1 00:00:03,120 --> 00:00:05,960 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 2 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:12,840 Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 3 00:00:12,880 --> 00:00:15,080 Speaker 1: My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. And 4 00:00:15,120 --> 00:00:18,400 Speaker 1: this week we were talking about a very ancient creature, 5 00:00:18,760 --> 00:00:22,800 Speaker 1: a creature that's that's potent with symbolism and power, and 6 00:00:22,840 --> 00:00:25,720 Speaker 1: then when you get down and analyze its biology, it's 7 00:00:25,800 --> 00:00:29,360 Speaker 1: it's even more amazing. And yet somehow I have had 8 00:00:29,400 --> 00:00:32,120 Speaker 1: a terrible habit of not really giving these animals a 9 00:00:32,159 --> 00:00:36,000 Speaker 1: second glance um or any kind of a deeper look 10 00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:40,000 Speaker 1: in all my time just reading about stuff I know. 11 00:00:40,360 --> 00:00:43,360 Speaker 1: And yeah, they are potent with symbolism, and they're potent 12 00:00:43,479 --> 00:00:47,760 Speaker 1: with pooh in they turn to be really interesting little 13 00:00:47,880 --> 00:00:52,200 Speaker 1: characters who are doing a number of clever things with feces. Yeah, 14 00:00:52,240 --> 00:00:54,800 Speaker 1: we're of course talking about dung beetles. And really, I mean, 15 00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:57,040 Speaker 1: you can take any lead in you want with these animals. 16 00:00:57,080 --> 00:01:00,440 Speaker 1: You're you into mummies, you into Egyptology, Dune beat? Are 17 00:01:00,440 --> 00:01:04,200 Speaker 1: you into poop and poop related science? Du I mean 18 00:01:04,200 --> 00:01:08,800 Speaker 1: that covers I think at least of the listeners right there. 19 00:01:08,840 --> 00:01:10,440 Speaker 1: If you're if you're not into mummies, then you're into 20 00:01:10,480 --> 00:01:13,240 Speaker 1: poop one of the two. Oh yeah, and I guess 21 00:01:13,240 --> 00:01:15,679 Speaker 1: the subset of this would be like you into dancing 22 00:01:15,680 --> 00:01:19,120 Speaker 1: on your poop beetles, Yeah, you into or maybe you 23 00:01:19,120 --> 00:01:21,640 Speaker 1: want a space angle. There's a space angle coming up too. 24 00:01:21,720 --> 00:01:24,040 Speaker 1: I mean, dung beetles really have it all. And and 25 00:01:24,120 --> 00:01:26,800 Speaker 1: I feel bad for not really not really giving them a, 26 00:01:26,920 --> 00:01:28,680 Speaker 1: you know, a second look this whole time, even though 27 00:01:29,240 --> 00:01:32,559 Speaker 1: you know, I've definitely been fascinated by a various uh 28 00:01:32,600 --> 00:01:35,200 Speaker 1: Egyptian topics in the past, and and you see the 29 00:01:35,240 --> 00:01:38,440 Speaker 1: scare of beetle everywhere, and for some reason, I never thought, hey, 30 00:01:38,440 --> 00:01:40,759 Speaker 1: maybe I should look into the symbolism of that scared beetle. 31 00:01:40,800 --> 00:01:43,319 Speaker 1: I'm always more distracted by any of the other um 32 00:01:43,360 --> 00:01:48,280 Speaker 1: items in the rich iconography. Yeah, ancient Egyptians they really 33 00:01:48,400 --> 00:01:52,400 Speaker 1: exalted dung beetles because they witnessed them doing two things 34 00:01:52,480 --> 00:01:58,000 Speaker 1: which really captive captivated ancient Egyptian imagination, and it overlaid 35 00:01:58,040 --> 00:02:00,600 Speaker 1: this more sort of poetic interpretation. And of these two 36 00:02:00,680 --> 00:02:04,760 Speaker 1: things that they saw these dung beetles doing, first they 37 00:02:04,840 --> 00:02:09,280 Speaker 1: saw them rolling dung balls, right, and they were like, 38 00:02:09,520 --> 00:02:11,720 Speaker 1: this is very interesting, and we've all seen video of this. 39 00:02:11,880 --> 00:02:14,720 Speaker 1: It pops up in just about every animal documentary ever 40 00:02:14,760 --> 00:02:16,960 Speaker 1: because it is it's fascinating and kind of humorous to 41 00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:20,440 Speaker 1: watch them pedal it with their their phind legs. Yeah. 42 00:02:20,760 --> 00:02:25,600 Speaker 1: And second, they observe these dung beetles dancing on top 43 00:02:25,680 --> 00:02:28,360 Speaker 1: of it, and they thought, maybe this is a kind 44 00:02:28,400 --> 00:02:31,800 Speaker 1: of worshiping of the sun. And then they put it 45 00:02:31,840 --> 00:02:35,960 Speaker 1: together with huh, that that dung rolling could be linked 46 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:40,440 Speaker 1: with nocturnal activity of Capri, the god of the rising sun. 47 00:02:40,800 --> 00:02:45,120 Speaker 1: So this scare beetle god was believed to push the 48 00:02:45,160 --> 00:02:48,639 Speaker 1: setting sun along the sky in the same manner as 49 00:02:48,680 --> 00:02:51,760 Speaker 1: the beatle with his ball of dung. Alright, so they 50 00:02:51,800 --> 00:02:55,799 Speaker 1: saw a sort of a cosmic model and what the 51 00:02:56,080 --> 00:03:00,480 Speaker 1: scare beetle is doing because he already had this this idea, 52 00:03:00,639 --> 00:03:05,160 Speaker 1: the story of this god rolling the sun across the horizon. Right, 53 00:03:05,520 --> 00:03:07,560 Speaker 1: they see these little guys doing it in miniature, and 54 00:03:07,560 --> 00:03:13,120 Speaker 1: I think, ah, Yes. And moreover, unbeknownst to ancient Egyptians, 55 00:03:13,880 --> 00:03:17,080 Speaker 1: larvae might be laying inside of some of those balls 56 00:03:17,280 --> 00:03:20,880 Speaker 1: of dung. And what would happen as they would see 57 00:03:21,360 --> 00:03:27,480 Speaker 1: this completely fully formed beetle emerged from the ball And 58 00:03:27,520 --> 00:03:30,560 Speaker 1: they didn't realize that the larvae was undergoing a complete 59 00:03:30,560 --> 00:03:33,799 Speaker 1: metamorphos within that ball. So again they were ascribing these 60 00:03:33,800 --> 00:03:36,880 Speaker 1: sort of magical qualities to this beetle and saying, ah, 61 00:03:36,920 --> 00:03:39,320 Speaker 1: this must be some sort of rebirth. So they sort 62 00:03:39,320 --> 00:03:41,840 Speaker 1: of saw this kind of a spontaneous generation kind of 63 00:03:41,880 --> 00:03:45,160 Speaker 1: scenario where the young were just emerging from the ball 64 00:03:45,200 --> 00:03:49,640 Speaker 1: of dung. Yeah, and if they began to symbolize rebirth, yeah. 