 1: going Southern cat exactly. Ever since then, I'm just looking
Speaker 1: for animals talking. Yes, I mean I I am of
Speaker 1: the generation that remembers the O Long Johnson cat who
Speaker 1: women with Now it would go like the true Internet classic. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: this is I think it ages me though I'm with you,
Speaker 1: there with you, It's okay. So, as I was looking
Speaker 1: at this animal, this is this is true, so I
Speaker 1: was like like, oh, this is really cool. I wonder
Speaker 1: what Pokemon might look like this. I kind of wanted
Speaker 1: to make a comparison, so I was like googled like
Speaker 1: spiky Pokemon and it turns out that while it's not
Speaker 1: in a fish, Pokemon. An artist on Devian art named
Speaker 1: Greg Andreid I think, drew a fan art of his
Speaker 1: own Pokemon, which is based on the Oh that's so cool,
Speaker 1: it's super that's that's your tender right there there. It
Speaker 1: is exactly ten radic and I'm definitely gonna include a
Speaker 1: link to that. Warning don't just willy nilly look around
Speaker 1: dev and art is that's my only caveat. Just do
Speaker 1: well safe search on. I think be prepared some there's
Speaker 1: definitely going to be some like sexy Pika choose. I
Speaker 1: was going to say, especially if you search, if you're
Speaker 1: just like, oh, let me go find more Pokemon Sonic
Speaker 1: and Pikachu lovingly looking into each other's eyes, completely nude.
Speaker 1: A good time, called Devon art for a reason. So
Speaker 1: now I want to move on to another Pokemon esque animal,
Speaker 1: because that's what this episode is indeed. And do you
Speaker 1: know that that Pokemon worlapede um that sounds familiar? Yes?
Speaker 1: Is it? Is it any relation to Polly Whirl? I
Speaker 1: don't don't know. I think, I think, I think I
Speaker 1: know what you're talking about. Fake Pokemon nerd smokes. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's like it's like the tire one it's got Yes,
Speaker 1: a man there's some fans who are listening to be like, no,
Speaker 1: it's not like Polly World. I am actually going to
Speaker 1: call that talk about polywag. But this is not this
Speaker 1: is not the time. No, this is worlapede time. And
Speaker 1: so there is an animal called the armadillo girdled lizard,
Speaker 1: and I'm just gonna show it. I'm like, I'm going
Speaker 1: to let the pictures speak for themselves. These animals are identical. Yes,
Speaker 1: that is the worlapeede right there. Oh my god, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go. Is it biting its tail? Yes, yes, So
Speaker 1: let me just paint a picture for the audience. Obviously,
Speaker 1: as always, all include links to photos, and you can
Speaker 1: google armadillo girdled lizard and you will be pleased to
Speaker 1: see what you find in You will be pleased to
Speaker 1: see the the armadillo gurgle lizards. But I will use
Speaker 1: I will use my mouth words to try to do
Speaker 1: this animal justice, but I simply can't. You do have
Speaker 1: to look at a photos. So they are a chunky,
Speaker 1: spiky lizard who bites its own tail to form a ball.
Speaker 1: They are small, they fit in the palm of your hand.
Speaker 1: They are very thorny looking. Like looking little dragons, sort
Speaker 1: of like a Game of Thrones dragons, very chunky, and
Speaker 1: they have interlocking cylinders of chunky geometric spikes. They are
Speaker 1: very cool. They're sort of a dusty gray, dusty brown again,
Speaker 1: like little tiny baby Game of Thrones dragons, but in
Speaker 1: little balls. Yeah, I mean, that's that. That's that sounds
Speaker 1: like a great description to me, thank you. They are
Speaker 1: only found in South Africa along the deserts of the
Speaker 1: western coast. It eats insects and spiders and they are
Speaker 1: highly social lizards, which is not always the case for lizards.
Speaker 1: They live with large families and they sunbathed together, very cute.
Speaker 1: As you may know, sunbathing is very important for lizards. Uh.
Speaker 1: They are a quote cold blooded animal. They're not actually
Speaker 1: that isn't like their blood isn't cold. It just means
Speaker 1: that they can't thermoregulate on their own, so they have
Speaker 1: to sit in the sun or in the shade to
Speaker 1: regulate their body temperature. So when a predator tries to
Speaker 1: snatch them up. Since there are sunbathing in these big families,
Speaker 1: usually somebody in the group spots it and panics, and
Speaker 1: everybody else panics, and they all scramble back into the
Speaker 1: safety of the rocks. But if that teamwork, team panic.
Speaker 1: That's see, this is the thing. I'm an anxious person.
Speaker 1: I actually love to surround myself with anxious people and
Speaker 1: we all work together to turn our anxiety into a
Speaker 1: huge anxiety bubble. It's great sounds. I do not recommend
Speaker 1: escape rooms that so if that doesn't work, they actually
Speaker 1: have one more trick up their sleeve, which is that
Speaker 1: they bite their tail, curling into a little ball or
Speaker 1: like an ouroborous if you show like the snake eating
Speaker 1: its own tail, and that turns them into like a
Speaker 1: little ouchie tire and they are protecting their squishy bits
Speaker 1: and only exposing the hard, thorny scales on their back
Speaker 1: legs and tails. Yes, so I do want to show
Speaker 1: you a video of David Attenborough bothering an armadilla lizard. David,
Speaker 1: you know I love you, but I do also find
Speaker 1: it hilarious how many animals he goes and bothers. Obviously,
Speaker 1: he's being very responsible about it. He's not handling animals
Speaker 1: that like it's dangerous to handle for the animal. He's
Speaker 1: doing in a very respectful way. But I think he
Speaker 1: is annoying. That definitely annoying. So here he is and
Speaker 1: it's like look at his expression. It's not doesn't feel
Speaker 1: to hold on these because it's covered in thorns, but
Speaker 1: you see like he picks it up and it's just
Speaker 1: like he's trying to He's definitely poking and prodding it.
Speaker 1: That's a real cheese get that. Yeah, it's it looks
Speaker 1: like it's covered in thorns and actually David Ambrose like
Speaker 1: he's trying to like hold it like uh, And yeah,
Speaker 1: I think they're quite cute. They look just so like
Speaker 1: tee it off, like when they are biting their tails
Speaker 1: and they look quite quite annoyed and spiky and it's
Speaker 1: just so cute. Though. They look fierce, look like Pokemon,
Speaker 1: like Pokemon, like the cutest, fiercest Pokemon. Another cute thing
Speaker 1: about them is that they give live birth and sometimes
Speaker 1: the mother's feet and take care of their young, which
Speaker 1: is not very common amongst lizards. I was gonna say,
Speaker 1: do what's the I mean, do they lay eggs? No,
Speaker 1: they do live bearing the lizards usually typically they do,
Speaker 1: but there are other species that are life bearing. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's not super common for them to be
Speaker 1: life bearing uh, and sometimes the babies will sit on
Speaker 1: top of the adults in the family, like when their
Speaker 1: sun bathing together, so you'll see. Are they spiky from
Speaker 1: the start? I think they are, but probably they harden
Speaker 1: over times, so that that's generally. The thing with like
Speaker 1: these like spiky animals is usually they start out with
Speaker 1: the scales from birth, but then the older they get,
Speaker 1: the harder their scales got. And in fact, we're going
Speaker 1: to talk about that with the pangulum. Another another armored animals,
Speaker 1: and this one looks a lot like the sandlash. Yes,
Speaker 1: it does totally. In fact, I do believe that the
Speaker 1: sandlash is based on the penguin. So pangolins, if you
Speaker 1: don't know, they are these weird scaled animals who look
Speaker 1: like sand lash and they kind of look like a
Speaker 1: weird reptile, but they are in fact mammals, and they
Speaker 1: are also maybe responsible for corona. Wait, yeah, well all
Speaker 1: because people were suck. It does suck, But well I'll
Speaker 1: talk about that actually in the outros there's a yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a complicated issue with researchers aren't a
Speaker 1: hundred percent sure that coronavirus comes from penguins. But there
Speaker 1: could be a silver lining in this, so uh, don't
Speaker 1: don't get too downcast yet. Um, but I'm really praying
Speaker 1: for that silver lining. But before we talk about that,
Speaker 1: I do just want to talk about how cool penguins are.
