WEBVTT - Extreme Mammals Part II 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:05.960 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:14.280 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:16.880 My name is Robert Lamb, my name is Julie Douglas, 0:00:17.000 --> 0:00:18.479 and this is a part two. This is In our 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:21.960 last episode, we talked about wine mammals are amazing. Wine 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:26.320 prehistoric mammals are so extreme in their form, and then 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:31.960 we began to explore some of our ten favorite prehistoric mammals, 0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:34.800 ten favorite extreme prehistoric mammals, and we got through about 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:38.000 three of them. And this episode is the continuation of 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:41.000 that list. So if you like, go back and listen 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:42.640 to the other episodes so you'll get an idea of 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:45.000 how we started rolling on this. But if not, if 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:47.600 you're you know, if your your iTunes skipped to the 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:50.839 last episode, don't be afraid to plow forward with this one. Indeed, 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:53.880 and just to mention it, Extreme Mammals is an exhibit 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:57.840 that is organized by the American Museum of Natural History, 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:01.920 and that is what got us into all this craziness 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:04.040 in the first place, because they have a wonderful exhibit 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:07.280 detailing these extreme mammals. All right, well, first off, in 0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:10.240 this episode, let's talk about what I assume to be 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:13.440 your personal favorite, because you've already blogged about it once. 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:17.759 So UH introduced us to macro Kenia. Ah, yes, macro 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:23.000 Kenia thin legs, long neck, prehensile snout, about ten ft long, 0:01:23.120 --> 0:01:26.600 and five hundred to one thousand pounds. We think, Uh. 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:30.440 Technically the macro kenya belonged to a family of ungulates, 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:33.160 which are hooved animals, and is a distant cousin of 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:36.560 a horse. Yeah, and it evolved independently in South America 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:40.360 and uh in the roughly equoin direction here. So now 0:01:40.400 --> 0:01:42.560 those who's I should say, those are three toad who 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:45.160 feet which are which which are really in a way 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:47.039 come kind of more like a rhinos. This this is 0:01:47.080 --> 0:01:49.240 one of those creatures that that kind of bleeds over 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:51.600 into different models because it kind of looks like a 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:55.040 camel in its basic dimensions. Then it has those three 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:57.080 toad who feet, they're a little more like a rhino. 0:01:57.200 --> 0:02:01.760 There's a certain horsiness to it. Uh, And mamoth mammothest 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:04.400 is the big thing because of course it's trunk yes, 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:07.080 or suspected trunk yes. So if you if you see 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:09.920 this in the exhibit, um, if you're like me, you 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:12.640 automatically go to Sesame Street and you begin to think 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:15.360 about stuff upogus because this is what it looks like. 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:16.880 In fact, I kind of wanted to pet it. I 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:19.960 wanted to talk to it. It's amazing, and it is 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:23.200 sort of a jigsaw puzzle of animals. It's sort of 0:02:23.240 --> 0:02:26.560 like the platypus in the sense that, um, you can 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:29.720 see you can see the influence of different animals. Yeah, 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:34.880 it's basically the jazz funk um blues fusion of animals, 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:37.160 I think. And certainly he really does look like snuffle 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:40.520 up agus. The illustrations we see of in are are 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:44.119 really cute. Yeah, that long trunk would have been used 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:46.760 to feed on low lying leaves of grass, but it's 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:49.560 horse like teeth point to this idea that it would 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:53.040 have also been chomping on grass. But the weirdest thing 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:57.079 about this this this guy, is that the nostrils are 0:02:57.280 --> 0:02:59.560 right up on top of the head. And at first 0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:02.920 it was thought that this feature would give the macrocanias 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:05.160 some sort of aquatic leg up. In other words, they 0:03:05.200 --> 0:03:08.359 could maybe weighed in the water. But more likely it's 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:12.600 just the ideal position for the kind of hose nose 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:15.280 sports like. Basically, because people look at it, and you 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:16.560 might say, well, how do we know that thing had 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:18.239 an elephants? Now, how do we know I had a 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:20.280 little trunk going on up there? And it's because of 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:23.079 the position of those nostrils. Now, I did find reference 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:26.760 to an older theory that this positioning of the nostrils 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:31.000 meant that it