BIG If True!

that's just me. Anyways, We're going to check out some animals that you would typically think of as being small but sometimes gets super large and very hunky chunky. From moths to snails, to frogs and pollywogs. These animals will give you a huge surprise to discover this and more as we answer the angel question could you carry a sea slug around in a baby Bjorn joining me today to talk about giant animals is regular sized human comedian

in Science with bulliv Ganalan. I just felt so good when you called me regular sized, like I'm supposed to be the way I am. You're just a human sized, correct, and I'm shaped the way I'm supposed to be, right, I mean, like there's a great diversity of human shapes and stuff, but like, hey, we won, We're in some of those shapes exactly. We're not like a a tiny rectangle. I wake up every day kind of happy that I didn't turn into a little rectangle. That's your coughka nightmare

is becoming a shape. Becoming a shape. Yeah, Like you know, if you turn into a giant cockroach, I think it's workable. You still have limbs, you still have eyes and sensory organs. If I turn into like a wake up and find I just turned conceptually into a trapezoid, that would suck, And I feel like it would be kind of fun though. Imagine all the places you could fit, you know, like

structurally a flat land or situation. Though, because if I'm two dimensional, everything is lines to me, which actually might make things simpler. Every time I see that in like animated shows where things go two D all of a sudden, just because they wanted to feature a new animator, it's kind of fun. It's definitely scary, and they usually portray

someone on drugs or something, but it's kind of fun. Yeah, I guess it would be fun, you know, like if I was given the chance to experience the two dimensional lifestyle, I think I probably take the wizard turning people into two dimensional things up on it. Yeah, just like a little vacaneto the two D world, you know, right right, But four D I don't know that way, that would get freaky. Yeah, I don't know. I'm down for anything. Hey, I'll do any dimension one TILIVI is open minded to

four dimensional fun. Just a three dimensional girl looking for some four dimensional that sounds like a bad category on an Internet that missed connections, the four dimensional trapezoid concept. I'm going to name that for my memoir. Well, today we are talking about dimensions. We're talking about animals who we typically think of as being small or medium sized but actually grow to be ridiculously big. And like, I think it's there's something interesting because it's not like these

are the biggest animals in the world. But when you think of a big animal, like a blue whale, it's like, oh yeah, like it's a skyscraper sized whale. Like I get it though, it's a blue whale. But when it's an animal that's like usually little and then it's suddenly really big, there's something almost more intimidating about that. It's like they are punching way above their their belt like it's it's unsettling. It is very unsettling because we're used

to seeing, especially with like creepy crawley things. At least the one thing about them is that they're small, so we can like feel like we have control over all of their little limbs and whatnot. But when they're big and and gross looking, that's some stuff out of like like a sci fi novel, you know, like it's it's it feels uncontrollable. Um, but it's cool. It's kind of cool because usually usually they're small and we just swatted them and then now they're like, nah, we're getting we're

getting big. Yeah, exactly. Well. The first animal we're talking about is the Hercules mop which is very aptly named. It is the biggest moth in the world, so it is found in Australia of course, of course. Uh. And it's got a wing span of over ten or twenty seven cimeters, so almost a foot long wingspan, which you know, when I think of a moth, I kind of think of the guys that liked flock around the lights outside. Are the ones that get in my closet and I've

got to chase away from my clothes. I don't think about something that could cover my entire face and then some oh wow, when you put it on your face like that, that's scary something. Now I'm imagining you're trying to breathe through them off. Um, I can see that in horror movie. I think you'd be very good at screaming with moth on your face in a horror movie. Thank you. Side note, don't buy moth balls. They are just poison and then you cannot find a way to

get rid of them. I was recommended to buy moth balls one time in my master's program, and then I just had I just possessed poison, which is bad. But I do not know this. I did not know this. What you should do is actually cedar, because cedar is not not that toxic take people, but it is unpleasant for moths. So if you use like they have cedar strips or cedar blocks, but not the actual poison mothballs, like, that's a lot better. Then it smells nice. Why do

they sell mothballs if they're seedar? Like, why is that a product that exist? They went on too hard with mothballs, and they were like, let's kill off some humans sized humans at the same time, and I didn't. I guess I wasn't thinking about the danger to humans with mothballs. But like, I have a dog, and I'm like, for sure she would eat a mothball immediately. That would be that would be her stomach, like hardly before I get

it out of the package. Like she would immediately somehow get that in her and we'd have to go to the vet. Like she knows. She is so drawn to anything that can hurt her, and she puts it in her mouth immediately. Scissors drop on the floor for a second. I feel that way. I feel what you just said about your dog putting stuff in her mouth that can hurt her. I feel that way about men. You know that's the wait men. So I get it, little dog, the moth balls as men. Yeah, um okay, I want

to say. And time I see a big moth though, that's I think the ultimate um revenge story. Because we're so racist against mobs. Is so nice to butterflies like we this is this is discrimination. It's rude, and I'm glad they're big and covering our faces. I mean they don't, but they should be because we're being We're just so mean to them. I always root for the underdog, Like my favorite bird is a pigeon. I don't like when people just randomly assign like a liking to certain certain insects.

