WEBVTT - TEETH (with Katie Goldin) 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:04.960 Welcome Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of I 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:14.040 Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, welcome to Stuff to 0:00:14.040 --> 0:00:16.240 Blow your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:19.079 Joe McCormick. And hey, folks, remember last I think it 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:23.520 was December when we were joined by Katie Golden of 0:00:23.640 --> 0:00:27.400 Creature Feature or another podcast in our network. Well she's 0:00:27.400 --> 0:00:30.760 back today. Say hi Katie, Hey, Hey, how you doing 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:33.600 pretty great? I'm so excited to be back. Yeah, we're 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:35.639 We're excited to have you on the show again. So 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:40.320 Creature Feature is back for a second season. That's correct, right, Yeah, 0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:43.240 that's right. Uh. And I'm really excited about this season 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:47.360 because we've got UM. Now, I got somehow managed to 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:50.000 convince some experts to come on by show and talk 0:00:50.000 --> 0:00:52.919 about stuff. So that's great. I've got a herpetologist who 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:56.200 I have a series of interviews with. UM. I've found 0:00:56.560 --> 0:01:01.840 a comedian who's also uh, a bio engineer. UM. And 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:05.600 it's just got. It's like I was worried. I was saying, well, 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:07.319 how am I I hope I don't run out of 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:10.640 content for this season, and I'm as I'm researching, I'm 0:01:10.640 --> 0:01:14.840 realizing there's no possible way to ever, like all the 0:01:14.920 --> 0:01:18.080 examples I've been fonding for this season, all the really 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:24.720 interesting evolutionary biology stories are even more incredible than last season. 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:28.360 So I'm I'm super excited. I think this is shaping 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:31.080 up to be really interesting and fun. So season two 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:36.240 is more incredible than season one? Which season is grosser? Oh? 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:40.760 You know that's a good question. Um, well, I don't know. 0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:45.479 I think season two is. It's not well, it's not 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:49.680 gross to me. It's it's certainly stranger though, it's weirder. 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:53.240 It gets a lot weirder. Uh, there are definitely some 0:01:53.400 --> 0:01:59.920 gross things. Um. We talked about some you know, why 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:05.480 bends that animals have that are kind of like poop based, um, 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:08.840 stinky poop bombs. Uh so yeah, there's there's plenty of 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:12.760 grossness to be had. And uh oh and vomit bombs. 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:17.079 That's a good one. Animals who explode after eating too much. Uh, 0:02:17.360 --> 0:02:21.919 there's lots of those actually. Um so yeah, it's if 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:25.000 you're I mean, it's I try to keep things. I 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:27.400 try to describe things in a way that aren't won't 0:02:27.440 --> 0:02:30.239 make you lose your lunch. But you know, it is 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:35.480 still it's nature doesn't really care about being polite, you 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:39.239 know what I mean. So you're trying not to make 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:43.040 people vomit. I think that's where you're screwing up. Oh yeah, 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:46.520 that's true. I mean, if we've learned anything from evolutionary biology, 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:50.119 throwing up on your enemies as a really good evolutionary strategy. 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:53.600 So if you do throw up in response to my podcast, 0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:57.160 I'm actually helping you along. Well. Yeah, I think in general, 0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:00.160 like humans have a weird attitude towards vomit, Like if 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:02.120 you if you have a cat or all right, I 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:05.959 guess a dog to dogs vomit, right, Oh yeah, I 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:08.120 don't know. I don't have a dog, but but my 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:10.760 cats certainly vomits. And when when she vomits, like it 0:03:10.840 --> 0:03:14.440 is just it is a natural, shameless act for her, 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:17.400 and uh, and that's how it is for for for 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:20.480 for everything, except humans who have all these strange ideas 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:23.400 about it and get all worked up over the process. Robert, 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:26.079 I forget that you don't know anything about dogs. Wait here, 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:29.560 let's do a quiz. True or false, Robert, dogs defensively 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:31.960 squirt blood out of their eyes. I know that's not true. 