65 00:03:49,680 --> 00:03:53,960 Speaker 1: And so this apparently becomes a prominent funerary decoration throughout 66 00:03:53,960 --> 00:03:57,520 Speaker 1: the New Kingdom, which went from about the fifty to 67 00:03:57,760 --> 00:04:01,840 Speaker 1: ten seventy b c. And during that time that you 68 00:04:01,880 --> 00:04:06,160 Speaker 1: see all these scare amulets placed over the heart of 69 00:04:06,280 --> 00:04:09,200 Speaker 1: a mummified the individual. The interesting thing about these heart 70 00:04:09,280 --> 00:04:12,600 Speaker 1: scared is that they were essentially kind of a magical hack, 71 00:04:12,920 --> 00:04:15,680 Speaker 1: like a spell, intended to just give you a little 72 00:04:16,240 --> 00:04:19,520 Speaker 1: leg up in the afterlife. Because we've we've discussed before, 73 00:04:19,560 --> 00:04:21,440 Speaker 1: I think we went into it in the problem of 74 00:04:21,440 --> 00:04:24,760 Speaker 1: Hell that we're talking about various models of the afterlife. Um, 75 00:04:24,839 --> 00:04:28,560 Speaker 1: the cosmology of ancient Egypt was was really rich, and 76 00:04:28,600 --> 00:04:32,200 Speaker 1: they have this this really elaborate afterlife, and there's a 77 00:04:32,279 --> 00:04:35,160 Speaker 1: judgment that takes place where your your your soul, your 78 00:04:35,200 --> 00:04:39,880 Speaker 1: heart is weighed against the feather of truth. Now, you'd 79 00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:42,800 Speaker 1: have to feel pretty sure about yourself to go into 80 00:04:42,839 --> 00:04:46,080 Speaker 1: that that scenario and and and feel that you're gonna 81 00:04:46,120 --> 00:04:48,479 Speaker 1: you're gonna triumph. And as you as we see in 82 00:04:48,480 --> 00:04:51,719 Speaker 1: in all the various funerary and practices of ancient Egypt. Uh, 83 00:04:51,880 --> 00:04:54,040 Speaker 1: those with the power to do so, we're all about 84 00:04:54,480 --> 00:04:58,039 Speaker 1: preparing themselves because the afterlife is going to be dangerous, 85 00:04:58,040 --> 00:05:01,240 Speaker 1: it's gonna be complex. You need your un your your servants, 86 00:05:01,279 --> 00:05:03,720 Speaker 1: you need your goods, you need spells, you need all 87 00:05:03,760 --> 00:05:06,760 Speaker 1: of these things. So you're gonna so you're gonna enter 88 00:05:06,839 --> 00:05:10,760 Speaker 1: into your sarcophagus with his heart scared. That will serve 89 00:05:10,839 --> 00:05:13,200 Speaker 1: to give you just a little bit of like a 90 00:05:13,200 --> 00:05:15,920 Speaker 1: plus one or a plus two during that trial. Yeah, 91 00:05:15,960 --> 00:05:19,720 Speaker 1: if your heart wasn't so pure, perhaps this talisman, this 92 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:23,240 Speaker 1: the scaub, would help to write things when your heart 93 00:05:23,320 --> 00:05:26,680 Speaker 1: was weighed against this feather. Yeah, otherwise you're annihilated. There's 94 00:05:26,720 --> 00:05:29,479 Speaker 1: no there's no even going to to hell. They're just 95 00:05:29,520 --> 00:05:32,560 Speaker 1: you're just gone. Isn't there like a little animal next 96 00:05:32,640 --> 00:05:35,080 Speaker 1: to or a little creature next to the scale that 97 00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:38,279 Speaker 1: gobbles up the heart? If it if it's not a 98 00:05:38,320 --> 00:05:41,360 Speaker 1: worthy one. Yeah, the crocodile headed uh I believe his 99 00:05:41,480 --> 00:05:44,479 Speaker 1: name was I may have that wrong. My apologies to 100 00:05:44,839 --> 00:05:48,840 Speaker 1: the crocodile headed devour of souls if that is the case. 101 00:05:49,040 --> 00:05:51,640 Speaker 1: So all of that should give everybody a good idea 102 00:05:51,800 --> 00:05:56,839 Speaker 1: of these humble dung beetles. And even though they have 103 00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:00,640 Speaker 1: a rich past in ancient Egypt, to day we give 104 00:06:00,680 --> 00:06:03,880 Speaker 1: them nary a thought. And we should because they have 105 00:06:03,960 --> 00:06:06,760 Speaker 1: been rolling these dung balls for something like thirty million 106 00:06:06,880 --> 00:06:11,440 Speaker 1: years and um, they have been astronomers in a sense, 107 00:06:11,440 --> 00:06:13,719 Speaker 1: and we'll get to that in a moment, but they 108 00:06:13,760 --> 00:06:15,960 Speaker 1: are pretty amazing. Let's look at some of their more 109 00:06:16,279 --> 00:06:18,960 Speaker 1: physical attributes. Yeah, and I want to add that they're 110 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:21,720 Speaker 1: they're just about everywhere. You'll find dung beetles of one 111 00:06:21,760 --> 00:06:25,000 Speaker 1: type or another on every continent except Antarctica because obviously 112 00:06:25,240 --> 00:06:27,360 Speaker 1: they would have a tough time of it in Antarctica. 113 00:06:27,640 --> 00:06:29,800 Speaker 1: And in their use of dung, they play a vital 114 00:06:29,960 --> 00:06:32,960 Speaker 1: role in dealing with with our waste. They are they 115 00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:36,520 Speaker 1: are very important UH species, So they're not just mere 116 00:06:36,680 --> 00:06:38,880 Speaker 1: curios that just roll some dung around. They play an 117 00:06:38,880 --> 00:06:42,080 Speaker 1: important role in UH in the environment. Yeah, we'll look 118 00:06:42,080 --> 00:06:44,680 Speaker 1: at a specific example of that later too. So, yeah, 119 00:06:44,720 --> 00:06:47,440 Speaker 1: there are more than five thousand species of dung beetles, 120 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:52,840 Speaker 1: and typical dung beetle appearance is a grooved shield, large 121 00:06:53,040 --> 00:06:57,200 Speaker 1: strong front limbs for digging and fighting, and elongated back 122 00:06:57,320 --> 00:07:00,600 Speaker 1: legs for holding onto dung balls while rolling them along. 