had its nostrils had lips, which ended 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:33.360 up not being the theory that everyone's stuck with because 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:35.680 I mean, you can't even find an artist illustration of 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:37.640 what that would have looked like. And that's probably just 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:42.280 as well, because unless maybe Picasso had had illustrated it. See, 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:45.520 let's turn our attention now to a very very cool 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:49.760 glyptodont and this is something that is called data chorus. Yeah, 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:52.320 data chorus is pretty pretty awesome. And I think I 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:55.240 had a toy of this guy. So and everyone will 0:03:55.240 --> 0:03:58.160 probably recognize this one because it's certainly an outlandish example 0:03:58.160 --> 0:04:01.600 of an extreme mammal because nothing really quite looks like 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:04.520 it today. First of all, I mean there's shades of it, 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:07.800 shadows of it in some animals, but nothing quite like this. 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:11.520 First of all, armored suit. So I'm thinking about tortoise here, 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:14.120 like a giant tortoise big as a car. Yeah kind 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:18.080 of yeah, very Armadilla esque in a way, except harder, 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:20.640 Like you can we have remnants to this thing, and 0:04:20.680 --> 0:04:24.760 like a child can climb underneath it. Um so for starters, Yeah, 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:28.080 covered with armor and then bony club at the end 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:30.520 of its tail. That looks like a medieval mace. Yes, 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:32.480 I saw that, and I was like, that is an 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:35.640 amazing I mean, you look at that example in nature 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:39.760 and to know that humans fashion tools that were similar 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:43.520 is just amazing. Whether or not they had the reference point, Yeah, 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:44.960 whether or not they had the reference point or not, 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:47.479 or it just came out of their imagination. That's what 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:49.920 I think is so cool about this guy. Um. Now, 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:52.960 a tale like that, of course it raises the instant 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:55.480 question what did it use it for? Because we look 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:56.920 at it and west I think, oh, it's a mace. 0:04:57.040 --> 0:04:59.599 I bet he swung that thing around or she I 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:01.960 keep you in heat. But I'm going back to my 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:08.240 old childhood. Uh you know, I imagine the mamas males, 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:10.320 so he or she what we would think, Oh, it 0:05:10.360 --> 0:05:12.640 must have swung that make tail around and just clocked 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:16.039 enemies left and right while the creature was trying to 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:19.640 to eat its it. It's vegetation, but it's one of 0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:21.880 those things where we have different theories about what it 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:25.000 consists of. Yeah, well, there's an idea that it was 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:28.960 used to thwart would be suitors, right, so you would 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:32.720 wrestle with your tails and made the victor when the spoils. Right. 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:37.280 So it's a little bit just like elk locking horns. Right. Um. 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:39.320 But then there's also the idea that it was used 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:42.800 as a weapon to try to defend itself and then demolition. 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:47.039 I'm just kidding. Well, um, I guess I do like 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:49.559 the idea that is weird as this creature creature looked, 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:53.200 it was so sexy that it had to literally fight 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:56.440 suitors off with a spiked club. Well, yeah, so that's 0:05:56.480 --> 0:05:59.520 my interpretation. I like that. Okay. The name actually means 0:05:59.560 --> 0:06:03.400 pestle tail, referring to how if the spikes were removed, 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:06.480 then the tail would resemble a pistel. So you just 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:08.280 have to hook it up with a little mortar and 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:11.120 they can just grind some ancient herbs. Yeah, there you go. 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:14.880 Oh it's stumping grounds were modern day South America, as 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:17.400 were most of these ambles. By the way, South America 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:20.320 seems to be the epicenter of it. Pakistan's got some 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:23.240 winnerds as well. Mr lived as recently as ten thousand 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:26.080 years ago, and that's why we have some really great 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:29.520 fossilized remains of its shell al right. Next on the 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:32.760 list is is one that I was really amazed, amazed 0:06:32.800 --> 0:06:34.520 by when I was looking at the pictures. There are 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:37.200 a number of crazy elephants that pop up in your 0:06:37.240 --> 0:06:41.080 in anyone's exploration of prehistoric mammals, and we're gonna get 0:06:41.080 --> 0:06:43.240 to some other crazy ones as well, But this one, 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:47.400 uh is in a way, it's not that crazy because 0:06:47.400 --> 0:06:50.000 it basically it looks like a modern elephant, but with 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:53.200 