1
00:00:03,279 --> 00:00:05,600
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of

2
00:00:05,640 --> 00:00:10,280
Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and

3
00:00:10,320 --> 00:00:13,600
Speaker 1: this is the Monster Fact, a short form series from

4
00:00:13,640 --> 00:00:17,520
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures, ideas

5
00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:25,840
Speaker 1: and monsters in time. Nothing beats a good dungeons and

6
00:00:25,960 --> 00:00:30,560
Speaker 1: dragons cave environment, whether you're talking about an isolated cavern

7
00:00:30,720 --> 00:00:35,360
Speaker 1: layer for a surface rampaging monster or the dark subterranean

8
00:00:35,479 --> 00:00:39,280
Speaker 1: kingdoms of the under dark. Either way, there's no shortage

9
00:00:39,320 --> 00:00:43,400
Speaker 1: of exotic monsters to populate these environments, and at least

10
00:00:43,400 --> 00:00:47,520
Speaker 1: two of them stand out for their mimicry of stalactites

11
00:00:47,720 --> 00:00:52,440
Speaker 1: and stalagmites. First, let's refresh on the nature of stalactites

12
00:00:52,479 --> 00:00:57,320
Speaker 1: and stalactites. Stalactites derived from the Greek to drip is

13
00:00:57,360 --> 00:01:01,560
Speaker 1: a mineral formation caused by dripping that forms on the ceiling.

14
00:01:02,240 --> 00:01:05,440
Speaker 1: The corresponding formation on the floor of the cavern is

15
00:01:05,480 --> 00:01:08,840
Speaker 1: a stalagmite. Some folks might keep the straight in their

16
00:01:08,840 --> 00:01:13,760
Speaker 1: own heads by reminding themselves that stalactite has a C

17
00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:17,160
Speaker 1: in it for ceiling and stalagmite has a G in

18
00:01:17,240 --> 00:01:20,600
Speaker 1: it for ground. At any rate, let's start on the

19
00:01:20,640 --> 00:01:24,360
Speaker 1: floor amid the stalagmites of D and D you'll find

20
00:01:24,360 --> 00:01:28,480
Speaker 1: the occasional roper, a large, one eyed monster that mimics

21
00:01:28,480 --> 00:01:32,800
Speaker 1: a silent cone of stone until an adventurer strays too close.

22
00:01:32,840 --> 00:01:36,280
Speaker 1: Then its tentacles lash out and pull the victim in

23
00:01:36,440 --> 00:01:40,880
Speaker 1: towards its deadly maw. Amid the stalactites, you'll find an

24
00:01:40,880 --> 00:01:46,800
Speaker 1: even more fascinating creature, the Piercer. This predatory mollusk has

25
00:01:46,840 --> 00:01:51,800
Speaker 1: a sharp stalactite shaped shell, enabling it to blend in

26
00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:56,279
Speaker 1: on a cavern ceiling until guess what, along comes another

27
00:01:56,320 --> 00:01:59,680
Speaker 1: hapless adventure and the piercer drops like the sword of

28
00:01:59,760 --> 00:02:03,360
Speaker 1: Damn Maclice and hopefully skewers the poor sap to the floor.

29
00:02:03,920 --> 00:02:07,400
Speaker 1: If this is a success, the piercer, or piercers, because

30
00:02:07,440 --> 00:02:11,880
Speaker 1: sometimes they apparently live in groups, begin the feast. A fail, however,

31
00:02:12,240 --> 00:02:15,400
Speaker 1: means the creature has to slowly crawl back up the

32
00:02:15,400 --> 00:02:19,240
Speaker 1: wall to the ceiling in order to try its gravity

33
00:02:19,440 --> 00:02:24,600
Speaker 1: assisted attack once more. The piercer is a fantastic monster concept,

34
00:02:24,840 --> 00:02:27,240
Speaker 1: and both of these cave dwellers have been lashing out

35
00:02:27,240 --> 00:02:31,760
Speaker 1: against adventurers since the first edition of Dungeons and Dragons. However,

36
00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:34,600
Speaker 1: when we turn to the cave environments of the natural world,

