Creature Feature Classic©: Aliens (I Want To Believe!)

and in the skies. Discover this and more as we answer the angel question, do animals really need to breathe spoilers, Yes, for the love of God, don't hold your breath. But we will find that this answer isn't as universal as we thought. So when you think of an alien, what comes to mind? Is it a gray humanoid shaped being with a big egg head and giant black eyes. Is it a little green martian with antenna? Is it a grotesque,

acid spit drooling, leathery monster. Our concepts of aliens very widely and can range from being minimally imaginative, like aliens being blue humans, for example, to being wildly and nightmarishly fanciful like hr Geiger's concept art for Ridley Scott's Alien. But you don't need to look to the stars for alien life forms. Here on Earth, we're constantly discovering new life or discovering new startling truths about the creatures we've

previously dismissed as being boring. Many of the strangest animal discoveries are found in our oceans. These extraterrestrials aren't very terrestrial, but they certainly are extra. Take, for instance, an unassuming, harmless little blobular fish eating parasite that has been found to have a shocking trait that has left researchers reeling. Joining me today to have some alien encounters is producer at I Heart Media, Joel Monique. Hey, Katie, I'm super

excited to be here, especially after that intro. I'm especially excited to have you because you are the new producer on my podcast, Creature Feature, taking over for Ana Hosnia, who has been amazing. I love her, Yes, but I am really excited to have you on board, so it's pretty fun. Yes, I love especially these sort of out of the world. Uh I don't I forget the word for like Bigfoot and the lockness. Mons. Cryptids are my favorite. I have friends who play a D and D cryptid things.

All of the characters are like handcrafted and other stats are kind of made with the group and some die and just what fun. That's wonderful. I'm a fan of cryptids and D and D. Yeah, you know the show. We take sort of a scientific perspective, so I'm not necessarily going to be speculating about X files aliens, but looking at real life, documented alien like creatures that are here on Earth, it is going to be so fun. So first I want to talk about parasites. Are are

you cool with parasites actually having one living? Are they cool awesome beings that have made some great sci fi horror creatures. Absolutely? Yeah, I think I'm on the same page as you. So there's a recent discovery of a parasite that actually does not need to breathe, which, yeah, here's the thing. Every other animal on the planet has to breathe. As far as we know, there's no other animal we've ever discovered that doesn't breathe. So this is

a parasite called H. Salm salmon nicola. Salmon nicola salmon nicola. It sounds like salmon cola like salmon cola, and it is actually I mean, it is kind of a gross animal. So it parasitizes salmon and it doesn't necessarily hurt the salmon, and it's not harmful if we eat it. It's just kind of gross. It's also called tapioca disease because they

form little tapioca like cysts in the salmon's flesh. Yeah, kind of nasty, but not like when you think of all the really devious parasites that mind control animals are killed them from the inside out. It's really pretty benign, truly, truly, other than being gross, just like the tapioca disease. I just think about getting a salmon and they don't catch that the parasite until it's too late. Yeah, oh my god,

what has happened refreshing salmon a coola. So it's a multicellular animal that looks like a sperm with a classic gray alien head. So let me show you a picture of these guys. Okay, if I had to describe it, it looks like the sperm trying to penetrate the egg in biology, but one creature. Yeah, it's actually a bunch

of these. I think surrounding a salmon cell. And it is they look they have little they look like they have little alien eyes, like if a sperm had an alien head, you know, the classic gray alien head with the big black eyes. But it is they aren't exactly sperm. They are an animal. It's actually a Niderian, which is a phylum of aquatic animals which includes jellyfish and enemies

and coral. But this has kind of gone through a process of d evolution where it has simplified its bodies significantly, evolving into these little sperm like alien creatures that are entirely dependent on salmon to survive. And those eyes are not actually eyes. They are former stinger cells like that jellyfish have, but they don't actually use them for stinging anymore.

They have been modified to be able to cling onto the salmon's tissue, so they use those to kind of grasp on to tissue, yeah, attached to it, and then feed off of them. So another thing that is peculiar about H. Salminicola is that it seems to have lost its mitochondrial DNA, which is a big deal. So I used to have like a full like body, like assume closer to a jelly probably closer to a jellyfish. Uh, And it certainly used to have mitochondrial DNA but now

it's gone, which is hitherto unknown to happen in animals. Yeah, so what that means? Okay, I think I need to it's very sort of like shrouded in this jargon, but like I need to emphasize how crazy it is because like all other known living animals have mitochondrial DNA. It is typically necessary for survival because the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, as we all learned in by aology, And without that mitochondrial DNA, I means these the gush

darn things don't breathe. They don't have to breathe, so not only like the basic cell of life, but also they don't inhale anything. Yeah, how are they still classified as animals? Like? What makes them still fit into that category? Well, I mean that's an interesting question. Our classification of things can get a little muddled. But I think in terms of it being an animal, it definitely evolved from animals, and it still I guess needs a TP to survive

and we'll discuss how it gets it later. But it also reproduces and it has cellular structure that otherwise makes it an animal, but except for this thing, which okay, wow, let's talk about why the mitochondria is typically so important for animals to survive. So it is responsible for converting food into energy using oxygen to turn a setal coenzyme A into a dinna sine triphosphate or a t P, which is the basic currency of energy for all living tissue.

Now that sounds like super complicated, but basically it's just you. You eat food, it takes that food, it oxidizes these acids from the food into a t P, and then that a t P when it's broken apart in your body, that produces energy. So like for your muscles to move your breaking apart a t P nuts like releasing this this energy out like they're like little little batteries essentially, so oxygen. To to oxidize the the proteins from the

food into a t P, you need oxygen. So that's why most animals need to breathe and so in that chemical reaction that converts a TP or converts food into a TP is also known as the crib cycle, which everyone hates to learn about. Um, but no I don't mean that, I do mean that actually, never mind. So, so all animals go through this crub cycle except for these little freaks. Do they have a cycle of their own? Well, researchers are exactly sure what's going on in these guys.