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:38.320 That's more of a particular horn to horn toads though, Yeah, 0:03:38.360 --> 0:03:41.120 that's the one. Yeah. So wait, what what's your favorite 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:47.400 defensive vomiting um. Well, there's a few species of birds 0:03:47.680 --> 0:03:53.000 who will vomit a sort of orange sticky substance onto 0:03:53.200 --> 0:03:58.400 a predator and it well, it's actually can be really 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:01.280 dangerous for the predator because it can way down their wings. 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:05.120 Say it's another avian predator, it'll uh get their wings 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:07.160 all oily and make it difficult to fly, and it 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:11.119 can actually cause their downfall. So it's kind of amazing 0:04:11.120 --> 0:04:13.280 that you can flip the script so much where you 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:17.000 have this cute, innocent, little baby bird um that vomits 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:19.800 all over it's would be predator, and then that predator 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:22.480 is now in mortal danger because it's covered in valm. 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:25.880 So you mentioned h animals that kind of explode as well, 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:29.839 do you get in you get into termites? Yeah. Termites, Uh, 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:32.640 when they get old enough, they kind of concoct this 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:36.039 explosive wine in their bodies. It's not really wine. I 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:39.120 just it's funny because it gets the explosive juices get 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:43.360 better with age, um and then in order and they 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:46.159 once they get old, their mandibles just aren't as good 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:50.880 at chopping down plant fibers, and uh, they're kind of 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:53.640 they're kind of useless to a certain extent, except that 0:04:53.680 --> 0:04:57.840 they can use their bodies as a defensive weapon against 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:03.120 uh invaders or predators. And so they will violently contract 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:09.520 their abdomens and they'll explode. Uh. So they they it's 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:13.239 like the sack of blue liquid that can suicidally explode 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:18.400 onto enemies. Um, and it's it's just like it's so 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:24.800 they blew themselves. Well, how about the defensive pooping You 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:28.120 mentioned that too, right, Yeah, Pygmy sperm whales are a 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:31.720 good example. They it's not really poop, it's like this 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:38.000 butt syrup. It's the specialized fluid that's this kind of brown, dark, 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:43.400 uh smelly. I would imagine very smelly fluid that they 0:05:43.520 --> 0:05:47.080 use kind of like squid inc where they will it 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:51.560 clouds the water, makes it unpalatable for predators and then 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:54.640 also just like gives them sort of a poopy smoke screen. 0:05:56.600 --> 0:06:00.279 I don't think this one. It's a new one on me. Yeah. 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:04.440 And then also, um, some songbirds will say a raven 0:06:04.520 --> 0:06:07.440 is trying to eat their young. Uh, the songbirds will 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:11.440 poop on the ravens, dive bomb them, and uh it's 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:14.520 similar to the defensive vomiting where it will coat the 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:16.800 ravens feathers and make it difficult to fly, and it 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:19.400 can actually cause them to die because if they can't 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:22.520 fly or escape or you know, it's it's a very 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:25.960 dangerous situation for the predator. I've never thought about that 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:28.080 with birds before, but it totally makes sense. Like when 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:31.680 you see, uh, some of the tragic casualties of oil spills, 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:33.680 you know, with that affecting birds, you know that it 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:37.039 soaks into their feathers and makes them unable to to fly. 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:40.640 But yeah, when I guess when you are a flying organism, 0:06:40.720 --> 0:06:43.680 there are some real downsides to taking on additional weight 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:47.240 or anything that would screw up the aerodynamic properties of 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:50.480 your feathers. Yeah, or altars the chemical composition of the 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:53.479 outside of the feathers and makes them permeable to water. 