Speaker 1: So they have protective keratin scales covering their body. Keratin
Speaker 1: is that stuff that's in your nails. Yeah, and it
Speaker 1: they kind of look like a living pine cone. Yes,
Speaker 1: they do. Yeah, like a like an ant eater and
Speaker 1: a pine cone kind of mashed up. I had not
Speaker 1: heard pine cone before, but that's really funny. I like
Speaker 1: that a lot so penguins. It's not just one species.
Speaker 1: They're actually a whole clade, and there are many different species.
Speaker 1: There are our boreal species that live in trees, usually
Speaker 1: in big tree hollows. There are terrestrial ones who dig
Speaker 1: really long burrows. Some of their burrows can be like
Speaker 1: eleven ft long, and they are generally found in Asia
Speaker 1: and Sub Saharan Africa. The smallest pegul in is the
Speaker 1: black belly peglin, who is I believe lives in the trees.
Speaker 1: Their bodies are about a foot long and their tails
Speaker 1: are quite long, so they're they're about long. You said,
Speaker 1: these are the smallest ones. Yeah, these are the smallest ones,
Speaker 1: not quite small enough to fit in your pockets. Not
Speaker 1: quite not big pockets though, that's true, you know, shorts.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I don't know if you want
Speaker 1: me to put you on blast here. But you had
Speaker 1: a little bit of a pocket catty. We had a
Speaker 1: pocket snapt we had a pocket snaff food. Uh, Dan,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, do you want to tell the trauma? Oh?
Speaker 1: You know, just sitting down too quickly, not paying attention,
Speaker 1: your pocket getting caught on the arm of a chair.
Speaker 1: And then well, I guess my pockets a little bit bigger.
Speaker 1: Now it's a little torn. But you know what, maybe
Speaker 1: this is blessing in disguise. Maybe you can fit a
Speaker 1: penguin in that pocket. Now perfect fate works in mysterious ways.
Speaker 1: Now that's the real silver lining. Coronavirus cure. Sure actually
Speaker 1: fit a pangulin in my pocket now, now we're talking.
Speaker 1: So the largest species of penguin, penguin pangolin, is the
Speaker 1: giant pangolin, who grows about five ft long and can
Speaker 1: way up to seventy pounds. What about the tail? The
Speaker 1: tail I believe is included in that five ft and
Speaker 1: so for hang on and ghost. You're good. Also, that
Speaker 1: was nice. I don't want to I don't want to
Speaker 1: like um actually, but I think it's sand slash. He
Speaker 1: said sand blash. And I know that's not like a
Speaker 1: big deal, but it just feels like the kind of
Speaker 1: thing that's I'm going to get like destroyed. That's a
Speaker 1: very good thing. I'm sorry about that. No, no, that's
Speaker 1: uh let's uh absolutely despise doing that. I am so no, no, no,
Speaker 1: do not feel. I am much prefer to be well.
Speaker 1: First of all, I actually don't mind being corrected about stuff,
Speaker 1: and also I would much prefer that now then like later,
Speaker 1: people are absolute flam flash. You're a big poper nerd.
Speaker 1: Should I'll just say like sand you can. Honestly, I
Speaker 1: think you could just say sand slash. Let me just
Speaker 1: say sand slash, sand slash, sand slash, sand slash. I'll do.
Speaker 1: I'll do a bonus track of me just saying sand slash. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But so like for comparison, the black bellied pengulin is
Speaker 1: only about five pounds, so this guy is like sevent
Speaker 1: a big chunkster. Yeah. So so all species of pengulin
Speaker 1: have really long tongues to eat ants and termites and
Speaker 1: other small invertebrates. Uh, they've got those protective keratin scales
Speaker 1: all over their bodies. They're nocturnal and they have claws
Speaker 1: either for climbing trees or burrowing and digging into ant
Speaker 1: or termite mounts, large pengulins, and stick their tongues out
Speaker 1: over a foot. So that's cool. I love thinking about
Speaker 1: that big long foot, long sticky tongues. That's uncomfortable. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're also good swimmers. They don't look like they would really,
Speaker 1: but they Yeah, and sometimes they will be bipedal. Not
Speaker 1: not all the time. All of them walk on all fours,
Speaker 1: but like they will get up on their hind legs
Speaker 1: and walk around for mysterious reasons, just to stretch, just
Speaker 1: to show up and be like, hey, humans, don't get
Speaker 1: too comfortable. Yeah, this is our world. This is the
Speaker 1: parent girls. Yeah, they have no teeth, and their no teeth,
Speaker 1: they don't need it, don't need it. Sticky sticky tongue, yeah,
Speaker 1: they they're saliva is really sticky, so they jab out
Speaker 1: those big long tongues and ants and termites stick to
Speaker 1: their long, long tongues and uh, some species actually have
Speaker 1: strong prehensile tails that they can use to hang from
Speaker 1: branches or kind of rasp at the ark to expose
Speaker 1: ants and termites and underneath, yeah yeah, yes, just like
Speaker 1: slurping get them. And like the armadilla lizard, they will
Speaker 1: roll up into a ball when threatened, only exposing that
Speaker 1: hard keratin scale mail armor. And so like we're talking
Speaker 1: about before, you had that great question about like are
Speaker 1: the armadilla lizards born with the scales, And they are,
Speaker 1: and they harden over time, same thing with the penguin.
Speaker 1: So when they're born, these scales are very soft and
Speaker 1: they're kind of like pink, and and then they and
Speaker 1: then they slowly harden over time, and mothers will actually
Speaker 1: wrap themselves around their babies to protect them, I know, heartwarm,
Speaker 1: love it. And while they do look like they may
Speaker 1: be related to aunt eaters or armadillos, and they actually
Speaker 1: share a lot of these physical traits with them, like
Speaker 1: the long, sticky tongues and the big claws to dig
Speaker 1: into termite aunt mauls, they're actually more related to Carnivorans,
Speaker 1: which is the clade that contains big cats, bears, wolves, hyenas, raccoons, mongooses,
Speaker 1: and seals. Ain't it weird seals. Seals are in the
Speaker 1: carnivorren clay Wow. Interesting, yeah, weird, confirmed weird. They look
Speaker 1: like they should be arm like ant eaters or armadillos,
Speaker 1: but no, they're more related to yeah cats, yeah, bears.