123 00:07:00,960 --> 00:07:04,160 Speaker 1: They've got some long flying wings that are folded there 124 00:07:04,240 --> 00:07:07,799 Speaker 1: under hard wing covers. And some of the well known 125 00:07:07,920 --> 00:07:10,960 Speaker 1: families in the dung beetle super family are the stag 126 00:07:11,200 --> 00:07:15,280 Speaker 1: best and scab beetles. Uh. Their length can range from 127 00:07:15,320 --> 00:07:18,480 Speaker 1: about point zero zero four inches to two point four 128 00:07:18,520 --> 00:07:23,240 Speaker 1: inches and uh, they have six legs in total, usually 129 00:07:23,240 --> 00:07:27,200 Speaker 1: brown in color, but some of them can be brightly colored. Yeah, 130 00:07:27,240 --> 00:07:29,560 Speaker 1: some of them are quite beautiful. In fact, the rainbow 131 00:07:29,640 --> 00:07:32,640 Speaker 1: scarub actually has this this ter destined look to it, 132 00:07:32,840 --> 00:07:36,240 Speaker 1: like a piece of jewelry. Yeah, they can be really 133 00:07:36,280 --> 00:07:41,840 Speaker 1: gorgeous and very strong. The male Otho flags taurus can 134 00:07:41,880 --> 00:07:45,880 Speaker 1: pull one thousand onety one times its own body weight. 135 00:07:46,240 --> 00:07:49,120 Speaker 1: Now that is the equivalent of an average person pulling 136 00:07:49,240 --> 00:07:53,400 Speaker 1: six double decker buses full of people. Who So these 137 00:07:53,680 --> 00:07:57,200 Speaker 1: are powerful creatures, yeah, I mean compared to their size obviously. 138 00:07:58,280 --> 00:08:01,040 Speaker 1: And another interesting fact is that they are committed parents. 139 00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:02,920 Speaker 1: And this is rather surprising because when we when you 140 00:08:02,920 --> 00:08:05,760 Speaker 1: think about the insect world, um, at least if you're 141 00:08:05,800 --> 00:08:08,360 Speaker 1: like me, you tend to think of just um from 142 00:08:08,360 --> 00:08:13,040 Speaker 1: a human perspective, almost like a cruel um, just heartless scenario. 143 00:08:13,160 --> 00:08:16,840 Speaker 1: I mean, there's there's no such thing as insect politics, uh, 144 00:08:16,880 --> 00:08:21,040 Speaker 1: to to quote Dr Brundle, But with these particular creatures, 145 00:08:21,080 --> 00:08:23,280 Speaker 1: with the Dunge beagles, one or both of the parents 146 00:08:23,320 --> 00:08:26,200 Speaker 1: stay with the larva until they are mature, which can 147 00:08:26,200 --> 00:08:28,800 Speaker 1: take up to four months. And uh, yeah, this is 148 00:08:28,880 --> 00:08:31,840 Speaker 1: quite unusual in the insect world. Yeah, almost. I mean 149 00:08:31,880 --> 00:08:34,520 Speaker 1: you can get really like, you can really project some 150 00:08:34,640 --> 00:08:38,080 Speaker 1: human nous onto this because it seems almost like a 151 00:08:38,080 --> 00:08:41,080 Speaker 1: little courting thing here. This is from the San Diego Zoo. 152 00:08:41,120 --> 00:08:43,800 Speaker 1: It says after a chance encounter at a dumb pet, 153 00:08:44,600 --> 00:08:48,040 Speaker 1: male and female rollers established a pair bond. The male 154 00:08:48,160 --> 00:08:52,360 Speaker 1: offers the female a giant sized brood ball of fiecies. 155 00:08:52,800 --> 00:08:55,600 Speaker 1: If she accepts it, they roll it away together or 156 00:08:55,640 --> 00:08:58,920 Speaker 1: the female rides on top of the ball. Well. They 157 00:08:59,120 --> 00:09:02,839 Speaker 1: It is a refreshingly sweet relationship compared to a lot 158 00:09:02,920 --> 00:09:06,200 Speaker 1: of other models of insect courtship. That come to mind 159 00:09:06,240 --> 00:09:08,560 Speaker 1: where everyone's getting there their head chewed off, that's what 160 00:09:08,559 --> 00:09:12,679 Speaker 1: I'm saying, torn off, yeah, um, yeah, And they'll find 161 00:09:12,679 --> 00:09:15,280 Speaker 1: a soft place to bury the ball before mating. Yeah, 162 00:09:15,440 --> 00:09:16,840 Speaker 1: and then they'll care for it. It's not just a 163 00:09:16,880 --> 00:09:20,120 Speaker 1: matter of just pumping your larva into the belly of 164 00:09:20,320 --> 00:09:23,160 Speaker 1: some sort of a host creature. There. There's almost again 165 00:09:23,200 --> 00:09:25,599 Speaker 1: to project kind of a family structure here. Yeah, and 166 00:09:25,720 --> 00:09:33,000 Speaker 1: certain cephalodis miss dung beetles even made for life so beautiful. Now, 167 00:09:33,440 --> 00:09:36,040 Speaker 1: I know what what everyone's thinking aboutre you're thinking. I know, 168 00:09:36,160 --> 00:09:38,280 Speaker 1: I didn't come into an episode about dung beetles to 169 00:09:38,320 --> 00:09:41,600 Speaker 1: hear about their family. I want to hear about the 170 00:09:41,640 --> 00:09:44,040 Speaker 1: consumption of pooh. How does that work? How does that 171 00:09:44,080 --> 00:09:46,360 Speaker 1: make sense? Right? Because it's a waste product to you 172 00:09:46,440 --> 00:09:49,560 Speaker 1: might easily say, this is something that another animal has 173 00:09:49,720 --> 00:09:52,200 Speaker 1: has sucked the life out of, and then this is 174 00:09:52,240 --> 00:09:56,320 Speaker 1: the husk of that of that that consumption. So so 175 00:09:56,480 --> 00:09:58,840 Speaker 1: what is there for a dung beetle to even consume? Well, 176 00:09:59,240 --> 00:10:01,280 Speaker 1: quite a lot, just because it's just I mean what 177 00:10:01,400 --> 00:10:03,600 Speaker 1: the important thing to take home here is that even 178 00:10:03,600 --> 00:10:06,280 Speaker 1: though it is a waste product, not all of the 179 00:10:06,360 --> 00:10:09,600 Speaker 1: nutrients are are missing, particularly when you look at herbi wars. 180 00:10:09,640 --> 00:10:12,640 Speaker 1: I mean herbivar poop is going to be you know, 181 00:10:12,720 --> 00:10:15,880 Speaker 1: consists mostly of undigestible vegetation, right, so you've got a 182 00:10:15,920 --> 00:10:18,280 Speaker 1: lot of plant material there, and you have water content 183 00:10:18,360 --> 00:10:20,440 Speaker 1: as well, which is going to be crucial in your 184 00:10:20,480 --> 00:10:25,200 Speaker 1: dry environments. Now, most species subsist almost exclusively on the 185 00:10:25,240 --> 00:10:28,600 Speaker 1: excrement of other organisms, though they can sometimes feast on carrion, 186 00:10:28,800 --> 00:10:33,400 Speaker 1: leaf litter, mushrooms or decaying fruit. Right, never human flesh, 187 00:10:33,520 --> 00:10:36,960 Speaker 1: just straight up carnivorous scared beetles. If you saw that 188 00:10:37,040 --> 00:10:40,600 Speaker 1: in The Mummy the movie. Um, don't take that to 189 00:10:40,640 --> 00:10:45,960 Speaker 1: the bank. Yeah. Um. They can have really specific appetites 190 00:10:46,040 --> 00:10:48,720 Speaker 1: for poop, so you can't just assume that you put 191 00:10:48,720 --> 00:10:50,560 Speaker 1: a big pile of poop in front of them and 192 00:10:50,559 --> 00:10:52,640 Speaker 1: they'll just roll away with it and be happy with it. 