You know, moths are chill, like they're just hanging out. Why are we so mean to them? Yeah, it's a popularity contest when it comes to animals often, and so insects often get the short end of the stick, and it is unfair that like certain insects were like, oh, lady bugs and butterflies, well they're the good ones, even though like they're definitely butterflies that if you put in

your mouth, will kill you. Will not kill you. Here that Katie's don't He's like, but yeah, I mean it's interesting because yeah, moths and butterflies are very very similar and they can actually honestly, there are moths to me that are some of the most beautiful examples of lepidoptery in the world. They're these vibrant colors and they're beautiful and they're like really fuzzy, fluffy, cute ones too. So I don't I don't get the moth hate, like sure,

I mean, like pantry moths are annoying. I don't like those and clothing moths are annoying. But when it's just a general thing of like I don't like any moth because you know, I'm weird and and hate cool things like moths. I just invented a person to be angry at. Well, that person exists. Many people hate hate moths. Moths. Uh teach us a lot of lessons, like go into the light. That's one that I need to be ready to enact at any moment. Right the end of our lives. Always

be expressing pharomounts like that's another one. That's another lesson. May be ep always be pheromones they teach you in business school, right exactly. But yeah, so so these moths are in addition to being huge there, I think quite pretty they as adults. They have this brown coloration with these interesting white markings kind of looks like, I don't know, an interesting piece of pottery or something. To me, it's it's really beautiful coloration. Yeah, yeah, like a like a

terra cotta sort of design. H and males have these long tails at the bottom of each wing that I think are quite pretty. Um also making them look even larger, just ridiculously huge, Like you put this thing. I feel like I could wear this as a top, Like it would cover my entire top side, which is both kind of cool but also a little intimidating. Yeah it's uh, I feel yeah, I feel like there would be a

pretty moths would be a pretty top. Um. I wouldn't want to kill, Like I wouldn't want to wear dead moths around or Ruella de Ville started, and I don't like it would because, like we just said, celebrate the moth, and now you're like, murder it clothes. Well, all right, let me explain some more about this moth and then we'll get to the where I could potentially wear this moth is clothing and not have it be evil. Well, first of all, let's let's talk about their life cycles.

So as caterpillars, they're really chunky as well. They grow up to be about five inches or twelve centimeters long, and they're this bright, beautiful blue with fleshy green spikes. Uh kind of looks to me like that leaked ghost prop for the new Ghostbusters movie, you know, the one I'm talking about, Like blue ghosts that's a bunch of like wrinkles and folds. Yeah, looks like that. It's like just this little it's like you know himlock from a

bug's life except yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's very wrinkly. It's like a Michelin Man in bugs form. Yes, yes, oh I love that, love that sleep paralysis demon Michelin Man in bug for me with a bunch of legs and spikes. But yeah, they're quite pretty in my opinion. Um, they actually spend most of their life as a caterpillar or as a cocoon, and a rather brief existence as an adult. So this is their main form, Like, this is most of their life is as this little chunky blue Michelin

spiky man. Yeah. So the caterpillar stage lasts for a couple of months and they spend that time bulking up immensely at an incredible rate. Uh. And then they wrapped themselves in a cocoon and this period of development can take from several months to over a year, just hanging out in the cocoon, developing into this giant behemoth of a moth. So finally, when they emerge as adults, they all have only about two weeks to mate and reproduce

because they don't eat. They don't even have fully developed mouth parts, so they can't use their mouths. Then they use all of these stored energy from their caterpillar stage to go out find someone to hook up with, lay eggs, and then die and then that's it. Okay, that sounds like a weekend for me, Like spend most of it just like cocooned up and just preparing mentally to get out there and then try to go like, don't eat when I'm out there because I'm trying to save money

or whatever. And then you know, try to hook up with somebody and then die at the end of the last part is still a risk. Yeah, Wow, what a life? What a life? Just trapped in a cocoon with your thoughts. I guess that's why they bulk up. That they're just eating a lot in there to distract themselves. They're actually a goo inside of the then, so like the first stage when they're they're a caterpillar, they're just constantly eating. That's their only job as the larva is to eat

and eat neat and hopefully not get eaten themselves. A Bug's Life did a great job of portraying that now that I think very accurate. The part where like he just turns into a giant caterpillar with tiny wings doesn't generally happen. There are some funny evolutionary instances of like especially with fasmids, which are stick bugs. Sometimes they have these little tiny of astigial wings that through evolution they've lost the need to fly, but they still have these

wings both for sexual selection and for defensive posturing. But it does look very much like him, like sort of like this giant stick bug, and then these tiny wing cell furiously flap at super cute. That's adorable, But as far as I know, there are no butterflies that have that tiny wing phenomenon. It's a really great life like eating, napping, and ten percent boning doesn't sound so bad, does it. Yeah,

I feel like that's like the average cat right. Well, it depends depends on whether they're fixed or not, but yeah, I mean and in terms of like when they're in the cocoon um and during metamorphosis for butterflies and months like they literally sort of de materialize, they turn onto a sort of goo protein goo that reforms u into a butterfly. The cells like turn into the sort of these like stem cell type things that like will regenerate into a full on butterfly or or moth, and the

brain seems to survive somewhat. So like there's like a cluster of cells that was their brain because they retain memory from Yeah, that's what I was wondering, Like they're whatever, not their consciousness, but whatever they're so um is like, so that's an afterlife for them basically, I mean yeah, because like they do dissolve and it's and there has been research showing that when you expose a caterpillar to a nasty a smell and then a nasty shock or something,

they will retain the aversion to the smell as adults. So they clearly retain memories. Why do they always have to be bad memories that were those are the most effective. Here's ice cream that you might have liked before. It's the most effective kind of memory because we we remember bad things much better than we remember good things. So that's a that's a good tip. Person's like when you're thinking back on the day, trying to remember all the

good things consciously, the afterlife, the afterlife is hell. It's like, what all the bad stuff that we remember? That's what I'm learning. They turn into a goo and then we transform into beauty our word creatures that only remembers our worst nightmares. Yeah, exactly if if we were a moth. So yeah, so that is the hercules moth lifestyle. So I feel like they basically have two weeks to mate and then they die. And then it's like, look, that's a pretty short life. I don't like, I wouldn't mind.

