January 13, 2021 • 57 mins
These animals seem like hoaxes! Living tampons that walk the earth, purple blobs who walk UNDER the earth, a new animal superhero, and the weird sex-capades of horny bees! Discover this and more with guest Vanessa Guerrero, as we answer the age-old question, is that a snorkel coming out of your butt or are you just happy to see me?
Footnotes:
- (Warning, icky) rat-tailed maggots look like crawling tampons
- Purple frog (blob)
- Such a little blob
- Backwards butt lookin guys
- Purple frogs in love :)
- Purple frog tadpole
- Alligators can regrow tails!
- Blister beetle larvae tricking horny bees
- Pile of larvae pretending to be a sexy female bee
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to Creature future production of I Heart Radio. I'm
your host of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology
and evolutionary biology, and today on the show, the mystery
of bat Boy. Is the half bat half human really real? Okay,
I'm just kidding. We're not talking about bat Boy, but
we are talking about animals who are so utterly unbelievable.
(00:28):
They seem like hoaxes, living tampons that walk the earth,
purple blobs who walk under the earth, a new animal superhero,
and the weird sexcapades of corny bees. Discover this and
more as we answer the angel question, is that a
snorke will coming out of your butter? You just happy
to see me. Joining me today is shark lover and
(00:51):
host of Kicking and Screaming podcast, Vanessa Guerrero. Am I
love sharks. You're just telling me about how you have
an upcoming cinema feature of sharks that you made when
you were twelve years old. I think it was twelve,
but it might have been a little bit younger now
(01:13):
that I think about it, I might have been liked
ten um. When I was a child, I didn't like
writing assigned essays at all, But I did have a
video camera and I turned in an essay which was
basically just my mom filming me at an aquarium, uh,
but also me filming a documentary called air Jaws with
(01:35):
my own camera and geting at my classmates about how
they don't get sharks like I do, which I mean
makes I think of Werner Herzog started out about ten
years old too, So yeah, so me her Zog both
deeply alienating to our peers at ten uh with our
intensity and uh, I'm trying to find a way to
(01:57):
digitize it and put it out some there. Because watching
it at the age that I am now, immediately I
was like, all right, I immediately get why. Maybe I
was like a little bit hard to understand at the time,
but also like, I'm glad that I've held that same
affection for sharks. I don't know, I think you were
ahead of your time in in the sort of pro
(02:20):
shark movement, the shark acceptance movement. Shark Week came that.
I mean, we're about the same age, and I don't
remember Shark Week coming until like I was a little older.
So I feel like the the rebranding of Sharks giving
Sharks a better image had to come because people were
(02:41):
scared of sharks because of jaws. So yeah, I think
you were a true uh shark visionary, thank you. My
mother didn't think so. When I found a I can't
remember it was a lipstick or perfume, but it had
like an an ingredient that I read somewhere that was
originally derived from sharks. It hadn't been anymore, but I
just like, I have to flush it. Uh. She wasn't
(03:07):
a real real shark activist, like this has the blood
of sharks on it. Oh dare you? Mom? This this
shark crime. You go go to the grocery store, all
those little shark remember those shark gummies? The gummies like
shape like sharks, and you're just throwing them on the
ground like this is this advocates violence against sharks. It
(03:30):
means we eat them now. I actually saw a friend
make a cocktail using the shark gummies in it. Now,
and I've never felt like a glass of something was
more for me. It was just it was a shark
based cocktail. Gummy shark mm hmm. I what what was
the what did what bass was it with it? I
(03:52):
think the Lucarus house so it was like an ocean.
Oh that's nice. That's nice. Yeah. I think it was
like she called it drink bluesy. Okay, yeah, it's good.
I like that. That's a good one. So today we
are actually talking about some animal stories that sounds like
(04:14):
they are hoaxes, but they are not. It is a
the truth, but it is. It's stuff that when I
first thought, I was like, no, no, no, no, this
is this is a hoax, this is fake news. It's
been some kind of doctored video. But now no, it's
absolutely true, and so I'm very excited. There is a
(04:37):
viral video on Twitter that shows what looks like tampons
coming alive and crawling around in a public restroom. And
it's like, is it a parasite imitating a tampon and
looking for a human host. It's some kind of cross
breed between a mouse and a worm. Uh this? So
(05:01):
I sent you the link to the video. I'll have
it in the show notes. I guess a little bit
of a warning. It's it's a little gross to look at,
but it When I saw this, I was like, Okay,
this is like a deep fake. It's a some kind
of weird edit. But no, no, it's absolutely not. I
clicked it. I clicked it, And they're so bad. Like
(05:27):
in general, anything that has like that kind of crawl
motion where it's like that like pumpy long crawl thing, yeah,
always tends to like bog me out a little bit.
Yeah yeah. The undulating never never my favorite motion in
an insect. And uh, this is so much worse because
they are really tamponnie in a way that makes me
(05:50):
so happy I switched to the cup because these look
like weird candy uo for people that men straight. Yeah,
they look like an alien parasite that is mimicking the
look of a tampon to find a human host, like
from some kind of horror movie. But yeah, the the
(06:10):
undulating movement is also disconcerting. They actually have little legs
like a caterpillar, and they moved by sort of contracting
their legs in a wave motion, so that's how they
move around, and it's uh, you know, not not necessarily
great to look at. I would say the legs actually
add some comfort to me that they're not just like
(06:32):
inching around like the crutation slither right, Oh yeah, oh
god slither that movie. This actually reminds me of a
worm or caterpillar that I've spent my entire life trying
to figure out what it was. I described it to
people and nobody can like tell me what I was
looking at. But when I was a kid, I saw
like this just like green. It just looks like a
(06:54):
green caterpillar. And my little brother did the young boy thing,
which is okay, with a sticky and he poked it
and this red and I remembered how a white stripe
on it, This like red horn with like a white
stripe on the other end just started poking out slowly
out of the back of this green caterpillar until the
(07:16):
horn was about as long, if not a little bit
longer than the caterpillar. And it was one of the
most upsetting things I've ever seen in my whole life. Um,
I like, my parents weren't home, and I was just like,
I'm going to die here, even though it was just
a small worm. And to this day, I'm just like,
what was that caterpillar? What is a creature that like
excretes a red horn? That's interesting. I don't know off
(07:41):
the top of my head. I know that there are uh,
swallow tail caterpillars that have red horn protrusions. I don't
know of them like necessarily being telescoping. There's also a
moth that has these weird horns. Stood I'm going to
do a little bit of Google searching and then I'll
see if I can get that for you. I think.
I also I watched a lot of shows that were
(08:02):
about like parasites and worms and bought flies and things
like that when I was a kid, So the automatic
default for me and bugs were like, it's going to
crawl into my skin, even if it's not something that
does that. I think also like spending a lot of
my youth in Central America around bugs that are terrifying, Uh,
(08:23):
just gave me this like alarmist viewpoint of literally any
creepy crawley gritter. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think I've come
to peace with a lot of worms and parasites and
stuff just from like I guess, uh, taking classes on
it where I you know, you you have to sort
(08:44):
of like, oh, man, appreciate the evolutionary cleverness of them.
But yeah, I think, um, there is something like this
for me, like the smaller the parasite, the littler, and
like swigglier the worst because it's just like they can
get right in there. Yeah, like under a fingernail or something. Yeah, exactly.
(09:05):
So that's how my doom brain works. Where where where
were you? Like, where are you were you living when
this green caterpillar came into your life? I could say definitely.
I was in southern California at the time. Okay, it
wasn't like in Central America, where like I'd see something horrific,
but then my grandmar would be like, oh, I know
what that is, because that would happen a lot too.
Like I'd be like, because our baths weren't indoor, they
(09:26):
were like outdoor bathhouses that like everyone in the house
kind of shared for both laundry, bathing, and using the restroom.
Uh So I'd be like taking a bath and be like, hey,
a scorpion, that's probably the one that's okay, and my
mom would be like yeah, then my grandmother would be like,
why are you bathing with the poisonous scorpion? So, like
most of the ones that identified this was here in
(09:49):
southern California, so I had no clue. Yeah, yeah, no,
there's there's a lot of weird caterpillar behaviors. I think
it could have been I mean, it could have been
a swallow tail caterpillar. They definitely have sort of like
weird horns on them. There is so there's something called
an osmatarian which is a defensive organ that can actually
(10:14):
be averted from the caterpillar when it feels threatened. So
it kind of looks like these red horns. Let me
show you a picture. Let me see if this is
what you saw. I was going to drop this in
the document freak out if I finally get like, I
want to solve this mystery for you, I mean kind
of like that but red, and it was very long.
(10:34):
I mean it could be the same. This could be
just a different species of caterpillar doing the same thing.
So it's like inside the body. But then if you
like assault the caterpillar like your brother did, then it
will be averted, meaning like pushed out. And um, it's
meant to like smell kind of bad and like startle
predators smelled really bad. Really it was stinking. You solved it,
(11:00):
because that was the other part that like sent me
into panic, where like he was like, you, it stinks
all of a sudden, and I was like, what does
it smell? Is it poison or is it like fumes?
That's going to take over our bodies. Uh yeah, holy
sh it, you did it. Yeah, it's uh it is
found in swallow tail butterfly larva. We got it, We
(11:23):
did it, We got it. Salved. Your lifelong mystery, Salved,
did I like help you move past like your childhood
issues of like man, this like this caterpillar. It was
always a mystery and and grow as a person. Didn't
do it? We didn't. I think it is Also when
(11:43):
I was older and I learned about like Cordy Steps,
I was just like, was there a very specific like
fungus that took over that caterpillary? Don't about well? I
was thinking. I was thinking of like a horsehair worm
or or a nema toad, which can these parasites that
will take over crickets and spiders and stuff. I didn't
know of them taking over caterpillars necessarily, but the fact
(12:05):
that it's red like these these parasitic memontos are usually
like white colored. So um no, yeah, it's the osmetrium,
the defensive organ of the swallowtail caterpillars. So yes, we
did it, We solved it, gave it away. Unfortunately, we
have to move on back to these living tampons, so
(12:28):
that mystery, Wow, it gets even grosser. So these are
real animals, these things that look like crawling, wiggling tampons
with little feet, and they are called rat tailed maggots,
which is a beautiful name for a gorgeous, gorgeous animal.
(12:49):
I mean they gross me out less than a regular maggot. Yeah,
I mean, I think because they're so weird and different,
they don't trigger the gross out response in me as
much as the like, oh my god, am I looking
at an alien response? Like it's more of like a
quite There are elements of it that I definitely don't like.
But like, I think since my my primal brain so
(13:12):
deeply associates maggot with like this is bad for me
that because it looks more like alien than maggot, I'm like, well,
you're gross, but you're not going to make me gag, right, right,
it's not. It's like, okay, no, I didn't like leave
the trash out too long. It's an alien invasion, that's yeah.