193 00:10:52,800 --> 00:10:56,559 Speaker 1: And in Australia in seventeen seventy eight they found this 194 00:10:56,640 --> 00:10:59,080 Speaker 1: out the hard way, And the reason for that is 195 00:10:59,120 --> 00:11:01,240 Speaker 1: that they had I wor did a bunch of cows 196 00:11:01,320 --> 00:11:06,200 Speaker 1: and other large livestock that were not indigenous to the area, 197 00:11:06,440 --> 00:11:08,079 Speaker 1: and they just these things are gonna poop everywhere, and 198 00:11:08,080 --> 00:11:10,199 Speaker 1: they thought, well, the scare beetles, that the dung beetles 199 00:11:10,200 --> 00:11:12,720 Speaker 1: will take care of this, right, sure, but this the 200 00:11:12,760 --> 00:11:14,720 Speaker 1: dung beetles were like, no way, I don't know what 201 00:11:14,840 --> 00:11:17,760 Speaker 1: this is. It doesn't smell right to me, and they 202 00:11:17,840 --> 00:11:21,040 Speaker 1: basically turned their noses up at it. What happened is 203 00:11:21,120 --> 00:11:24,600 Speaker 1: that in that part of Australia they had a huge 204 00:11:24,720 --> 00:11:28,360 Speaker 1: infestation of flies and other parasites that moved in and 205 00:11:28,400 --> 00:11:31,360 Speaker 1: said well, I'll take it, and they ended up having 206 00:11:31,360 --> 00:11:36,000 Speaker 1: to import uh, dung beetles that would eat the exprement 207 00:11:36,240 --> 00:11:38,840 Speaker 1: of these cows and other large livestock. Well, that's just 208 00:11:38,880 --> 00:11:42,480 Speaker 1: another page from a familiar book. When we start messing 209 00:11:42,520 --> 00:11:46,400 Speaker 1: around with the ecological structure. Uh, then things are out 210 00:11:46,440 --> 00:11:48,800 Speaker 1: of whack. A little more cold rot water because the 211 00:11:48,840 --> 00:11:50,600 Speaker 1: bath is too hot, a little more hot because it's 212 00:11:50,640 --> 00:11:53,839 Speaker 1: too cold, and then the bath is overflowed. Yeah, there's 213 00:11:53,880 --> 00:12:00,600 Speaker 1: just one factory cascade. Indeed. Now they also they also 214 00:12:00,720 --> 00:12:04,040 Speaker 1: sort of like a certain scent profile to their dung, 215 00:12:04,640 --> 00:12:06,640 Speaker 1: and a lot of that has to do with the 216 00:12:06,679 --> 00:12:10,840 Speaker 1: diet of the organism. Yeah, well they like it strong, correct, 217 00:12:11,240 --> 00:12:13,640 Speaker 1: they do. In fact, many species of dung beetle prefer 218 00:12:13,720 --> 00:12:17,920 Speaker 1: omnivore dung such as human dung or or your monkey dung. 219 00:12:18,600 --> 00:12:21,160 Speaker 1: Uh and uh, and this is actually going to be 220 00:12:21,200 --> 00:12:24,000 Speaker 1: more odorous dunk stinky, you're dune, Yeah, because it does 221 00:12:24,040 --> 00:12:26,040 Speaker 1: have that plant material and has the meat, and it 222 00:12:26,080 --> 00:12:28,640 Speaker 1: has all of the bacteria that is breaking it down 223 00:12:28,679 --> 00:12:31,040 Speaker 1: and making it very smelly. But how do we know 224 00:12:31,160 --> 00:12:34,560 Speaker 1: that they prefer it? Well, some very committed scientists, including 225 00:12:34,640 --> 00:12:38,440 Speaker 1: researcher Why Hoback, a professor at the University of Nebraska 226 00:12:38,520 --> 00:12:43,160 Speaker 1: A Kearney. They used these pitfall traps, large buckets buried 227 00:12:43,160 --> 00:12:46,520 Speaker 1: in the ground, and it contained feces from a bunch 228 00:12:46,559 --> 00:12:50,480 Speaker 1: of different species or a dead rotting rat in the 229 00:12:50,520 --> 00:12:55,040 Speaker 1: bottom carrion, or the remains of dead animals can also 230 00:12:55,120 --> 00:12:57,400 Speaker 1: serve as a food source for dung beetles, as we 231 00:12:57,400 --> 00:12:59,839 Speaker 1: had said before, So the researchers wanted to compare this 232 00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:03,440 Speaker 1: to the dung samples, and two summers of work in 233 00:13:03,440 --> 00:13:06,400 Speaker 1: two thousand and ten two thousand eleven, the team captured 234 00:13:06,600 --> 00:13:09,760 Speaker 1: more than nine thousand dung beetles of fifteen different species, 235 00:13:10,679 --> 00:13:15,840 Speaker 1: and of the dung samples, human and chimpanzee feces, both 236 00:13:16,160 --> 00:13:21,360 Speaker 1: omnivores here attracted the most dung beetles. The dead rat 237 00:13:21,559 --> 00:13:26,160 Speaker 1: came in next, followed by pig droppings uh, then poop 238 00:13:26,200 --> 00:13:31,000 Speaker 1: from the carnivorous species, which included uh lion and tiger dung, 239 00:13:31,679 --> 00:13:36,240 Speaker 1: and then dead last herbivores, which again brings us back 240 00:13:36,280 --> 00:13:39,840 Speaker 1: to the Australian UH example, where we had all this 241 00:13:40,160 --> 00:13:42,800 Speaker 1: herbivore poop just setting around and the dungees were not 242 00:13:42,840 --> 00:13:45,400 Speaker 1: the right dung beetles to eat it. And in essence, 243 00:13:45,440 --> 00:13:47,439 Speaker 1: I guess you could say that some of these beetles 244 00:13:47,480 --> 00:13:49,480 Speaker 1: are playing with their poop, but really this is a 245 00:13:49,520 --> 00:13:53,319 Speaker 1: matter of survival. It just looks like playing because they're 246 00:13:53,320 --> 00:13:56,120 Speaker 1: going to do one of three things with these balls 247 00:13:56,160 --> 00:13:59,680 Speaker 1: of poop. They're gonna roll it, They're gonna roll it 248 00:13:59,679 --> 00:14:03,839 Speaker 1: into a tunnel, or they're going to dwell within it. Okay, 249 00:14:03,880 --> 00:14:05,960 Speaker 1: so we have the rollers, the tunnelers, and the dwellers. 250 00:14:06,440 --> 00:14:09,360 Speaker 1: The rollers are out there rolling this ball of of 251 00:14:09,480 --> 00:14:12,400 Speaker 1: excrement just across the across the ground, and those are 252 00:14:12,400 --> 00:14:15,319 Speaker 1: the ones that we often see and these compelling nature videos. 