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:58.360 And uh, it's a very they're they're very um specialized 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:02.560 in terms of how they protect the they bird's body 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:05.719 and allow them to fly, so they're quite easy to 0:07:06.120 --> 0:07:09.360 mess with in a way. So it's very dangerous for 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:14.000 these ravens to tangle with the with these dive bomber birds. 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:16.360 But Katie did you have any other like topics from 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:18.720 season two that you wanted to talk about. Yeah, so 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:21.840 there's a lot of cool episodes. One of the most 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:23.760 recent is on tool use. I think a lot of 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:28.040 people think of tools as a primarily primate and human thing, 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:31.200 but as we'll discover, a lot of other animals have 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:35.440 really creative and bizarre ways they use tools. Uh. There's 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:39.239 one on superhero powers that's a really fun one, UM 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:42.440 David and Goliath, where we talk about the underdog and 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:45.240 how they often went out in the natural world and 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:47.640 how they managed to do that. And you can check 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:52.320 all this out on our website, Creature Feature pod dot com. Excellent, 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:54.560 go do that. If you haven't stuff to blow your 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:57.280 mind listeners, why haven't you checked out Creature Feature yet? 0:07:57.280 --> 0:08:00.600 If you haven't, go go go Now. All right, well, 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:02.000 and I know we're gonna take a quick break, but 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:05.040 when we come back, we're gonna talk with Katie about teeth. 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:06.880 We're gonna spend most of the rest of this episode 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:10.320 talking about some uh peculiar and and maybe at times 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:17.160 um intimidating uh chompers in the animal world. Thank thank 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:21.200 thank Alright, we're back. So Katie, we asked you to 0:08:21.280 --> 0:08:23.680 talk with us about teeth today, maybe to have like 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:26.760 I realized after I said it, uh, that we should 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:29.600 do like a like an awards show for nature's weirdest 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:32.760 or most jacked up teeth. But I think that idea 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:36.000 came without me realizing it from Your Worst at Sex 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:39.839 Awards episode on Creature Feature, which I listened to and 0:08:39.920 --> 0:08:43.880 I thought was very funny. Um. But yeah, so I thought, maybe, yeah, 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:46.520 we we do a little teeth awards show. And I 0:08:46.600 --> 0:08:49.319 know this was on my mind because Robert and I 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:52.240 just recently did an episode of our other podcast, Invention, 0:08:52.320 --> 0:08:55.320 about chewing gum, and I haven't been able to stop 0:08:55.360 --> 0:08:57.719 thinking about chewing ever since then, which is one of 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:00.199 those things that you know, like when you're chewing food, 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:02.520 if you don't think about it, it tastes really good. 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:04.520 It feels really good, but if you do think about 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:08.600 it while you're doing it, it becomes disgusting. With like 0:09:08.720 --> 0:09:12.240 candy and chewing gum or any candy where you you 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:16.600 suck on it or chew on it, you're swallowing flavored saliva, 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:19.640 and that's what you're eating when you think about it. 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:22.760 And ever since, I realized that it's made eating candy 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:27.520 or chewing gum a lot more difficult. Yeah, it's like 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:31.760 a spit treats. Yeah. Um. So you know, one of 0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:34.040 the interesting things about the human mouth, though, is that 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:37.840 I think we don't often recognize how much the human 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:41.959 how much human teeth are reflective of our evolutionary niche 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:44.600 is omnivores. You know that we have like these these 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:46.800 sort of like cutting front teeth, and we have these 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:50.240 sort of like slightly reduced canines that you might see 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:52.720 in other predators. But then we've also got the grinding 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:56.679 