So I'm not like disgusted. I'm just like, huh, okay,
we're going to get invaded by aliens, all right, I
(13:33):
accept that. I mean, the news has been weirder. To
be honest, despite their appearances, they're not necessarily parasites and
they are typically harmless. But we're actually gonna get to
some special cases in which they are not so harmless,
which is done undone um. So rat tailed maggots are
(13:57):
it's not just one species, there's a whole bunch of species,
but they are the larva of several hoverfly species. So
the rat tailed maggots are notable due to the long
rat tail that trails behind them, making them look like
the cross between a mouse, a worm, and a tampon. Uh.
(14:18):
The tail is actually a respiratory siphon that allows them
to breathe while submerged underwater. So as I was reaching
researching these things, I was like, they've got to have
some redeeming qualities that make them less gross or something.
But it turns out they like to live in stinky,
(14:39):
stagnant water. So like they spend the larval part of
their life cycle in oxygen low stagnant water, which is
often rich in organic material for them to feed on.
But because there's not that much oxygen in stagnant water,
they need that that respiratory siphon, that tail, that pokes
out of the water and allow as them to breathe.
(15:01):
So yeah, that's probably why they were found in that bathroom.
They were probably living in some sewage water, which is lovely,
and they are highly resistant to pollution, which allows them
to live in suspics and sewage. So you know, I
like them for that. Look, you know, they make it work,
(15:22):
and I have to respect it. You know. I feel
so much more tenderness for bugs now that try their damnedest.
I know, right, I'm like I had clothes mountain kind
of piling up where I wasn't folding my clothes, I
wasn't putting them in the laundry. I was just creating
sort of a clothes mountain. And I think of all
(15:43):
these insects that sort of cocoon themselves in like twigs
and mud and poop and stuff, and I'm like, you know,
are we so different? I've created a closed mountain. Like
I'll even like get you know, like pile clothes up
on my bed and then it's like, hey, it's more blanket,
right because it's clothes. And like I throw cat hair
(16:04):
in the mix, which is really not that she's not
as clean as i'd like to think she is, so
I'm rolling around in it too. You kind of have
to have plausible deniability with a cat or a dog
where you try not to think about how there's a
lot of butthole stuff going on where like it's poopy stuff,
like they've been licking their butt hole and then they
(16:26):
look there fur and then they rub all over you
and you you just have to have a little bit
of willful ignorance about, you know, the butt hoole factor.
But yeah, yeah, no, we're all we're living in garbage times.
So I feel like we should respect the garbage worm
um for really adapting to the garbage life, you know, yeah,
(16:49):
it's it's it embraces it in a way that many
us are still pretending is not the case, even though
who among us doesn't have a bag of chips from
the beginning of quarantine, like still rolling out in our homes, right,
and like you find a chip like on the couch,
and you're like, wait a minute, this isn't the same
chip type that I'm eating. It looks like a different chip,
(17:09):
But then you eat it anyways, like plausible deniability. Yeah,
I'm eating derritos now, Yes, this is a pretzel and
it's it's hard as a rock, but I'm I'm still
gonna eat it. You know, I'm trapped in my little
I'm trapped in my little stagnant water hovel, right exactly.
I mean we respected the teenage mutant ninja turtles and
they lived in sewage in eight pizza. Why not respect
(17:32):
rat tailed maggots, you know, living their life with their
with their with their sewage snorkels. So even better that snorkel,
that tail really is a tail. It comes out of
their posterior end, meaning the butt end. So they breathe
through a snorkel out of their butt while they live
(17:55):
in sewage. So you know, I again respect, I respect
the commitment. They're not the only thing to breathe other
but two aren't they? I feel like there are more
things that breathe out of there. But yeah, actually, turtles
can do gas exchange out of their butts, so like
when it gets cold, they can do gas exchange out
(18:18):
of their butt while underwater. Good for them, Good for them?
How he is coming back to teenage mutant ninja turtles
because there's so many things, so many things. What can't
they do? They've got a techie, they've got Actually, all
I know is that they've got a techie. I forgot
what the personality types of the other ones are, but
(18:39):
they got a techy, a party, angry and blanket, a
grumpy and a sneezy and a sleepy. They're basically like
the horoscopes right right as thinking the snow white thing.
But yeah, there we go. So rat tailed maggots actually
(19:02):
are the larval form of the hover fly, as I've
mentioned before, and the adult form of these weirdos are
actually pretty innocuous looking. Hover flies look like bees, they
are not bees. They're actually being mimics, and they use
the uh black and white stripes of the bees to
(19:24):
trick other animals into thinking that they've got a stinger
and that they shouldn't be messed with. But they are
actually harmless and cute, little fuzzy, just like be pretenders,
little bee wanna bees, so it is these wanna bees.
So yeah, they actually their adult forms are actually quite
nice looking, quite lovely, um, which it's pretty funny that
(19:47):
they come from, you know, such sort of horrific alien beginnings,
and then it's like and yeah, I'm a widow bee.
Yeah that's kind of inspiring. Where it's just like, you know,
you could be anything, even a b Yeah, you can
start life as a weird alien, uh living tampon who
(20:08):
likes to live in filth and breathes out of a
tube that comes out of your butt and grow into
a bee. I wanna be with no stinger, a liar
align be. Yeah, I love that for them. M hm,
I do too good for them. Um. So, like I
was saying earlier, they are mostly harmless, but there have
(20:29):
been a few documented cases of illness and humans related
to them. So I think this section gets gross enough
to have like a content warning, like it's gonna get
a little gross, a little little like you know, parent
parasite grossness. So if you don't want to hear that,
I'm gonna have Future Katie put in the time stamp
(20:50):
of where you can jump ahead to skip all that,
like if you're eating lunch or you're like, you know what,
I just don't want to know what these these little
tamp on things get up to inside of human body,
So I understand that. So yeah, jump ahead to what
future Katie is saying. Now. All right, so Vanessa, I'm
(21:11):
sorry you have to stay around for this day and
everyone else who has chosen to listen um. So typically speaking,
rat tailed maggots are not parasites. However, that doesn't mean
that sometimes they can't adapt and just live the parasite
life like an improv you know, like you gotta you
gotta roll with punches, gotta you gotta improv, improv everywhere,
(21:35):
and sometimes that means being a parasite. So there have
been a handful of documented cases of myiasis, which means
the infection of skin and tissue by fly larva. So
an example of myiasis would be a maggot like living
in a flesh wound or something. So when certain species
(21:59):
of at tailed maggot somehow ends up inside a humans
digestive system, they seem to be able to feed off
of the intestinal lining and survive. So yep, it's pretty gross.
This type of parasitism is called facultative because it's not necessary.
So there's obligate parasites like a tape worm that needs
(22:22):
to be a parasite in order to complete its life
life cycle. But there's also facultative parasites who it's basically
you know, they're seeing which way the winds bull and
like you know, today they'll be a parasite tomorrow. They
don't necessarily need to be a parasite. Uh. They respond
to changes in their environment. So if you ingest one
of these guys and they're like, hi, I'm like inside
a human Oh well, I guess I'll be a parasite then.
(22:46):
So that's what these rat tailed maggots do. They wind
up in a human body, usually when a person unwittingly
drinks or eat something that has been contaminated, and then
they just like you know, will go through their larval
stages inside of the intestinal system and then you will
eventually poop them out. Uh. So you cannot imagine that
(23:07):
hanging out in a bowl. No, I can't. I mean, okay,
So to get really gross, Like I was reading a
case study of this woman and she had been having
digestive problems like diarrhea, cramping, intestinal distress, all these things
that seemed to be indicative of like um, some kind
of inflammatory bowel disease. But like she like pooped out
(23:34):
this thing and she's like, huh, that seems medically significant.
So she brought it into the doctor and they put
it under an electron microscope to see like they like
looked studied it like looked at its mouth parts and stuff,
and like we're able to pinpoint the specific species of
rat tailed maggot that it was, which is Aristolis tin x,
(23:57):
which sounds a lot fancier and cooler than rat tailed maggot.
But yeah, it's just like I can't imagine though. I
like if I if I pooped out a living tamp on,
I would just be like, Okay, no, no, I'm just
that's it. That's it. I'm shutting down. I'm shutting it
all down. Going back to bed today, that's when I
(24:18):
just lay down and I don't I don't stand up again,
and then everybody asks what are you're doing? And I'm like,
I'm just gonna lay here for the rest of my life.
I'm just gonna take a take a lie down on
the ground for you know, a while, you know, just
like it's gonna take a lie down, think about things,
think about the universe. It's got a lot, it's I
(24:39):
feel like it's a life changing experience. Back from that
the same. I don't think you do. I don't think
you necessarily come back from that worse, But you don't
come back from it the same. Yeah, you're changed forever.
You're changed person. Um so, yeah, so basically that's how
(25:00):
you find out, like if a rat tailed maggot is
using you as like an intestinal airbnb is if you
poop it out, otherwise you will be having inflammatory bowels symptoms.
But really, guys, don't worry about this happening to you.
There's literally just like handfuls of case studies of this,
so it is extremely unlikely it's going to happen to you.
(25:24):
But yeah, I mean, if you drink poopy water and
then you know, start feeling bad, it's a possibility you
got the rat tails, a case of the old the
old jumping tampons as they like to call it. Nobody
calls it that. Um yeah. So, like these cases of
accidental parasitism aren't typically life threatening, but you know, it's
(25:47):
distressing and gross, uh and unfortunate. Um so yeah, that's
I think that's it for the gross talk. So I'm
gonna welcome everyone back to to the podcast. Everyone who
decided to take a quick vacation from grossness. I don't
blame you. Yeah, yeah, you know, we'll talk about talk
(26:08):
about nicer things like, uh, well, okay, I guess the
next thing we're going to talk about when we get
back from the break, isn't like cute, like poppy cute.
But if you squint and think about it really hard,
maybe it's cute. Maybe I don't know. Anyways, we're going
to take a quick break and we will be right
(26:28):
back with our next animal. That looks like a hoax.
But guess what it's not. It's real. I know what
you're thinking, Katie. Is there another nightmarish larvae I should
know about? Glad Yes, Hercules beat A larvae are some
of the biggest grubs you'll find on the planet. They
(26:48):
can grow to be up to five inches or eleven
centimeters and are as thick as a sausage. These grubs
have a lot to live up to because their adult form,
the hercules be Dle of Central American rainforests, is the
largest flying insect in the world and sports an intimidating
battle horn. When we return, we're going to talk about
(27:10):
a purple blob that has a lovely personality. While not
a hoax. The blobfish that lumpy pink fish with a
big ziggil nose and perpetual frown, gets an unfair wrap.
It's particularly lumpy appearance is due to it being transported
(27:30):
from the high pressure depths of the sea to the surface,
where the difference in pressure causes it to kind of explode.
Just goes to show you you can't believe everything you
see on fish Degram. But there is a terrestrial blob
creature who really is as lumpy and blobbly as it
appears in photos. Vanessa, if I told you there is
(27:53):
a species of big purple blobs who live underground, who
have pig noses, tiny little weener heads, and create many
earthquakes in order to mate, what would you say to that,
I'd say, sign me up. I love it. I love
that response. I love a rumbling animal. Consider yourself subscribed.
(28:17):
Because these guys exist, and they are called purple frogs. Now,
I want you to take whatever image you have of
a purple frog and delete it, because I guarantee you
if you've never seen an actual purple frog, and you
have some image of like a little like kermit frog
who just happens to be purple like in your head,
(28:39):
it's wrong. Delete that image and let me build it
anew for you by painting a mental picture for you.