So they sequenced the H. Salmon nicola DNA and found absolutely no mitochondrial DNA. They were shocked and did it again and still found none, and they were really confused. They looked at their closest relatives, and their closest relatives did have mitochondrial DNA, and then they you know, studied again and like it's they've concluded they just don't have it. They don't have a mitochondria. They have a mitochondria like structure, but it lacks the enzymes necessary for the crub cycle,

which means, again confirming that they don't breathe. So it's thought that these like mitochondria like structures are this digital, which means it's like a carryover from their previous evolutionary forms. So like an example would be in humans. Well, it was once thought that the appendix was vestigial. Now it's thought that it does kind of maybe have some function, but yeah, like it's any kind of organ or something

that is not is no longer necessary. While researchers aren't exactly sure how h salmon nicola gets its fuel, there is a theory that they have a way of directly stealing a TP from their host salmon. Oh that's really cool. Yeah, so it's just absorbing, it's making the fish are doing all the breathing for them. Essentially. It's interesting to think of a parasite as leaching off of your mitochondrial like basic cell structure and as opposed to just eating chunks

of flesh. Right, we're growing like giant stems out of brains. Like whatever parasite that invades ants is uh it somehow more creepy and horrifying. That is how it could do you possibly defend from that gets gets like into your body in such an intimate way. Not super fun and I think I mean other than these guys looking like

alien sperm, they are. It is an interesting thing discovery because it shows that potentially aliens in a very different environment from Earth, there are ways for them to survive and to convert energy in a different way than animals on Earth. So obviously this guy isn't necessarily an example of an alien, because it still needs an animal that goes through respiration, that breathes to survive. But you know, it's hard to say, like what the chemical structure of

another planet is totally. So you know, perhaps there's a way of aliens on another planet to directly extract energy from some source on that planet that is different from how animals here extracted from their parasitic beings. Huge sperm aliens is what I'm saying, flop it around second energy from the Earth and they just all surround the planet like they're a bunch of sperms surrounding an egg. That's

my vision of aliens. Horrifying, horrifying thought, and yet more riginal than anything Hollywood has come up with in so long. You think that, I mean, like there's all these sort of like weird metaphors, Like I mentioned alien before, and there's a lot of like phallic stuff and like weird kind of I guess sexual metaphors with probing. I say, skip all the all the middlemen there, all the metaphors for the sperm guys. Come on, there's no need to

there's no need to be subtle. So another animal I want to talk about that it lives in the ocean. That super looks like an alien is actually an animal that looks like a jellyfish, but is not related to jelly fish at all. So I think it's funny because like this h salmon coola is actually the parasite we're talking to related to jellyfish, looks nothing like a jellyfish. This guy looks like a jellyfish, not related to jellyfish, jelly nature. Could you just I don't know, Like, why

do you have to be so cooy about things? So here, I don't know. I'm just gonna show you this picture before introducing it to you. It looks like if rainbow road where a jellyfish and slam, It's so beautiful. It's a rain It's like one of those rainbow aliens and star Trek the next generation or they're like, oh, we've got a it's like a spaceship. No wait, it's a living creature. It looks like a giant yeah. And so basically it looks like a silky alien spaceship trailed by

a long flowing veil of rainbows. And it is called the blanket octopus. And it is an octopus, a magical name. So females grow up to be about six ft long, but grow up to a little under an inch, so they're about the size of a wall. Okay, first of all, a majestic species. Yes, this is the truth. Long women love it, Yes, exactly so, I mean, aside from them looking incredible like a rainbow blanket following a spaceship, they're mating process is crazy. So to mate, the male detaches

a special arm that holds his sperm packet. I'm sorry, we're talking about sperm so much in this episode. What am I gonna say? It's it's nature, guys. So it's called a hecto caudalyss hecta caudalus. It presents this hecta caudals to the female, and the female keeps it in her mantle, which is like that sort of dome structure

of the octopus. But it just like has a empty space in its mantle that it like keeps it these hectic caudals sperm packets, and it's like a diamond, but it's a bagful sperm right exactly like that, And she will keep it there until she decides to make babies, at which point the female will pull the sperm packet out of her mantle and season her eggs with the sperm like it's a gutting salt chairs let's look out.

I love it. So. Tom Traganza, who is a biologist at the University of Exeter, describes it the sleek quote. When she comes to need to fertilize her eggs, she can pull that arm out and squirt the sperm over her eggs, like squirting soy sauce onto a fried egg. Science. Thanks scientists, you weird horny boys. So he has a detachable arm, yes, and then at the end of it, I just keep picturing it in him in terms, and

it's horrifying. It's like if a guy came up to you gave you a little like ketchup packet of his sperm, and then like when you needed to make a baby, you just squirted on your egg. This seems less messy emotionally. Yeah, it's a little bit. It is a little more just like you know, like transactional. I guess, like here you go, and she can actually keep several of these hectocotalist is

in her mantles. Yeah, it's like when when you keep going out for fast food and you get like these like packages of soy sauce or of ketchup, and you're like, well, I don't want it now, I've got too many. You start storing them in your snack drawer and then you're like, oh, I need seasoning. And you open your snack drawer and you've got like packages from McDonald's. You've got like all these other you know, things from Chipotle, and you're like, oh, I have all the packages I need except it sperm.

I pictured it like a hot sauce sample packet. It's just like maybe Franks today. I guess that's the kids are having this. Why not so that titular blanket of the blanket octopus has a function other than looking absolutely gorgeous, and it certainly does. It's iridescent. Here's another picture of it. Beautiful. Oh my goodness. Literally from every angle, she's stunning. I want a dress made out of this, I mean not literally made out of the octopus. I would feel really

guilty about that, but that would be sad. That's sad. Yeah, but I want a dress that looks like this, you know, Tessa Thompson, or something like this. Yes, I will show you later for like a show. And it's like a halter it's got like seventies sleeves, so they're cut from the shoulder to the wrist and gather at the wrist. You knowson secretly a blanket octopus, so that blanket is actually webbing between their tentacles, and this webbing can be held out like a large veil, which makes them appear

larger and more imposing. Two would be predators. I see that. I see that sometimes I address see more imposing when I have to walk in scary parts of Los Angeles. Well, like you know, like nobody messes with people who wear capes. That's it's like, if you wear a cape, who's gonna like a cost you? Because they're like, you're either really wealthy or you're a vampire. Either way, you know, if your countess or a vampire, you can royally screw someone

if they mess with you. I like to picture a very wealthy lady who would just stab you, but she got a cap, like you just gotta under a stiletto holding up her bun love. Yeah, it's kind of like you know, when you hold up that, they're like when you want to scare off a bear, you're supposed to like hold up your jacket like a bear. Yeah, you make lots of noise. This blanket can also be detached as a last resort to distract a predator, sort of

like how lizards detached their tails. But it's sort of it's like if finally you know, the cape isn't working, so you like throw your cape off and you're like, what exactly? And yes, and I'm not done yet. They also have another defensive technique, so they are immune to the venomous man of War, which is a jellyfish like hydrozone with potent venom that can cause severe pain and human and paralysis and fish. And the blanket octopus, because it's immune, can rip these tentacles off the man o