Speaker 1: I mean they aren't like super closely. They are their
Speaker 1: own clade, so they aren't like directly related to them,
Speaker 1: but they are closer to them than they are too
Speaker 1: in the in the in the Kingdom phil which where
Speaker 1: does the split happen? What is what is carnivore? I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: what was the word carnivora? That is the clade? Let
Speaker 1: me please excuse my dear aunt Sally Wait of Operations,
Speaker 1: Kingdom piling class order, family, genus, species, Holy crap, Yes
Speaker 1: that's right, that's right. You had to say those first couple.
Speaker 1: I was like, at some accommodation, you're actually better at
Speaker 1: that than me. I am not. I'm only good at
Speaker 1: manemonic devices, not science. But yes, yes, so that would
Speaker 1: be car Carnivora. I already forgot the word. I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1: Carnivora yea order, Yeah, okay, got it, yeah, exactly. Well,
Speaker 1: it's like it's not necessarily that they branch off at
Speaker 1: just um mammals, so like the class would be like
Speaker 1: like mammals, but they branch off from like common ancestors
Speaker 1: along a long the way. Cool. Cool. Yeah, So I
Speaker 1: just googled penguin to show you some pictures, and the
Speaker 1: onion has the headline that, let me just show it
Speaker 1: to you. It's so we have coronavirus under control, announces
Speaker 1: CDC directors. No slowly transforms into penguins now and they
Speaker 1: have a disturbing photoshop by a man turning into a panglan.
Speaker 1: That is intense, that is very u But yeah, let
Speaker 1: me let me show you some actually of these of
Speaker 1: these guys. Look at them right there, pine combs and
Speaker 1: like like sometimes the babies just hanging out, just hanging out.
Speaker 1: That is too adorable. They look they also look like
Speaker 1: the hate to bring it back to a Game of
Speaker 1: Thrones again, but you know that the dragon eggs in
Speaker 1: with a little snouts and legs, so even better, even better,
Speaker 1: even better. I got some people were upset with me
Speaker 1: by by bragging that my show is going to be
Speaker 1: more like intense than Game of Thrones, but I stand
Speaker 1: by it given where Game of Thrones actually, yeah, I
Speaker 1: think like now in retrospect, it's like and I'm not
Speaker 1: happy about it. Classic. Right now, humans are struggling with
Speaker 1: the coronavirus in searching for an origin. Pengulins have been
Speaker 1: fingered for the crime, but isn't really their fault. Scientists
Speaker 1: sequence genomes from the human coronavirus and found a match
Speaker 1: to the pengulin coronavirus and suspect it jumped from pegulin
Speaker 1: to human. However, other researchers urge caution in jumping to conclusions.
Speaker 1: It's yet to have been conclusively proven that pengulins are
Speaker 1: the culprit, but the suspicion that penguins are the root
Speaker 1: of the coronavirus might actually help them. China has banned
Speaker 1: the trade of wildlife as food in response to the
Speaker 1: potential that the virus came from the wildlife market. However,
Speaker 1: pengulin scales are often used in traditional medicine, so it's
Speaker 1: feared that poachers might exploit a loophole in the new law,
Speaker 1: possibly allowing them to still trade in pengulin as long
Speaker 1: as it's for medicinal purposes. On the other hand, perhaps
Speaker 1: paranoia over pegulin pathogen sorry will make them go out
Speaker 1: of fashion as medicine. Already, the Ivory Coast burned three
Speaker 1: tons of the eugally poached penguin scales that were seized. Maybe,
Speaker 1: now that our human butts are on the line, we'll
Speaker 1: also care about those penguin pine cone butts. When we return,
Speaker 1: We're going to dive right into some water type pokemon,
Speaker 1: and let me tell you, their butts are very cute.
Speaker 1: Why do I keep talking about butts? Anyways, We'll be
Speaker 1: right back. So why has got to catch them all?
Speaker 1: Such a human need? The psychology of collecting is a
Speaker 1: whole field of research also in economics, from Pokemon to
Speaker 1: humble figurines to Garfield paraphernalien just for example, humans love
Speaker 1: to collect things. Obviously, resource gathering or financial benefit is
Speaker 1: one reason to collect, but it's not the only, or
Speaker 1: even the main reason. The urge for set completion has
Speaker 1: been studied in economics literature, and while it's loosely tied
Speaker 1: to financial gain, it seems motivated more by the satisfaction
Speaker 1: of completion, and like ash catchum, the goal of becoming
Speaker 1: the ideal collector i e. A Pokemon master is also
Speaker 1: a major motivator for collection. The closer collector gets to
Speaker 1: being a master, the more benefits it brings to self esteem.
Speaker 1: You know what else? Improve your self esteem knowing that
Speaker 1: you share a planet with the sea bunny. Are you
Speaker 1: ready to talk about some sea bunnies? Yes, I know
Speaker 1: it's not quite Easter yet, but I'm about about it.
Speaker 1: We are talking about sea bunnies. They are adorable little
Speaker 1: seed dwelling animals who look like bunnies made out of marshmallow. Dan,
Speaker 1: have you ever heard of a sea bunny? Uh? No,
Speaker 1: I haven't heard of a sea monkey. But I hear
Speaker 1: those are not chill. They're not chill. They're fine. I
Speaker 1: think a brine shrimp mostly um. But yeah, so I
Speaker 1: don't think you are prepared to see it. I really,
Speaker 1: I really, I'm complete. Prepare your self. I'm coming around
Speaker 1: to melt into a puddle. That is a thing to
Speaker 1: describe the experience you're having right now to the listener.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at a spotted cotton ball with the cutest
Speaker 1: little ears I've ever seen, that lives underwater. How does
Speaker 1: it feel to transcend? I guess this this life form
Speaker 1: into like to to see, to see the perfect animal?
Speaker 1: How does it feel? I mean, I've truly never wanted
Speaker 1: to pet something in my entire life. This is the
Speaker 1: cutest little thing. Also, does it have eyes? Yes, sort
Speaker 1: of kind of. Let's let's let's explain what's going on
Speaker 1: one picture, just so you can see it's a little
Speaker 1: It looks like it's stretching in that picture. It is yeah,
Speaker 1: oh oh right, sorry, I haven't even more pictures of
Speaker 1: its own. God, look at that, but look at waite.
Speaker 1: It looks like the butt almost resembles like an It's
Speaker 1: got a little contail man of v b pre coma deoishi.
Speaker 1: It's so cute. So the sea bunny their scientific name
Speaker 1: is Jerona parva, which is the last time I'll ever
Speaker 1: be calling them that, because sea bunny is the best name.
Speaker 1: Guys already forgot. Sea bunnies are actually a type of
Speaker 1: new to brink, which are in turn a type of
Speaker 1: sea slug. So new to brinks are soft but bodied
Speaker 1: marine gastropod mollusks, which are related to terrestrial snails and slugs.
Speaker 1: Practice your bunnies. So they are found off the coast
Speaker 1: of Japan, and they went viral in Japan in like
Speaker 1: people could not stop talking about the sea bunnies on
Speaker 1: the Internet and I want to bring sea bunny madness
Speaker 1: to the US or wherever you're listening to this broadcast.