So imagine like a human liver that's like kind of chunky,
and then now give it stubby little legs, a tiny
(29:00):
winky head with like a little fleshy beak that ends
in sort of a pig nosed type thing, and then
its shoulders are so like big and floppy. It kind
of looks like it's got butt cheeks on its back,
and it's a slightly kind of purple ish move color,
and it's pretty slimy. See. Initially, when I used to
(29:21):
purple frog, I was thinking like poison dart frog, because like,
those guys are so vivid that it's very easy to
imagine that being literally any color. But I like, whatever
this little dude is. I think I've liked every frog
or toad I've ever seen, minus the one that's made
of nightmares. Um, I have triple phobia, So whatever the one,
(29:42):
Oh yeah, that one, the one that gives birth out
of its back. I'm trying to remember they were called,
but I saw them on a nature show in it
with my dad and I was a kid, and that's
how I learned a triple phobia, because I watched them
hatch and then I just barfed on my dad's lap,
which is about the same response that I have to
like lotus pods or just anything that looks similarly but
(30:02):
like other than those guys. I like literally every uh
when I was a kid, I saw a cookie frog,
which is the frog of Puerto Rico because they make
the little cookie sounds. They're very loud, and they're very cute.
And my god, do Puerto Rican people love those guys
like a widowing cute. They're so tiny and their call
(30:24):
is beyond cute because it literally sounds like they're saying
the word cookie um, and they're adorable. Like you'll you'll
hear like lyrics from different Puerto Rican artists being like
all right, but give it up for the cookies though,
and like what frog is shouted out in a bunch
of songs. They're so cute too, with their sound pouch
(30:45):
like inflated, like this little tiny frogs like I'm gonna
give you a sound that's gonna blow your mind. They're
gonna blow your mind. And like I saw this little
purple frog, and I'm like, that's a charming frog. That's
a charming frog that has taken on all of the
characteristics of a mole along with all of the characteristics
of a frog to become a cute little wad of
(31:08):
a creature. I I like his stubby little nose. He's uh,
he's character. I'm glad you see this frog is cute.
I see them as cute too. I think some people
might not see them as cute. Um, but they're wrong,
and we're objectively right. Oh. I do just want to
say that what we were talking about with the frog
that gives birth out of its back, it's called the
(31:29):
surinam toad. And tripophobia means when you have a sort
of visceral, unpleasant reaction to seeing a bunch of holes
or like a bunch of circles. It can even be
like if you see like soap bubbles. That can sometimes
triger it for people. Um, but I think, yeah, we
did talk about the surname toad on one episode, and
(31:49):
I had a warning for people who have typophobia because
it is one of the worst examples of that. I think, Um,
but yeah, no, fortunately, yes, fortunately, the purple frog does
not trigger triple phobia. It's just a weird purple thing.
Like it's bad. It's so interestingly shaped because it's back
(32:10):
is like it's so like kind of flabby, and it
looks like it's got a backwards But to me. Yeah,
and that pink little nose, and and it's its head
is so tiny compared to the rest of its body. Yeah,
I find it. I find it weirdly cute as well.
They are really interesting too in terms of their behavior.
(32:31):
So these guys live in the Western Ghats, which is
a mountain range in India where it spends most of
its time underground until the monsoon season, when they emerge
as rainwater streams form. Uh. So they live most of
their life underground, and they can be totally autonomous under
(32:55):
there because they feed on termites underground, they don't really
need to surface for anything until it's mating season. So
once it gets raining outside, they will come up to
have a big old purple frog or g which is
just incredible. So the males will actually stay slightly under
(33:17):
the surface of the soil and will call to females
by filling their vocal sacks with air and vibrating the earth,
creating a miniature love earthquake that females will come to.
And the male is like about half the size of
a female, so they're little guys, and so they'll crawl
(33:37):
up over this like enormous female. I'm looking at this
image of the male on the female and the way,
like the way her skin dimples under the weight of
him is exactly how I imagine like the flesh specifically
of like Java the hut to be. Yeah. Uh yeah,
(34:01):
it's like it's like kind of rubbery in a weird way.
It's rubbery, but it looks lady. Yeah, yeah, it looks
kind of fun, you know, like a bouncy castle. Like
if like you're a male and you're mating with a
female and you start bouncing and she's like, hey, come on,
you know, I'm a I'm a I'm a I'm your lover,
not a bouncy castle. Settle down. But yeah, I mean
(34:23):
these frogs aren't overall, they're not like that big. They're
only like a couple inches big more or less. But yeah,
like it is to see the difference in size, like
just this little tiny male like trying to get up
over this big blob of a female. It's it's very
cute in my opinion. Um, And so whence they mate,
(34:44):
the female can produce around three thousand eggs, which is
pretty good, pretty good, pretty good a rate of egg return.
And the tadpoles are just as weird looking as the
adults in my opinion. They have these big f at
heads and they have section cups on their underbellies which
they used to cling to slimy algae covered rocks. Uh.
(35:07):
And they're not purple. The tadpoles are sort of like
yellow and brownish kind of coloration to match the color
of the algae as a form of camouflage. But yeah,
they just uh kind of like sucker onto that. And
they also have kind of a funny face. They've got
these eyeballs on the top of their heads and then
they just kind of have like a pancake face and
(35:29):
then little tails. It's really funny. They look like my
favorite little guys. They look like man raise. Yeah, they
do a little bit. I'm trying to remember the one
that's in a guitar shape and if it's called guitar fish,
and would be mad at myself. Uh, but it's specifically
I remember because at the Long Beach Aquarium they have
a tank it's full of like a bunch of little
banner raise. But there's just one that's in that guitar shape.
(35:52):
I mean, there is a fish called the guitar fish.
That's that might be what you're thinking of you're thinking of,
I think you're spot on. I got very familiar with
everything at the touch Tanks, so the Long Beach Aquarium
to where like I knew exactly every single tank and
why it had been moved. Uh, the nurse shark had
been in. I love that. I love that you're a
(36:16):
touch tank groupie. I was as well for the Birch
Aquarium in Lajoya. I there they have this like outdoor
tide pool area where you can like put your hands
in and it's mostly for kids, but like even as
an adult, I'm like, I must gently touch you see
urchin even now, like I take my niece and I
(36:36):
spend more time and like when that was a thing,
I like spend more time in it than she was,
and I like asked too many questions about every specific
one and very dumb. But the nurse shark at the
Long Beach Aquarium had to be moved not because of
a child, but because of an adult. Because most children
understand that you can like pretty easily, like in a
smaller tank, just like touch the top of a nurse
(36:57):
shark without having doing anything, because they're like pretty docile
um and they're like but just don't read your hands
under because of the way they feed. They like sex
stuff up um. And an adult man stuck his hands
underneath the north shark and with his fingers tried to
look for its mouth because he wanted to see if
that was correct. And your shark does and it like
(37:17):
it didn't. He didn't lose any fingers. It just like
skinned his knuckles because it's like running your fingers across gravel.
But he ruined it for all the children, for everyone, like, oh,
I'm gonna see where its mouth is and put my
fingers in its mouth Like okay, buddy, Like that is
completely on you, you know what I mean. Now she's
(37:38):
not the touch tank anymore. She's with the other sharks.
Not her fault. He did nothing wrong. She thought you
were shrimps. Sir, sir, you're literally saying your finger food
and he took you up on it. Did nothing wrong. Ah,
that's that's annoying. But yeah, that is uh, that is
(38:00):
the tail of the purple frog. I think they're just
they're one of these animals. I like that you mentioned
job of the hut because they do look like sort
of a Jim Hinson creation to me, just like some
kind of like little inflatable thing made out of rubber
that shouldn't be real. I also love their bodies are
designed for burrowing, not for moving along the ground, so
(38:24):
they really don't look like they should be able to
walk very well. And indeed they don't really walk very
well because they are like their body is kind of
like shovel shaped to be able to burrow and dig underground,
and so like above ground, they just look like a
weird little balloon with little nubby legs, just kind of
like dangling off that funny. I love it. While there's
(38:52):
only room in my heart enough for one purple frog
the cute blobs we've just discussed, there are a number
of frogs and toads who are perill in spectacular looking.
The papers stubb foot toad looks like a psychedelic Lisa
Frank poster with bright purple and black coloration, and the
South American polka dot tree frog, normally a chipper yellow color,
(39:15):
blows blue and purple under UV light. Man, I need
frogs like to rave. When we return, We're going to
give the X Men a much needed rebranding with some
real science. Humans may not be able to regrow whole limbs,
(39:35):
but a fingertip or toe tip can regrow if you
have enough of the nail bed left behind. In humans
and other mammals, if you have enough of the tissue
of the nail bed, the nail epithelium, you actually can
grow back part of the finger or toe. This part
of the digit is important because it contains stem cells
that allows for the regrowth of tissue. Meanwhile, in animals
(39:59):
that can fully grow back limbs, like salamanders, a chemical
signal at the wound site causes all the tissue in
the area to revert back to a group of immature
cells called the blasted emma, that can then differentiate and
grow into the missing parts of the limb. There's a
recent discovery, however, that may lead to more questions about
(40:21):
the evolution of limb regeneration. Uh so, Vanessa, do you like,
you know, X Men, Superheroes, so on and so forth?
Big fan? That's good? Yeah, I you know, I feel like, um,
(40:41):
Wolverine is cool, but I feel like he could use
like a makeover, you know what I mean, Because like
when you think about Wolverine, like the actual little animals,
like he doesn't you know, It's like just he doesn't
even really capitalize on what wolverines look like. And they
can't eat, like, wolverines can't even regenerate, so it's not accurate.
(41:03):
Like what what's the deal? Like? Why you know? It's like, oh,
I'm Wolverine. Why because you have because five burns? Because
you're you're from down under? Oh it's but he's not.
He's it's just the actor, right, who's just what's his name,
Hugh Jackman, who's from Australia. I forget because a lot
about Wolverine has changed because of Hugh Jackman's portrayal, because
(41:25):
he's now tall and he used to be a shorty
m hmm. Wolverine was five three until Hugh Jackman started
playing him. Wait is Hugh Jackman tall? I didn't get
that impression. I feel like he's definitely taller than five
three because I'm five three, uh, and anything standing near
me looks very tall and like he seems to be
(41:45):
in the movies about as tall as Scott Summers, right,
And Wolverine has always been a little guy. Well that's more.
That's more like it, right, because like Wolverines they're um,
you know, not they're not tiny, but they're little compact. Uh.
Characters are actually not from Australia that I think you're
thinking of the Tasmanian devil um, but the wolverine is
(42:08):
um found sort of in the northern hemisphere. But yeah,
they're there. I don't know. I would say they're about
like Bobcat sized and they're quite fierce, but they can't regenerate.