shorter legs, and it would have been a woodland packaderm 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:55.880 roaming through Europe and Asia. It's about ten feet tall 0:06:56.000 --> 0:07:01.159 three meters. But the Ananochists was really the It could 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:03.600 have been the ultimate war elephant. Like you just look 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:05.359 at this thing and you're like, that is a that 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:09.600 is a born war machine, the Ananarchist, because uh, it 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:13.320 had ten to thirteen foot long tusks that's three or 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:15.560 four meters and that is nearly as long as the 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:19.200 rest of the creatures. So imagine an elephant with just 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:23.240 enormous tuss tusks that they go out straight, uh, the 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:26.480 length of its own body. Just javelins of tuts. That's 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:29.040 what I initially thought of as javelins, and I sort 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:31.760 of imagined it running and trying to do its little 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:34.440 Olympic sport or you think it would just like at 0:07:34.480 --> 0:07:36.080 the end of the day, the ananarchists would just have 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:38.440 to set aside an hour or two just to unskewer 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:42.840 the creatures. That's the other thing as I imagined, Yeah, 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:46.840 shish kebab of enemies piled up on these tusks um 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:50.240 And obviously it would would have been great for sort 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:54.840 of warfare or fending off other animals, but it also 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:57.880 would have been really helpful in digging, digging roots up, 0:07:57.920 --> 0:08:01.560 digging plants up. Exactly. Although I feel like, if you're 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:05.120 this animal, you feel great about everything head on right, 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:07.720 you feel really protected, but everything else and because it's 0:08:07.760 --> 0:08:11.080 gotta be unwieldy to try to move these tusks around, 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:14.200 so I would feel very vulnerable in the back. Yeah, 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:16.120 I realized that with all these I cannot look at 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:20.240 pictures of prehistoric mammals or dinosaurs without falling back into 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:23.200 this childhood thinking where I'm like, oh, how would that 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:27.560 one fight that one I'm playing playing like battle matchmaker 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:29.520 of each of these, like, oh, what would the what 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:31.960 would it be like of an an anarchist were to 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:37.000 actually square off with a triceratops. You know, so, well, 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:38.720 let's let's go through the other animals and if the 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:40.280 end of the podcast, let's try to figure out what 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:43.040 the fantasy square off would be. Although that's pretty good 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:46.439 right there. Yeah, alright, So the next one I want 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:50.440 to talk about is a giant giant rodent. Yeah, if 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:53.079 there is ever a rodent of unusual size or r 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:58.600 o us, this is the guy. Yeah, telecomus giganticisms. It 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:03.760 comes from the Late miles An epic about eleven million 0:09:03.840 --> 0:09:07.960 years ago to five million years um Argentina the size 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:13.439 of a small rhinoceros and could weigh up to pounds. Yeah, 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:17.240 seven ft long roadent, the largest of the Dino Mayads 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:20.640 would be terrible mice. Probably the largest rodent ever to 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:24.280 walk the Earth's I mean the size of a small brhino, 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:27.880 like like a big hairy hippopotamus. Yeah that is six 0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:32.120 ft long, okay, well six point six inches right, two 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:36.880 meters long. I mean again, I know that it's a 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:41.400 sort of anthropomorphosizing that I'm doing, but not really. But really, 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:43.520 if you look at the rodents that exist right now 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:46.520 and you try to imagine them, you know, six ft 0:09:46.720 --> 0:09:50.360 six inches long. Yeah, this was just a broot of 0:09:50.360 --> 0:09:52.560 a rodent and uh and one of the more extreme 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:55.920 examples you can find. And it's a testament to rodents 0:09:56.000 --> 0:09:57.960 that two of them made the list. We have both 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:02.559 a horned wrath and a giant rat. So there you go. Alright, 0:10:02.559 --> 0:10:04.199 we're gonna take a quick break and when we come 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:06.360 back we will finish this list. We have some some 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:09.480 more amazing creatures to run through before it's all said 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:21.800 and done, so stick with us. All right, we're back, 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:23.840 and we are now moving on to one of my 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:27.640 all time favorites, just in terms of just sheer weirdness 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:30.200 that you encounter the first time you crack open up 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:33.679 an illustrated book of ka stark mammals. I'm talking, of course, 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:38.600 about old platty flatty