37
00:02:34,840 --> 00:02:38,040
Speaker 1: we don't find creatures that employ such tactics. While there

38
00:02:38,040 --> 00:02:41,960
Speaker 1: are many amazing subterranean organisms with unique adaptations, you might

39
00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:46,920
Speaker 1: well ponder over the seeming absence of stalactite and stalagmite

40
00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:52,000
Speaker 1: mimics as evolutionary Developmental biologist William R. Jeffrey points out

41
00:02:52,040 --> 00:02:56,080
Speaker 1: in his two thousand and nine paper Regressive Evolution in

42
00:02:56,200 --> 00:03:00,400
Speaker 1: Astyanax cave fish quote. In surface dwelling animals, pig intation

43
00:03:00,480 --> 00:03:04,560
Speaker 1: is used for protection from sunlight, camouflage, mimicry, and species

44
00:03:04,600 --> 00:03:08,160
Speaker 1: and sex recognition, all of which are irrevalent in the

45
00:03:08,320 --> 00:03:12,560
Speaker 1: dark cave environment. Jeffrey is dealing chiefly with cave fish

46
00:03:12,600 --> 00:03:14,720
Speaker 1: here in this paper, but I think we can safely

47
00:03:14,760 --> 00:03:19,440
Speaker 1: apply this concept to other cave dwellers as well. Again,

48
00:03:19,480 --> 00:03:22,840
Speaker 1: we have to remember that these are lightless worlds, where

49
00:03:22,919 --> 00:03:26,839
Speaker 1: site in the organs of sight lose their importance. Other

50
00:03:26,880 --> 00:03:30,440
Speaker 1: sense has become the coin of the realm indungens and dragons. However,

51
00:03:30,520 --> 00:03:33,920
Speaker 1: we have to remember that these holy fictional cave environments

52
00:03:34,200 --> 00:03:39,520
Speaker 1: revolve entirely around the inevitable arrival of generally cited characters,

53
00:03:39,560 --> 00:03:43,920
Speaker 1: and they're often aided by magical vision lamps and or

54
00:03:44,080 --> 00:03:47,840
Speaker 1: a plethora of bioluminescent fungi. And we have to remind

55
00:03:47,880 --> 00:03:51,040
Speaker 1: ourselves that mimicry in the real world doesn't have to

56
00:03:51,040 --> 00:03:54,840
Speaker 1: be visual. It can certainly be auditory. For instance, the

57
00:03:54,880 --> 00:03:57,760
Speaker 1: greater mouse ear bat has been observed to mimic the

58
00:03:57,800 --> 00:04:03,440
Speaker 1: sounds of buzzing hornets to gear away predatory owl species. Meanwhile,

59
00:04:03,520 --> 00:04:07,360
Speaker 1: Chinese cicadas are also known to use intra specific sexual

60
00:04:07,440 --> 00:04:11,280
Speaker 1: mimicry that means males using female sounds in this case,

61
00:04:11,520 --> 00:04:15,800
Speaker 1: which amounts to a similar sort of auditory deception. And hey,

62
00:04:16,120 --> 00:04:18,640
Speaker 1: D and D has us covered there as well, with

63
00:04:18,720 --> 00:04:22,600
Speaker 1: the Lucrata monstrous beasts said to lure in their victims

64
00:04:22,600 --> 00:04:26,080
Speaker 1: by mimicking the voices of humans and other intelligent species,

65
00:04:26,520 --> 00:04:30,880
Speaker 1: inspired by the half hyena half lion creatures described by

66
00:04:30,880 --> 00:04:34,320
Speaker 1: Plenty of the Elder said to reside in Ethiopia, yet

67
00:04:34,400 --> 00:04:39,840
Speaker 1: quote mimics the voices of men and cattle. Tune in

68
00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:43,600
Speaker 1: for additional episodes of the Monster Fact each week. As always,

69
00:04:43,680 --> 00:04:46,200
Speaker 1: you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow

70
00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:56,720
Speaker 1: Your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is

71
00:04:56,760 --> 00:04:59,960
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts, my heart Radio,

72
00:05:00,200 --> 00:05:02,880
Speaker 1: visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever

73
00:05:02,920 --> 00:05:04,279
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.