So I feel like we should go with an animal
can regenerate, And there is some recent news about a
new contender for animals who can regenerate, which is quite surprising,
(42:34):
And it turns out that alligators can regenerate, which is
incredible news. So we know that lizards can regenerate. We
know that amphibians that I mean all animals to a
certain extent canra generate, like even humans, like we can
grow back skin to a certain extent. But it's all
(42:54):
on sort of a spectrum of like you have like
salamanders that can like regrow whole body parts, and then
you have like lizards that can regrow their tails. And
it turns out that alligators can partially regrow their tails,
which is would make them the biggest animal that can
regrow a significant amount of their body that has been lost. Oh,
(43:19):
up to nine inches. I'm so happy for them. Yeah,
I know, it's just like nine inches nice. Um. Yes,
that is the amount of tail that a young alligator
can grow back, which is incredible. It's a good amount.
And like, do we know how much of tail they regrow,
(43:40):
like how much a skin versus like usable tail. That's
a really good question. So it is. It doesn't seem
to be skin and muscle. I'm not as certain about
how much of the bone grows back because that's actually
a tricky thing like they are. In fact, in some
reptiles and amphibians. Instead of bone, it's like cartilage because
(44:03):
that's easier to grow. I think for the alligators it's
mostly skin and muscle tissue. They can grow back some cartilage,
but it's unknown whether they can. It doesn't look like
they can grow backbone, but they may be able to
grow back some of their spinal cord. It's not clear, okay,
which is really quite impressive. And as a reminder, alligators
(44:26):
and crocodiles are not reptiles. They are crocodilians, which is
a different order of animals from reptiles, although they do
share common ancestor with reptiles. So the reason it's so
important for young alligators to be able to regrow their
tails is to allow them to remain mobile. So while
(44:48):
you wouldn't think of alligators as having to worry about predators,
young alligators are cute little snacks, like have you ever
seen them? Adorable, tasty, small, so they can actually be
eaten up by like a addict birds of prey. There
are all sorts of animals that would consider them a
good snack, So being able to quickly swim away from
a predator is really important. So there would be pressure
(45:10):
on them to be able to even if they lose
their tail, be able to regrow it so that they
can still use that to swim and escape predation. I
don't know why I didn't consider that to be like
such an important part of a alligator or crocodile. For
some reason, it was just like animal plus extra. In
(45:31):
my head is insane because I know, like, tails are
so important to so many other creatures, um and other
than like you know, maybe like using it when they
spin out to like rip off a piece. I was
just like, well, I feel like a stumpy alligator could
do pretty well, But that wasn't something considered. Yeah, I
mean it's yeah, it is. It tails do feel I
think because we don't have tails, who are like, oh,
(45:52):
it's just a little extra. It's like the animal and
then like animal plus extra. But yeah, it is. It
is very important for them to have for swimming. And again,
like we think of like when we see alligators, they're
kind of not necessarily quick and agile. They're sort of
like maybe lumbering or basking, but like little alligators have
to be very quick in order to survive and and
(46:15):
swim quite swiftly. This is a really recent discovery, so
it's not yet known whether adults regrow their tails or
can regenerate. My guests would be because there's less evolutionary
pressure on them to regenerate, maybe less likely that they would.
Uh maybe they can't. They probably can to a certain extent,
(46:35):
but I would guess that like with young alligators, especially
because they're still developing, it's probably much more likely that
the young ones um are able to regenerate more than
than older alligators. But we'll see, we don't know yet.
And it's also so their ability to regenerate is not
as advanced as lizards and amphibians, so they can't regrow
(46:55):
as much back as those other types of animals can.
And there's also no evidence that like, you know, like
with reptiles, they can detach their tail and then it
like wiggles around, which is called an autonomous tail or
self amputation. I don't I don't think there's any evidence
that like the tail like pops off and like wiggles
(47:15):
around on its own, right exactly. Geckos do that as well.
It's probably the case that like it's just like if
their tail gets damaged or eaten, like then they can
partially regrow it. But it is It's really interesting because again,
like they aren't reptiles, but they share a common ancestor
(47:37):
with reptiles. They actually share a common ancestor with reptiles
and dinosaurs. Um. Yeah, and the living dinosaurs of today
are birds. So birds are the only living example of
dinosaurs that we have. Uh. And birds don't regrow their tails,
(47:57):
Like if they're uh, you know, parts of their to
you are chopped off, they don't regrow them. So there's
a really interesting question to be explored where so lizards
can regrow their tails, um, and alligators uh who are
crocodilians can regrow their tails. So did dinosaurs at some
(48:18):
point have this ability, did they never have it um
or did they lose it like before we got to birds.
So it's a really interesting question and I will be
keeping an eye out for more news about that um.
But it's just so interesting to me how we can
learn something about an alligator of today, and then it
opens up all these questions about like dinosaurs, and we
(48:40):
have we still have birds around living examples of dinosaurs,
and so we can be like, hey, wait a minute,
you guys, you guys can't do this, so what the
heck what's going on? And then now we have all
of these open questions about dinosaurs to find out. I
love it. I love anything that just opens up a
opens up more questions and be reaffirmed that I don't
(49:01):
know anything and I never will know whatever will Yeah. No,
every time I do research for this podcast, I'm like, huh,
I don't know anything, which is exciting. Yeah, I can't.
I can't imagine every hitting a cap and being like, oh,
I've figured it out. That has to be so boring, right,
Like I know enough now I'm just gonna lie down
(49:22):
on the floor. That would only happen if I like
pooped out, I'm not kind of I'm not gonna do
a call back because it's in the If you guys
skip the growth section, it's call back to the growth section.
But that would make us stop wanting to learn. But
this makes me want to keep going right exactly exactly,
(49:42):
So before we finish up, I want to read a
listener email. I kind of want to do this more often.
You guys are sending in some really excellent emails, and
I feel like it's selfish of me to keep them
all to myself because they have some really interesting things.
You guys also show being cute pet pictures, which I love.
I'm keeping those all to myself. I'm not sharing those.
(50:03):
Those are amazing. Um so, you know, suck at everyone else,
but I will share. Uh this email that I got
um from a park ranger and I was like super
fan girling, amazed that a park ranger is listening to
the podcast, so so cool. Um. So yeah, this is
(50:25):
her email and it is a fascinating story of some
horny bees. So Barbara Mitchell, park ranger of the Mohave
National Preserve Rights. Hi, Katie, I'm a huge fan of
the podcast. Thank you, for saying nice things about me.
She says that, Um, anyway, on the latest episode, uh,
(50:49):
the one about b movie, you mentioned that idiot horn
dog mail bees sometimes try to mate with orchids. At
my current park, the Mohave National Preserve, we also have
idiot horn dog male bees that try to mate with
inappropriate objects. Since you strike me as a lady who
likes knowing things, I thought i'd pass along the knowledge.
(51:09):
That was a good guess I am. I mean, I'm
a lady who likes no stuff. When blister beetles of
the species Mellot franciscanis francis cannis is probably right hatch
the larva arrange into a tight ball on top of
a grass stock and attract passing male bees using pheromones.
(51:31):
When a bee arrives and tries to mate with the
bundle of larva, sigh, the blister beetles hold tight onto
his fuzzy little body. Apparently, if a writhing ball of
larva smell like a lady bee, that's enough to convince
the male that it is a lady be. The male bee,
now covered with larva, continues looking for a female bee
(51:54):
because his wiener hasn't exploded. Yet, if he finds one
and mates with her, the low Francis Canis larva transferred
to the lady be Then when she flies back to
her nest, the blister beetle larva steals the bees pollen
and provisions also fun. When the male bee is covered
in malow frances Canis larva, he has to avoid other
(52:18):
male bees trying to mate with him because he smells
like a female due to the larva. That would also
make a much better movie than the B movies Courtroom Drama.
I agree with that deeply, so thank you so much, Barbara.
That is an incredible story. All include some images in
the show notes because it's so funny. But yeah, so
(52:41):
the this larva is they're they're like little tiny they
actually kind of look like ants. They aren't ants, uh,
and they are you know, basic larva shape, but they're
they're little tiny, kind of like grain of rice sized,
um reddish brown, and they form just like this cluster
that's just a blob. And the bee sees this and
(53:03):
it's like it smells like a lady and it's vaguely
blob shaped. So hey, I'm going in. It's like the
ultimate bee beer goggles. It's incredible and like, I can't
think of anything more reaffirming that in all nature, don't
don't let it, don't let any man let it be
be your human make you feel inferior because they're down
(53:26):
for a pile of larva, right right, not too discriminating. Yeah,
So like you're enough no matter what form you come in,
better than a pile of larva. Like if a pile
of larva can find love, anyone can, even whoever is
considering it. Yeah, so so there you go. You know,
(53:51):
idiot horned dog bees making finding love in the strangers
of places, even if it's an actual pile of larva,
who want to go and parasitize a bees nest? Amazing, wonderful, incredible,
Thank you so much for for that email, Barbara. Um
(54:13):
And yeah, if anyone else wants to send me a
listener email. I think I'll do more of this reading
it on the show if you guys like it, because yeah,
I think sometimes you guys spend in such interesting stories
that I just have to share it. So yeah, I
think we I think we've done it. We've gone from
living tampons two bees that try to mate with balls
(54:34):
of Larva, So I think that'll do it for today.
Thank you so much for joining me, Vanessa. Do you
have anything to plug other than your cinematic venture to
digitize your Shark movie that you made with her and
or Herzog when you were tenure hol Uh. Yeah, I
have a podcast as well called Kicking and Streaming. Um.
(54:57):
If you like either horror movies or martial arts movies. Uh.
We put them together because we think that they're basically
peanutter and chocolate, so if you love one, you'll probably
like the other one. They hit a lot of the
same notes. Uh. And we try and basically challenge each
other to double features each week. So one person picks
a movie and then the other one tries to find
a pairing for it, and then we name that pairing
(55:18):
and come up with what you would have at concessions
with that pairing. And sometimes they're real concession stuff and
a lot of the times they aren't. But I've had
a ton of fun doing it, and it's basically like
brought back the feelings of sitting in a Denny's talking
about movies with your friends that I've like, deeply missed
in Quarantine. So check it out. We have a couple.
(55:41):
We have a lot of episodes that I really like
and some coming up that are absolutely bonkers. So cannot wait.
That's amazing. Can you guys talk about Slither? Not yet,
glad if you want to be on and bring it forward,
make it a promise to come on for Slyther and
s they tampons. Yes, incredible, definitely if you like this episode,
(56:05):
I bet you're gonna like the nest of podcast. We
get gross. But yeah, where where can people find you?
On the social media? You can find me under at
ne scritten still gotta get that last name changed under
all farms of social media. And you can find my
podcast Kicking and Screaming under kickscreen Pot on all farms
of Circles at Well. And you can find us on
(56:26):
the internet at Creature Feature Pod on Instagram at Creature
feet Pot on Twitter. That's f a t not et
that is something very different. You can also email me
at Creature Feature Pod at gmail dot com. And I
am Katie Golden. I have a Twitter. It's Katie Golden
on Twitter. And as always I'm also a pro bird
(56:49):
writes where you know I'm not secretly a group of
birds trying to get a bird agenda through the podcast industry.