253 00:14:15,760 --> 00:14:18,640 Speaker 1: The tunnelers are taking that ball of poop and they're 254 00:14:18,640 --> 00:14:21,760 Speaker 1: going underground with it, and then the dwellers are dwelling 255 00:14:21,840 --> 00:14:25,000 Speaker 1: within the poop mount Yeah, they're saying, why not. I mean, 256 00:14:25,040 --> 00:14:27,000 Speaker 1: this is a food source. I can live inside of 257 00:14:27,040 --> 00:14:30,320 Speaker 1: it nice and cool. Yeah, so we have all these 258 00:14:30,360 --> 00:14:32,560 Speaker 1: are dung beetles, but they found sort of different levels 259 00:14:32,560 --> 00:14:36,440 Speaker 1: of exploitation of this resource, the resource being poop. Yeah, 260 00:14:36,480 --> 00:14:38,360 Speaker 1: and again we should mention to like, not only is 261 00:14:38,400 --> 00:14:40,680 Speaker 1: this a food source for them, but they can also 262 00:14:41,720 --> 00:14:44,200 Speaker 1: make a nest of it to transfer their eggs too. 263 00:14:44,840 --> 00:14:49,240 Speaker 1: So in this other sense though, they are using these 264 00:14:49,320 --> 00:14:53,400 Speaker 1: dung balls to cool off with, and um, it seems 265 00:14:53,480 --> 00:14:56,360 Speaker 1: kind of oddit for but now consider you know, the 266 00:14:56,400 --> 00:15:00,800 Speaker 1: species that are hanging out in substit or in Africa 267 00:15:00,880 --> 00:15:04,880 Speaker 1: and the desert where that that ground can get up 268 00:15:04,920 --> 00:15:07,880 Speaker 1: to sixty degrees celsius and get really really hot, and 269 00:15:07,960 --> 00:15:12,200 Speaker 1: there's lots of dung beetles competing for this dung and 270 00:15:12,200 --> 00:15:15,520 Speaker 1: they've got rolled as fast as they can, and yet 271 00:15:15,720 --> 00:15:19,239 Speaker 1: they have some really clever ways of trying to cool themselves. 272 00:15:20,200 --> 00:15:21,920 Speaker 1: So so how did they cool themselves off in this 273 00:15:22,120 --> 00:15:24,440 Speaker 1: this hot environment with something that you just don't You 274 00:15:24,480 --> 00:15:27,880 Speaker 1: don't think of poop is having any cooling elements. If anything, 275 00:15:27,920 --> 00:15:30,360 Speaker 1: you think of it as being steaming and hot well 276 00:15:30,480 --> 00:15:34,400 Speaker 1: researchers Yoki and Smolka at All they studied how they 277 00:15:34,440 --> 00:15:37,320 Speaker 1: cooled themselves off, and they detailed it in the paper. 278 00:15:37,400 --> 00:15:41,600 Speaker 1: Dung beetles use their dung balls as a mobile thermal refuge. 279 00:15:42,080 --> 00:15:43,960 Speaker 1: And this is This is from the beginning of the paper, 280 00:15:43,960 --> 00:15:46,760 Speaker 1: and I just love it. It says quote. Using infrared 281 00:15:46,880 --> 00:15:51,480 Speaker 1: thermography and behavioral experiments, we show here that dung beetles 282 00:15:51,640 --> 00:15:54,080 Speaker 1: use their dung balls as a mobile thermal refuge onto 283 00:15:54,120 --> 00:15:57,680 Speaker 1: which they climbed to cool down while rolling across hot soil. 284 00:15:58,160 --> 00:16:02,000 Speaker 1: We further demonstrate that the hoist ball functions not only 285 00:16:02,040 --> 00:16:04,720 Speaker 1: as a portable platform, but also as a heat sink, 286 00:16:05,320 --> 00:16:08,480 Speaker 1: which effectively cools the beetle as it rolls or climbs 287 00:16:08,520 --> 00:16:10,560 Speaker 1: onto it. I'm not gonna get I'm not gonna get 288 00:16:10,600 --> 00:16:12,640 Speaker 1: deep into this study here, but I do want to 289 00:16:12,680 --> 00:16:15,600 Speaker 1: tell you that if you look into the study, you 290 00:16:15,640 --> 00:16:18,240 Speaker 1: will see where they have slipped these little socks onto 291 00:16:18,280 --> 00:16:21,840 Speaker 1: their feet and their hind legs um as they are 292 00:16:21,960 --> 00:16:24,160 Speaker 1: rolling the balls. Because they've done various things to try 293 00:16:24,200 --> 00:16:28,480 Speaker 1: to determine how much heat is uh entering the surface 294 00:16:28,520 --> 00:16:32,800 Speaker 1: of their feet and how they're cooling themselves off. But essentially, 295 00:16:32,840 --> 00:16:35,760 Speaker 1: as they're pressing onto that ball, which is a lot 296 00:16:35,800 --> 00:16:39,000 Speaker 1: cooler than the soil than they're cooling off from it, 297 00:16:39,080 --> 00:16:42,520 Speaker 1: they're they're also doing this what looks to be a 298 00:16:42,720 --> 00:16:46,240 Speaker 1: dance on top of the ball. An indeed, to the uninformed, 299 00:16:46,440 --> 00:16:49,200 Speaker 1: I it definitely looks like they're just stopping getting on 300 00:16:49,240 --> 00:16:52,440 Speaker 1: topping the ball and dancing around. But but really you 301 00:16:52,480 --> 00:16:54,720 Speaker 1: could you you should think a bit more in terms 302 00:16:54,760 --> 00:16:57,040 Speaker 1: of like a sailor climbing up the rigging of a 303 00:16:57,040 --> 00:17:00,640 Speaker 1: ship to see what's on the horizon, because that, as 304 00:17:00,680 --> 00:17:02,680 Speaker 1: it turns out, is key to the whole thing, because 305 00:17:02,720 --> 00:17:04,720 Speaker 1: when when did they actually climb a top and do 306 00:17:04,800 --> 00:17:07,520 Speaker 1: their dance. They do it when they're when their first 307 00:17:07,760 --> 00:17:11,760 Speaker 1: leaving the pile of poop, the main depositive poop. They 308 00:17:11,760 --> 00:17:14,440 Speaker 1: do it when they encounter an obstacle. So, in other words, 309 00:17:14,440 --> 00:17:15,960 Speaker 1: they're doing it when they need to see what the 310 00:17:16,040 --> 00:17:18,200 Speaker 1: lay of the land is, where are they taking this ball, 311 00:17:18,520 --> 00:17:20,919 Speaker 1: what is their their ultimate goal with it? And they 312 00:17:20,960 --> 00:17:23,719 Speaker 1: are possibly doing it to cool themselves because they found 313 00:17:23,760 --> 00:17:27,399 Speaker 1: that um that it usually happens at the hottest point 314 00:17:27,520 --> 00:17:31,159 Speaker 1: during the midday heat, so they see more incidences of 315 00:17:31,200 --> 00:17:33,480 Speaker 1: them getting up on the ball and doing this little jig. 316 00:17:33,920 --> 00:17:35,720 Speaker 1: And yeah, some of it though, is like a little 317 00:17:35,760 --> 00:17:38,320 Speaker 1: lookout to see, like, who are my competitors here? He's 318 00:17:38,359 --> 00:17:42,000 Speaker 1: gaining on me um. But any little advantage that they 319 00:17:42,040 --> 00:17:44,119 Speaker 1: can get like that they cool themselves off for the 320 00:17:44,160 --> 00:17:47,360 Speaker 1: briefest of moments helps them when they are making this 321 00:17:47,480 --> 00:17:50,399 Speaker 1: trek across the soil. And by the way, this is 322 00:17:50,440 --> 00:17:54,280 Speaker 1: a straight line that they are rolling these balls into 323 00:17:54,920 --> 00:17:56,919 Speaker 1: and along the way they're often having to deal with 324 00:17:57,119 --> 00:18:01,520 Speaker 1: rival dung beetles fighting them for their their their precious ball, 325 00:18:02,240 --> 00:18:03,840 Speaker 1: which is another thing just to keep in mind about 326 00:18:03,840 --> 00:18:07,159 Speaker 1: their their journey. Yeah, and and again they've got to 327 00:18:07,200 --> 00:18:10,680 Speaker 1: stay on that street path because it turns out this 328 00:18:10,720 --> 00:18:15,520 Speaker 1: is very intentional to have this straight path and they 329 00:18:15,560 --> 00:18:20,480 Speaker 1: may actually be using the milky way to orient themselves. 