Speaker 1: We're bringing it global. We're bringing sea bunnies are going
Speaker 1: global love bunny mania. So sea bunnies look like little
Speaker 1: white bunny rabbits with black tipped ears and fur covered
Speaker 1: in black spots and a feathery, little cotton ball tail.
Speaker 1: And also some of them come in lemon flavor. What,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh. Actually the lemon flavored ones I think
Speaker 1: are more common than the white ones. Um, the standard marsha, Yes,
Speaker 1: the standard marshmallow lemon is everywhere it's it's hot these days.
Speaker 1: They are teeny weeny teeny teeny tiny, teeny tiny. They're
Speaker 1: about the size of a thumbnail. Yes, So this is
Speaker 1: the kind of tininess that I love because they're big
Speaker 1: enough for you to see with the naked eye and
Speaker 1: see all their features in detail with just your eye,
Speaker 1: but tiny enough to fit on your fingers. Truly, the
Speaker 1: pockets nous of monsters. There's such a pocket monster that
Speaker 1: they can fit in that little fake pocket that girl
Speaker 1: that girl jeans have. Yeah, they can, They're right in there.
Speaker 1: So their bunny ears are actually rhinofores which are antenna
Speaker 1: like structures, which are chemosensory organs, which is a fancy
Speaker 1: way of saying that they can smell and taste the water.
Speaker 1: They can be used to detect food mates, and they
Speaker 1: can even detect the current of water. A lot of
Speaker 1: complex science going on in them little bunny ears. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're that Like those little fur is actually fleshy protuberances
Speaker 1: known as papillae, which are thought to be used as
Speaker 1: sensory organs. All those scientists kind of strug when it's like, well,
Speaker 1: what are they sensing? It's like probably and that feathery,
Speaker 1: little cotton ball tail on their butts is actually their
Speaker 1: gills breathe out of their body, breathing out their butts.
Speaker 1: That tushy does a lot of work breathing out that tushy.
Speaker 1: That's really actually new to Braak means um nude braink
Speaker 1: which is like the term for basically like exposed gills,
Speaker 1: So so branch brank, you know, have that branch, so
Speaker 1: like expose gills. So interesting. Yeah, So they eat sea
Speaker 1: sponges and they actually ingest toxins from sea sponges that
Speaker 1: they borrow and use as their own defensive toxins. So
Speaker 1: even though they're teeny tiny and they look like cute
Speaker 1: little edible marshmallows, and they even come a limit flavor,
Speaker 1: they actually come in in ikey poison flavor. It's danger
Speaker 1: flavor because you cannot eat these guys. They will hurt.
Speaker 1: That's honestly. I'll tell you what. When you said that
Speaker 1: they went viral in Japan, I was worried that it
Speaker 1: was because something. No, no, no, they are disgusting in taste,
Speaker 1: very good. It's it is, it's like it's such a
Speaker 1: relief because they will never be eaten. So like other
Speaker 1: New to Branks, they are actually hermaphrodites, which means that
Speaker 1: they possess both male and female reproductive organs, and they
Speaker 1: kind of just like when they're mating, they kind of
Speaker 1: just sword fight and just spar and then like whoever
Speaker 1: gets what nozzle and war gets what nozzle and wear. Yeah,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh. So the competition for sex is it's
Speaker 1: it's just trying to get their nozzles in all the places. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know, he just you know, getting where you offended
Speaker 1: as it were, Yeah, I remember college. But they are
Speaker 1: oh man, they are just so cute. I just I
Speaker 1: am so in love. I feel like every time this happens,
Speaker 1: like I know that I keep falling in love with
Speaker 1: these animals, and then I'm like, I'm like, oh, this
Speaker 1: is my favorite animal. Now this is my favorite animal.
Speaker 1: But right now this is my favorite animal right now
Speaker 1: in my heart. My heart is full of cease. Just
Speaker 1: also thinking about the fact that it is this big.
Speaker 1: Is the size of a thumbnail. You couldn't say you
Speaker 1: could fill your hands with thousands of So now I
Speaker 1: want to talk about another sea slug, the sheep belief
Speaker 1: sea slug that looks like a doofy leafy cow Pokemon,
Speaker 1: a doofy leafy cow Pokemon. Oh, before I do move on,
Speaker 1: I do want to say that I guess like all
Speaker 1: new to branks kind of look like shellos the Pokemon. Okay, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and c slugs too. So so this, uh, this ceasel
Speaker 1: like I don't think actually qualifies as a new to
Speaker 1: brank another classification thing that you know that I have
Speaker 1: no idea how that works, but I don't actually know.
Speaker 1: Yeah I'm not it doesn't matter. But the other the
Speaker 1: other pokemon like thing about the sheep leaf cea slug
Speaker 1: is it looks hand drawn. It looks it looks like
Speaker 1: an anime, even beyond just Pokemon. It looks like someone
Speaker 1: drew it as an anime. And I think you'll understand
Speaker 1: once I show you a picture of it. Holy smokes.
Speaker 1: Yeah it's I mean, yeah, a thousand person. It looks
Speaker 1: like a sheep that's going like green hair super sayan
Speaker 1: three out there, and it's face looks like a poorly
Speaker 1: drawn cow face. It almost looks like Um the Wallace
Speaker 1: and Granma Sheep. Yes, it looks like Sewan the Sheet. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Shawn the Sheep, and it is h So that thing
Speaker 1: is gorgeous. It is beautiful too, so like many Pokemon
Speaker 1: like Bulbasore, Burmi Chikarita, the sheep leaf sea slug looks
Speaker 1: like it's covered in leaves. Yes, its face looks like
Speaker 1: a poorly drawn cartoon cow or Shawn the Sheep. It's
Speaker 1: got these two close set doofy little cartoon eyes. It
Speaker 1: has long ears and pink nostrils. Of course, while it
Speaker 1: looks like a cow face, these features function very different.
Speaker 1: So the ears are actually Rhino four's like we talked
Speaker 1: about before. They're they taste and smell. The eyes actually
Speaker 1: are I spots, although they probably can't see very well.
Speaker 1: So the same thing with the sea bunny. They have
Speaker 1: probably a couple of eye spots somewhere, but they don't
Speaker 1: use them as much, I think as their other sensory organs.
Speaker 1: So the nostrils appear to be small oral tentacles. I
Speaker 1: couldn't actually find like a definitive anatomy of these guys,
Speaker 1: but I do believe those are their oral tentacles. But
Speaker 1: they're kind of pink, so they look they look like nostrils. Uh.
Speaker 1: So they are actually a species of Sacco Glossa, which
Speaker 1: are sea slugs who ingest algae. So, uh, some species
Speaker 1: of these seco Glossa, the sheep leaf sea slug included,
Speaker 1: actually steal chloroplasts from the algae that they eat and
Speaker 1: incorporate it into their own bodies and they use them
Speaker 1: for to synthesis. Was wow, this is called kleptoplasty, where
Speaker 1: it's like me, it's like literally, you're stealing the plasty um.