War and uses them as defensive weapons. So they just that's so cool. Yes, they you love a bio weapon, especially now if you think about like the hooded Rainbow and the waves were like flows in the water, and then the side there's like all of these tentacles and it's now dangerous. We're also gorgeous a symbol for all women. Yeah, I want I want blank like a blanket. I know that we have superheroes that are based on animals. I got spider Man, Wolverine, hawkman, haart man, you got you

got the cat laid catwoman. I want blank blanket octopus woman. Yeah, blanket octopus lady, I think totally her name and she has her cape is this iridescent rainbowy thing that makes her look enormous and she can use to throw in people like it wraps around enemies faces. And she has a giant octopus in her layer. Yes, and she's she's best friends with a giant blanket octopus. And she has like a big i want to say, like a big flail that's made out of stinging jellyfish tentacles. She dates

a giant squid and together they have the ocean. Yes, and she lays a bunch of eggs and sprinkles it with sperm packets. So my last underwater alien is the it's got the best name of the bunch. It's called the sarcastic fringe head, which looks like a predator mouth, you know, like from the movie Predator. So the sarcastic french head is a small fish found in the Pacific Ocean. They they're sort of god. These guys have the weirdest names. So they are um a tube blinny, which stay with me.

It is part of the Blenniform order of fish who live in tube structures made by other organisms. So this order of fish are this group of fish are called two Blinny's, and the sarcastic fringe head is a species of too blinny. Does that make sense? It just I'm trying to think of organic tubes made by other species. So I think about a say, like an animal it has a big twirly shell, like a nautilus or something.

They'll live like in the nautilus shell, or like a like a worm that that a tube worm that makes a big tube. They'll live in that other structure. So they just borrow other structures from from other organisms that make these tubes. So normally the star sarcastic french head looks pretty doofy. They've got these big bubble eyes and weird just really weird cartoonish mounds. Oh wow, Okay, So he's like your jaw connects like right under your cheek,

but his extents past his cheek. It's weird. Mostly his cheek is on top of his jaw. The whole lower part hinges open. That's really cool. Yeah, it's cute, like being a fish he's cute. He is cute at this moment when they're territorial. Oh my god, I'm seeing the predator now. It looks like a predator mouth. That frick

that's scary. So the reason their lips look so doofy and so long, like they look like a big like cartoon fish with this like a big smile, almost like a big clown smile, with these like big like cartoonish lips. But that's because those actually unfold into this terrifying predator mouth looking thing that it's almost like a mouth umbrella.

I guess that's a good descriptions for it. But they distend their mouth, which unfurls these two flaps, and they actually use these uh in territorial competition with other males. So they deploy, they deploy the mouth umbrella, and then they like kiss each other violently, like they push each other's mouth flaps, so it looks like they're kissing, but they're actually like competing, and then it's a territorial display to determine who has the bigger mouth and the one

that is bigger. It's like, okay, this is how big you are, and that actually helps them resolve territory issues without resorting to actual violence. That is very creative of them. I love a non violent approach. I'm shocked that with all of the with scary, terrifying nous of the mouth, but it isn't enacted for more violence. It seems like it just seems like that. And then I swallowed half

that guy. Yeah, yeah, you would think so, but no, it's just it's like it's basically just sort of, uh, I guess a sport thing where you know, whoever's got the biggest flappiest mouth wins. I know a lot of winners. Oh good, good, that's good. Do you want to see a video of this guy? Oh god, oh my god. Okay, so he's here, he's eating. He doesn't actually deploy his predator flaps when he's eating. He just kind of, you know, he's got his big dufy mouth. He looks like a muppet.

He does look like that's maybe the best way. Yeah, yeah, he does look like a muppet. And he's not the first he's not going to be the first one. Today he looks like a muppet. But then when when sharp little teeth like here he is with his rival, deploys the mouth flap, it opens into a full triangle, a big triangular. He's got you beat, bro, you gotta back down. Yeah, you've done, sir, and they got It's like kind of

pink and yellow too. It's actually, if you ignore the fact that it's a horrible mouth, it's kind of pretty. I gues like a like a venomous vagina and yeah, yeah, a little bit. God, this is Freudian males competing by with their weird venomous mouth vagina's Yeah, oh my gosh. It's disgusting and it's beautiful, like life. That is That is life, isn't it. That's that's a good summary of life. Disgusting and beautiful. So how would a planet host life?

How likely are aliens and what would they look like? It's hard to fathom what alien life would look like on another planet without knowing that planet's environment. Earth is considered a Goldilocks planet. It's not too far from the Sun to be an ice planet, not too close to be a barren husk, and just the right size to have a solid, stable land and water mass. Were incredibly lucky to exist. But where else could life exist? Our Solar system doesn't seem to hold much hope for another planet.

With alien life, But the moons of Jupiter are another matter. Europa is thought to have a subsurface ocean with oxygen and water, necessary ingredients for life. In Cleatus, one of Saturn's moons, may also have liquid water and molecular hydrogen, which could be an alternative source of energy for life.

If life exists on these planets, they may need to be extremophiles, organisms like bacteria that can survive in nutrient sparse environments by clinging to thermal vents at the bottom of the ocean, or perhaps like the h Salmonicola, they've developed an alternative way of procuring energy that is unlike anything seen on Earth. When we return, we're going to emerge from the ocean and look at some aliens living

ride here on our very earthen terrain. It's easy enough to find aliens living under the sea, as it's such a different environment. What about extraterrestrials. While all us animals living on Earth may share our gravitationally bound earthly nature, our environments differ so much that it's easy to find completely alien looking creatures right here on land. Consider the

diverse biomes of the planet. The frigid tundra, the scorching desert, the grasslands full of dastardly carnivores, the forests full of devious parasites and hungry birds. It's hard to be an animal in any of these extreme environments, and the pressure to survive can create some truly unique looks. The ability to find a highly specialized evolutionary path is called an evolutionary Niche You have found a very specific environment and