330 00:18:20,640 --> 00:18:24,960 Speaker 1: And this experiment is pretty adorable. Yeah. This one was 331 00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:28,520 Speaker 1: published in two thirteen in Current Biology, and it actually 332 00:18:28,560 --> 00:18:33,600 Speaker 1: earned a two thirteen Ignoble Prize. Which doesn't mean that 333 00:18:33,640 --> 00:18:36,520 Speaker 1: it's again we've talked about the Nobel Prizes before. It 334 00:18:36,520 --> 00:18:40,439 Speaker 1: doesn't mean that it's necessarily um useless science or that 335 00:18:40,520 --> 00:18:42,600 Speaker 1: it's uh, you know, completely silly, But maybe it just 336 00:18:42,640 --> 00:18:45,639 Speaker 1: has a silly element to it, such as dung beetles 337 00:18:45,680 --> 00:18:48,600 Speaker 1: wearing hats. Earlier they were wearing socks in a different experiment. 338 00:18:48,840 --> 00:18:51,600 Speaker 1: This time they're wearing hats. Because how are you going 339 00:18:51,640 --> 00:18:54,920 Speaker 1: to test Uh their navigational skills are they? Are they 340 00:18:54,920 --> 00:18:58,040 Speaker 1: depending upon the night sky for their movements or the 341 00:18:58,280 --> 00:19:00,440 Speaker 1: orientation of the milky way? Uh? You have to put 342 00:19:00,440 --> 00:19:02,439 Speaker 1: a little hat on there, a little little visor to 343 00:19:02,480 --> 00:19:05,440 Speaker 1: keep them from looking up. Indeed, so what did they do. 344 00:19:05,520 --> 00:19:08,920 Speaker 1: They set up an outdoor circular arena full of sand, 345 00:19:08,960 --> 00:19:10,720 Speaker 1: and they put the dung beetles in the middle with 346 00:19:10,760 --> 00:19:13,280 Speaker 1: their ball of dung, and they looked at the path 347 00:19:13,320 --> 00:19:15,400 Speaker 1: they took to get to the edge of their arena. Now, 348 00:19:15,440 --> 00:19:18,480 Speaker 1: half of those dung beetles could see the starry night 349 00:19:18,800 --> 00:19:21,160 Speaker 1: no moon, by the way, and the other half had 350 00:19:21,200 --> 00:19:24,040 Speaker 1: those little hats on that you just described. Now, the 351 00:19:24,080 --> 00:19:26,879 Speaker 1: hats only covered the dorsal eyes, the ones on the 352 00:19:26,920 --> 00:19:30,440 Speaker 1: top of their heads, and the ventral eyes were uncovered, 353 00:19:30,440 --> 00:19:33,320 Speaker 1: so they could still see that. So, of course, those 354 00:19:33,359 --> 00:19:37,400 Speaker 1: who are be hatted had a hard time navigating. They 355 00:19:37,400 --> 00:19:40,600 Speaker 1: didn't have the stars to help them navigate. And they 356 00:19:40,680 --> 00:19:45,080 Speaker 1: tested this again by placing the beetles in a planetarium, 357 00:19:45,240 --> 00:19:48,959 Speaker 1: inside an actual planetarium. It's an actual planetarium. Is brilliant, right, 358 00:19:48,960 --> 00:19:52,720 Speaker 1: because they can manipulate um the planetarium. They can make 359 00:19:52,760 --> 00:19:56,000 Speaker 1: it completely dark, they can just have a full moon, 360 00:19:56,040 --> 00:19:59,000 Speaker 1: no moon, or the milky way. And they found that 361 00:19:59,040 --> 00:20:02,119 Speaker 1: the beatles could vigate with the stars or just with 362 00:20:02,200 --> 00:20:05,320 Speaker 1: a milky way, which is again a diffuse band of 363 00:20:05,520 --> 00:20:08,800 Speaker 1: light surrounding a density of stars. And it's not just 364 00:20:09,119 --> 00:20:12,200 Speaker 1: starlight that is important to them. In two thousand three, 365 00:20:12,200 --> 00:20:15,800 Speaker 1: researchers found that one species of dung beetle, the African 366 00:20:16,040 --> 00:20:21,600 Speaker 1: Scarabbas zambanius, navigates by using polarization patterns in moonlight. And 367 00:20:21,600 --> 00:20:24,119 Speaker 1: this was actually the first proof that any animal can 368 00:20:24,200 --> 00:20:28,760 Speaker 1: use polarized moonlight for orientation. Now you had mentioned the 369 00:20:28,800 --> 00:20:32,919 Speaker 1: competition is really fierce, and I just wanted to mention 370 00:20:32,960 --> 00:20:36,399 Speaker 1: that according to dung beetle expert John Freehand quote, the 371 00:20:36,480 --> 00:20:40,719 Speaker 1: behavior of the beatles was much misunderstood until the pioneering 372 00:20:40,760 --> 00:20:44,600 Speaker 1: studies of John Henri Fabre. For example, Fabre corrected the 373 00:20:44,640 --> 00:20:47,760 Speaker 1: myth that a dung beetle would seek aid from dung 374 00:20:47,880 --> 00:20:50,960 Speaker 1: beetles when confronted by obstacles. This is what was got 375 00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:54,400 Speaker 1: it because they probably probably observed like three or four 376 00:20:54,440 --> 00:20:57,520 Speaker 1: dung beetles pushing on a single ball of dung. Yeah. There, 377 00:20:57,520 --> 00:21:00,560 Speaker 1: of course, no one's trying to help anybody and that scenario, 378 00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:04,600 Speaker 1: they're just all fighting for the resources exactly, and uh, 379 00:21:04,840 --> 00:21:09,800 Speaker 1: Freehance says by painstaking observations and experiments, Fabruree found but 380 00:21:09,920 --> 00:21:13,320 Speaker 1: this seeming helpers were in fact robbers awaiting an opportunity 381 00:21:13,359 --> 00:21:17,840 Speaker 1: to steal the rollers food source. Now think about this 382 00:21:18,080 --> 00:21:22,080 Speaker 1: next statistic. I'm talking about at one point five kilogram 383 00:21:22,520 --> 00:21:25,840 Speaker 1: or a three point three pound load of elephant dung 384 00:21:26,600 --> 00:21:33,120 Speaker 1: that gets decimated by sixteen thousand dung beetles in two hours. 