belladon uh ten foot high three 0:10:38.800 --> 0:10:44.640 ms um packaderm roamed Europe, Asia Africa, known for his 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:49.040 shoveled teeth. These are flattened tusks that form a shovel 0:10:49.200 --> 0:10:52.440 like projection from the bottom of their their mouth in 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:56.360 a way it looks like weird um inverted buck teeth 0:10:56.480 --> 0:10:58.880 coming out and then on top of that a very 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:04.360 flat trunk. So it's just about the weirdest like drug 0:11:04.400 --> 0:11:08.720 induced idea of an elephant you could possibly think of. Uh, 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:12.960 And of course it already existed. Um yeah, it's You 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:15.480 know what is amazing is if you look at a 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:17.600 picture of a shovel and you look at a picture 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:20.680 of its mouth and the lower jaw, you see the 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:24.160 same exact design narrow at the top and then fluting 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:26.400 out at the bottom and then capped off by two 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:30.880 squared off insize or teeth. It's amazing. It's like a sport. 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:32.360 So you look at this guy, you look at these 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:36.200 shovel teeth tusk rather and you wonder, how does this 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:39.560 guy live his life? What is this adaptation gaining him? 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:41.920 And to understand that, you have to realize what kind 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:45.640 of world, uh platty would have lived in a world 0:11:45.679 --> 0:11:49.199 of grasslands and winding shallow rivers full of plant life. 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:52.360 So the theory is that the platty would grip the 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:57.000 plant life between his flattened trunk and those flattened tusks 0:11:57.280 --> 0:11:59.760 after shoveling into it and then then rearing up with 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:03.559 rip the plants away from the mud and then use 0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:06.719 the trunk to pull it into the mouth. Yeah, there 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:09.400 was this idea that it was just there just to 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:11.520 shovel things up. Right, after all, we're talking about a 0:12:11.520 --> 0:12:13.840 creature that's two tons um a lot of food that 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:17.440 has to be shoveled into it. But those teeth, those 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:20.960 teeth may have been used as a saw because they're 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:23.080 they're split down the middle, right. If you look at 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:25.120 the picture, that's what makes it looks like two teeth. 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:28.120 The idea is that that's uh, that's where the plant 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:31.400 material could be captured and then sort of the friction 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:36.360 of those teeth could then saw it. Yeah. Now this creature, though, 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:40.359 is again highly specialized, so that also makes them incredibly 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:43.440 vulnerable to environmental change. I think in the last episode 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:47.360 of Maybe the Business, example of a shop opens up 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:50.439 during the height of the bacon baked goods craze and 0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:55.160 is selling bacon flavored doughnuts literally like hotcakes, I guess, 0:12:55.600 --> 0:12:58.320 um selling these like crazy and as long as is 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:01.000 the fad is really let's baked and flavor everything and 0:13:01.040 --> 0:13:03.760 let's eat bacon flavor donuts. They're gonna make just lots 0:13:03.760 --> 0:13:05.640 and lots of money. But then when that falls out 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:08.200 of out of favor, when people realize that that's a 0:13:08.200 --> 0:13:11.240 gross way to live your life. Then knowing that business 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:14.800 is going to fail. Likewise with these guys with platty uh, 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:17.400 there comes to time when this uh there is just 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:20.640 not abundant winding shallow rivers full of plant life uh 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:24.560 too to feast upon, and so the form dies out. 0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:27.240 It's true. So, as we had talked about in in 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:30.880 the first episode Maths, extinction can happen for a number 0:13:30.880 --> 0:13:33.440 of reasons. It could be and we have seen instances 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:36.520 of human hunting uh knocking out quite a few creatures, 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:40.760 but also atmospheric changes. As you just discussed a comment 0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:43.160 hitting there are all sorts of things that an animal 0:13:43.200 --> 0:13:45.040 must be able to adjust you and probably can't do 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:47.199 so within the limited amount of time that they are 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:52.360 you know, present, or that particular uh subspecies is present. Yes, 0:13:52.920 --> 0:13:56.760 now we have basically one creature left on our top ten, 0:13:56.920 --> 0:14:00.400 but we have another one that was included as a 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:02.680 as kind of an honorary mentioned. So we want to 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:05.760 we want to talk about this creature first we're of 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:10.280 course talking about the giant sloth. The megathereum, twenty ft 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:13.960 high six meters, roamed around Bolivian Peru and weighed as 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:16.920 much as three tons. Yeah. So I mean, can you 0:14:16.920 --> 0:14:21.000 imagine six thousand pounds coming at you, covered in dark