you've adapted to it. You have a very particular set of skills, skills you have acquired over millions of years of evolution. So, Joel, I want to talk to you about a little critter called the pink fairy armadillo. Sounds horrified the pink do not take his child because because yes, well that's true. But these are actually now, I find them cute. Okay, I'm that sounds like a caveat well, I find a lot of things cute. Uh. It does look a little bit like an armadillo that has been

turned inside out. Oh my god, So here's a picture of it. Oh, but it is cute. It is cute, okay. It's color scheme is like a light pink sunset with like furry white and it kind of looks like a gopher. But then it has like, Okay, is that a hard shell or is it fleshy? What's going on with that between it's leathery, but it's not. It's not like bone hard. It's just kind of leathery. And then also has these like duck cloth like sort of like probably would have

been between a dinosaur and a chicken. Yes, yes, like big shovel feet, wild, big shovel chicken. I've never seen anything like a creature. So they are the smallest species of armadillo, only about three to four inches long. Yeah, very cute. They live in Argentina. They're nocturnal. They live in burrows and they eat insects, worms, snails, and plants. They like you said, I love your description. That's going to be very useful for our listeners to get it.

It's hard, it's it's so hard to describe these animals because you look at it, it's like it's just like, got a pink cape made out of flesh. Yeah, it

looks soft and kind of squishy, soft and squishy. So they have white furry bellies, huge shovel like claws on the front for burrowing and on top they have pink plate mail that runs from the top of their nose down their back, covering their butt, back, head insides, so similar to other armadillo species, this hardened, leathery carapace is actually made out of bands that allow the armadillo to curl up in a ball, and it's actually more flexible

and softer than other armadillo species. So unlike other armadillos, the pink fairy armadillo, their armor is not completely attached to its body, but by a membrane that runs along its spine. So armadillos that that body covering they actually have actual bone under that that plate mail like you know. But with the fair armadillo, while they do have a reinforced bony butt, the rest of that armor is actually

not uh, sort of covering bone. So uh. It's also sort of flatter than your typical armadillo, Like your typical armadillo has that sort of I guess, dome like armor. This kind of runs just along the back. It looks like a heavily starched cape, I guess. And uh, this shell is made out of dermal scale. It is. It's a nice light pink. It's very pretty. Yeah, yeah, it's like it's like these bands, these bands of of this armor, and it's pink, and it because it's less tough than

their other relatives. Researchers think it has a purpose beyond protection, so it may be less about armor and more about thermal regulation, which sounds not since making. I mean, so that would just mean like it's helping protective from being too cold or helps insulate the heat. I could see it. It does seem drink to me, that it is like adjacent to an armory a little bit, sort of seems that none of the same basic functions, just as the

curvy crazy path of evolution. But yeah, it actually so it can both help keep it cool and keep it warm in a way that is not very intuitive but really cool. So it lives in the death asert shrub land that can get very hot during the day and very cold at night, especially under those burrows. So the pink fairy armadillo's armor is pink because it's full of blood vessels, of course, which sounds weird, but like when you blush, like that's your blood, you know, like it's

it's there's nothing gross about it. It's a cute blush. So and it can actually pump blood in and out of that carapace, which lowers or raises its core temperature to achieve thermoregulation, meaning like a temperature that is healthy for the animal. So yeah, So by filling its armor with blood, it exposes the blood to greater surface area and air, cooling it down before it recirculates. And by restricting the flow of blood through the carapace, the blood

remains in the armadillo's core, staying warm and concentrated. So we kind of do something similar as humans. Um like when you're cold, your nose and your fingers, getting them the quickest because you are actually vasal constriction that your blood vessels are constricting and keeping all that blood in your center, which is the most important place for it to be, because like you can lose a finger, but

you know your heart needs that blood. YEA. Luckily for the pink fairy armadillo, that carapist seems to do just fine with both increased or decreased blood flow, acting as an a c heating unit for this little guy. It sounds uh convenient, and I wish I could do it with my hair and or neck. In the summer, it's super hot out here. In l a. Yeah, and it would be great if I could just be like, which is with all the blood vessels to my hair, just

cool at the top of my head down. If I had like a pink a cool pink jacket that like was an a c unit and like could keep me warm, that would be incredible. Well okay, yes. It also has a kind of weird s own shaped tail that helps them balance as they dig, and they have that like armored butt plate, like this bony butt and that helps

them burrow as by acting as a dirt compactor. So as they dig, they tossed the dirt under their bellies and then they kind of push their butt against it and it compacts the dirt behind them with their butt plate, so it helps get the dirt out of the way so they can like have an area to breathe in front of them, and it also helps stabilize the burrow.

The sites in industry, they have um basically like a lab where a bunch of like subterranean creatures and or like there's a section for ducks because the ducks can see like how do they develop from like egged chicks and they're all like underglass and is really cute and for like some of the subterrent creatures, there's just whole carved out for where they like burrowed. I want to see this thing like dig and burrow. It's so tiny and small and cute. Let me get you. I think

I actually have him, Franklin. They are not good. I know you're not suggesting this, but they are not. But they I do want to make the point. Not I I'm not. I'm not putting you on blastom, you understand. But I do think that it is an interesting thing because they are sometimes like people attempt to keep them as pets and the space Yeah, exactly, it seems like it. They'd be a cute fun pet. They have a abysmal survival rate in captivity. They're very delicate creatures and like

they have like I talked about that evolutionary niche. They have evolved so specifically for this very highly specialized environment. Taking them out of that environment and like touching them, it's like it stresses them out. They can die of stress essentially. And it also they're they're not made for any other environment essentially. They're so specialized. So like like when people try to keep them as pets, they typically die.

And in fact, they're actually really hard to observe by researchers because you can't like keep them in captivity and they're hard to spot. They're very elusive, so they are not great pets. And you really, if you ever, I mean, I don't think any of our listeners are probably gonna happen upon one, but if you do, you should not pick it up. Even though there is this picture of someone holding it that is a researcher. Um, it's so cute. It just fits in the palm of your hand. It

looks like a real life Pokemon. It does. It does. I need to do a whole episode on real life Pokemon. Please, But let me show you this. Here's a here's a little It's kind of hard to see because it's night vision camera, but here it is digging and you see the butt plate kind of like poking pushing the dirt back. You guys, you would think that, but like, oh, it's literally the tiniest little pet and then it goes on to the next thing. It's so dang cute, adorable. Little Franklin.