385 00:21:33,880 --> 00:21:37,040 Speaker 1: And this is from Dr John Capanier in his book, 386 00:21:37,880 --> 00:21:44,000 Speaker 1: who was describing how very efficiently these beetles will bury, eat, 387 00:21:44,160 --> 00:21:46,960 Speaker 1: or just roll away all the dung and just how 388 00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:49,800 Speaker 1: many competitors there are for it. Yeah, that's an incredible 389 00:21:49,840 --> 00:21:52,919 Speaker 1: stat and it really does underline their important role as 390 00:21:52,960 --> 00:21:55,960 Speaker 1: a recycler in the environment, especially when you have mega 391 00:21:56,000 --> 00:22:00,240 Speaker 1: fauna going around just completely unloading uh you know, over 392 00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:03,040 Speaker 1: the place. Indeed, so what does this mean. It means 393 00:22:03,160 --> 00:22:05,440 Speaker 1: that when it comes to uh, I don't know what 394 00:22:05,440 --> 00:22:09,200 Speaker 1: would you say, like, uh, to get in that ball, 395 00:22:09,240 --> 00:22:12,360 Speaker 1: to to obtaining the prize, you're going to have to 396 00:22:12,440 --> 00:22:15,280 Speaker 1: engage in a little bit of combat. Oh yeah, you 397 00:22:15,320 --> 00:22:17,800 Speaker 1: know that. What keeps coming to mind for me when 398 00:22:17,800 --> 00:22:20,359 Speaker 1: we keep talking about this, I keep thinking about mad Max, 399 00:22:21,160 --> 00:22:25,080 Speaker 1: particularly the road wire, where the commodity that everyone's arrestient 400 00:22:25,160 --> 00:22:28,359 Speaker 1: is gasoline, and so everyone's after the gasoline and all 401 00:22:28,440 --> 00:22:31,240 Speaker 1: these souped up vehicles with spikes on the front and 402 00:22:31,320 --> 00:22:34,719 Speaker 1: gatling guns and grappling hooks and what have you, and 403 00:22:34,760 --> 00:22:38,680 Speaker 1: they're just roaring across this desert environment. And I see 404 00:22:38,760 --> 00:22:40,760 Speaker 1: a lot of that in the scare of beetle. There's 405 00:22:40,760 --> 00:22:43,560 Speaker 1: a precious commodity at hand. There's a lot of competition 406 00:22:43,600 --> 00:22:46,880 Speaker 1: for that commodity, and in order to to obtain it, 407 00:22:47,560 --> 00:22:49,760 Speaker 1: to defend it, and to actually do something with it, 408 00:22:50,119 --> 00:22:53,480 Speaker 1: you've you've got a arm up, you do. And this 409 00:22:53,520 --> 00:22:56,600 Speaker 1: is where it becomes so important. This uh you know again, 410 00:22:56,640 --> 00:23:01,240 Speaker 1: a thirty million year odyssey with poop for for dung 411 00:23:01,359 --> 00:23:08,040 Speaker 1: beetles that they actually evolve horns to compete dung. Now 412 00:23:08,119 --> 00:23:11,080 Speaker 1: Nicola Watson and Lee Simmons of the University of Western 413 00:23:11,119 --> 00:23:14,520 Speaker 1: Australian Perth. What did they do to find out how 414 00:23:14,560 --> 00:23:18,600 Speaker 1: important horns are. Well, they pitted female dung beetles Alpha 415 00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:22,720 Speaker 1: fascists Sagittarius against each other in a race for dung, 416 00:23:23,640 --> 00:23:26,560 Speaker 1: and they were matched for body size. They're all in 417 00:23:26,560 --> 00:23:30,119 Speaker 1: the same weight bracket. I suppose um females with bigger 418 00:23:30,119 --> 00:23:35,520 Speaker 1: horns managed to collect more dung and provide, you know, 419 00:23:35,600 --> 00:23:38,119 Speaker 1: better for their offspring. And they publish their findings in 420 00:23:38,160 --> 00:23:40,200 Speaker 1: the March two thousand and ten edition of the Proceedings 421 00:23:40,200 --> 00:23:43,520 Speaker 1: of the Royal Society. So again here you have this idea. Well, 422 00:23:44,640 --> 00:23:46,639 Speaker 1: you know, if you if you've evolved to have the 423 00:23:46,960 --> 00:23:51,399 Speaker 1: biggest um pair of these horns, then perhaps you're going 424 00:23:51,440 --> 00:23:54,960 Speaker 1: to be much better fit to fight off your competitors 425 00:23:54,960 --> 00:23:57,879 Speaker 1: and provide for your family. The other interesting thing about 426 00:23:58,080 --> 00:24:01,359 Speaker 1: the horns, and this with this particular species from this study, 427 00:24:01,400 --> 00:24:04,520 Speaker 1: is that the female has a central horn arrangement like 428 00:24:04,560 --> 00:24:08,119 Speaker 1: a rhino. And again they're they're much larger, uh, and 429 00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:11,040 Speaker 1: then the male has like smaller kind of side by 430 00:24:11,080 --> 00:24:14,240 Speaker 1: side devil horn scenario going on. So it's not just 431 00:24:14,280 --> 00:24:16,440 Speaker 1: to simply a matter of oh, well, you know, one 432 00:24:16,760 --> 00:24:19,720 Speaker 1: one minute. One side of the species has small horns, 433 00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:22,000 Speaker 1: in otherlane has big ones. It's like it's a different arrangement. 434 00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:25,280 Speaker 1: It's a different morphology that has has emerged in the 435 00:24:25,320 --> 00:24:28,159 Speaker 1: males versus the females with with with a different purpose 436 00:24:28,200 --> 00:24:30,920 Speaker 1: in mind. Yeah, and even the tunnelers will have different 437 00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:33,920 Speaker 1: horns than the non tunnelers. And it made me think 438 00:24:33,960 --> 00:24:37,359 Speaker 1: about the antlers episode when we were talking about deer 439 00:24:37,400 --> 00:24:41,320 Speaker 1: and different species having different lengths and different ways to 440 00:24:41,400 --> 00:24:44,720 Speaker 1: sort of tangle with them. Yeah. I was actually reading 441 00:24:44,760 --> 00:24:48,400 Speaker 1: through a Douglas J. Inland's excellent book Animal Weapons, which 442 00:24:48,440 --> 00:24:51,320 Speaker 1: is all about the evolution of of things such as 443 00:24:51,320 --> 00:24:54,000 Speaker 1: horns and antlers and other defensive mechanisms and this sort 444 00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:57,359 Speaker 1: of the arms race of evolution. Uh. And he pointed 445 00:24:57,400 --> 00:25:00,520 Speaker 1: out that species that fight one on one and often 446 00:25:00,560 --> 00:25:04,920 Speaker 1: have elaborate horns, and species that fight in chaotic scrambles 447 00:25:04,920 --> 00:25:07,159 Speaker 1: do not. So in the dung beetles, for instance, that 448 00:25:07,200 --> 00:25:10,600 Speaker 1: dunge bill is out there on that that ball of excrement. 