hair, 0:14:21.720 --> 0:14:26.280 huge claws, and it could walk on its him legs 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:28.560 like a bear. Yeah, and he would eat you alive 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:31.320 if you were a treat swallow you hold you were 0:14:31.320 --> 0:14:33.800 a vegetation on the top of the tree, because this yeah, 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:35.840 this guy could rear up on those hind legs, use 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:39.520 those three cloud four ft to grab onto some tree 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:42.720 limbs and then just start grazing the tree tops if 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:44.960 they were in the in reach. Yeah, lived as recently 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:48.160 as eight thousand years ago. In ground slots are members 0:14:48.160 --> 0:14:52.000 of the South American group that Zen Arthur, which contains 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:54.520 modern tree sloughs, which we've talked about quite a bit, 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:58.520 and eaters and armadillos. Yeah, it's an incredible specimen. And 0:14:58.520 --> 0:15:02.000 I understand basically just would poop and caves like crazy too. Well, 0:15:02.000 --> 0:15:05.600 you know, poop was quite a topic, you know, when 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:08.680 we discussed tree slots modern day ones, because as you know, 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:10.840 they spend about a week up in the tree tops 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:13.640 and then they come down once week to defecate. It's 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:16.600 a It's an interesting creature because in in basic form 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:18.400 and the illustrations that we have with them, based on 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:21.360 the scut of the skulltal even it's uh, it essentially 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:23.600 looks like a giant sloth. If you were you were 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:25.680 to say, hey, I wonder what a giant relative of 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:27.720 of the modern day slot would look like. This is 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:30.520 what you would draw. But the way it lived its 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:33.080 life was was probably rather different. You know. Again, it's 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:38.120 not climbing up, it's not our boreal obviously, but does 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:41.440 clause those curled claws, which are sort of a benchmark 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:46.440 of of sloth are just amazing there. So that's an 0:15:46.440 --> 0:15:49.760 amazing creature. But the final one we're gonna get to 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:52.720 on this list is is really even more amazing, and 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:56.160 is is definitely one of like the top examples of 0:15:56.240 --> 0:15:59.800 you know, browsing through illustrations of prehistoric mammals, you see 0:15:59.800 --> 0:16:02.760 this thing and you just you almost cannot believe it. 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:04.920 Like and when I even when I look at images 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:08.560 of this creature today, I can understand a little bit 0:16:08.640 --> 0:16:10.960 the mindset of a person that would just completely reject 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:13.320 all of this science and say there's no way that 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:15.480 could exist. This is you're just making all this up 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:21.000 because we're of course talking about the enormous injuries. Otherium, 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:29.240 which is a rhino like hornless giant horse looking just behemoth. 0:16:29.880 --> 0:16:35.920 It is twenty tons about towns. Uh. It's horse like 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:38.000 in the neck, I think, and somewhat in the face, 0:16:38.480 --> 0:16:40.800 although it's got a lot of rhino in it and 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:44.040 evolved from an earlier five ft tall relative called a 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:47.240 hierro code on which which again and and just in 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:50.400 when you start looking at all these these evolutionary examples 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:54.000 and how they tie together, uh, it's always really difficult 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:57.480 to wrap them our our minds around the periods of 0:16:57.520 --> 0:17:01.280 time that are that are transpiring between these forms. But 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:04.080 it's it's it's just blows my mind to think that this, 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:08.119 this enormous giant, this titan, uh, evolved from something that 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:10.520 was just five ft tall. Well, yeah, and you know 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:14.080 you're familiar with what we know as the largest land 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:17.560 mammal now an elephant, Right, that doesn't really blow our mind. 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:20.199 But if you were to, you know, bundle four of 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:23.879 those together and come up with this creature, it is 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:28.159 just enormous elephant vult. This creature it is um. It 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:30.760 was an herbivore and it lived in the forest of 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:35.359 Central Asia between thirty four and twenty three million years ago. Yeah, 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:37.480 it's teeth are really cool too. Um. I mean you 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:39.080 look at it and you barely even notice it as 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:41.000 the mouth, it's so enormous. But if you were just 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:42.720 to take a look at its teeth. Uh, it only 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:45.600 had two front teeth on the top and two below 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:49.040 in the upper pair pointing down like tusks, and the 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:52.000 lower pair we're pointing forwards. And it probably also had 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:55.160 a long, flexible upper lip which allowed it to graze 0:17:55.160 --> 0:18:00.520 twenty six foot treetops. Now, I mean you probably thinking, okay, 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:03.680 it's huge. It's you know, it's twenty towns forty pounds. 