As sponsor one at a Zoo, we have adopted a koala. I wanted to adopt oh, I'm sorry. The Coola's name is Oxley Twinkles, and she's my best daughter. And I actually have a dog too, so I can't say she's my best daughter. I love both of my animal daughters exactly, my best daughter abroad. And I'm trying to adopt a velvet worm. Those are adorable little worm like creatures, but they are hard to find an adoption agency that has

velvet worms. Actually, I'm just if anyone knows about a research group or something that that handles specifically insect stuff. Yeah he does support, Yeah, exactly, And I guess I want to adopt a pink fairy armadillo to also, again, not to have as a pet, but just to you know, sponsor also the magic like just I love a tiny I will send it little drawings of itself a little tiny tiny look. Yeah. Yeah, there we go. So now I want to talk about another terrestrial, alien looking animal.

And I'm moving from the mammals onto the insects. Okay, this is where we're getting from, getting the little nervous. I would say, don't be too nervous of the insects this They look completely wild and crazy. I don't think they look creepy especially, so I want to talk about

tree hoppers. Treehoppers are a family of insects related to cicadas and leafhoppers, and they are found all over the world except except Antarctica too cold, and they eat plant sap so their mouth is basically two straws, one that pumps saliva into the plant, the other that sucks up

the plant saliva smoothie. And so they're pretty harmless. Other I mean, they are actually kind of pests for farmers and for for plant populations, and they can be bad if they're an invasive species, but in terms of like flesh creatures, we don't need to worry about so all the terms that doesn't affect up plant growth, we're good. Yeah, exactly, And they're also here's I want to talk about some of their behavior first before I show you what they look like, because I want you to see them for

who they truly are. So they're really good moms. They sit on their eggs, unlike many many insects species drop A lot of insects just drop them and go. But yeah, these these ones sit on their eggs and they defend them from predators. And when the eggs are hatching, into these nymphs. The moms will punch a bunch of holes into the plant stem so that the little baby tree hoppers have a little little places to suck out. It's like it's like your mom punching a straw into capris

son and handing it to you. Mom. I was getting frustrated. But in addition to being good parents, these are some of the weirdest salvador dally looking things on planet. Okay, so I'm just gonna show you some of these guys. It's so funky. Is that a tail? What is the curved top? I will explain all, but just describe what you're saying. Okay, imagine like a backwards C, but like the letter C. And then it's like a gunnametal gray, but there's some shiny like silver scales. Maybe um, there

is no face. It's got like a rhino horn that sort of looks like a jack knife on top of what I assume is the head, and like two little feet and some things that could be wings but are definitely not going to give him any elevation or lift. It is so weird. So that's just one species. Let's

move on to another one. What Okay, So This one has like yellow kind of guys, which I means about you expect that, But then like a split Pope's hat, like Pope's hat, and then it looks like just like a little bit looks kind of like a batman hat to except with really long air. I also see a gesture in there at the end. It would definitely be just dress. And here's what do you think you're looking at? Here? That looks like a picture of a weird dragon with

no wings. So this is actually a bunch of them and they are covering a tree branch and they see it now it gives me like weird They look like thorns coming out of the branch. They're like these green thorny things with like and then here's one of them individually. This is They're less scary as one, but still not something I told me you have like a thing about swarm, so I try to keep the swarminess of this down. Um So yeah, yeah, it's just like a it's like

a green triangle. And then this one, okay, it's like a real black slug like it's to me it looks like a bird duty. It can also look like a bird duty. I'm seeing a weird penguin. Here's why. It's that a white belly, but it's like all black back but also like humping is back. It's confusing. It looks like it looks like a poopy penguin. Penguin, so uh. They come in a wide variety of shapes, as you can see, which is due to their huge fancy pronotum,

which is the top part of their exoskeletal thorax. So if you think of it in human terms, it's like a hard shell right at the back of your neck that grows out really big. That would be so helpful. Yeah, except it's insects and they don't really have next like vertebrates do. Uh, So I don't know how useful that comparison is it then does it rest just behind their head? Yeah, yeah, it's like their head and then it rests right behind its head. And then it's like but it can grow

like over and around there. It's just it goes wherever it wants to go, it seems. And these shells grow there. Sorry, these exo skeletons grow in completely out of control ornate architectures, often to help camouflage the tree hopper as a thorn or part of a plant or bird duty or whatever for the triangular part that's its head. Yeah, well it's I wouldn't say it's head again, it's like it's like, so, so they have an exo skeleton right that that outer carapists.

It's that exo skeleton, like right at the back of its head, just like growing way far out. Okay, I see. And so there is an incredible diversity of tree hoppers. They all look absolutely bonkers. And one of my favorites I haven't shown you yet it is the Brazilian tree hopper or sorry, did I call them grasshoppers? Their tree hoppers, and I think, and so the Brazilian tree hopper has a head full of orbs, and here it is, my god,

it's like staring into the face of death. It's got four eyes but they're black, and they sit on top of its head. And then it heads very narrow like that guy on Beetle Juice when you shrunk his head, and then like some white like graffiti over its mouth. It's literally horrifying. I could see animorphizing that I'm making an alien for a movie. It looks like so it's like there's this stem that comes off of its head and then like almost like a helicopter, but on the

end of each blade is like a bulb. So there's like these four black bulbs and those are actually not eyeballs, No, No, those are just like that offshoot of it's carapace that's growing in this weird shape. It's covered in hair and um Researchers aren't precisely sure why it looks like this. One theory is that since the orbs are covered in hairs, it's some sort of sensory apparatus. But then why it's shaped like one of those clacker ball toys like it

doesn't really make sense. But I like this theory, which is it looks like opio cort aceps, which is that parasitic fungus that you actually mentioned earlier. So there's a parasitic fungus that will infect ants and other insects and it'll just sprout out of their head uh and produce like this fruiting body that then produces spores, and it kills the insect. It's no good for the insect, so

insects generally want to avoid that. And so if you have a fake sport growing out of your head like this Brazilian tree hopper seems to maybe have the idea is that insect predators are going to avoid it because they don't want to deal with that parasitic fungus. And eventually in the in the documentaries I can remember watching with these ants and these parasites don't think kind of get left behind. They're like, colony is like, oh no,

you need to stay way outside here by yourself. And then it's awful because they're alive, Like as it's growing, it like literally spits their brain and chew from the inside out. Then it's just just long and then it