449 00:25:10,640 --> 00:25:12,680 Speaker 1: Having to fight three or four at once, you'll see 450 00:25:12,720 --> 00:25:16,080 Speaker 1: a less impressive display. But if it's one on one, 451 00:25:16,280 --> 00:25:20,840 Speaker 1: particularly in a tunnel, that's where you'll see really crazy arrangements. 452 00:25:21,080 --> 00:25:24,880 Speaker 1: Uh in one says burrows are probably the most widespread 453 00:25:24,920 --> 00:25:29,280 Speaker 1: ecological situation leading to the evolution of extreme weapons. Uh 454 00:25:29,400 --> 00:25:31,959 Speaker 1: and this is because the tunnels are localized, they're readily 455 00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:35,360 Speaker 1: defendable and uh and and indeed some of these, uh 456 00:25:35,440 --> 00:25:38,000 Speaker 1: these arrangements are just really intense because you can imagine 457 00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:41,000 Speaker 1: that that tunnel environment, it's all about front loading your 458 00:25:41,320 --> 00:25:46,160 Speaker 1: your weaponry and and defending the entrance at all costs. Well, 459 00:25:46,200 --> 00:25:48,199 Speaker 1: and that makes sense. You're gonna respond to it in 460 00:25:48,240 --> 00:25:51,639 Speaker 1: a certain way, or I would say that biology and 461 00:25:51,720 --> 00:25:53,680 Speaker 1: nature is going to respond to it in a certain way. 462 00:25:53,720 --> 00:25:56,360 Speaker 1: And I was just even thinking back to the episode 463 00:25:56,560 --> 00:26:00,399 Speaker 1: on Left Handed People, and we were talking about the 464 00:26:00,800 --> 00:26:04,960 Speaker 1: castle in Scotland, in which that I believe it was 465 00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:09,760 Speaker 1: the generations of uh of it was its soldiers there 466 00:26:09,960 --> 00:26:12,439 Speaker 1: who were defending the castle. They were left handed, and 467 00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:16,680 Speaker 1: they had built the castle specifically so that they would 468 00:26:16,720 --> 00:26:19,200 Speaker 1: have the advantage when they came around the corners. So 469 00:26:19,520 --> 00:26:23,680 Speaker 1: about the tunnel, So in that same sense, here you see, 470 00:26:24,280 --> 00:26:28,400 Speaker 1: you know, a kind of evolution or adaptation to try 471 00:26:28,480 --> 00:26:32,399 Speaker 1: to be as effective as you possibly can. And in 472 00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:34,679 Speaker 1: all of this, another thing to keep in mind about 473 00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:38,679 Speaker 1: that commodity, that precious commodity of dung, is that it 474 00:26:38,840 --> 00:26:42,800 Speaker 1: loses its um its power quickly. So any time that 475 00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:44,959 Speaker 1: the dung beetles are having to just pounce on it, 476 00:26:45,240 --> 00:26:47,720 Speaker 1: they have to they have to take advantage of it 477 00:26:47,800 --> 00:26:49,760 Speaker 1: quickly because it's going to lose its potency, it's going 478 00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:51,800 Speaker 1: to lose its its value. And that's another reason why 479 00:26:51,840 --> 00:26:55,280 Speaker 1: the elephant dun disappears so quickly, because there's a there's 480 00:26:55,280 --> 00:26:58,640 Speaker 1: a half life on this stuff. Indeed, um why there's 481 00:26:58,640 --> 00:27:01,840 Speaker 1: not a Disney pick? So are film all this? I 482 00:27:01,880 --> 00:27:04,400 Speaker 1: just don't know. Yeah, it seems like there's plenty there. 483 00:27:04,440 --> 00:27:07,760 Speaker 1: I mean, just they're they're they're already a little more 484 00:27:07,840 --> 00:27:11,240 Speaker 1: comfy and a little more relatable as organisms do to 485 00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:14,359 Speaker 1: their they're sort of family structure, if you will. They 486 00:27:14,359 --> 00:27:17,000 Speaker 1: have this very animated thing that they do, pushing this 487 00:27:17,080 --> 00:27:20,159 Speaker 1: ball around or living in tunnels. They're they're elaborate looking. 488 00:27:20,160 --> 00:27:23,080 Speaker 1: There's a rich mythology associated with them. It seems like 489 00:27:23,160 --> 00:27:25,159 Speaker 1: you could just go wild. Yeah, and they're kind of 490 00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:28,960 Speaker 1: romantic and star guard write. You've got the astronomy going exactly. 491 00:27:29,080 --> 00:27:31,760 Speaker 1: They're looking up at the heavens and experiments they're wearing 492 00:27:31,800 --> 00:27:33,840 Speaker 1: socks and hats. I mean, really, what more could you 493 00:27:33,880 --> 00:27:36,600 Speaker 1: ask for? Yeah? Done, Beatles life. That's what we need, 494 00:27:36,760 --> 00:27:40,159 Speaker 1: all right. Um, you guys, if you are interested in 495 00:27:40,200 --> 00:27:43,120 Speaker 1: finding out more about what we do and other past episodes, 496 00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:45,600 Speaker 1: you can visit stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. 497 00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:48,120 Speaker 1: That's right, you'll find all the podcast episodes there. You'll 498 00:27:48,160 --> 00:27:50,040 Speaker 1: find the blog post, the videos, links out to our 499 00:27:50,080 --> 00:27:53,440 Speaker 1: various social media accounts, and you know, on every landing 500 00:27:53,480 --> 00:27:56,120 Speaker 1: page for at least the more recent episodes, we're gonna 501 00:27:56,119 --> 00:27:58,879 Speaker 1: make sure to include links to related content on the 502 00:27:58,880 --> 00:28:00,679 Speaker 1: site as well as some out to some of the 503 00:28:00,720 --> 00:28:05,359 Speaker 1: more interesting and potent sources or just extra bits of 504 00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:07,680 Speaker 1: content that we would like for you guys to explore. 505 00:28:08,520 --> 00:28:11,760 Speaker 1: And if you guys have some thoughts on dung beetle mania, 506 00:28:11,960 --> 00:28:14,680 Speaker 1: you can send them to us at blew the Mind 507 00:28:14,720 --> 00:28:21,280 Speaker 1: at house to forks dot com for more on this 508 00:28:21,480 --> 00:28:24,000 Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics. Does it how stuff works 509 00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:28,200 Speaker 1: dot com