That's and that's just ridiculous. Shane. Anyways, thank you guys
so much for listening. If you're enjoying the show, please
(57:09):
leave rating, click on the stars. And yeah, thank you
so much for production for listening. You can't he can't
see me surely uh and thanks to the Space Classics
for their super awesome song Excelumina. Creature features a production
of I heart Radio. For more podcasts like the one
you just heard, visit the I heart Radio app Apple Podcasts,
(57:29):
or Hey, guess what where have you listened your favorite shows?
It's you next Wednesday.
Welcome to Creature future production of I Heart Radio. I'm
your host of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology
and evolutionary biology, and today on the show, the mystery
of bat Boy. Is the half bat half human really real? Okay,
I'm just kidding. We're not talking about bat Boy, but
we are talking about animals who are so utterly unbelievable.
(00:28):
They seem like hoaxes, living tampons that walk the earth,
purple blobs who walk under the earth, a new animal superhero,
and the weird sexcapades of corny bees. Discover this and
more as we answer the angel question, is that a
snorke will coming out of your butter? You just happy
to see me. Joining me today is shark lover and
(00:51):
host of Kicking and Screaming podcast, Vanessa Guerrero. Am I
love sharks. You're just telling me about how you have
an upcoming cinema feature of sharks that you made when
you were twelve years old. I think it was twelve,
but it might have been a little bit younger now
(01:13):
that I think about it, I might have been liked
ten um. When I was a child, I didn't like
writing assigned essays at all, But I did have a
video camera and I turned in an essay which was
basically just my mom filming me at an aquarium, uh,
but also me filming a documentary called air Jaws with
(01:35):
my own camera and geting at my classmates about how
they don't get sharks like I do, which I mean
makes I think of Werner Herzog started out about ten
years old too, So yeah, so me her Zog both
deeply alienating to our peers at ten uh with our
intensity and uh, I'm trying to find a way to
(01:57):
digitize it and put it out some there. Because watching
it at the age that I am now, immediately I
was like, all right, I immediately get why. Maybe I
was like a little bit hard to understand at the time,
but also like, I'm glad that I've held that same
affection for sharks. I don't know, I think you were
ahead of your time in in the sort of pro
(02:20):
shark movement, the shark acceptance movement. Shark Week came that.
I mean, we're about the same age, and I don't
remember Shark Week coming until like I was a little older.
So I feel like the the rebranding of Sharks giving
Sharks a better image had to come because people were
(02:41):
scared of sharks because of jaws. So yeah, I think
you were a true uh shark visionary, thank you. My
mother didn't think so. When I found a I can't
remember it was a lipstick or perfume, but it had
like an an ingredient that I read somewhere that was
originally derived from sharks. It hadn't been anymore, but I
just like, I have to flush it. Uh. She wasn't
(03:07):
a real real shark activist, like this has the blood
of sharks on it. Oh dare you? Mom? This this
shark crime. You go go to the grocery store, all
those little shark remember those shark gummies? The gummies like
shape like sharks, and you're just throwing them on the
ground like this is this advocates violence against sharks. It
(03:30):
means we eat them now. I actually saw a friend
make a cocktail using the shark gummies in it. Now,
and I've never felt like a glass of something was
more for me. It was just it was a shark
based cocktail. Gummy shark mm hmm. I what what was
the what did what bass was it with it? I
(03:52):
think the Lucarus house so it was like an ocean.
Oh that's nice. That's nice. Yeah. I think it was
like she called it drink bluesy. Okay, yeah, it's good.
I like that. That's a good one. So today we
are actually talking about some animal stories that sounds like
(04:14):
they are hoaxes, but they are not. It is a
the truth, but it is. It's stuff that when I
first thought, I was like, no, no, no, no, this
is this is a hoax, this is fake news. It's
been some kind of doctored video. But now no, it's
absolutely true, and so I'm very excited. There is a
(04:37):
viral video on Twitter that shows what looks like tampons
coming alive and crawling around in a public restroom. And
it's like, is it a parasite imitating a tampon and
looking for a human host. It's some kind of cross
breed between a mouse and a worm. Uh this? So
(05:01):
I sent you the link to the video. I'll have
it in the show notes. I guess a little bit
of a warning. It's it's a little gross to look at,
but it When I saw this, I was like, Okay,
this is like a deep fake. It's a some kind
of weird edit. But no, no, it's absolutely not. I
clicked it. I clicked it, And they're so bad. Like
(05:27):
in general, anything that has like that kind of crawl
motion where it's like that like pumpy long crawl thing, yeah,
always tends to like bog me out a little bit.
Yeah yeah. The undulating never never my favorite motion in
an insect. And uh, this is so much worse because
they are really tamponnie in a way that makes me
(05:50):
so happy I switched to the cup because these look
like weird candy uo for people that men straight. Yeah,
they look like an alien parasite that is mimicking the
look of a tampon to find a human host, like
from some kind of horror movie. But yeah, the the
(06:10):
undulating movement is also disconcerting. They actually have little legs
like a caterpillar, and they moved by sort of contracting
their legs in a wave motion, so that's how they
move around, and it's uh, you know, not not necessarily
great to look at. I would say the legs actually
add some comfort to me that they're not just like
(06:32):
inching around like the crutation slither right, Oh yeah, oh
god slither that movie. This actually reminds me of a
worm or caterpillar that I've spent my entire life trying
to figure out what it was. I described it to
people and nobody can like tell me what I was
looking at. But when I was a kid, I saw
like this just like green. It just looks like a
(06:54):
green caterpillar. And my little brother did the young boy thing,
which is okay, with a sticky and he poked it
and this red and I remembered how a white stripe
on it, This like red horn with like a white
stripe on the other end just started poking out slowly
out of the back of this green caterpillar until the
(07:16):
horn was about as long, if not a little bit
longer than the caterpillar. And it was one of the
most upsetting things I've ever seen in my whole life. Um,
I like, my parents weren't home, and I was just like,
I'm going to die here, even though it was just
a small worm. And to this day, I'm just like,
what was that caterpillar? What is a creature that like
excretes a red horn? That's interesting. I don't know off
(07:41):
the top of my head. I know that there are uh,
swallow tail caterpillars that have red horn protrusions. I don't
know of them like necessarily being telescoping. There's also a
moth that has these weird horns. Stood I'm going to
do a little bit of Google searching and then I'll
see if I can get that for you. I think.
I also I watched a lot of shows that were
(08:02):
about like parasites and worms and bought flies and things
like that when I was a kid, So the automatic
default for me and bugs were like, it's going to
crawl into my skin, even if it's not something that
does that. I think also like spending a lot of
my youth in Central America around bugs that are terrifying, Uh,
(08:23):
just gave me this like alarmist viewpoint of literally any
creepy crawley gritter. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think I've come
to peace with a lot of worms and parasites and
stuff just from like I guess, uh, taking classes on
it where I you know, you you have to sort
(08:44):
of like, oh, man, appreciate the evolutionary cleverness of them.
But yeah, I think, um, there is something like this
for me, like the smaller the parasite, the littler, and
like swigglier the worst because it's just like they can
get right in there. Yeah, like under a fingernail or something. Yeah, exactly.
(09:05):
So that's how my doom brain works. Where where where
were you? Like, where are you were you living when
this green caterpillar came into your life? I could say definitely.
I was in southern California at the time. Okay, it
wasn't like in Central America, where like I'd see something horrific,
but then my grandmar would be like, oh, I know
what that is, because that would happen a lot too.
Like I'd be like, because our baths weren't indoor, they
(09:26):
were like outdoor bathhouses that like everyone in the house
kind of shared for both laundry, bathing, and using the restroom.
Uh So I'd be like taking a bath and be like, hey,
a scorpion, that's probably the one that's okay, and my
mom would be like yeah, then my grandmother would be like,
why are you bathing with the poisonous scorpion? So, like
most of the ones that identified this was here in
(09:49):
southern California, so I had no clue. Yeah, yeah, no,
there's there's a lot of weird caterpillar behaviors. I think
it could have been I mean, it could have been
a swallow tail caterpillar. They definitely have sort of like
weird horns on them. There is so there's something called
an osmatarian which is a defensive organ that can actually
(10:14):
be averted from the caterpillar when it feels threatened. So
it kind of looks like these red horns. Let me
show you a picture. Let me see if this is
what you saw. I was going to drop this in
the document freak out if I finally get like, I
want to solve this mystery for you, I mean kind
of like that but red, and it was very long.
(10:34):
I mean it could be the same. This could be
just a different species of caterpillar doing the same thing.
So it's like inside the body. But then if you
like assault the caterpillar like your brother did, then it
will be averted, meaning like pushed out. And um, it's
meant to like smell kind of bad and like startle
predators smelled really bad. Really it was stinking. You solved it,
(11:00):
because that was the other part that like sent me
into panic, where like he was like, you, it stinks
all of a sudden, and I was like, what does
it smell? Is it poison or is it like fumes?
That's going to take over our bodies. Uh yeah, holy
sh it, you did it. Yeah, it's uh it is
found in swallow tail butterfly larva. We got it, We
(11:23):
did it, We got it. Salved. Your lifelong mystery, Salved,
did I like help you move past like your childhood
issues of like man, this like this caterpillar. It was
always a mystery and and grow as a person. Didn't
do it? We didn't. I think it is Also when
(11:43):
I was older and I learned about like Cordy Steps,
I was just like, was there a very specific like
fungus that took over that caterpillary? Don't about well? I
was thinking. I was thinking of like a horsehair worm
or or a nema toad, which can these parasites that
will take over crickets and spiders and stuff. I didn't
know of them taking over caterpillars necessarily, but the fact
(12:05):
that it's red like these these parasitic memontos are usually
like white colored. So um no, yeah, it's the osmetrium,
the defensive organ of the swallowtail caterpillars. So yes, we
did it, We solved it, gave it away. Unfortunately, we
have to move on back to these living tampons, so
(12:28):
that mystery, Wow, it gets even grosser. So these are
real animals, these things that look like crawling, wiggling tampons
with little feet, and they are called rat tailed maggots,
which is a beautiful name for a gorgeous, gorgeous animal.
(12:49):
I mean they gross me out less than a regular maggot. Yeah,
I mean, I think because they're so weird and different,
they don't trigger the gross out response in me as
much as the like, oh my god, am I looking
at an alien response? Like it's more of like a
quite There are elements of it that I definitely don't like.
But like, I think since my my primal brain so
(13:12):
deeply associates maggot with like this is bad for me
that because it looks more like alien than maggot, I'm like, well,
you're gross, but you're not going to make me gag, right, right,
it's not. It's like, okay, no, I didn't like leave
the trash out too long. It's an alien invasion, that's yeah.
So I'm not like disgusted. I'm just like, huh, okay,
we're going to get invaded by aliens, all right, I
(13:33):
accept that. I mean, the news has been weirder. To
be honest, despite their appearances, they're not necessarily parasites and
they are typically harmless. But we're actually gonna get to
some special cases in which they are not so harmless,
which is done undone um. So rat tailed maggots are
(13:57):
it's not just one species, there's a whole bunch of species,
but they are the larva of several hoverfly species. So
the rat tailed maggots are notable due to the long
rat tail that trails behind them, making them look like
the cross between a mouse, a worm, and a tampon. Uh.