looks horrified. Yeah, it's terrible, and it makes them go crazy because so what happens is in an ant colony, they will when they detect a sign of this fungus, they will send out a party of ants on a suicide mission where they just walk the ant who is infected with this fungus far far away so that it doesn't affect the rest of the colony, and that that

insect with the fungus infection. Usually the ones that carry it far away, they'll get infected too, but by that pot point they're far enough away, uh, And so they will It drives them to climb up plants as high as they can go, which is not typically their behavior because you don't want to be necessarily visible to birds

and other predators. But it drives them up and up, and that helps the spores because then the spores want to uh well, they don't want anything because they're a fungus, but you know, evolutionarily speaking, it helps them disperse because they get up hyponic plant and they actually the ants that are infected with this, it makes them uh go like grip onto the plant in this like death grip with their mandibles is like sort of the last phase of this weird fungus zombie infection. So it's super bad

news for insects. And so if they see something that looks like it's infected with it, I'd imagine that they would probably avoid it. I like that they have um police slash healthcare procedures. We don't have medicaid for medicare or nothing. You need to solve this on your own. Get out so you don't be patients. Zero pow yourself up by your antstraps. I'm imagining little boots on an ant caldute. I'm trying to think of a pun with medicare for all, and it's just not coming medic carapist

for all. There it is. In science fiction there are often insect oid aliens. But why didn't insects develop intelligence like mammals. One problem is that insects are restricted in size. While brain size isn't always directly correlated with intelligence, you do need at least some material to work with, and if you're an insect with only a few hundred thousand brain cells compared to a human brain that has almost

hundred billion brain cells, you're at a distinct disadvantage. Unfortunately, the growth of insects became stunted hundreds of millions of years ago. Insects used to be huge. Around three hundred million years ago, dragonflies could grow up to two feet long in wingspan. The high oxygen levels in the atmosphere allowed the insects to get enough oxygen in their large bodies through their tiny breathing tubes. However, their stunted size wasn't only due to the drop in oxygen levels. It

was also due to the experience of words. When birds came on the scene, Fossil records of large insects suddenly plummeted. Despite the fact that researchers estimate oxygen levels increased during this time. It's thought that these predatory flying beaked harbingers of death birds forced insects to value maneuverability over size, the predation by birds driving them to become smaller and more discreet, adopting crypsis and camouflage like our tree hopper friends.

Maybe on an alien planet rich with oxygen and lacking the menace of birds, insects could have grown larger and perhaps more intelligent. Now, the best strategy that insects have for intelligence is in numbers. Be in ant colonies with small individual sizes but large numbers of members may form a high intelligence that helps their survival while not sacrificing their ability to dodge a predator and of course their

strength in numbers. Birds, meanwhile, are masters of the skies, and though they would come to have their fair share of predators, they were luckier than insects, and we're able to develop greater size, intelligence and sometimes completely bonkers ornamentation, which we'll discuss right after this break. In science fiction,

we aren't always creative enough with aliens. There aren't that many flying aliens flying saucers, sure, but the idea of an alien with wings is perhaps a step too far for it to be the main trope when it comes to aliens, But I don't see why aliens wouldn't have wings. After all, it's a trait that evolved independently in many different animals on Earth. Insects, birds, bats, and even gliding lizards,

squirrels and fish have wings. But birds have the biggest monopoly on the skies, and some of these aviens are truly alien looking, giving us a perspective on what flying extraterrestrials might look like. I always thought birds would make the best alien inspiration for movies, because the thing is, if you look at like the aliens that have made it two movies, rafa hanging out like either reptilian or humanoid, which is fair. Reptiles have like crazy jaws and like

the claws and everything these that we actually fear. I'm terrified of birds, and I have this conversation with you last weeks. They really truly scare me. I only like ravens because I respect them and I understand like they're like, listen, we can hold a grudge. Um we are called a murder. Uh. They're just like they like They're very upfront about how horrifying they are. They're like, they know they came from dinosaurs, and they're not gonna let you forget either. Other birds

are like, look at I'm adorable. I'm like, no, like when do you? Guys will just die bomb from the sky and destroy. And then if you look at like some of the patterns of colors on their wings or designs and stuff, some of the way their heads turn owls truly alien like, very creepy. I'm nervous about what you have from You're also kind of excited. I do agree that birds are very alien looking. It is going to be my mission, while you are the producer of

this podcast, to convert you into a bird lover. Oh my god, at task. My brother will be very happy if you can do. I am a huge, huge bird lover hashtag proverb rites, but it is yeah. I I do agree though they are they are horrifying personally. I just love that I reflected you. You you respect all the creepy things. So first I want to talk to you about the king vulture. Oh my god, have you ever seen a vulture like up close and in person

in your life? I have seen them at zoos. I've never seen one just out and about, so I've been to the zoo again. I'm from Chicago's zoos in Chicago will sometimes just let their birds own kind of free or they have in like in Park Zoo there's a giant bird cage that's a dome, so they have a aviary you can walk through and the birds are kind of free and throwing around there. Or they've got these very like low swooping nets so they can travel um.

But when you get outside, then you're like, there's a giant, like I want to say, twelve foot tall bird cage with a bunch of predatory birds and it just looking down. So as a child, I was afraid of birds. But we're gonna hit every spot in the zoo because we were with a lot of kids. I'll close my eyes. Well here is like the flapping of me screeching, and

I was like, it's gonna be fine. We just have to get outside there, Like Joel, you've made it through the House of Terror and now you're just amongst the birds. And I looked up an huge vulture like you know, getting wings air in its wings, like flapping and looking down at me, and I was like, I can't like it was really that and a peacock. It cemented my fear of birds for life. Okay, a giant peacock chasing you down when you're fied. So you would say if

peacock combined with a vulture would not be your favorite animal? No, no, no. The King vulture has a face like a star trek alien. It's a New World vulture found in Central and South America, excluding condors. It's the largest New World vulture, with a wingspan of seven feet. And while their bodies are pretty plain white, black and gray, their heads are sort of incredible.

They So I'm gonna show you some pictures. Hold. Oh no, okay, imagine the beatiest turkey eye you've ever seen, just staring at you, and then it's like a gnarled thing on its beak. Oh my freaking god. No, this is like the King of Evil. But it's a it's like a it's like a sunset, though its head looks like a rainbow sun. No with it's like, oh, white body and black tipped. We I hate looking at it. I love it.