Let's get shorter. No, I'm saying, once they die, I will wear them as a shirt. Like, it's not me murdering them, it's okay, waiting like stalking the wings for their wings, right, it's stalking, seeing when they mate, and then seeing when they keel over and die, and then wearing them as clothes. That, um, it sounds like a wonderful scene in Psycho. But that's like I mean when they when why am I? Why am I forgetting like bug scientists? What are they called? Lepidopterus? Lepidopterus like when

they put specifically the study of butterflies and moths. Yeah, when they put the little pins in them and where like you could just put those pins right into clothes right like where they're exactly just so them right up. Yeah, And so what's interesting about these beautiful markings that I would love to wear is the Cruella Deville of moths is that they seemed to look a little bit like

cryptic markings, but they're a little vague. Um. So to really see what these markings can accomplish, you have to take a look at another large moth in the same moth family, the Atlas moth, who has much more distinct markings that are similar to the Hercules mark moth, where you can really see like what these markings are supposed to be. So in the Hercules moth, it kind of looks like these sort of like white spots and then this vague interesting pattern on the tips of their wings,

but the Atlas moth has a lot more detail. Generally it's a little smaller. It's the second biggest moth in terms of wing surface area though, so they're still big and fluttery. So they live in dry rainforests in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and East Asia. They are very similar looking in terms of their markings to the Hercules moth, but it's just much and much like higher definitions, so that allows us to kind of see what these markings are really meant to portray. It's wingspan is a little over

nine inches or twenty four cimeters. Meanwhile, its body is comically tiny. It's like this little, tiny, fat body which is really really small compared to its huge wings. And I find it hilarious. It's kind of like a reverse Heimlich character from Bugs Life, where he's got the tiny wings in the big body. It's got the huge wings in a tiny body. The wings are really interesting because the tips of the wings look like snakes to me,

snakes with eyes. That's exactly what they're supposed to look like. And that's exactly right the job little guy. Yeah, no, it's this is what I mean. Like with the Hercules moth, they actually have a somewhat similar pattern on their their the tips of their wings, but it's a little bit less clear. With the Atlas moth, it is stunningly clear

that these are supposed to be snakes. Like the level of detail is you can see an eye, you can see a like a snout, and you can see a mouth of a snake, and they are shaped like a snake head. So the tips of their wings kind of jet out in this little oval area and it looks like a pair of snakeheads are growing out of the moth's wing tips. That's the level of detail and shape

that you have to these snakeheads. And indeed these are used to ward off predators, mainly birds, because once they when they start to letter and shake their wings a little bit, it looks like these two snakeheads suddenly sprouted from this moth and are and are moving towards the bird, and the bird like panics and runs away. This is becoming more and more like a bug's life, isn't it. I know they did good. They did a good job. Good job of bugs life. This podcast episode brought to

you but bugs check out Pixar's new movie, Luca. Uh. I don't even know what their new movie was. Yeah, well I am paid by them. No, I'm not. I'm not in a bug's life. They make a fake bird to scare off the grasshoppers, and it's a fake snake to scare off birds. It's interesting. They're somewhat distant ish cousins to the Hercules moth. Their life cycle is somewhat similar. They're adult forms like the Hercules moth. Also don't really have mouth parts and they don't eat like the Hercules

moth and live only a few days. Because they're smaller, they probably can't live as long because they don't store as much energy. So basically, the bigger you are, the slower your metabolism. The more stored energy you have, the

less frequently you'll need to eat. Even though if you are um a big animal and you want to live past a couple of weeks, you will need to eat, and you'll need to eat great quantities, but your metabolism is shorter, So it's or your metabolism is slower than a tiny animal that needs to like eat constantly small amounts to maintain its energy levels. So with this moth, it makes sense that it would live a bit less longer than the Hercules moth because it just it doesn't

eat and then it just dies. It's like, you know, I did all my eating when I was just a chunky little caterpillar. This is like my mom's worst nightmare. It's just like you're not eating and then you die. This is what happens to you. This is what happens when you when you have sex and you don't eat. Yeah, exactly. My mom's like, this is a this is a moth on drugs, but yeah, it is. It is so interesting because in addition to its wingtips looking exactly like snakes.

They definitely put on a really good performance. So when they're threatened that they'll drop to the ground and start to flutter its wings, so it looks like the snakeheads are writhing around and it really puts on a Daniel day Lewis Oscar winning performance. Uh, really annoying on set, demanding, everyone calls it a snake and you know, like but

worth it, final product, worth it. Um. That explains a lot because in so many like movies and things, you see not necessarily moths, but like butterflies or something landing and they flutter their wings a lot, and that makes a lot of sense. No, yeah, yeah. Insects used to

get even bigger back in prehistoric times. Dragonflies, known as griffin flies in the Late Permian period two hundred seventy five million years ago had a wingspan of over two point five ft seventy five cimeters and weighed over a pound or four hundred and fifty grams and or basically the size of crows. Why could insects get so huge

back then? One theory is the higher oxygen content on Earth at the time allowed for greater invertebrate growth due to the way they breathe with numerous force respiratory openings over their body. A larger surface area would require a higher concentration of oxygen in order to effectively diffuse the oxygen throughout their large bodies. Another compatible theory is that as soon as birds evolved, they basically ruined large insects chance of survival. Even if there was enough oxygen to

stain the insects bodies. Bigger insects would be less quick and nimbles than smaller insects, and would be easy prey for the dinosaurs that had just discovered the power of flights. When we return, things are about to get really slimy with some giant gastro pods. One of the largest animals in the world is actually a distant relative of the

common garden snails. The colossal squid, which reaches a length of over thirty ft or ten meters and can weigh over one thousand pounds or five is a member of the mollusk phylum. Mollusks includes everything from clams to octopuses and squids to terrestrial snails and slugs. Cephalopods, the class that include squids, octopuses, cuttlefish, and Nautilus is maybe the most cognitively advanced of the mollusks, but when it comes to size, there are other molluscs who can get surprisingly large.

So do you like snails? I empathize with snails a lot. Like I don't like when people squish them. I want to like protect them because they're so slow, you know. Um, I like when people leave them alone. I don't like when people move them, you know. Um. I do sometimes move them, like if they're in a walkway in the ring, to protect them, to protect But sometimes I when I was younger, I accidentally moved them and that wasn't good for them, Like they were like they were clearly distressed.