(14:18):
The tail is actually a respiratory siphon that allows them
to breathe while submerged underwater. So as I was reaching
researching these things, I was like, they've got to have
some redeeming qualities that make them less gross or something.
But it turns out they like to live in stinky,
(14:39):
stagnant water. So like they spend the larval part of
their life cycle in oxygen low stagnant water, which is
often rich in organic material for them to feed on.
But because there's not that much oxygen in stagnant water,
they need that that respiratory siphon, that tail, that pokes
out of the water and allow as them to breathe.
(15:01):
So yeah, that's probably why they were found in that bathroom.
They were probably living in some sewage water, which is lovely,
and they are highly resistant to pollution, which allows them
to live in suspics and sewage. So you know, I
like them for that. Look, you know, they make it work,
(15:22):
and I have to respect it. You know. I feel
so much more tenderness for bugs now that try their damnedest.
I know, right, I'm like I had clothes mountain kind
of piling up where I wasn't folding my clothes, I
wasn't putting them in the laundry. I was just creating
sort of a clothes mountain. And I think of all
(15:43):
these insects that sort of cocoon themselves in like twigs
and mud and poop and stuff, and I'm like, you know,
are we so different? I've created a closed mountain. Like
I'll even like get you know, like pile clothes up
on my bed and then it's like, hey, it's more blanket,
right because it's clothes. And like I throw cat hair
(16:04):
in the mix, which is really not that she's not
as clean as i'd like to think she is, so
I'm rolling around in it too. You kind of have
to have plausible deniability with a cat or a dog
where you try not to think about how there's a
lot of butthole stuff going on where like it's poopy stuff,
like they've been licking their butt hole and then they
(16:26):
look there fur and then they rub all over you
and you you just have to have a little bit
of willful ignorance about, you know, the butt hoole factor.
But yeah, yeah, no, we're all we're living in garbage times.
So I feel like we should respect the garbage worm
um for really adapting to the garbage life, you know, yeah,
(16:49):
it's it's it embraces it in a way that many
us are still pretending is not the case, even though
who among us doesn't have a bag of chips from
the beginning of quarantine, like still rolling out in our homes, right,
and like you find a chip like on the couch,
and you're like, wait a minute, this isn't the same
chip type that I'm eating. It looks like a different chip,
(17:09):
But then you eat it anyways, like plausible deniability. Yeah,
I'm eating derritos now, Yes, this is a pretzel and
it's it's hard as a rock, but I'm I'm still
gonna eat it. You know, I'm trapped in my little
I'm trapped in my little stagnant water hovel, right exactly.
I mean we respected the teenage mutant ninja turtles and
they lived in sewage in eight pizza. Why not respect
(17:32):
rat tailed maggots, you know, living their life with their
with their with their sewage snorkels. So even better that snorkel,
that tail really is a tail. It comes out of
their posterior end, meaning the butt end. So they breathe
through a snorkel out of their butt while they live
(17:55):
in sewage. So you know, I again respect, I respect
the commitment. They're not the only thing to breathe other
but two aren't they? I feel like there are more
things that breathe out of there. But yeah, actually, turtles
can do gas exchange out of their butts, so like
when it gets cold, they can do gas exchange out
(18:18):
of their butt while underwater. Good for them, Good for them?
How he is coming back to teenage mutant ninja turtles
because there's so many things, so many things. What can't
they do? They've got a techie, they've got Actually, all
I know is that they've got a techie. I forgot
what the personality types of the other ones are, but
(18:39):
they got a techy, a party, angry and blanket, a
grumpy and a sneezy and a sleepy. They're basically like
the horoscopes right right as thinking the snow white thing.
But yeah, there we go. So rat tailed maggots actually
(19:02):
are the larval form of the hover fly, as I've
mentioned before, and the adult form of these weirdos are
actually pretty innocuous looking. Hover flies look like bees, they
are not bees. They're actually being mimics, and they use
the uh black and white stripes of the bees to
(19:24):
trick other animals into thinking that they've got a stinger
and that they shouldn't be messed with. But they are
actually harmless and cute, little fuzzy, just like be pretenders,
little bee wanna bees, so it is these wanna bees.
So yeah, they actually their adult forms are actually quite
nice looking, quite lovely, um, which it's pretty funny that
(19:47):
they come from, you know, such sort of horrific alien beginnings,
and then it's like and yeah, I'm a widow bee.
Yeah that's kind of inspiring. Where it's just like, you know,
you could be anything, even a b Yeah, you can
start life as a weird alien, uh living tampon who
(20:08):
likes to live in filth and breathes out of a
tube that comes out of your butt and grow into
a bee. I wanna be with no stinger, a liar
align be. Yeah, I love that for them. M hm,
I do too good for them. Um. So, like I
was saying earlier, they are mostly harmless, but there have
(20:29):
been a few documented cases of illness and humans related
to them. So I think this section gets gross enough
to have like a content warning, like it's gonna get
a little gross, a little little like you know, parent
parasite grossness. So if you don't want to hear that,
I'm gonna have Future Katie put in the time stamp
(20:50):
of where you can jump ahead to skip all that,
like if you're eating lunch or you're like, you know what,
I just don't want to know what these these little
tamp on things get up to inside of human body,
So I understand that. So yeah, jump ahead to what
future Katie is saying. Now. All right, so Vanessa, I'm
(21:11):
sorry you have to stay around for this day and
everyone else who has chosen to listen um. So typically speaking,
rat tailed maggots are not parasites. However, that doesn't mean
that sometimes they can't adapt and just live the parasite
life like an improv you know, like you gotta you
gotta roll with punches, gotta you gotta improv, improv everywhere,
(21:35):
and sometimes that means being a parasite. So there have
been a handful of documented cases of myiasis, which means
the infection of skin and tissue by fly larva. So
an example of myiasis would be a maggot like living
in a flesh wound or something. So when certain species
(21:59):
of at tailed maggot somehow ends up inside a humans
digestive system, they seem to be able to feed off
of the intestinal lining and survive. So yep, it's pretty gross.
This type of parasitism is called facultative because it's not necessary.
So there's obligate parasites like a tape worm that needs
(22:22):
to be a parasite in order to complete its life
life cycle. But there's also facultative parasites who it's basically
you know, they're seeing which way the winds bull and
like you know, today they'll be a parasite tomorrow. They
don't necessarily need to be a parasite. Uh. They respond
to changes in their environment. So if you ingest one
of these guys and they're like, hi, I'm like inside
a human Oh well, I guess I'll be a parasite then.
(22:46):
So that's what these rat tailed maggots do. They wind
up in a human body, usually when a person unwittingly
drinks or eat something that has been contaminated, and then
they just like you know, will go through their larval
stages inside of the intestinal system and then you will
eventually poop them out. Uh. So you cannot imagine that
(23:07):
hanging out in a bowl. No, I can't. I mean, okay,
So to get really gross, Like I was reading a
case study of this woman and she had been having
digestive problems like diarrhea, cramping, intestinal distress, all these things
that seemed to be indicative of like um, some kind
of inflammatory bowel disease. But like she like pooped out
(23:34):
this thing and she's like, huh, that seems medically significant.
So she brought it into the doctor and they put
it under an electron microscope to see like they like
looked studied it like looked at its mouth parts and stuff,
and like we're able to pinpoint the specific species of
rat tailed maggot that it was, which is Aristolis tin x,
(23:57):
which sounds a lot fancier and cooler than rat tailed maggot.
But yeah, it's just like I can't imagine though. I
like if I if I pooped out a living tamp on,
I would just be like, Okay, no, no, I'm just
that's it. That's it. I'm shutting down. I'm shutting it
all down. Going back to bed today, that's when I
(24:18):
just lay down and I don't I don't stand up again,
and then everybody asks what are you're doing? And I'm like,
I'm just gonna lay here for the rest of my life.
I'm just gonna take a take a lie down on
the ground for you know, a while, you know, just
like it's gonna take a lie down, think about things,
think about the universe. It's got a lot, it's I
(24:39):
feel like it's a life changing experience. Back from that
the same. I don't think you do. I don't think
you necessarily come back from that worse, But you don't
come back from it the same. Yeah, you're changed forever.
You're changed person. Um so, yeah, so basically that's how
(25:00):
you find out, like if a rat tailed maggot is
using you as like an intestinal airbnb is if you
poop it out, otherwise you will be having inflammatory bowels symptoms.
But really, guys, don't worry about this happening to you.
There's literally just like handfuls of case studies of this,
so it is extremely unlikely it's going to happen to you.
(25:24):
But yeah, I mean, if you drink poopy water and
then you know, start feeling bad, it's a possibility you
got the rat tails, a case of the old the
old jumping tampons as they like to call it. Nobody
calls it that. Um yeah. So, like these cases of
accidental parasitism aren't typically life threatening, but you know, it's
(25:47):
distressing and gross, uh and unfortunate. Um so yeah, that's
I think that's it for the gross talk. So I'm
gonna welcome everyone back to to the podcast. Everyone who
decided to take a quick vacation from grossness. I don't
blame you. Yeah, yeah, you know, we'll talk about talk
(26:08):
about nicer things like, uh, well, okay, I guess the
next thing we're going to talk about when we get
back from the break, isn't like cute, like poppy cute.
But if you squint and think about it really hard,
maybe it's cute. Maybe I don't know. Anyways, we're going
to take a quick break and we will be right
(26:28):
back with our next animal. That looks like a hoax.
But guess what it's not. It's real. I know what
you're thinking, Katie. Is there another nightmarish larvae I should
know about? Glad Yes, Hercules beat A larvae are some
of the biggest grubs you'll find on the planet. They
(26:48):
can grow to be up to five inches or eleven
centimeters and are as thick as a sausage. These grubs
have a lot to live up to because their adult form,
the hercules be Dle of Central American rainforests, is the
largest flying insect in the world and sports an intimidating
battle horn. When we return, we're going to talk about
(27:10):
a purple blob that has a lovely personality. While not
a hoax. The blobfish that lumpy pink fish with a
big ziggil nose and perpetual frown, gets an unfair wrap.
It's particularly lumpy appearance is due to it being transported
(27:30):
from the high pressure depths of the sea to the surface,
where the difference in pressure causes it to kind of explode.
Just goes to show you you can't believe everything you
see on fish Degram. But there is a terrestrial blob
creature who really is as lumpy and blobbly as it
appears in photos. Vanessa, if I told you there is
(27:53):
a species of big purple blobs who live underground, who
have pig noses, tiny little weener heads, and create many
earthquakes in order to mate, what would you say to that,
I'd say, sign me up. I love it. I love
that response. I love a rumbling animal. Consider yourself subscribed.
(28:17):
Because these guys exist, and they are called purple frogs. Now,
I want you to take whatever image you have of
a purple frog and delete it, because I guarantee you
if you've never seen an actual purple frog, and you
have some image of like a little like kermit frog
who just happens to be purple like in your head,
(28:39):
it's wrong. Delete that image and let me build it
anew for you by painting a mental picture for you.