molars for plant matter. We have teeth that show the 0:09:56.720 --> 0:09:59.800 fact that we eat all kinds of different foods. But 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:02.920 there are some animals that you you look at their 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:05.280 teeth and you just realize they have a much more 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:09.200 specialized way of life. Yeah. I mean one of my 0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:12.960 favorite kinds of animal teeth are beaver teeth. Is it 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:16.600 okay if I talk about that, let go for it. Um. Yeah, 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:20.360 they I mean I think they're when you think of teeth, 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:23.320 that's kind of the primary animal they have that comes 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:25.160 up in your head. They have those big buck teeth 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:28.720 and they chew down trees and but what's cool is 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:31.880 there's so much more to it than just on the surface. Like, 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:35.080 it's not just that they have these big buck teeth. Um, 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:40.679 they're really incredibly special teeth. Um. So first of all, 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:45.000 they will grow continuously, so they never stopped growing. And 0:10:45.120 --> 0:10:48.600 that's because when they chew down would which as as 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:52.440 we know, beavers are very industrious there they will terraform 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:57.439 their environment. They're really important, uh in terms of ecological 0:10:57.760 --> 0:11:03.160 um niche bill ding, and like they also feed on 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:06.760 these hard plant fibers and and the inside of the 0:11:08.080 --> 0:11:10.280 cambium in the tree. It's not true that they like 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:13.160 they don't eat the bark. They eat the soft tissue 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:16.199 under the tree bark um, and that's full of nutrients. 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:20.800 So they need they need really special strong teeth to 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:24.240 be able to chow down on these trees and do 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:27.960 all of this work. So um, if their teeth didn't 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:30.920 constantly grow, they just get worn down. And as soon 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:32.800 as the teeth wore all the way down, they would 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:38.319 be unable to function anymore. Uh. So uh, they're also 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:41.360 if you ever seen a beaver, I don't know, have 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:45.120 you guys seen a beaver? Oh yeah, yeah, but I 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:47.000 know what you're about about to to get to because 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:50.880 every time I see a beaver in real life, I 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:54.080 have to remind myself, Oh, yes, there's this one key 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:58.480 coloration difference that is generally not presented in cartoons and 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:00.800 stuffed animals. It's got like got like toxic of in 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:04.079 your mouth, doesn't it? Yes, So its teeth look really 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:08.000 jankie when if you see one, you may think, oh god, 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:10.360 there's something wrong with this beaver because its teeth are 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:15.800 bright orange. And now they're perfectly healthy. The orange or 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:21.520 the better. Um. So it's orange because the front enamel 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:26.240 of their teeth is actually reinforced with iron that they 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:30.880 get naturally in their diets. So um, everyone's enamel enamel 0:12:31.000 --> 0:12:34.400 is made out of like these tiny nano wire rods 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:38.200 that are stacked together, and that's what makes it really hard. Um, 0:12:38.360 --> 0:12:42.120 and that's what protects your teeth. In beavers, each of 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:46.240 these rows are coated in iron, forming these iron nano 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:49.640 wires that are especially hard. So that's why they can 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:51.920 chew through a tree, whereas if one of us tried 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:55.160 to chew through a tree, you know it wouldn't be 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:59.000 good news. Wait a minute, wait a minute, so orange 0:12:59.320 --> 0:13:02.480 iron teeth. I would imagine, if I'm not wrong, that 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:07.440 it's orange because the iron gets oxidized, so the beaver 0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:12.760 would literally have rusty teeth, right, I mean that checks 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:17.360 out to me. I'm not I'm not a chemist, but 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:19.319 but I mean I feel like if you