But like like if they're if they're sometimes they adhere to a surface and like they're sort of stuck there and you try to unnglue them and it's just like bad for their little body. Yeah, that's how I think that's happened. I remember that in my memory. But I

was trying to help little guy. I'm so sorry. But if they're like crawling along the ground, especially like in the rain, which is when they typically cross like paths and stuff, like, it's it's okay if you want to, like just pick it up real quick and put it into the ground, yeah, or the side, as long as it's a common garden snail. Don't do that with just any like snail like animal you find that is unidentified, because like some of them cannot be not be too friendly.

Um Like, if you're on a beach and you see like something that looks like a big snail or a big like cone like shell, don't pick it up because they can actually have toxic barbs they can shoot at you. So so yeah, don't pick toxic sounds like someone who works at Michael's barb always making my mondays that much worse. Yeah, But in terms of terrestrial snails, there are some that can get alarmingly big. So the giant African land snail looks like basically a typical garden snail with maybe a

point to your shell, but it's huge. So they are found around coastal West Africa, and they're shells grow to be over seven inches or eighteen centimeters long and three point five inches or nine centimeters in diameter. And so the meaty part of the snail is a lot more squitchy and stretchy, but basically it can cover your entire hand, Like if you hold one of these like it's it's the foot, which is like the flat part of the snail can stretch out and just drape over your whole hand,

which I know. I'm looking at these pictures, I'm like, this is a cat. I don't know what you think this is, but it's a cat to me. It's so cute. It's just like perch there. I want to get it a little caller. That's probably bad, a bad instinct of mine. Why do we have to domesticate everything. Leave the snail alone, polaviy. But it's like so it with its little paw, it doesn't technically have feet, but I know it's it's so big.

It has these folds and so in this picture, which i'll have in the show notes, it's just post it's so photogenic too, because it's got it's little a fold of its foot just draped over her hand, and it's like looking mugging for the camera. And it's got its little tentacles all pointed up. It looks like a it's like it's very rabbit. Like I was gonna say that, I was just gonna say that the mouth, the nose area looks like a rabbit because of how it's shaped

that little, those little semicircles. It's a sweet baby that I want to hold. I mean I should like. Look, I when I discovered these things, I was like, I want one as a pet. Uh. It is a bad idea, obviously, Like anytime it's like, oh, there's this amazing animal that I'd love to hug and squeeze and leave it alone.

Leave it alone, people, let it survive. Well, actually, in this case, it's not because the to preserve the giant African lance snail, but because they are so good at being alive and eating that they can easily become super invasive species and destroy vegetation, uh, in native plants in the area that they are introduced, so you don't actually have to worry too much about them. They are just so voracious. They will eat meat, eat, and um. So

they have actually become a problem. Even that's cute, you know what I mean, Like, I know, munching and crunch and destroying entire crops and native species of plants, ruining the ecosystem. Yeah, this is why, that's why we think they're cute. They're just like us. They're just behavior people. It thinks it's people. It's people. But yeah, I mean that this makes them highly illicit in many countries, uh and like illegal to own as a pet um I

mean in Florida. I think they're already becoming an invasive species. So I know, like again, like I can predict people's response to this, Like, I know my listeners, you look at this, You're like, I want it as a pet. I want it now, I want one to like I you know, I looked into this. It's like, wait, could

I have this as a pet? No? The answer is no. But don't feel bad for want, Like, don't feel bad for wanting to hug an animal, Like I think it's like it's a natural response to something cool or cute. I mean, if you don't find snails cute, I don't know how to relate to you. But you know, like if you when you see something, you're like, that's cute. I want to hug it and keep it as a pet.

Like I think that's a totally normal human response. It's just and I'm not like guilt tripping everyone for feeling man, it's just like, you know, it's it's good to make note of. It's like, yeah, it's just it's too bad. But we can't. We can't do that because you know they will eat all of our crops and leave us to starve. Man, this is like, um, when after Beverly Hills Chihuahua, everybody bought a Chihuahua. Yeah, don't do that

with this episode. Beverly Hills. Giant snail, giant moths just everywhere somewhere some farmers like Katie Golden shaking his face and sky just just a huge army of snails with like cute little collars on them, escaped little bows on their tentacles. Um. Yeah, but they can also be carriers of rat lung worm, which is a parasitic nematode who uses the giant snails as a host. So you don't want to put one of these things in your mouth raw,

because that can cause meningitis. I mean back to the men that I've dated, I feel like this is one of those like warning labels they put on knives or something where it's like don't put in your body, Like, don't don't put this snail in your mouth. Although there was a case I think this was not with a giant snail, but with a banana slug someone like on a dare like ate a banana slug and got rat lung worm and gitis. Yeah, so don't do that. Don't

just do that. Don't put animals in your mouth, right, like especially raw animals that you just line that are alive. Don't put the especially giant ones. Like that's right. I feel like that's I feel like that's uh embarrassing, like like for the snail, you know what I mean, Like that snail look dignified now you're just putting your mouth on it, right, like really, dude, like like millions of years of evolution to get to this size. So birds don't eat me and you're just like a bed. Come on, man,

don't be like home or Simpson and a doughnut. With these snails, That's exactly what I was picturing. There have been specimens that have been found to are almost a foot long, so they can be just quite hefty, you feel it's like to be able to feel the heft of a giant snail is something to think about, you know what I mean. You hold it in your arms, you feel the heft of the snail. It looks up at you longingly and then eats all your crops and we all die the dream, the dream. But this is

not the only big chunky mollusk we're going to talk about. Uh. So to get to one of the biggest slugs in the world, we actually have to look at marine slugs or sea hairs. So sea hairs are found within the same clade as terrestrial snails and slugs Heterobranchia, and they bear a very close resemblance to their land slug counterparts. So sea slug is often used to refer to other types of sea animals informally, like c cucumbers, but ce

cucumbers aren't actually gastropods or related to terrestrial slugs. So for clarity, I'm specifying sea hairs. But new to brinks and other groups of marine gastropods are also members of Heterobranchia. So the colorful little new to brinks that you see, um. There are other types of like sea slugs that really are truly sea slugs. Um. But some some things that we call sea slugs or something like a c cucumber,