So imagine like a human liver that's like kind of chunky,
and then now give it stubby little legs, a tiny
(29:00):
winky head with like a little fleshy beak that ends
in sort of a pig nosed type thing, and then
its shoulders are so like big and floppy. It kind
of looks like it's got butt cheeks on its back,
and it's a slightly kind of purple ish move color,
and it's pretty slimy. See. Initially, when I used to
(29:21):
purple frog, I was thinking like poison dart frog, because like,
those guys are so vivid that it's very easy to
imagine that being literally any color. But I like, whatever
this little dude is. I think I've liked every frog
or toad I've ever seen, minus the one that's made
of nightmares. Um, I have triple phobia, So whatever the one,
(29:42):
Oh yeah, that one, the one that gives birth out
of its back. I'm trying to remember they were called,
but I saw them on a nature show in it
with my dad and I was a kid, and that's
how I learned a triple phobia, because I watched them
hatch and then I just barfed on my dad's lap,
which is about the same response that I have to
like lotus pods or just anything that looks similarly but
(30:02):
like other than those guys. I like literally every uh
when I was a kid, I saw a cookie frog,
which is the frog of Puerto Rico because they make
the little cookie sounds. They're very loud, and they're very cute.
And my god, do Puerto Rican people love those guys
like a widowing cute. They're so tiny and their call
(30:24):
is beyond cute because it literally sounds like they're saying
the word cookie um, and they're adorable. Like you'll you'll
hear like lyrics from different Puerto Rican artists being like
all right, but give it up for the cookies though,
and like what frog is shouted out in a bunch
of songs. They're so cute too, with their sound pouch
(30:45):
like inflated, like this little tiny frogs like I'm gonna
give you a sound that's gonna blow your mind. They're
gonna blow your mind. And like I saw this little
purple frog, and I'm like, that's a charming frog. That's
a charming frog that has taken on all of the
characteristics of a mole along with all of the characteristics
of a frog to become a cute little wad of
(31:08):
a creature. I I like his stubby little nose. He's uh,
he's character. I'm glad you see this frog is cute.
I see them as cute too. I think some people
might not see them as cute. Um, but they're wrong,
and we're objectively right. Oh. I do just want to
say that what we were talking about with the frog
that gives birth out of its back, it's called the
(31:29):
surinam toad. And tripophobia means when you have a sort
of visceral, unpleasant reaction to seeing a bunch of holes
or like a bunch of circles. It can even be
like if you see like soap bubbles. That can sometimes
triger it for people. Um, but I think, yeah, we
did talk about the surname toad on one episode, and
(31:49):
I had a warning for people who have typophobia because
it is one of the worst examples of that. I think, Um,
but yeah, no, fortunately, yes, fortunately, the purple frog does
not trigger triple phobia. It's just a weird purple thing.
Like it's bad. It's so interestingly shaped because it's back
(32:10):
is like it's so like kind of flabby, and it
looks like it's got a backwards But to me. Yeah,
and that pink little nose, and and it's its head
is so tiny compared to the rest of its body. Yeah,
I find it. I find it weirdly cute as well.
They are really interesting too in terms of their behavior.
(32:31):
So these guys live in the Western Ghats, which is
a mountain range in India where it spends most of
its time underground until the monsoon season, when they emerge
as rainwater streams form. Uh. So they live most of
their life underground, and they can be totally autonomous under
(32:55):
there because they feed on termites underground, they don't really
need to surface for anything until it's mating season. So
once it gets raining outside, they will come up to
have a big old purple frog or g which is
just incredible. So the males will actually stay slightly under
(33:17):
the surface of the soil and will call to females
by filling their vocal sacks with air and vibrating the earth,
creating a miniature love earthquake that females will come to.
And the male is like about half the size of
a female, so they're little guys, and so they'll crawl
(33:37):
up over this like enormous female. I'm looking at this
image of the male on the female and the way,
like the way her skin dimples under the weight of
him is exactly how I imagine like the flesh specifically
of like Java the hut to be. Yeah. Uh yeah,
(34:01):
it's like it's like kind of rubbery in a weird way.
It's rubbery, but it looks lady. Yeah, yeah, it looks
kind of fun, you know, like a bouncy castle. Like
if like you're a male and you're mating with a
female and you start bouncing and she's like, hey, come on,
you know, I'm a I'm a I'm a I'm your lover,
not a bouncy castle. Settle down. But yeah, I mean
(34:23):
these frogs aren't overall, they're not like that big. They're
only like a couple inches big more or less. But yeah,
like it is to see the difference in size, like
just this little tiny male like trying to get up
over this big blob of a female. It's it's very
cute in my opinion. Um, And so whence they mate,
(34:44):
the female can produce around three thousand eggs, which is
pretty good, pretty good, pretty good a rate of egg return.
And the tadpoles are just as weird looking as the
adults in my opinion. They have these big f at
heads and they have section cups on their underbellies which
they used to cling to slimy algae covered rocks. Uh.
(35:07):
And they're not purple. The tadpoles are sort of like
yellow and brownish kind of coloration to match the color
of the algae as a form of camouflage. But yeah,
they just uh kind of like sucker onto that. And
they also have kind of a funny face. They've got
these eyeballs on the top of their heads and then
they just kind of have like a pancake face and
(35:29):
then little tails. It's really funny. They look like my
favorite little guys. They look like man raise. Yeah, they
do a little bit. I'm trying to remember the one
that's in a guitar shape and if it's called guitar fish,
and would be mad at myself. Uh, but it's specifically
I remember because at the Long Beach Aquarium they have
a tank it's full of like a bunch of little
banner raise. But there's just one that's in that guitar shape.
(35:52):
I mean, there is a fish called the guitar fish.
That's that might be what you're thinking of you're thinking of,
I think you're spot on. I got very familiar with
everything at the touch Tanks, so the Long Beach Aquarium
to where like I knew exactly every single tank and
why it had been moved. Uh, the nurse shark had
been in. I love that. I love that you're a
(36:16):
touch tank groupie. I was as well for the Birch
Aquarium in Lajoya. I there they have this like outdoor
tide pool area where you can like put your hands
in and it's mostly for kids, but like even as
an adult, I'm like, I must gently touch you see
urchin even now, like I take my niece and I
(36:36):
spend more time and like when that was a thing,
I like spend more time in it than she was,
and I like asked too many questions about every specific
one and very dumb. But the nurse shark at the
Long Beach Aquarium had to be moved not because of
a child, but because of an adult. Because most children
understand that you can like pretty easily, like in a
smaller tank, just like touch the top of a nurse
(36:57):
shark without having doing anything, because they're like pretty docile
um and they're like but just don't read your hands
under because of the way they feed. They like sex
stuff up um. And an adult man stuck his hands
underneath the north shark and with his fingers tried to
look for its mouth because he wanted to see if
that was correct. And your shark does and it like
(37:17):
it didn't. He didn't lose any fingers. It just like
skinned his knuckles because it's like running your fingers across gravel.
But he ruined it for all the children, for everyone, like, oh,
I'm gonna see where its mouth is and put my
fingers in its mouth Like okay, buddy, Like that is
completely on you, you know what I mean. Now she's
(37:38):
not the touch tank anymore. She's with the other sharks.
Not her fault. He did nothing wrong. She thought you
were shrimps. Sir, sir, you're literally saying your finger food
and he took you up on it. Did nothing wrong. Ah,
that's that's annoying. But yeah, that is uh, that is
(38:00):
the tail of the purple frog. I think they're just
they're one of these animals. I like that you mentioned
job of the hut because they do look like sort
of a Jim Hinson creation to me, just like some
kind of like little inflatable thing made out of rubber
that shouldn't be real. I also love their bodies are
designed for burrowing, not for moving along the ground, so
(38:24):
they really don't look like they should be able to
walk very well. And indeed they don't really walk very
well because they are like their body is kind of
like shovel shaped to be able to burrow and dig underground,
and so like above ground, they just look like a
weird little balloon with little nubby legs, just kind of
like dangling off that funny. I love it. While there's
(38:52):
only room in my heart enough for one purple frog
the cute blobs we've just discussed, there are a number
of frogs and toads who are perill in spectacular looking.
The papers stubb foot toad looks like a psychedelic Lisa
Frank poster with bright purple and black coloration, and the
South American polka dot tree frog, normally a chipper yellow color,
(39:15):
blows blue and purple under UV light. Man, I need
frogs like to rave. When we return, We're going to
give the X Men a much needed rebranding with some
real science. Humans may not be able to regrow whole limbs,
(39:35):
but a fingertip or toe tip can regrow if you
have enough of the nail bed left behind. In humans
and other mammals, if you have enough of the tissue
of the nail bed, the nail epithelium, you actually can
grow back part of the finger or toe. This part
of the digit is important because it contains stem cells
that allows for the regrowth of tissue. Meanwhile, in animals
(39:59):
that can fully grow back limbs, like salamanders, a chemical
signal at the wound site causes all the tissue in
the area to revert back to a group of immature
cells called the blasted emma, that can then differentiate and
grow into the missing parts of the limb. There's a
recent discovery, however, that may lead to more questions about
(40:21):
the evolution of limb regeneration. Uh so, Vanessa, do you like,
you know, X Men, Superheroes, so on and so forth?
Big fan? That's good? Yeah, I you know, I feel like, um,
(40:41):
Wolverine is cool, but I feel like he could use
like a makeover, you know what I mean, Because like
when you think about Wolverine, like the actual little animals,
like he doesn't you know, It's like just he doesn't
even really capitalize on what wolverines look like. And they
can't eat, like, wolverines can't even regenerate, so it's not accurate.
(41:03):
Like what what's the deal? Like? Why you know? It's like, oh,
I'm Wolverine. Why because you have because five burns? Because
you're you're from down under? Oh it's but he's not.
He's it's just the actor, right, who's just what's his name,
Hugh Jackman, who's from Australia. I forget because a lot
about Wolverine has changed because of Hugh Jackman's portrayal, because
(41:25):
he's now tall and he used to be a shorty
m hmm. Wolverine was five three until Hugh Jackman started
playing him. Wait is Hugh Jackman tall? I didn't get
that impression. I feel like he's definitely taller than five
three because I'm five three, uh, and anything standing near
me looks very tall and like he seems to be
(41:45):
in the movies about as tall as Scott Summers, right,
And Wolverine has always been a little guy. Well that's more.
That's more like it, right, because like Wolverines they're um,
you know, not they're not tiny, but they're little compact. Uh.
Characters are actually not from Australia that I think you're
thinking of the Tasmanian devil um, but the wolverine is
(42:08):
um found sort of in the northern hemisphere. But yeah,
they're there. I don't know. I would say they're about
like Bobcat sized and they're quite fierce, but they can't regenerate.
So I feel like we should go with an animal
can regenerate, And there is some recent news about a
new contender for animals who can regenerate, which is quite surprising,
(42:34):
And it turns out that alligators can regenerate, which is
incredible news. So we know that lizards can regenerate. We
know that amphibians that I mean all animals to a
certain extent canra generate, like even humans, like we can
grow back skin to a certain extent. But it's all
(42:54):
on sort of a spectrum of like you have like
salamanders that can like regrow whole body parts, and then
you have like lizards that can regrow their tails. And
it turns out that alligators can partially regrow their tails,
which is would make them the biggest animal that can
regrow a significant amount of their body that has been lost. Oh,
(43:19):
up to nine inches. I'm so happy for them. Yeah,
I know, it's just like nine inches nice. Um. Yes,
that is the amount of tail that a young alligator
can grow back, which is incredible. It's a good amount.