Speaker 1: So yeah, they are stealing chloroplasts, incorporating them into their body,
Speaker 1: and then they use their ability to photosynthesize and steal
Speaker 1: that energy. Yeah, oh my god. So I mean, are
Speaker 1: those more or less actual petals on the back of
Speaker 1: the They function the same way that leaves do in
Speaker 1: a way. Yeah yeah, yeahzing wild. That's incredible and so
Speaker 1: and some species of the Psychoglossa, the chloroplasts are stored
Speaker 1: in uh, these big fan like wings, so they look
Speaker 1: like the big, big leaves. But in other species, including
Speaker 1: the sheep leaf sea slug, it is stored in the serata,
Speaker 1: which are the fleshy structures all over its body that
Speaker 1: looks like leaves. Like I would say, these kinds they
Speaker 1: look like a a cool hip succulent that you would
Speaker 1: get totally yes, with a little cow face it is.
Speaker 1: It's incredible, it's so adorable. That's funny. And speaking of
Speaker 1: pokemon that have plants grown on them, because there seemed
Speaker 1: to be a lot of them, there are you know
Speaker 1: the grottle Yes, so I believe the grottle is based
Speaker 1: on the real life fact that algae actually does grow
Speaker 1: on turtles sometimes. Yeah so, uh, many species of aquatic
Speaker 1: turtle actually do grow algae on their heads and backs.
Speaker 1: And Mary river turtles are an endangered turtle found in Australia.
Speaker 1: Who uh, there are viral photos of these guys with
Speaker 1: a lot of algae growing on them. In one you
Speaker 1: may have seen this before. It's the one that has
Speaker 1: like a mohawk. Yeah, he's got a mohawk made out
Speaker 1: of algae, and it's not I mean, this individual, I
Speaker 1: think is pretty special because there it's not like all
Speaker 1: merry river turtles will have an algae mohawk, which just
Speaker 1: happens to have one, and but that we know of
Speaker 1: it that we know, well, yeah, I mean they're like
Speaker 1: the the algae does grow on many species of turtles
Speaker 1: and it's just like, you know, it's possible. Yeah, it's possible. Uh,
Speaker 1: and they they'll grow on their backs as well. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's the fun little little Pokemon fact about how like
Speaker 1: they really do borrow a lot of stuff from actual
Speaker 1: actual biology, which I love. Another one is polywag and
Speaker 1: it is based on the tadpole. And you know polywogs
Speaker 1: got that big circle and actually, uh, tadpoles have spirals
Speaker 1: on their tummies as well. So here's a photo yo
Speaker 1: what yeah, so and it's it's a big, big, little
Speaker 1: little spiral just like yes, just right there like that,
Speaker 1: And that is something that seems like the most far
Speaker 1: fetched when it comes to Pokemon reference. But that's also
Speaker 1: just it feels the most like out of bounds of
Speaker 1: like reality read like this like small blue creatures like, okay,
Speaker 1: that could be a tadpole, but this giant spiral on
Speaker 1: the bell act. It seems like like the cartoonish element
Speaker 1: of like, oh, this is an animal, so we're gonna
Speaker 1: draw spirals on everything. But yeah, no, So what that is,
Speaker 1: sorry to say is actually it's intestines. Oh delicious. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that you can see through its belly because the skin
Speaker 1: on its belly is thin and translucent, so you can
Speaker 1: actually see that coiled up intestines. And that's why there's
Speaker 1: spiral on it. To me, Yeah, but now when you
Speaker 1: look at a Pollywag Pokemon, just think that's probably stestic
Speaker 1: It's belly is exposed. Cool, you could see the pook
Speaker 1: go through, Yes, you can. Pollwag used visible PI super effective,
Speaker 1: the enemy ran away? Could Pokemon help save the planet? EO. Wilson,
Speaker 1: one of the most highly regarded evolutionary biologists of our time,
Speaker 1: believes in biophilia. That is the idea that humans have
Speaker 1: an innate desire to discover and catalog living creatures. In
Speaker 1: other words, we got to catch them all. A study
Speaker 1: by Blam ford at All, published in Science looked at
Speaker 1: whether children were better at identifying real animals or Pokemon
Speaker 1: in flash cards. Surprise, surprise, the kids were great at
Speaker 1: ideing Pokemon and not as strong as ideing real animals.
Speaker 1: I don't think this is anything to feel sad about.
Speaker 1: It shows children have a great capacity to learn about
Speaker 1: and categorize animals, even if they are imaginary. It just
Speaker 1: means that we have to think as educators how to
Speaker 1: appeal to kids, because they'll soak things up like little
Speaker 1: sponges if they're motivated enough. So I humbly propose that
Speaker 1: scientists work with artists to make Pokemon like cartoons of
Speaker 1: real life incredible animals, maybe even a card game based
Speaker 1: on their real life traits. Or at the very least, teachers,
Speaker 1: let your students know how many of our real life
Speaker 1: animals are even cooler than Pokemon. When we return, I'll
Speaker 1: prove this to you by bugging out over some real
Speaker 1: life bug type Pokemon. The charming thing about Pokemon isn't
Speaker 1: just their looks, but all their varied behaviors. Do Pieder,
Speaker 1: the spider shaped Pokemon, has a bubble of water over
Speaker 1: its head. It can use as a defense against fire attacks.
Speaker 1: Lots of Pokemon have ridiculous looking defensive horns or use
Speaker 1: light to attract, pray or ward off enemies. Some pokemon,
Speaker 1: like Cubane, even wears a skull as a helmet. These
Speaker 1: are fantastical imaginings of behavior, or maybe they're just a
Speaker 1: cheap rip off of real life animals. So yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: going to talk about real life animal behavior in some
Speaker 1: of these bug type pokemon that seems like it be
Speaker 1: found in the Pokadex is one of them. Like, yes,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I'm not ready. You are and you
Speaker 1: must be yourself down. So first I'll ease you into
Speaker 1: it by talking first about the diving bell Spider. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so this one is like the Dupider. Yes, and the
Speaker 1: dupider is sort of a spider like Pokemon. It's got
Speaker 1: like a little bulb of water over its head and
Speaker 1: it's but the diving bell Spider is like the opposite.
Speaker 1: It has a bulb of air that it keeps on
Speaker 1: his little body. So I am going to bet big
Speaker 1: money that the Dupider is actually based on the diving
Speaker 1: bell Spider. I think that that these whoever these are
Speaker 1: these people at Pokemoning the Pokemon creator that pump these
Speaker 1: guys out. They are really good at driving inspiration from
Speaker 1: real animal and if they aren't, like that's still pretty
Speaker 1: great that they are. The serendipity is too much convergent
Speaker 1: evolution of Pokemon. So dupider has that water bubble on
Speaker 1: its head, and the diving bell spider is the opposite.
Speaker 1: It has a bubble of air that it constructs using
Speaker 1: silk and collected air, and it actually is able to
Speaker 1: hold water on its body and breathe it underwater. So
Speaker 1: the diving bell spider is found in fresh bodies of
Speaker 1: water in Europe and Asia, and it's the only species
Speaker 1: of spider that lives almost in its entire life underwater.
Speaker 1: It only surfaces to get more oxygen for its bubble,
Speaker 1: so it hunts, it eats prey, it mates, it lays eggs,
Speaker 1: and even sleeps underwater. And it is an air breathing animal,
Speaker 1: so when submerged, air becomes trapped on its body by
Speaker 1: chiny teeny tiny hydrophobic hairs, and it kind of looks
Speaker 1: like it's wearing this silver suit. It's actually very beautiful.