This is my nightmare. Fuel. Well, we have very different opinions on this bird, and that's okay, agree to disagree. So their heads, like other vultures, are mostly bald, but in their case their heads are vibrantly colorful and covered in weird dude ads. So they have an orange and black beak and a bright orange wattle on the top of their beak that kind of looks like a shriveled brain. Yeah, and then they it's not a brain, it's just a

fleshy growth. They have bright blue, wrinkly, bulbous cheeks with a wrinkled tube of flesh that goes from the cheekbone down the neck and turns from blue to orange and then yellow. Their eyes are bright turquoise, almost white, and their eyelids are reddish pink. Their necks are like a sunset purple melts into pink, which turns into orange and

finally gradiates into yellow. It's beautiful in my opinion. Their face is covered in thin black bristles, but under that, peeking through is their skin, which is bright purple, and on the very top of their heads they have a bald spot which is bright pink. The base of its neck is also bare a pinkish purple which often shows through its chest feathers, so it looks like it has this weird bulbous growth coming out, but that's just its neck,

so it is. Yeah, it's an incredible animal. Of course, I understand why people fear vultures because they are associated with death and decay, but they actually serve a very important service to nature. They take care of dead bodies and they prevent the spread of disease, and they're they're kind of like a dead end for a lot of diseases which they are able to fight off or are immune to, and so when they're basically eating up a dead body, that prevents that body from being a petri

dish full of nasty bacteria and disease. A circle of life. But these are such like they're so flamboyant. Like usually like undertakers, you know, and vultures they have that sort of grim look. They're they're they're you know, they have like their brown and black and over searching out. But these guys are festive. They're like the fun mortician, you know, they have a smartoes of death holidays exactly. Yeah, they're

like they're they're like a Pastel goff, but they're not. Actually, they're like more of a I guess bright my Thaie Goff. Yeah yeah, Lolita go I think, yeah, totally yeah. But like with these bright, like really brilliant colors, like they look like a tropical sunset with bright blues and reds and purples, the fact that their body is white is really the anti vulture. Yeah yeah, they're like yeah, I'm

still not messing with them. In terms of why they look this way, I'm actually not sure and I couldn't find any great research on it. If it does exist out there, like hit me up, I'd love to hear about it. Um. My first thought is that maybe it's

sexual selection, but the females are very similar looking. There's not a lot of sexual dimorphism, meaning like where a lot of bird species the male is like flamboyant and colorful, jazzy, and the female is just brown and sort of like okay, yeah, yeah exactly, like like you impress me, not the other way around it, which I love. I love. In this case,

it's sort of like gender parody. They're both It could still be sexual selection, but like in puffins, where they're both trying to impress each other, which I kind of I like that a puffin is another bird I can chive with puffins are cool. Yes, so you're cool with puffins. They're just called puffins, like they're puffy muffins, and they're so cute and sweetly see you know, kind tempered. Yes, well, yeah, they they are. They're they're pretty cool. Not fish. They

kill a lot of fish. But I'll also they're delicious. You could blame them. I The next bird I want to talk to you about is I hope you like this one a little better. It is the cock of the rock. Okay, first of all, a name A plus a plus name. So the cock of the rock is another South American bird, but this one lives in the cloud forests of the Andies. So they're a medium sized

tropical bird. And the male this is the one where the males are super fancy and the females are kind of a like, I don't know, normal looking, and so they the males are bright orange and they look like some kind of weird disc headed alien. So they have this orange crust of feathers covering the beacon top of its head that makes them look like their head is a disk or a frisbee. So here is what this guy looks like. Oh oh oh, you would not know you were looking at a bird like, is it an

octopus under water? Is it a squid? Is it a one eyed orange people eater? Yeah, it looks like it looks super muppet like, because like sort of one of those Jim Hintson muppets where they don't even have like real faces. I guess where she's like. You think he talks like biger like. And then also I forget what they're called, but they're like all one fuzzy colored things and they shake and it's from another children's program. If you saw it, guys wiggles totally Yeah, perfect this It

doesn't even look like a bird. I love it a little Oh no, close your mouth. I hate it now. I saw the whole thing, and you see it when it without the mouth is kind of cute. It looks like a weird little little tube with the beat of predator. There's another another picture of it. Yeah, if it keeps his mouth closed, we're okay. But even that pictures given me a lot of side at and I don't appreciate

a bird judging me like that. So the males use this incredible look to attract females in fancy courtship displays, and the males will bob do like push up motions. They'll jerk their weird disc heads around and if the female likes it, she'll peck his neck in they'll go off in mate, also fitting in well. At Venice Beach, they the males form these clicks and then their territory from outsider males or predators. Together skateboard or waits to live and they are done. Brow up. Check out my

frisbee head bro Oh my god. So I want to cap off the show with one of the most absurd muppet alien looking birds on the planet. I don't know if you'll be a fan of this one, because they are. They go from being cute muppets to looking like horrifying aliens, and that can be like the same bird can go from looking like I'm a cute dirty muppet to being like I am a horrible alien. Maybe i'll name my patronis. So first let's just hear what it sounds like. Oh goodness,

So this is the PO two. It looks and sounds like a haunted alien ghost. So PO two's are a group of birds, and there are multiple species, so we're gonna listen to a couple of different species. So this is the great potwo call. Oh yeah, yeah, it sounds like it's screaming mom, but it's been a deformed vocal cords or something like they maybe I don't know, oh no, yeah, oh my goodness, here's a nightmares. Here's another great potwo call. Oh oh, who can do that too? Well? Too well, yes,

I'm a human. And it's like the it's like the body snatcher sounds like at the end of Body Snatchers. And then here's its song. That's just it's called its song is a little less body snatcher, but it's very haunting. Okay, this is the this is the common Poe two catalog number. That's not the common now, that's some guy from the Cornell Lab Science. It sounds sad, Okay, maybe it's misunderstood.