And like, do we know how much of tail they regrow,
(43:40):
like how much a skin versus like usable tail. That's
a really good question. So it is. It doesn't seem
to be skin and muscle. I'm not as certain about
how much of the bone grows back because that's actually
a tricky thing like they are. In fact, in some
reptiles and amphibians. Instead of bone, it's like cartilage because
(44:03):
that's easier to grow. I think for the alligators it's
mostly skin and muscle tissue. They can grow back some cartilage,
but it's unknown whether they can. It doesn't look like
they can grow backbone, but they may be able to
grow back some of their spinal cord. It's not clear, okay,
which is really quite impressive. And as a reminder, alligators
(44:26):
and crocodiles are not reptiles. They are crocodilians, which is
a different order of animals from reptiles, although they do
share common ancestor with reptiles. So the reason it's so
important for young alligators to be able to regrow their
tails is to allow them to remain mobile. So while
(44:48):
you wouldn't think of alligators as having to worry about predators,
young alligators are cute little snacks, like have you ever
seen them? Adorable, tasty, small, so they can actually be
eaten up by like a addict birds of prey. There
are all sorts of animals that would consider them a
good snack, So being able to quickly swim away from
a predator is really important. So there would be pressure
(45:10):
on them to be able to even if they lose
their tail, be able to regrow it so that they
can still use that to swim and escape predation. I
don't know why I didn't consider that to be like
such an important part of a alligator or crocodile. For
some reason, it was just like animal plus extra. In
(45:31):
my head is insane because I know, like, tails are
so important to so many other creatures, um and other
than like you know, maybe like using it when they
spin out to like rip off a piece. I was
just like, well, I feel like a stumpy alligator could
do pretty well, But that wasn't something considered. Yeah, I
mean it's yeah, it is. It tails do feel I
think because we don't have tails, who are like, oh,
(45:52):
it's just a little extra. It's like the animal and
then like animal plus extra. But yeah, it is. It
is very important for them to have for swimming. And again,
like we think of like when we see alligators, they're
kind of not necessarily quick and agile. They're sort of
like maybe lumbering or basking, but like little alligators have
to be very quick in order to survive and and
(46:15):
swim quite swiftly. This is a really recent discovery, so
it's not yet known whether adults regrow their tails or
can regenerate. My guests would be because there's less evolutionary
pressure on them to regenerate, maybe less likely that they would.
Uh maybe they can't. They probably can to a certain extent,
(46:35):
but I would guess that like with young alligators, especially
because they're still developing, it's probably much more likely that
the young ones um are able to regenerate more than
than older alligators. But we'll see, we don't know yet.
And it's also so their ability to regenerate is not
as advanced as lizards and amphibians, so they can't regrow
(46:55):
as much back as those other types of animals can.
And there's also no evidence that like, you know, like
with reptiles, they can detach their tail and then it
like wiggles around, which is called an autonomous tail or
self amputation. I don't I don't think there's any evidence
that like the tail like pops off and like wiggles
(47:15):
around on its own, right exactly. Geckos do that as well.
It's probably the case that like it's just like if
their tail gets damaged or eaten, like then they can
partially regrow it. But it is It's really interesting because again,
like they aren't reptiles, but they share a common ancestor
(47:37):
with reptiles. They actually share a common ancestor with reptiles
and dinosaurs. Um. Yeah, and the living dinosaurs of today
are birds. So birds are the only living example of
dinosaurs that we have. Uh. And birds don't regrow their tails,
(47:57):
Like if they're uh, you know, parts of their to
you are chopped off, they don't regrow them. So there's
a really interesting question to be explored where so lizards
can regrow their tails, um, and alligators uh who are
crocodilians can regrow their tails. So did dinosaurs at some
(48:18):
point have this ability, did they never have it um
or did they lose it like before we got to birds.
So it's a really interesting question and I will be
keeping an eye out for more news about that um.
But it's just so interesting to me how we can
learn something about an alligator of today, and then it
opens up all these questions about like dinosaurs, and we
(48:40):
have we still have birds around living examples of dinosaurs,
and so we can be like, hey, wait a minute,
you guys, you guys can't do this, so what the
heck what's going on? And then now we have all
of these open questions about dinosaurs to find out. I
love it. I love anything that just opens up a
opens up more questions and be reaffirmed that I don't
(49:01):
know anything and I never will know whatever will Yeah. No,
every time I do research for this podcast, I'm like, huh,
I don't know anything, which is exciting. Yeah, I can't.
I can't imagine every hitting a cap and being like, oh,
I've figured it out. That has to be so boring, right,
Like I know enough now I'm just gonna lie down
(49:22):
on the floor. That would only happen if I like
pooped out, I'm not kind of I'm not gonna do
a call back because it's in the If you guys
skip the growth section, it's call back to the growth section.
But that would make us stop wanting to learn. But
this makes me want to keep going right exactly exactly,
(49:42):
So before we finish up, I want to read a
listener email. I kind of want to do this more often.
You guys are sending in some really excellent emails, and
I feel like it's selfish of me to keep them
all to myself because they have some really interesting things.
You guys also show being cute pet pictures, which I love.
I'm keeping those all to myself. I'm not sharing those.
(50:03):
Those are amazing. Um so, you know, suck at everyone else,
but I will share. Uh this email that I got
um from a park ranger and I was like super
fan girling, amazed that a park ranger is listening to
the podcast, so so cool. Um. So yeah, this is
(50:25):
her email and it is a fascinating story of some
horny bees. So Barbara Mitchell, park ranger of the Mohave
National Preserve Rights. Hi, Katie, I'm a huge fan of
the podcast. Thank you, for saying nice things about me.
She says that, Um, anyway, on the latest episode, uh,
(50:49):
the one about b movie, you mentioned that idiot horn
dog mail bees sometimes try to mate with orchids. At
my current park, the Mohave National Preserve, we also have
idiot horn dog male bees that try to mate with
inappropriate objects. Since you strike me as a lady who
likes knowing things, I thought i'd pass along the knowledge.
(51:09):
That was a good guess I am. I mean, I'm
a lady who likes no stuff. When blister beetles of
the species Mellot franciscanis francis cannis is probably right hatch
the larva arrange into a tight ball on top of
a grass stock and attract passing male bees using pheromones.
(51:31):
When a bee arrives and tries to mate with the
bundle of larva, sigh, the blister beetles hold tight onto
his fuzzy little body. Apparently, if a writhing ball of
larva smell like a lady bee, that's enough to convince
the male that it is a lady be. The male bee,
now covered with larva, continues looking for a female bee
(51:54):
because his wiener hasn't exploded. Yet, if he finds one
and mates with her, the low Francis Canis larva transferred
to the lady be Then when she flies back to
her nest, the blister beetle larva steals the bees pollen
and provisions also fun. When the male bee is covered
in malow frances Canis larva, he has to avoid other
(52:18):
male bees trying to mate with him because he smells
like a female due to the larva. That would also
make a much better movie than the B movies Courtroom Drama.
I agree with that deeply, so thank you so much, Barbara.
That is an incredible story. All include some images in
the show notes because it's so funny. But yeah, so
(52:41):
the this larva is they're they're like little tiny they
actually kind of look like ants. They aren't ants, uh,
and they are you know, basic larva shape, but they're
they're little tiny, kind of like grain of rice sized,
um reddish brown, and they form just like this cluster
that's just a blob. And the bee sees this and
(53:03):
it's like it smells like a lady and it's vaguely
blob shaped. So hey, I'm going in. It's like the
ultimate bee beer goggles. It's incredible and like, I can't
think of anything more reaffirming that in all nature, don't
don't let it, don't let any man let it be
be your human make you feel inferior because they're down
(53:26):
for a pile of larva, right right, not too discriminating. Yeah,
So like you're enough no matter what form you come in,
better than a pile of larva. Like if a pile
of larva can find love, anyone can, even whoever is
considering it. Yeah, so so there you go. You know,
(53:51):
idiot horned dog bees making finding love in the strangers
of places, even if it's an actual pile of larva,
who want to go and parasitize a bees nest? Amazing, wonderful, incredible,
Thank you so much for for that email, Barbara. Um
(54:13):
And yeah, if anyone else wants to send me a
listener email. I think I'll do more of this reading
it on the show if you guys like it, because yeah,
I think sometimes you guys spend in such interesting stories
that I just have to share it. So yeah, I
think we I think we've done it. We've gone from
living tampons two bees that try to mate with balls
(54:34):
of Larva, So I think that'll do it for today.
Thank you so much for joining me, Vanessa. Do you
have anything to plug other than your cinematic venture to
digitize your Shark movie that you made with her and
or Herzog when you were tenure hol Uh. Yeah, I
have a podcast as well called Kicking and Streaming. Um.
(54:57):
If you like either horror movies or martial arts movies. Uh.
We put them together because we think that they're basically
peanutter and chocolate, so if you love one, you'll probably
like the other one. They hit a lot of the
same notes. Uh. And we try and basically challenge each
other to double features each week. So one person picks
a movie and then the other one tries to find
a pairing for it, and then we name that pairing
(55:18):
and come up with what you would have at concessions
with that pairing. And sometimes they're real concession stuff and
a lot of the times they aren't. But I've had
a ton of fun doing it, and it's basically like
brought back the feelings of sitting in a Denny's talking
about movies with your friends that I've like, deeply missed
in Quarantine. So check it out. We have a couple.
(55:41):
We have a lot of episodes that I really like
and some coming up that are absolutely bonkers. So cannot wait.
That's amazing. Can you guys talk about Slither? Not yet,
glad if you want to be on and bring it forward,
make it a promise to come on for Slyther and
s they tampons. Yes, incredible, definitely if you like this episode,
(56:05):
I bet you're gonna like the nest of podcast. We
get gross. But yeah, where where can people find you?
On the social media? You can find me under at
ne scritten still gotta get that last name changed under
all farms of social media. And you can find my
podcast Kicking and Screaming under kickscreen Pot on all farms
of Circles at Well. And you can find us on
(56:26):
the internet at Creature Feature Pod on Instagram at Creature
feet Pot on Twitter. That's f a t not et
that is something very different. You can also email me
at Creature Feature Pod at gmail dot com. And I
am Katie Golden. I have a Twitter. It's Katie Golden
on Twitter. And as always I'm also a pro bird
(56:49):
writes where you know I'm not secretly a group of
birds trying to get a bird agenda through the podcast industry.
That's and that's just ridiculous. Shane. Anyways, thank you guys
so much for listening. If you're enjoying the show, please
(57:09):
leave rating, click on the stars. And yeah, thank you
so much for production for listening. You can't he can't
see me surely uh and thanks to the Space Classics
for their super awesome song Excelumina. Creature features a production
of I heart Radio. For more podcasts like the one
you just heard, visit the I heart Radio app Apple Podcasts,
(57:29):
or Hey, guess what where have you listened your favorite shows?
It's you next Wednesday.
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