and it's just like it's sort of a misnomer. It's just like this is this a square's rectangle situation, where squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are square or not rectangles aren't squares. I mean, this is confusing to me because I just like woke up this morning and turned into a trapezoid, and so like I'm not, like, what do you mean right angles? I don't get it, Okay, but yeah, I mean, like, um no, I think it's more just of a misnomer, like um, c cucumbers are

not really slugs in any sense of the word. Like, they're not related to slugs, they're not in heterobranchia, they're not even um they're not even gastropods. So you're not even a gas Like you don't even go here. Um, you're not even a gastropods. So, like, don't even think about sitting here. This is like the table for gastropods. Remember that in high school when all the gastro pods

are super clicky, yeahuber real toxic barb. So, sea hairs typically grow quite a bit larger than their terrestrial counterparts of land snails and slugs. So the giant sea hair is just incredibly mind bogglingly big. Uh. So, the black sea hair is the largest sea hair there is in the largest sort of slug type animal in the world. They are found in the Pacific Ocean in coastal California. They can grow to be almost forty inches long a hundred centimeters in way over thirty pounds but fourteen kims

no way, yes, so big. This is over three times the size of my dog. Yes, it would like it could just eat your dog. It won't eat your dog, but it could. They get along. Yeah, probably. It looks so when you take it out of the water, it kind of like puddles down because you know, there's like the gravity of like like Alex mac right right throw reference, it's kind of spilling over, you know, right exactly, and it's this sort of like inky black um with like

quote unquote bunny ears. So these are actually rhino four's, which are sea hair sensory organs um. And so I think they're cute, uh and probably very slimy. They only live about a year, which is incredible given their size, because that means they consume just ridiculous amounts of algae and grow ridiculously fast to reach that size, and because they grow to be so big, and because they actually produce a skin tox and as adults they really don't

have that mini natural predators. So there are these adorable, toxic, slimy thirty pound balls of fun that I want to carry around, and a baby Bjorn and call a little little slimy. I want to be them, Like what you get to live fast, die young, eat whatever you want, not get touched by anybody. Give it to me. If I could redo life, it would be as a sea here, but not one that we're messing with. I want to just be left alone, to be my be, my slightly

denser puddle in a large puddle of the ocean. I feel like these are some really inspirational animals this episode, like eat nap and I think you know, mate and then die or just eat constantly. I think this is saying a lot more about us in our depression in quarantine that anything else. Every animal we're like, yeah, just to not be sentient would be nice. Yeah, I'd like to be a black puddle and a bigger black depths of the ocean. We start out trying to be shaped,

so where else could we go from there? Right? I mean I'm proud. Look, I think it's accomplishment right to be human shaped right now instead of just like congeal into like a puddle on the ground it. I guess. I don't listen. I'm just existing right now. But the sea hare stuff that sounds like it sounds like next level. It does look a little bit like a squished flubber I'm noticing. Oh yeah, I remember flubbers. Yeah yeah, like one of those. Like it definitely looks like a depressed flubber,

like like goth flubber. That's what I think it is. Putting it back into wad. God, it sounds like like Niles Crane and we're just being tear I'm not good at social situations. Please, I like that. I like that one better look at my dad, but little mustache which is really just part of my folded foot out in front, and I look very fancy, and please put me back. I do not belong here, Yeah, I like. I like fancy fancy sea here. They do. If you look for a lot a lot of different like species of sea

hairs there. They are quite fancy and a lot of frippery and stuff they have. They can be really colorful, have a lot of cool folds and stuff. Yeah. I like the idea of them being the fancy boys and gals of the ocean. Yeah, yeah, just we're just anthroom or monster vacation. What is it? I don't know. I don't know what it would be in this case. In the move from sea to land, snails had some extra

slimy adaptations. Their bodies were originally meant for aquatic environments, so moisture loss was not a factor, and they would typically breathe using gills. Most land snails, however, have evolved along and can take in air through a respiratory poor called a numous stone. They need a thick layer of mucus to prevent moisture loss, critical for the help of its tissues and for gas exchange to occur in its lung.

They also make good use of the operculum, a little trap door on their shells that their marine counterparts evolved for self defense, but terrestrial snails can also use to prevent moisture loss. Still, snails prefer moist damp environments so they don't end up as accidental scar goat. When we return, we're going to go from one slimy critter to another with some ridiculously of frogs. Frogs they're hippity and hoppity or crawley or swimming, and they come in green brown, blue, yellow,

and size is big and small. The smallest frog in the world is an adorable micro highland species. Micro highland frogs, as you may remember from previous episodes, are teeny tiny frogs. Some species even developed symbiotic relationships with tarantulas. The tarantulas protect the frogs like little pets in exchange for the frogs protecting the tarantula eggs from ant invasions. The smallest known frog, Peto fryn amalancists from Papua New Guinea, can fit on the face of a quarter from snout to

vent a k a nose to butt. It only grows to be about three tenths of an inch or seven point seven millimeters. Adorable. Now, let's talk about a frog who can grow to be about the size of a small chihuahua. So we've talked about small frogs, let's talk about big frogs. This. Uh, this concerns me now because because they're bit so the things we've talked about thus far. I guess the moths are a little bit scary, but they're flying, I can get away from them. I feel

like they're slower, right, Uh, frogs jump like very fast. Right. The snails slugs, they weren't going anywhere the hairs right the this frog. I feel like the reason that frogs this could alarm me is because they're very slow and then very fast. I want to take a frog to the face, you know, like it could suddenly jump and just smack you right in the face. I think the other thing that's interesting is that, like, you know, how

we have certain stereotypes for animals. I feel like with frogs, I feel like they're kind of like like mystic and intelligent, or we like assign that to them, or like frogs are toads. I guess like in general um cartoons and stuff. But I guess also like there's the Budweiser ones. But I feel like I feel like they might just have too much information to hold for me. It's overwhelming. You know, you don't think a slug is going to plan anything,