Speaker 1: Let me show you. I feel like I've seen a
Speaker 1: video of this thing WHOA, Yeah, it's gorgeous. It's beautiful.
Speaker 1: It's this shiny, silvery But in order for it to
Speaker 1: actually have a constant supply of oxygen, it constructs a
Speaker 1: diving bell. So first of all, I want to talk
Speaker 1: about how spiders breathe because I kind of have to
Speaker 1: know that before understanding how this works. So spiders breathe
Speaker 1: through their abdomen, either with book lungs, which are small
Speaker 1: slitted openings in their abdomen that take an oxygen, or
Speaker 1: through spiricles, which in a trachea. So those are small
Speaker 1: openings and like a tube in their abdomen. They both
Speaker 1: work in a similar way where they kind of passively,
Speaker 1: like oxygen kind of just comes in there. They breath through.
Speaker 1: The bees breathe through their bellies and they don't. It's
Speaker 1: not like a human where they're just like, you know,
Speaker 1: sucking in air like that. It's just kind of like
Speaker 1: coming in through through these lungs on their abdomen. I'm uncomfortable. Yes,
Speaker 1: So if you are a spider and you want to breathe,
Speaker 1: you want to coat your abdomen and oxygen. So, uh,
Speaker 1: that's why when you see it underwater and it has
Speaker 1: that like sort of a bubble. It's on its body,
Speaker 1: not on its head. So to construct the diving bell,
Speaker 1: it actually builds a dome shape shaped web between aquatic plants,
Speaker 1: which is made of like this webbing is kind of
Speaker 1: this like hydrogel like substance. Uh. And then it collects
Speaker 1: air on its body from the surface and fills the
Speaker 1: web loom with this air. And it can So it's
Speaker 1: interesting because it can both wear these this like air
Speaker 1: on its body like a suit, just like the air
Speaker 1: clings to its body. Um, it can also like carry
Speaker 1: around the diving bell and and kind of wear that.
Speaker 1: It can also like just have the diving bell as
Speaker 1: its home base and sort of like pop in and
Speaker 1: out of this diving element and like so that it
Speaker 1: doesn't have to go all the way to the surface
Speaker 1: to get more oxygen. Yeah, it's it's very a very
Speaker 1: dynamic dynamic extress animal here or rather insect or are
Speaker 1: yes exactly? And Arthur pod which is interact you were
Speaker 1: able to here's the thing you were able to name
Speaker 1: like kingdom final and order. Yeah, but then it's a bug, right,
Speaker 1: I do I do call like all Arthur podgs bugs.
Speaker 1: I think that's okay. I appreciate that. So the diving
Speaker 1: bell that it makes can be big enough for it
Speaker 1: to just go inside, it can be small enough for
Speaker 1: it to carry around. It can like pop in and
Speaker 1: kind of collect more oxygen that like sits on its abdomen,
Speaker 1: just all sorts of things. But it also can act
Speaker 1: as a gill. So the diving bell itself is like
Speaker 1: an artificially well not artificially but aracn officially constructed gilt
Speaker 1: that actually takes in oxygen from the surrounding water. So
Speaker 1: if the diving bell is big enough, the spider can
Speaker 1: shell out inside of it for an entire day without
Speaker 1: having to get new oxygen from the surface, because there
Speaker 1: is gas exchange that happens on the surface of this
Speaker 1: diving bell where it is pulling in oxygen from the water,
Speaker 1: the bubble itself, the bell itself. Yes, wow, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's amazing. It is. So, is there like a I mean,
Speaker 1: is there like a how how long has a what's
Speaker 1: the longest one of these spiders can stay underwater? I think, well,
Speaker 1: I mean they stay, they live underwater for their whole lives.
Speaker 1: But how long has it I think about a day.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that means I could be twenty
Speaker 1: four hours. Um, but yeah, a long time hours a lot,
Speaker 1: that's a lot. That's amazing. Yes, yes, but it is
Speaker 1: breathing like it's getting the oxygen totally. So it is.
Speaker 1: It is crazy. And yeah, some of these these diving
Speaker 1: bells become really big, elaborate. It's a it's it's nuts.
Speaker 1: It is nuts. But I do want to talk about
Speaker 1: now some interesting caterpillars who are very pokemon like, and
Speaker 1: I'm not going to just kind of do a cop
Speaker 1: out and do caterpy and that's very very cute. I
Speaker 1: want to talk about the pipeline swallowtail caterpillar that looks
Speaker 1: like scullapede to me. Yeah, that's sort of the red
Speaker 1: uh centipede looking as things. So the pipeline swallow tail
Speaker 1: butterfly is a gorgeous blue and gold elegant beauty, but
Speaker 1: their caterpillar form looks like a crazy spiky piece of
Speaker 1: red liquorice. So let me show you here's the adult. Beautiful,
Speaker 1: gorgeous water absolutely gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous, baby, I mean not
Speaker 1: as gorgeous, but like wow, to go from one to
Speaker 1: the other caterpillars crazy, right, So it looks like it
Speaker 1: looks like a licorice. I kind of kind of want
Speaker 1: to put it in my mouth. Hey, you know, I
Speaker 1: kind of grub up, girl, want to put in it.
Speaker 1: It does look like a lion king grub like, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not seeing the lion king. Rather, they're like squishy.
Speaker 1: It's satisfying. It ruined me. Oh my god, just like
Speaker 1: I could eat that. I want to put it my mouth.
Speaker 1: Put that in my mouth. It just feels crunchy, and
Speaker 1: it just looks it looks so liquorish. Yeah, so it
Speaker 1: actually has a more goth morph as well. So here heck, yes,
Speaker 1: oh wow, that is metal. That one is telling mom
Speaker 1: that it's going out and it will be home later
Speaker 1: and don't wait up. What I do like about this
Speaker 1: photo is if you will notice someone has photo shopped
Speaker 1: in a pipe that's like a flower pipe, so it
Speaker 1: looks like the caterpillar is smoking a pipe, which I do.
Speaker 1: I especially like that. I didn't really notice that until
Speaker 1: I put it in the document. So yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: black and shiny with like orange spikes. It's very like
Speaker 1: early two thousand's hot topic. Heck yeah yeah. But so
Speaker 1: the red morphs are found in higher temperature regions such
Speaker 1: as Texas and Arizona. And then that black with orange
Speaker 1: spikes kind of hot topic morph is in cooler areas,
Speaker 1: So that vibrant color is actually a warning to predators
Speaker 1: that they are very toxic, which I gotta say, opposite
Speaker 1: effect on me obviously put in my mouth in there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it is. It is. Caterpillars are just amazing. Here's
Speaker 1: another one. This is the tailed Emperor butterfly caterpillar. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, look at that thing. That's beautiful. It looks
Speaker 1: it looks like a Polka man dragon creature right there.
Speaker 1: I never really got into Digimon, to be honest, you know.
Speaker 1: It was just a little too much, too much, too much.
Speaker 1: I like, I don't like Yugi. Who is this guy? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can't. I It's like it's like, hey, kids, do
Speaker 1: you want do you want a familiar premise but all
Speaker 1: different characters? No? I know, I know, but it's got
Speaker 1: the Yugi feel it that Yugi take that Ugi tape,
Speaker 1: that Yugi stank. That's why it's called Yugio. Oh. I
Speaker 1: hope I don't actually offend any like fans actually also
Speaker 1: watched Yugio as a kid, it's hopeless. So the adult.