want to 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:23.160 call beavers like like rusty teeth boys, that wouldn't be 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:27.400 so bad. Yeah, but I have I don't think I've 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:30.440 ever seen a cartoon beaver or a stuffed animal beaver 0:13:31.320 --> 0:13:34.560 actually have orange teeth. I mean, hopefully there's some some 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:37.760 more you know, biologically accurate representations out there, but for 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:40.600 the most part, again, I'm always just shocked when I 0:13:40.640 --> 0:13:42.400 see a beaver in real life, and then I have 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:44.640 to remind myself that, oh, yeah, this is this is 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:47.560 what they look like. Well, you know, it's It's interesting 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:50.400 because there was this TV show on Nickelodeon when I 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:54.320 was growing up called Angry Beavers Um, and they actually, 0:13:54.559 --> 0:13:56.160 in a weird way, they had some of the more 0:13:56.200 --> 0:14:00.079 accurate representation of beavers because I remember this episod so 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:04.040 about how if they didn't shoot their teeth down, they'd 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:06.640 keep growing and growing until they would grow into like 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:09.840 their brains or something, and that part isn't really true, 0:14:10.040 --> 0:14:15.280 but uh, the the part where they their teeth continuously 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:18.120 grow is very true, and so that that was interesting. 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:20.760 I love cartoons like that because I think that kind 0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:24.640 of encourages young people's fascination with animals. Oh yeah, I 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:27.680 there's I think there's some some better and better um 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:30.520 cartoons out there these days. My son watches some of 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:33.800 them where they'll they'll manage to balance, you know, anthropomorphic 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:37.880 animals that talk to each other with actual realities from 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:42.200 the natural world. Be it's something like octonauts or um oh, 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:46.160 what is it? There's a sky, there's a the one 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:48.920 of the Puffins Puffin rock U does a pretty good job. 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:51.960 Speaking of cartoons, that kind of they called beaver teeth 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:55.640 growing continuously just reminds me of the Simpson's Lisa Needs 0:14:55.640 --> 0:15:00.480 Braces eisodes where they show the age progression her teeth 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:03.800 get more and more. Well, I think that's a that's 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:06.240 a British joke there and she show they showed her 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:10.160 the Big Book of British Teeth or the one ends 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:13.480 up growing through the top of her head in the projection, right, yeah, yeah, 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:16.240 it's just like it shows her teeth just getting bigger 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:19.760 and bigger until one grows through her skull. Yeah, you're right, 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:23.240 that's two different jokes. Yeah the joke. Yeah, yeah, that's 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:25.560 why she needs braces so it doesn't stab her brain. 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:30.560 Dental plan. All right, let's keep going on beavers. So 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:32.920 what else you got, Katie? Yeah, So the iron in 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:35.880 their teeth that makes them that beautiful shade of orange 0:15:36.400 --> 0:15:40.080 not only predictably it helps them carve through hard plants 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:43.560 and woods, but it's also resistant to damage from acid. 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:48.560 So beaver's pretty much never get cavities. Um. They're like 0:15:48.600 --> 0:15:53.680 a dentist's stream teeth um. And which is very important 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:58.080 because beaver without his teeth is like, you know, I 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:02.600 don't know, it's just impossible. You can't. We can't beaver 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:05.120 without your teeth, right, of course, that's I guess it's 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:07.040 true for a lot of animals. So that I mean 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:09.800 you you look at the vital role that teeth have 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:13.040 in their ability to feed themselves. I mean really for 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:17.040 for humans, I mean, we're if not for our cooking technology, 0:16:17.720 --> 0:16:20.800 we'd be in largely the same boat. Yeah, I mean, um, 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:23.680 I remember there was this survival story of this guy 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:26.560 