but you're worried about a frog with a plan. No, it's more like, um, like I'm like, I'm afraid I'm going to talk to a frog that will see my future, you know, and like I figger the frog is the like the more intimidating it is to me, sort of a hypnotode situation. Where you look into its eyes and like you you see the fourth dimension, and then your brain melt and then I am the fourth dimension. Uh, and you can't even find in and out in the

fourth dimension. That's only in California. So the goliath frog, which is very aptly named because it's a prey big frog. It's the largest living frog in the world. It is an endangered species with a relatively small range in Equatorial Guinea in Cameroon, so they live in sandy bottomed rivers and they grow up to be thirteen inches or thirty two centimeters long from nose to butt and weigh over

seven pounds or over three kilograms. So you know, it's like I feel like, even though these are technically smaller than the black sea hair, it's still more intimidating because they had legs. Man, Yeah, they have legs. It's the legs. It's the big muscular media legs. They did not skip leg day or arm day, and they just like look swollen.

It's the sea here's look like you know that image of like the animal creature forming legs and coming out of the primordial goop type things, right, that's like the first the sea hares like the first half frogs like the second half where it has legs. It's one of us. It's like a person, but it's a frog, you know what I mean. Like, I don't think evolution did that. Space did not hair to frog, and it did in the cartoon that everyone references that. So it looks like that.

It's like, now it's not just this like um amorphous bushy thing. It's it's like it's got us qualities, you know, it's taking it's taking a definitive form. It's like Otto going from goo to Otto. And Star Trek, which one was that I did not watch any of that. Well, you're on your own, God damn it. You know Deep Space, No, not Deep Spit has Star Trek Battle, Star Star Trek, Star Trek one where we're not on we're on a like the base station Star Star Trek generation zoomer. What.

So these frogs are brownish all of color, with a yellowish stomach. They can live up to about fifteen years old in the wild or over twenty years in captivity. So you can keep one of these, I mean don't but y'all like, don't do this, but uh, you know, like they would be if if you are like a witch living in their natural habitat and you have like a little hut in the woods, and you're like, you have one of these is like a familiar. It's gonna

have the same lifespan as like a cat or a dog. Wow, I'm looking at all these pictures of people holding them and they look so uncomfortable, like they're stretching them out. They're just like displaying them, and I'm like this this guy. First of all, it's freaky deeky because the legs are so long, like they're the jawline is like very like thick and broad, and then the body is there and then the like the back legs are like people legs. It's like they could like they feel like they could

walk up right. When they're like split out like that, it's like creepy, and it does not feel like the way they're holding them. I'm like this, it can't be good for you. Like you're gonna get cursed. You're gonna get cursed little little kids. You're gonna yeah, you're gonna get hexed by or just punched. Like they don't even need to curse them. They could just like punch them

with their big strong legs and fore legs. Uh, they kind of have Dave Batista vibe to me, like the general shape he was, like the he was in Guardians of the Galaxy. Wow, that's so funny. Okay, I can see it because he's got like long legs and like a thick torso right right, it's like a fit dude. Right yeah, yeah, exactly. Um no, no insult to Dave Bautista because episode brought to you by Dave Bautista. So they are predators, which is cool. Who coo cool? Uh?

They as adults will prey upon a large variety of small critters, from insects to smaller frogs, crustaceans, baby turtles and snakes and rodents. And one instance, a bat was found in a goliath frog's stomach, which just must have been and like can you imagine that one, Like I guess until it got caught and like someone was poking

around in its stomach. That was like a bragging rights day And no, no other frog probably believe it's like I caught a flying mouse and they're like okay, sure, sure, John, like whatever this is like, uh, this is like the Batman villain origin story. Like it's like I I thought the bat and I won. The joker is just a goliath frog. I mean it's got the same similar it's a it's interesting color palette. You know, we live in a we live in a society, says this frog. So

why do they get so big. It's actually because they're great parents. Uh, they like to do home projects. So males construct nests for their offspring, and females guard the nests. So these nests are basically private ponds that they construct for their offspring, either by digging a ditch near a pool and then blocking it off from the rest of the pool with a large rocks, or by creating a damn in a larger pool with rocks, creating a private area.

So it's you know, it's like a National Lampoon Christmas vacation, where like the whole plot is about he wants pool for his family, except in this scenario, he's super buff and the wife is also super buff, and the wife like hunts down the guy who's going to deny them their pool and punches them in the face. That's the version that I decided to see. It's a better version, right. I just think it's interesting that, like all they're trying to do is protect their family, and we're just like

yanking them out and taking picture. I mean, that's basically the story for any picture of someone holding up an animal. I know, I don't know why I'm so affected by this one in particular. I'm like, I feel like it's just like them trying to, like with their little legs, like dangling and trying to like grasp at anything. Yeah. Bad, It's that they're not meant to be held up in

this position. It's kind of like when you like hold a cat up by the scruff of it, but it's like an adult and you really need to support the rest of its body because it's like to like it's really only good for kittens, like to hold it by the scruff of its neck. But like when someone holds an adult by the scruff of its neck and they're not like supporting it's but it's like it just looks uncomfortable, like you're you're squishing it. No, it's too hefty, don't

do that. But to be able to construct a pond by excavation and lifting rocks, they literally have to be buff They they need these big, froggy muscles. That's why it looks like Dave Batista, Like they have these strong arms and strong they're not really arms, but like strong fore limbs and strong hind limbs to be able to dig and lift rocks and make these constructions. And females also need to be pretty buff because they're the guards.