Speaker 1: The adult butterfly is white and black, very elegant, looking
Speaker 1: like a wedding butterfly. But the babies look like pokemon's.
Speaker 1: They are green with even brighter green stripes, and their
Speaker 1: head has four large horns sprouting off of it like
Speaker 1: a teeny mini dragon. In fact, emperor butterflies, there are
Speaker 1: multiple beacies emperor butterflies, and they have all sorts of
Speaker 1: adorable caterpillars. Consider the Japanese emperor butterfly caterpillar, who has
Speaker 1: two little horns, and the best part is that it's
Speaker 1: got these dark mouth parts that make it look like
Speaker 1: it's call mustache. You cat see it? What a picture too?
Speaker 1: It lookally just popped and was like, hello, hello, beep
Speaker 1: here cover mustache. That's really cute. Hello, Hello, I hope
Speaker 1: you ever a murder. I will show with your modori panther.
Speaker 1: It's like it's yeah, like pink path panther porl Like
Speaker 1: did somebody getting married there? Yes, exactly, Like like magnifying
Speaker 1: glass like yeah, someone someone needs to find this picture.
Speaker 1: It just photoshop a magnifying glass into the right side
Speaker 1: and type in mirroreder. So those little horns are likely
Speaker 1: deterrence against predators or defensive Ultimately, though they're extremely cute,
Speaker 1: they are very cute. But slightly less cute is the
Speaker 1: gum leaf Skeletonizer LEA wow, okay, so let me see this.
Speaker 1: Let me see this gum leaf skeleton mazer. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: I mean, that's wow. That's airy. It's got lots of
Speaker 1: little little hairs, lots of little hair. I think this
Speaker 1: is actually this is one that is more metal like
Speaker 1: once I explain it than it is visually, which is
Speaker 1: great for podcast Normally I'm on this podcast and I'm
Speaker 1: just like, please look at this. Animals really cool. Hit
Speaker 1: me with the metal. So it sounds like the gum
Speaker 1: leave Skeletonizer will eat your flesh down to your bones,
Speaker 1: turning you into a spooky skeleton. Please, But it is
Speaker 1: actually referring to how they eat leaves down to its
Speaker 1: skeletal structure. I know, right, it is so excited. I
Speaker 1: was so ready to get Oh man, this is how
Speaker 1: I want to die. But yeah, no, it's it munches
Speaker 1: as leaves down just to the veins and mid ribs,
Speaker 1: so it looks like ab But that is not the
Speaker 1: horrifying thing about it, nor is their name the horrifying
Speaker 1: thing about them. This is the horrifying thing about them.
Speaker 1: You see this like unicorn horn they have at the
Speaker 1: top of their heads. And remember how it is like
Speaker 1: talking about Cuban earlier. So well it's not so bad now.
Speaker 1: It is made out of okay, maybe it's a little bit.
Speaker 1: It's made out of a bunch of old dead heads
Speaker 1: that they used to own, so the okay, So the
Speaker 1: gum leaf skeletonizer goes through up to thirteen molts before
Speaker 1: finally building a cocoon and metamorphosizing into a moth. So
Speaker 1: most caterpillars shed and disc guard and sometimes eat their
Speaker 1: old skin, but the gum leave skeletonizer keeps its old
Speaker 1: head skins and wears them as a unicorn horn. That
Speaker 1: is that's a lot to take. So that horn is
Speaker 1: like it's like these Like the reason it's like smaller
Speaker 1: on the top is like that was my baby head
Speaker 1: and this is like my teenager head and these are
Speaker 1: slightly larger and larger like head skins. Just carrying around
Speaker 1: your photo book of be a dead carcasses. Yeah, like
Speaker 1: like the Facebook of like flashbat, what are those like
Speaker 1: the flashback? Yeah, yeah, except it's your old head. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's on you. The flashback is just like, oh,
Speaker 1: look at this side, that's baby me. Like if we
Speaker 1: just like had our baby like our faces and we
Speaker 1: like they peeled off of our face and then just
Speaker 1: like migrated up on the top of our head and
Speaker 1: we have this huge hat of like our face is
Speaker 1: getting younger and younger and on the very top is
Speaker 1: just our baby face. Yeah, good job, gum leave skeletonithers horrum,
Speaker 1: thank you for the dreams. So they use this as
Speaker 1: a defensive lance, but really, who wants to mess with
Speaker 1: someone who has a unicorn horn made out of their
Speaker 1: old baby faces? Yeah? But yeah, it's like like Cubane.
Speaker 1: I don't know if everybody knows this about Cubane, but
Speaker 1: he wears it's that little like dinosaur looking Pokemon, very cute,
Speaker 1: has like a dinosaur skull on its head. It's got
Speaker 1: like a little bone and he's like carabon bone. It's
Speaker 1: it's mother's it's mother's skull. What the heck? Pokemon guys. Yeah,
Speaker 1: normally I'm like like, oh, you guys are great at
Speaker 1: like doing evolutionary biology stuff. Why did you have to
Speaker 1: put that thought in my head as a child. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you made me think about death and stuff. I didn't
Speaker 1: like that. Like, it's it's mother's head that it wears
Speaker 1: and it cries at night. I'm like like ten years
Speaker 1: oh jees. The stains on its school are due to
Speaker 1: the tears it cries for a mother. It will never know.
Speaker 1: Literally literally literally this is in the polka dex. I'm
Speaker 1: not doing a bit. It's really yeah, brutal. It's dark.
Speaker 1: It's dark. It's dark. Well, how about I illuminate the
Speaker 1: dark nose. So, first of all, I want to talk
Speaker 1: about the thuing Goodie day beetle. Alright, I said. I
Speaker 1: said that like a computer was trying to pronounce the
Speaker 1: word Fingodie day beetle thing. Yeah, So the Fingodi Day
Speaker 1: Beetle family, they don't just look like Pokemons as larva.
Speaker 1: They also look like pokemons as adults. So I want
Speaker 1: to show you first the adult. It looks like a
Speaker 1: complete dofa goofus. What a goofy google goofer. I'm gonna enhance, enhance.
Speaker 1: You gotta see it. And oh my gosh, look at
Speaker 1: that goofy goober. Right, it's so goofs. So they are
Speaker 1: light brown there, they're skinny winged beetles with antenna that
Speaker 1: looked like big feathers or weird moose antler. Yeah, those
Speaker 1: are some. Those are some antler looking things. Yeah. They
Speaker 1: look like kind of like a weird feathery moose antlers
Speaker 1: to They have big googly eyes and a pointy nose.