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:07.040 It's got to shovel a ton of vegetation into it. 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:11.240 It's an herbivore, so most likely when the environment changed 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:14.320 and when it didn't have enough to forage, it went 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:16.200 by the wayside. Um. I mean, you look at a 0:18:16.200 --> 0:18:18.080 creature like that, and that's pretty obvious that that might 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:21.200 have been the circumstance. Yeah, and this creature lived in 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:24.600 the Pakistan also China, well, when I go to China 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:26.360 later this year, I'm going to keep an eye out 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:30.600 just in case I see one. Um. Well, you've stood 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:33.680 under a replica of one, so now you're pretty familiar 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:37.359 with it. And um, you know, anytime I think about 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:39.040 this creature too, I can't help but think of Stephen 0:18:39.119 --> 0:18:42.040 King's The Mist, which is an awesome novella that he 0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:44.119 did about like this mist rolling in and has all 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:47.560 these strange creatures roaming about in it. And uh, at 0:18:47.600 --> 0:18:51.480 one point they drive a vehicle under this enormous quadruped. 0:18:51.560 --> 0:18:54.400 It's at least I think it was a quadruped stalking 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:58.080 across the than the night land here and uh and 0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:01.320 and that one always reminds me of this particular creature. Also, 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:03.600 the add Ats and Empire strikes Back, the big four 0:19:03.680 --> 0:19:07.359 legged waters, those were supposedly based on this creature as well. Uh, 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:10.359 that's interesting. I'm trying to think about whether or not 0:19:10.359 --> 0:19:13.399 you could drive a car underneath it. Um, but I 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:16.240 remember maybe a smart car. Yeah, yeah, I think you 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:19.280 could because because there are some some illustrations out there 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:24.200 of like paleontologists standing next to it, as one possibly 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:26.560 could what that would look like. And it's again just towering, 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:29.560 just dwarfs us and and really just is just a 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:32.080 mind blowing thing to think about that these creatures wants 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:35.480 roam the earth in small, close knit families and now 0:19:35.520 --> 0:19:39.120 they are just part of a n But hey, we're 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:42.040 the one percent. We're still were still alive, we are 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:46.920 still a species on this earth. We haven't quite seen 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:50.000 an end of that yet. So, fellow humans, if you 0:19:50.040 --> 0:19:53.200 have some thoughts on this excellent list that we've put together, 0:19:53.200 --> 0:19:55.440 I'm gonna go and stay it's excellent since I think 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:58.240 it is. Oh we did? Did you decide on a matchup? 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:04.080 Are you going with anachus versus t Rex? Well? Um, well, anachis, 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:06.960 let's see anarchist versus another mammal on our list? That 0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:11.200 would be that that would be ideal, wouldn't I guess 0:20:11.560 --> 0:20:14.880 I might go with mm hmm. This is a tough one. 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:17.760 You know. I'm not going to put my crania anything 0:20:18.000 --> 0:20:19.560 we have in spiders on this list. And then we 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:21.639 have some lovers on this list, you know, like like 0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:24.040 old Platty Belladon. I think he was more of a 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:25.560 lover and I'm not going to put him in there 0:20:25.560 --> 0:20:29.640 against anarchist. So um, I don't know. I think that 0:20:29.680 --> 0:20:33.560 I'm my epigolis a horn to dent. I think that 0:20:33.560 --> 0:20:37.920 that's a smaller, scrappier, yes, extreme mammal, and perhaps it 0:20:37.960 --> 0:20:41.719 could do some damage. Okay, all right, I'd see that. 0:20:41.920 --> 0:20:45.440 I'd play that out with a pair of plastic creatures 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:51.240 on the living room floor. So, fellow humans, fellow one 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:55.679 per centers of the mammalian existence, um, let us know 0:20:55.720 --> 0:20:58.239 what you think about this. Uh. Granted, these were our 0:20:58.280 --> 0:21:00.679 personal picks, are the ones that called out to us 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:03.840 the most. So there are many, many, many so there, Yeah, 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:05.840 there are many, many more, and there's some that almost 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:08.040 made the list, especially when you get into the weird 0:21:08.040 --> 0:21:10.159 packet germs. And oh there are a whole bunch of 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:13.919 Rhinocera Risks relatives that had crazy horns as well, and 0:21:13.920 --> 0:21:16.560 I would have loved to included some of those, but 0:21:16.560 --> 0:21:18.159 but we had to leave him off. So let us 0:21:18.160 --> 0:21:21.640 know what your favorite extreme prehistoric mammal is. We would 0:21:21.640 --> 0:21:23.720 love to hear from you. You can find us online 0:21:23.720 --> 0:21:26.400 in a number of places, because we basically exist online 0:21:27.040 --> 0:21:29.159 for all you know, we don't even exist in the flesh. 0:21:29.480 --> 0:21:31.400 But you can find us at stuff to bow your mind, 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:33.720