They are going to aggressively defend this pool, this private pool for their offspring from any toxic barbs who come around. Wants to like, oh, can I just like pop over and use your pool for a minute. It's like, no, my kids are using this pool and then they fight, but they've been I'm looking forward to motherhood. Frankly, I would love a w w E style like Housewives of Orange County. It's just like they're all super buff and

they solve all their problems with choreographed ww E style wrestling. Yeah, that sounds super fun. Actually, I feel like that's what that's what they were trying to make glow. Yeah, they're having it a little bit of a backstory, you know. Yeah, I mean that is essentially, but I mean in real life, like real like real ladies with real problems, but then they work it out in in the ring, you know what I mean. Like, Katie, do you do you think

wrestling is real? What do you mean it's not really? No? No, no, no, no, you're right. Let's move on. Look at the really doesn't care about his family. I'm sure he does. I'm sure he does. He really didn't need to get revenge on screwdriver man. I don't actually want. Um, guess how big the tadpoles are for these massive frogs. I don't know what that looks like. I don't like. Okay, don't don't look at don't look at the images. Just okay, wait, so you said, so, describe how big the frog is again.

Um that by the way, just for your information, those images are misleading, so don't go by the ok the frog. The frog grows to be up to about thirteen inches or thirty two cimeters long, and they weigh over seven pounds or three kms. I don't know what ratio I'm coming up with, but I'll say, like, then, five or six inches is what I would expect a tadpole to be. Is that right? Drum roll? They're just regular tadpool size. They're like, well, yeah, they're they only grow to be

about like, you know, an inch long. Maybe, Um, because I warned you, because after being a tadpole, they grow into a froglet, so a little tiny frog, and that froglet then just grows bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger until it becomes the biggest frog in the world. So tadpole size doesn't necessarily mean like it can indicate it's going to be a bigger, bigger frog, but it really just depends on what its development is like. So some frogs like developed much bigger tadpoles and invest a

lot of their bulk developing during the tadpole stage. Some frogs go from being a tadpole to being a froglet relatively quickly, and most of the bulking up happens with the froglet. Some some of them literally shrink, so they go from being a larger tadpole to being a smaller adult frog because they're seems that seems bad, that seems not allowed. I feel like paradox I think it's called paradoxical frogs. That sounds like something from the Hitchhiker's Guide.

I just don't believe it. Also, this is like, um, this is like the teacup pig problem where people were kept trying to buy tiny pigs and then they just turned into big, big pigs. Well it's because they were babies, yeah, I know, but people thought they were like bread to be tiny little baby pigs forever. Yeah, the micro pigs can be. They're still small adults, but they don't remain cute little piglets forever. So you have to be prepared for like a big that hefty like adult. Uh. I

think they're big. They're like a Yeah, I think they're like a pop belly pig that's been bred to be smaller. But yeah, like as adults they get big and hairy and round and and like I mean, I still and who doesn't who amongst us doesn't I feel like I've gotten bigger and harrier just within the past four hours, so like I'm seeing it before my eyes. People have to chill out about this is like I mean, with every animal, we're trying to just make it be like

cute and small forever. And it's like, just let animals be animals, you know what I mean. Yeah, let's let this like giant muscular frog go around talking about protein shakes. It's all right, don't pick them up. I have gotten this is a side note, but I've gotten very against like breeding of almost any kind where like even now with like fish and like hamsters, I'm like, why why are we doing this thing with animals where we're like are you not? And today like don't we have enough

books to read? Like why do we have to breed every animal? Like developed play the piano, like learn, learn something. Don't just get a pet, a bread pet. There's other animals that need to be saved. Get get a little weird mutt from the rescue. Don't bad things into existence that don't need to be a lot mom and dad. Okay, just for your own entertainment and comfort, all right, this

is the new thing. Every I have friends with like hamsters, and I just smile and nod because I'm just like, I don't see why do you need why do you need that? You know what I mean, It's just weird. It started to become weird to me. It's just very weird to me. The whole thing is weird to me. Just like, say, then, animal, stop doing things for your entertainment and go like, don'tate to a local charity. I don't know, I don't know what I'm saying, but I'm

sick of this whole thing. I love this ramp. I I actually I really agree, especially I know this is a tangent, but really quickly, like with with breeding animals, it's like it really should be about the like especially with dogs, like it should be about the health and emotional health of the dogs, Like I don't need a dog that has an extra pair of eyes on it. But like you know, it's well not what you're saying it and I'm kidding, kidding, speaking of extra pair of

eyes on its, but this frog, now I'm kidding. Um no, I definitely that way too. But somehow, back to tadpoles. I shared with you this picture of this absolutely massive tadpole and like probably you thought, like, oh, this is probably the tadpole for the glade frog, and that would be a reasonable assumption, but this is actually the tadpole for a bull frog, and bull frogs do actually get to be quite big, so it's like not like too unusual for there to be a larger tadpole, But this

tadpole is unique. This is the unicorn of tadpoles. This is the biggest tadpole ever discovered. This is a tadpole named Dart, who is a unusually large bull frog tadpole unusually large tadpole in general just like should not be this big. It was discovered by research ecologists in Arizona. The tadpole was ten inches or over only five cimeters long. This is even larger than most adult bullfrogs. So this

tadpole is an extreme outlier. Like other record breaking large tadpoles, it may actually never mature into adulthood, which signals that it has extremely atypical hormones. And this is called neatany in like where it's like you retain your juvenile characteristics throughout your whole life, and in some amphibious species, like in species of salamanders, uh, neatany is is common and

it's like a normal part of the species life. So axlotls are actually juvenile salamander that just like maintain their juvenile characteristics their whole life, for through their whole life cycle.