who was he was stuck I think in that a 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:29.640 desert somewhere in Australia, like somewhere in the out back 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:32.800 where he had gotten lost or something, and he found 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:35.480 some kind of abandoned shack and he was he had 0:16:35.520 --> 0:16:38.320 to stay there because he was miles and miles from 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:41.480 civilization and he had to conserve his energy. So he 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:45.400 survived by eating like those witchet eat grubs. And then uh, 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:49.160 he started to get a tooth abscess. Uh, and so 0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:53.400 he realized he had to rip his own tooth out 0:16:53.400 --> 0:16:55.920 in order to survive, because if the infection spread to 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:58.280 other teeth or if he couldn't use his mouth, he 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:01.120 would die. So he hold out his own two like 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:04.800 did his did dentistry on himself in order to survive, 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:06.720 and he I think he did end up Yeah, well, 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:08.679 I mean because he was talking about it, So he 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:12.960 ended up surviving. The original d seven hours before the 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:14.960 h I don't remember the original guy's name, but the 0:17:15.040 --> 0:17:18.480 James Franco movie, right right. Yeah, although I feel like 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:21.640 pulling out your own tooth is somehow even worse than 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:26.879 cutting off your own leg, if that makes sense. Yeah, 0:17:27.320 --> 0:17:31.680 like you're breaking your job. It's awful. Um. So back 0:17:31.720 --> 0:17:37.240 to beavers. Um. They also it's it's really interesting because 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:40.280 so the front part of the tooth is that orange 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:43.040 color with the reinforced iron, and then the back part 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:47.359 is actually a softer made of denton, which is a 0:17:47.400 --> 0:17:50.160 little it's still hard, but it's softer and it will 0:17:50.240 --> 0:17:52.800 wear away more quickly than the iron in the front. 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:56.800 So when they chew, they actually form these natural wedges 0:17:57.040 --> 0:17:59.680 with their teeth, and that makes them even better tools. 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:04.640 In fact, beaver jaws were used as tools by early humans, 0:18:05.359 --> 0:18:07.320 which is a kind of a little bit of a 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:09.840 cheating way to have an iron age. You just use 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:14.520 a beaver jaw. Um, But yeah, because they were so 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:19.560 their their teeth are just such great specialized tools. So 0:18:19.600 --> 0:18:22.520 it's kind of like a like a single bevel knife, right, 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:25.160 the kind of knife that, unlike most is just we're 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:30.480 worn down on one edge. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's Um, 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:34.920 it's really utilizing some mechanical advantage and the way it's 0:18:35.000 --> 0:18:37.040 it's just cool to me that one side is softer, 0:18:37.119 --> 0:18:40.800 so it'll create a blade basically with these teeth like 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:44.679 little little tiny axes. This whole conversation about how you 0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:48.399 never see the orange teeth in cartoons has made me 0:18:48.440 --> 0:18:51.240 think you could do a whole episode, or we could 0:18:51.280 --> 0:18:55.359 somebody could on like animals that are never depicted in 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:59.680 cartoons in anatomically correct ways because to depict them in 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:02.679 a comically correctly is disturbing in one way or another. 0:19:03.280 --> 0:19:06.800 Oh yeah, that's a great idea. I might steal it. 0:19:08.440 --> 0:19:11.400 I was also going to do UM. Probably this week, 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:13.080 I'm going to do a little bit of myth busting 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:16.919 about lions. I advised the Bechdel cast on that, and 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:19.719 I probably will mention some things on my show because 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:25.040 of the I'm sure the blatant misinformation coming from the 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:28.880 new Line King movie that must be corrected. Oh does 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:32.120 it present like a phallocentric Lion King? Yeah, I don't 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:34.280 know if the new one. I haven't actually seen the 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:39.440 new quote unquote live action. It's not live action, it's UM, 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:42.520 but I haven't seen it. It's I have seen the old, 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:46.520 the old version, which is very inaccurate UM in terms 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:51.560 