Speaker 1: They are very cartoony. They're a mess. Yeah, they're a
Speaker 1: mess cartoon looking insect right there? What like they look
Speaker 1: like one of those Pokemon where it's like you could
Speaker 1: tell like the Pokemon designers just want to go home,
Speaker 1: and they're like, I don't know, it's like a bug,
Speaker 1: but it's got moose antlers. Just take a cat and
Speaker 1: put a coin on its head. We're calling it meoth
Speaker 1: go home and mouth, and it talks. It's the only
Speaker 1: one that talks. Everybody else doesn't talks. It's like wait, wait,
Speaker 1: but they all just say their names is then no, not,
Speaker 1: that's one. Not that's one, And he's with the bad guys,
Speaker 1: and the bad Guys are named after a classic Western robbers. Look,
Speaker 1: we're just going with it. We all want to go home,
Speaker 1: and they've all got moose horns anyway. Next, so in
Speaker 1: their larval stage, they actually glow so in their larval stage.
Speaker 1: They are predators who feed on millipedes and other arthropods,
Speaker 1: but they're also vulnerable to predation, so they are full
Speaker 1: of glowing beautiful toxins, which both make them yucky to
Speaker 1: eat and the glowing actually wards off predators. So let
Speaker 1: me show you some photos of that. Oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: look at that thing? Is that one that's one? Uh yeah,
Speaker 1: that's one one specimen, So you have it in the
Speaker 1: Daylight's still very pokemony, even like not verny dark. It's
Speaker 1: like looks kind of almost like made out of plastic.
Speaker 1: I guess it's like very very rigid, rectangular, geometrical shaped.
Speaker 1: This one actually also looks like what I was gonna say,
Speaker 1: given me self eating tail wizard vibes. Yeah, it looks
Speaker 1: like oh what was that Pokemon named bop weirlipede? Definitely,
Speaker 1: it looks super but it also glows. I love that
Speaker 1: glowy glow worms. Yeah, it's it's incredible. There's no there's
Speaker 1: no like it's I love how with these animals I
Speaker 1: look into them, like, Okay, I'll do a little bit
Speaker 1: on this one because it kind of looks like a Pokemon.
Speaker 1: And for this one, I was like looking at some
Speaker 1: bugs and it's like, oh, that is a Pokemon looking
Speaker 1: beetle and looking into it and in its larval stage,
Speaker 1: it glows and it looks like a whirl apede. So
Speaker 1: I didn't expect that exactly exactly. And it's the same
Speaker 1: thing with the caterpillars, as like, I don't look up
Speaker 1: some horn caterpillars and then I find out, oh, you
Speaker 1: make a horn out of your baby face? Is cool? Cool, horrified? Nice? Good, good,
Speaker 1: thank you? Yeah, yeah, it's it's I am I don't know.
Speaker 1: Nature is one big pokadex. Yes it is. I love
Speaker 1: that completely is and the inspirations are very very clear. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: it's incredible. I really do. I love the fact that
Speaker 1: it's so popular. It makes me have a lot of
Speaker 1: hope that I think people all love bio diversity and hope.
Speaker 1: I think so, And I think again, I really hope
Speaker 1: that maybe we can, like I guess, convert some of
Speaker 1: that Pokemon energy into like animal knowledge energy learning. Wait,
Speaker 1: how does the learning? How does this song? It's like
Speaker 1: we're gonna grown learn together. Didn't got this? That's the
Speaker 1: Pokemon song? What Pokemon song? And I learned together? And
Speaker 1: the Pokemon song. Which part of it? Oh god, oh god,
Speaker 1: it's the You teach me and I'll teach you, of course. Perfect.
Speaker 1: Who's the pokemon? Right? Wait? Pokemon? Nice? Nice, perfect, and
Speaker 1: a podcast can't be more perfect. But it is actually
Speaker 1: the end of the podcast. Thank you so much for
Speaker 1: joining me, delight I can't believe I haven't had anyone
Speaker 1: until now. It's all good. This was the perfect episode
Speaker 1: that it was a great episode to be on. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for having me. Not absolutely you got
Speaker 1: anything plugged. Listen to all the podcasts on the network.
Speaker 1: Listen to Katie's podcast. Keep listening to the podcast you're
Speaker 1: listening to right now. You never had a plugged me
Speaker 1: on the show. I mean, if you want to follow
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, you can at DJ Underscore Daniel d
Speaker 1: A n L. Yes, that's delightful tweets and you also
Speaker 1: screamed some games sometimes I do. Oh yeah, I guess
Speaker 1: I'll plug that as well. Follow my twitch channel twitch
Speaker 1: dot tv the same twitch dot tv slash, DJ Underscore
Speaker 1: Daniel play lots of video games, and I talk people
Speaker 1: in chat. If you want to know the behind the
Speaker 1: scenes of some of the podcasts here, I'm may or
Speaker 1: may not tell you he's got he's got the hot god,
Speaker 1: I've got the secrets. I've got all the things that
Speaker 1: we cut out. And you can find us on the
Speaker 1: internet Creature Feature Pot on Instagram, Creature Feet Pot on Twitter.
Speaker 1: That's f A T F E Tina huh. You can
Speaker 1: also find us on the I Heart Radio website. Just
Speaker 1: search for Creature Feature and we are there. We're in there. There,
Speaker 1: We're in there. We're on the podcast. H I mean, gosh,
Speaker 1: dang it. Where you listen to this right now? We're
Speaker 1: in here. You're things gosh darn ittt Yeah, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for listening. Oh um, yeah, I mentioned this
Speaker 1: last time, but we finally have shirt shirts, shirt shirts,
Speaker 1: shirt shirts. Yeah. Yeah, it's got the Creature Feature logo
Speaker 1: which I expertly traced. It looks awesome, Thank you, It
Speaker 1: looks yeah. I Well. The reason I drew it over
Speaker 1: again is I felt like the photo just like I
Speaker 1: think the photo is so detailed. It's such a great photoshop,
Speaker 1: but the detail I didn't think really came out in
Speaker 1: the shirt printing process. So I I drewed it and
Speaker 1: now it's drawing. You nailed it. Its perfectly encapsulates that
Speaker 1: like classic horror. Look, thank you Pulp Comics. It's awesome,
Speaker 1: it's perfect. Get it. Thank you God, you're such a
Speaker 1: good hype man. But yeah, yeah, it's the logo that
Speaker 1: you can wear on your body. To put it on there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll include a I'll probably include that in the show
Speaker 1: notes too. But it is on t public Slash Stores
Speaker 1: Slash Creature feature and it's a shirt there. There's also
Speaker 1: a few other shirts. I'm wearing the bird Crimes Bird Crimes.
Speaker 1: There is another shirt. It's a good one. I think
Speaker 1: that's one of my favorites too. It's a bird crime
Speaker 1: shirt with a bird in the pretzel on it stealing
Speaker 1: a pretzel. Full support go birds. And if you want
Speaker 1: to just listen to my Katie thoughts, you can follow
Speaker 1: me on Twitter at Katie Golden g O L D
Speaker 1: I N and just here on my little Katie thoughts.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they're silly and an excellent Twitter. That's true. I
Speaker 1: also have a pro bird rights Twitter where I advocate
Speaker 1: for birds. That's right, birds, birds, birds, that's right. Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, did you not want birds too bad? There's
Speaker 1: some birds thanks to the Space Classics for their Super
Speaker 1: POKEMONI song ex Alumina. Creature features a production of I
Speaker 1: heart Radio. For more podcasts like the one you just heard,
Speaker 1: go to i heart radio dot com, diheart radio app,
Speaker 1: or wherever you are listen to your favorite shows. See
Speaker 1: you next Wednesday, Creature mon