The men of if you will, don't cancel me, man, But so far this tadpole, it's really interesting because this is obviously an outlier, this is a mutation, but it kind of give you a little bit of a sense of like how these like this neatony can evolve in other species of amphibians where you just like this tadpole just like decided not to become an adult and just become a bigger and bigger tadpole. Don't worry about this

this big chalky boy. Like he's being kept safe by ecologists who are curious to see how long he lives and how big he gets. So he is being probably one of the luckiest tadpoles, just like getting to live the cushy life, just being enormous and eating all the time. Got I mean, I am like genuinely jealous of of these animals in this episode, just get all all vibes,

no thoughts, you know what I mean? I know, and it's like it just gets to be a big baby its whole life, and scientists are thrilled and they even lit it drink beer. Now I'm kidding, but there is a photo of it being held up next to a cores cam to show how massive it is. I don't like picture because it looks like they're squeezing it, you know what I mean. Like all of these pictures, I'm like, leave them alone. I don't know what I want to see the pictures. I like seeing the pictures, but I'm

also like to put them down. Yeah, I don't unhand them. I don't actually think it's being squeezed. I think it's just so chunky that like they of it being gently held. It's just like spilling over the recently fingers. It's just all in my head, honestly, but but I I feel it. Yeah, just like leave them alone, leave these tad giant tad poles alone. Yeah, but dart dart Is is probably living the high life being you know, got it's got its beer and it's a it's banana, it's banana. But that

was also I guess for scale. I hope that they gave it the beer and banana afterwards, like you did a good job during the photo show. Yeah, now, doll feed beard of tad pulls. Guys, we have had too many disclaimers for this to be a responsible episode. Don't just overall disclaimer. Never listen to anything I say. There we go, So before we go, I want to end

with a listener email. Actually in response to a recent episode where we talked about sawfish, which is a type of ray that actually looks like it's got a softhore nose and it's really cool and it's not a nose. It's actually rostrum so like that this like uh pointy bit that comes off of the front of a fish. Um. So this is the email. Hi, your discussion on today's episode about sawfish reminded me of a museum piece I saw when I visited Berlin in nine. It's a sword

made from a sawfish rostrum. I forget what year it's from, but it was in the Medieval Renaissance section at the Deutsches History Eaches Museum in Berlin. I love the show. Thank you, Neil Miller. Thank you so much for your email. Neil, I had no idea that people made sawfish swords, but I guess it makes total sense, like that humans would do that. We see an animal that looks like it's gotta gott a chainsaw for a nose, and then we turned swords into it. We see a weapon, We make

a weapon. That's us. That is us stand off. I doubt these were ever used as actual weapons. They don't look super practical. Oh good, so we just made it for no reason, but yeah, you know, just for fun to you was after maybe it was after one died. One would hope. I wouldn't guarantee it, but I don't know. It's probably made out of the cartilage skeleton left behind from a dead sawfish is rostrum. So uh, sharks and rays, like they actually don't have um bones like humans do.

They have cartilage. And we actually do have cartilage like in our nose and in our ears, but in in sharks and rays, the cartilage is very hard and bone like us, so it can that's like when they leave behind these skeletons, it's actually a very very hard cartilage. And so that's what this is made out of, a hard cartilage left behind their rostrum, which is this like long protrusion that looks like a chainsaw with teeth on it. Those pointy bits are actually not teeth, their denticles. But

we talked about that in last week's episode. The nose nose uh nose as in the face nose And yeah, I did some research on these swords. It looks like this particular sword that Neil sent in was made in the late sixteenth century and was never used as an actual weapon, but as like a rich person novelty um.

But more recently, actually in West Australia, a guy was arrested after being seen brandishing a sword and apparently it was handmade out of a sawfish rostrum with a wooden and leather wrapped hilt, and allegedly he attacked a police officer with it. But I'm pretty sure Australian police probably just arrested Aquaman, who was trying to save the world from some evil octopus, and they're like, all right, all right, we're bringing you in. It's like, no, I'm but I

am saving the world. Listen my Kingdom Undersea. I I have the evil doctor Octopus is trying to take over the land, and I have come and they just arrest him. And you know what, doctor Octopus and Aquaman villain. I thought it was a spider man full of I don't know. I don't know these things. Like I'm sure there's an evil I'm sure that that Aquaman who's face like at least sort of a rude octopus, right, Like, maybe not an evil octopus, but just like a squid that's ingdom.

Ever once in a while passing just kind of a kind of a sniffett wid you got so tired, you were like, I'm gonna get hard emails about this. I don't know. Actually, when you look into the backstory of Aquaman, it makes no sense that he would fight octopuses because his dad wasn't half octopus. Oh man, you're you're bringing him in now. Opened the door that can't be closed. Next week on Fantastical Villains of the Octopus Kingdom. Next week, an apology episode all the Marvel fans. It's just gonna

be a notes appology. Look for it on Twitter's Apaman Marvel. No, he's DC, right, YEAHC I'm sorry. Next next week, an apology episode Tall the DC fans. But I think I think we've done it. I think we've looked at animals should be small, but hey, they're big and muscular and they definitely work out at the gym and you should be intimidated by them. Thank you so much for joining me, pul Do you have anything to plug and where can

people find you? Um? I'm at Puli Vigan alan p a l l a v I g u n A l a n everywhere, And I have um something that you might like. It's web comic and it's called Imposter Bear spelled with quos I M p O s t o R bear. And it's on Twitter, and it's on Instagram and Facebook, and it's a web comic featuring all sorts of bears, yeah, animal things, and it's sad and funny just like me, and I do it with my friend at Relatable Doodle. Uh Sehi and I work on

that together, she does. They're drawing and then I say the sad words usually very cute, funny and sad. Yes, definitely check that out. I think you guys have like that. Um. And of course you can find the show on the internet at Creature feature Pod on Instagram, at Creature feet pot on Twitter. That's f E T e et that is something very different, uh, and you can find me. I'm Kate Golden kay A T I E G O L D I N not eat in. I spelled my

name wrong. We got it wrong. And if you have a listener email that you want to send in with cool pictures of weird swords made out of dead animals that don't don't kill any animals that will make the weapons, you can send it to me at Creature feature pot at gmail dot com. And thank you so much for listening. If you're drawing the show and you leave a rating or view, I read all of the reviews and they make me so happy, and I really appreciate that uh.

Thanks to the Space Classics for their super awesome song XO. Lumina. Creature Feature is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts like the one Who Just Heard This? The me I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, wheor Hey guess what? Where? Have you listen to your favorite shows? See you next Wednesday m hm.