It's like I'm trying to say, hey, people are like you sound horrify and sing with friends, and they're like, we still don't like you. I don't know what it looks like vermo. Yeah. So the Poe two's, like I said, are a group of birds who have a very distinctive look. And this time it's actually for survival and not sexual selection. So surviving preditors and being able to hunt. So they

are also found in Central and South America. They're related to night jars and frog mouths, and they are nocturnal insectivores. And I'm just gonna before I describe them, I'm just gonna show you some pictures. Okay, okay, okay, oh okay. So imagine a soulless owl with a neck, and this is what you get. You guys. There's don't have the beaks are open and their eyes are entirely black. There's another one. Oh my god, this is lit. Oh no, no, no,

I can look at his face. Okay, it does kind of look like one of the puppies here because it's got really round eyes and so you know, our human brains are like that means cute and innocent. But I'm also seeing death in those eyes and don't trust it. So what Joel is seeing is the po two who has huge wal eyed, bulging eyes. They kind of look like goldfish eyes. Those pupils can go from being small points to expanding to cover the entire iris. That's what

I saw. A black eyes. Okay, that explains it. They have huge, wide mouths and they are a tawny brown with modeled coloring a bit like owl's feathers, and they are one of the dirtiest looking birds on the planet. In my opinion, they can be. They range from being to me terrifying to being adorably stupid cute sort of like you know how like pugs or like or oh you know, like um, like a bulldog. Bulldog has that range, like the porks in Star Wars where they have those

like little wal eyed looks. Yeah, they do have. Okay, you know what, that's probably the best sci fi interpretation of it. Yeah, totally. So. The reason their eyes are so huge is that helps them see at night, and they actually also have eyelids that are slitted, so they have slits in that allows some light in, so they can see predators even when their eyes are closed, so

they are always watching you. Their mouth is large enough for them to swallow prey hole without bothering to chew it up that I definitely even being able to do that in fact, and I know I'm trying to be like the advocate for the PO twos, but one PO two was found with a small bird in its stomach, So yeah, that big mouth can get a lot done. I think they most commonly eat insects, though I think

it's unusual for them. Could have even been an accident, you know, just he was yawning and a bird flew in, Like we don't know. I'm saying he has a right

to an attorney, proven guilty. So they have an unusual Cripsis tactic, which is to do a little acting, a little method acting, or they pretend to be a tree stump, and they will stand rigid still and and just very very stationary, stretched their heads out and the tops of their heads are kind of flat, so it actually gives this very realistic impression of a tree stump and like a branch that's been broken off, because that that feathering color that's sort of pretty like modeled brown and white

is like is actually meant to look like tree bark and that. So here's a here's a picture of one of these guys in action. Okay, oh wow, the way that his back sort of looks hollowed out even yeah, like the black on a really good camouflage. You probably wouldn't know this was a bird except that his eyes open. And then here's another instance of it. Kind of just they they flatten their feathers and stretch out so they

look thin and branch like. He definitely mold to the tree that they're on, And it makes sense to me the animals with just cozy up to it's kind of warm for some reason, I'm an animal too dumb to think that through God, it would suck if a woodpecker like was like came up to them like, oh, this

looks like a branch. Yeah. So they'll only lay one egg at a time, and they they are a method of laying eggs seems completely stupid, but they will lay a single egg on top of a tree stump, just kind of balanced up there, um, and it looks very precarious, just like boop, there it goes. Where's the nest So it actually looks is meant to kind of look like a fungal bulb. So sometimes trees will sort of grow like a fungus on it that looks like a bit like a bulb and it just kind of precariously, uh,

sits on this tree stump. And the nestlings once they hatch, are too small to look like tree stumps, but their coloration makes them look like tree fungus a little bit. So let me show you when I think the bag these are cute, but you might think they're a little horrible. So here's a little baby, he's not horrible. There's another one. Uh and then oh, here's another adult looking very much like a tree. That's a master camouflage exactly he's doing.

He's like, it's incredible because he's flattened the feathers like against the tree. The coloring of the feathers perfectly blends in with that modeled tree. I literally can barely tell where the tree ends and starts. It's it's incredible, but yeah, that is. That is the story of the Poe two, who has one of the most haunting calls and to me, ranging from adorable to completely insane possessed alien looks. If that fish from segment one with the big mouth means

this Poe too, it's on mouth contest. I can yawn really so dirty. I can like yawn really wide, like my I have like bad jaw problems because I get like team j and stuff in. One of the problems I think is a yawned too wide and look like Jessie, how do you want how maybe? Oh my god, I thought, I was like yeah, I opened my mouth and she was like, no, I can extend this. Wow, I could swallow one of these birds. Well before we go, I do want to do a bit of self promotion. Uh, well,

show promotion shirts. We have shirt, beautiful, beautiful shirt. So I we have actually had a few shirts. Um, but I wanted to wait to promote shirts until I got the Creature Feature logo shirt where I wanted it to be. And uh it is a shirt with the Creature Feature logo that has been hand drawn by yours truly. Wa she did a fabulous not just saying that as the producer of Vision real good, She's just saying it because

I know they are up in the store. I will include a link to it in the show notes, but if you want to just tap it in with your finger things, it is www dot t public dot com, slash stores, slash Creature Feature and uh, I am wearing the shirt right now. It is it's got Creature Feature on it, and it's got our lizard man and our

cat Lady on it. And um, I do believe the shirts will be on sale for only fourteen bucks if you heard deal ideal right yea, So those will be online and there's a few other designs there, so please do check those out, Joel, do you good anything to plug? Uh? No, I'm a writer, a p club, a quarter and other pleases. So if you're interested in culture entertainments, you can always

come check me out over at Joel Monique. That's j O E L l E M O n I q u E at Twitter, Juel more week all one more on the tweeters, and you can find us on the twitters at Creature feet Pod that's f e A T not f et totally. Uh. You can also find us on Instagram at Creature Feature Pod, Facebook at Creature Feature Pod on line on the I Heart Radio website I Heard Radio dot com and just search for a Creature feature and you can find me personally just Katie and

her Katie thoughts at Katie Golden on Twitter. And you can find you know the bird version of me, my bird sona at pro bird Rites, where I fight for the rights of birds and Joel, I hope that I can convert you. It's gonna be an interesting journey and I look forward uh to getting to know more bird. Yeah, I'm gonna bird vangelized bird evangelized bird vangelize. Yeah, I don't see my deep seated irrational fear change. I don't know, but I wish you love well. Thank you so much

for joining you today. This has been a last Thanks for having this is awesome. If you're enjoying the show, please rate, subscribe, like it. The stars put all the stars on and I really appreciate it. Thank you so so much for listening. Thanks to the Space Cossics for their super alien song. X Alumina. Creature features a production of I Heart Radio. Listen to more podcasts like the one you just heard. Visit I hurt radio dot com, I Hurt Radio Apple, where I really listen to your

favorite shows. See you next Wednesday. I keep thaking them, don't That's not that I'm not great.