of how it presents lion society. But you know, speak 0:19:51.600 --> 0:19:55.080 about speaking of animals that don't do well when their teeth, 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:57.520 when stuff happens to their teeth, like a lion with 0:19:57.880 --> 0:20:01.720 teeth problems can definitely die well. I've I believe I've 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:04.840 read that in cases where you have man eaters um 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:08.720 with with large feelines like that sometimes occurs due to 0:20:09.040 --> 0:20:12.680 um uh damage to their their teeth, like they're they're 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:16.240 losing their their dental effectiveness and they that's when they 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:19.320 turned to eating humans if they're available. Yeah, that's I 0:20:19.320 --> 0:20:21.520 think that was the case with the lines of Savo. 0:20:22.400 --> 0:20:26.000 Is that the ones that were we're eating the people 0:20:26.080 --> 0:20:31.000 who were um it was this group of like two 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:36.040 or three lions who were stalking these people back in 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:39.400 the was it in the eighteen hundreds, um, the late 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:43.840 eighteen hundreds. Maybe they were they building a railroad. Yeah, 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:46.480 they were building a railroad, I think, and they kept 0:20:46.520 --> 0:20:52.080 eating these poor workers and um, and they would stock them, 0:20:52.080 --> 0:20:55.240 they would follow their camps and wait for one of 0:20:55.280 --> 0:20:57.359 them to let their guard down and eat them. And 0:20:57.400 --> 0:21:02.960 that's because humans were really we're soft serve basically. Um. 0:21:03.000 --> 0:21:08.080 So these lions that were weaker and had these dental problems. Um, 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:11.320 we're eating people because we were just easier to eat. 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:15.560 Get tired of chewing through a bunch of hide humans. 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:21.200 Easy solution, right, We're like little cherry tomatoes on the teeth. 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:23.280 All right, Well, let's move on to our next animal. 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:26.160 Katie believe you were gonna you're gonna talk about one 0:21:26.200 --> 0:21:34.200 of our favorites, the corpse whale. Yeah, the the unicorn 0:21:34.280 --> 0:21:39.399 of the sea, the narwall um. And isn't it I 0:21:39.480 --> 0:21:41.919 think it's actually true that, like the concept of the 0:21:42.000 --> 0:21:46.879 unicorn may be related to people who discovered narwhal horns. Yes, 0:21:46.960 --> 0:21:49.840 we talked about this. We actually did a two part 0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:53.439 episode on unicorns, I think sometime last year, or was 0:21:53.440 --> 0:21:54.960 it even the year before, I don't know, it was 0:21:55.000 --> 0:21:59.520 sometime recently, and narwhal horns have been hypothesized as one 0:21:59.560 --> 0:22:04.159 of the things that people sold and traded as unicorn horns. 0:22:04.440 --> 0:22:07.560 Like basically the two main in roads to unicorns are 0:22:07.640 --> 0:22:11.280 rhinos and our wall But we were calling them nor 0:22:11.320 --> 0:22:15.040 whal horns. They're not exactly how horns are they. Yeah, 0:22:15.520 --> 0:22:17.800 I'm doing a bit of a goof on y'all. They're 0:22:17.800 --> 0:22:21.000 actually tusks because they're big old tooth that grows out 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:27.480 of their forehead. It's actually an oversized canine tooth. And 0:22:27.600 --> 0:22:30.840 what's interesting to me is there if you ever, when 0:22:30.840 --> 0:22:33.120 you think of a norl kind of similar to how 0:22:33.440 --> 0:22:36.480 you picture of beaver with their pearly white teeth, the 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:39.040 nor well, you think of it as a symmetrical unicorn 0:22:39.040 --> 0:22:42.119 horn like right down the center. It's actually off center 0:22:42.320 --> 0:22:47.200 because it's usually the upper left canine tooth that is overgrown. 0:22:47.760 --> 0:22:50.280 So if you get a top view of an our wall, 0:22:50.320 --> 0:22:53.000 you can see it actually lists a little bit to 0:22:53.080 --> 0:22:57.199 the left typically um, and they can grow up to 0:22:57.440 --> 0:23:02.680 an impressive tin ft long. It's usually only on males. 0:23:03.280 --> 0:23:06.919 Only about fift of females have a tusk um, and 0:23:06.920 --> 0:23:10.320 then very very rarely uh, a narwhal can have two 0:23:10.400 --> 0:23:16.440 symmetrical tusks, but that's extremely uncommon. Um. And what's really 0:23:16.480 --> 0:23:21.600 cool about this the narwhal tusk is it is kind 0:23:21.600 --> 0:23:24.560 of a scientific mystery and there are a few theories 0:23:24.680 --> 0:23:31.879 on why it exists and has an super weird uh 0:23:32.160 --> 0:23:36.040 kind of it's it's very odd anatomically, which we can 0:23:36.760 --> 0:23:41.840 get into um. So one of the most uh. One 0:23:41.880 --> 0:23:45.080 of the theories is that it's it's just basically am 0:23:45.080 --> 0:23:51.360 mating a sexual uh dimorphism kind of mating display attributes. 0:23:51.440 --> 0:23:55.719 So uh, it's this showy thing that maybe helps with mating, 0:23:55.760 --> 0:24:01.320 maybe helps male narwhal's kind of face off. Um. And 0:24:01.400 --> 0:24:04.760 that would make sense because females don't have it. But 0:24:05.200 --> 0:24:09.120 the weird part about that is that the tusk itself 0:24:09.240 --> 0:24:14.240 is very specialized. So UM. A lot of researchers argue 0:24:14.280 --> 0:24:18.200 that the tusk is actually this big sensory organ because 0:24:18.240 --> 0:24:22.640