Creaturemon! Gotta Snatch 'Em All!

fan from bad podcast. Oh. Yes, Today we're talking about Pokemon animals. These creatures are even more unbelievable than those fantastic little pocket monsters. I'm talking cute little critters, more crazy. Look at them, Pikachu. See animals that seem too cute to be real and behavior that you'd think you'd only find in the pokadecks. We'll be looking at ground type, water type, and bug type animals, and we'll try to see if any Pokemon come close to how wild these

real animals are. To discover this and more as we answer the Agel question, are there cute little bunnies under the sea spoilers? Yes, So Pokemon is a great game for inspiring people about evolutionary biology. Now, I've got to be honest. I never played the card game as a kid, but I loved watching the TV show and I absolutely

adore all those little pocket monsters. As someone who cares deeply about evolutionary biology, I love that so many kids, and let's be honest, huge numbers of adults are into Pokemon. I think it proves that we're deep down biodiversity nerds. I love that Pokemon not only shows off creativity and imagining what creatures look like, but their behaviors as well, their defensive strategies, their strengths and weaknesses, their natural predators.

Is Pokemon secretly training an army of young evolutionary biologists? Joining me to discuss this nerdy conspiracies? Audio engineer, editor and producer right here at iHeart Radio, Dan Goodman, Katie, thank you so much for having me. Of course, it's long overdue, you said at this podcasts, I never gave you a shout out. That's wrong of me. It was a pleasure to edit your podcast. Every episode was oh before we begin. I'm trying to do this at the top now because I read a thing that says people

listen to you more at the beginning of podcast. Maybe I don't know, but here we go, and anyways, please rate like wait no, like isn't a thing that you can do on a podcast, but rate, subscribe and review the podcast. We do hope that they like I do. I want you to like it, but that's not something you can like. I can force you to do these. I can force you to do somehow. So it actually really helps a whole lot to get this podcast up in those Master rankings, to do to do those things,

press those buttons, those little stars. Every star actually I feel it. I feel it in my in my body. And if you get five stars, you get a special prize. I do what is that prize? My My appreciation isn't done. So now onto the Pokemon. Gosh, I'm so excited. This is This is uh long an episode I've long wanted to do, actually, and I'll probably do another one like this again at some point because there's just too many

animals who look like Pokemon. Part of the reason is I think that the creators of Pokemon are really creative and they actually draw inspiration from nature, and I just love that. It's it's really amazing. So first, let's talk about I guess everyone's favorite Pokemon Pikachu um sweet little sweet little electric type. Yes, and like the Piachu is another one, the little one. So I found an animal who looks like kind of like a peach mixed with a cinda quill and yeah yeah, so like it's like

a spiky Pikachu or Peachu. So this is the Lowland streaked tin Ric. Oh that's a wow. Yeah, that's adorable and also dangerous. Look it is. So the Lowland streaked tin ric is found on the island of Madagascar. It looks like fifty true fifty porcupine and Pokemon. It is about five inches long in a ways about six ounces, so it's just fits in the palm of your hand. It could fit in your pocket like some kind of pocket monster. It is covered in sharp quills, and most strikingly,

it is bright yellow with black streaks. It is uh Pikachu or pechu coloring interesting and it has a fan of bright yellow quills on its head. And as a tin ric, it is a family of mammals endemic to Madagascar, meaning they're only found there. And even though they look kind of like a hedgehog and a shrew sort of got busy and made a weird offspring. The similarities in looking like hedgehog or shrew or porcupine is actually convergent evolutions.

So while they all distantly share a common ancestor way back, they actually evolved their spines and their look independently from shrews and hedgehogs. Yeah, so the Lowland streaked tin ric has a few interesting behaviors on top of it looking straight up like a pokemon. So they eat earthworms and they stamp on the ground to trick the worms into surfacing, which we've actually talked about this on this show before. It's something humans do. It's called worm fiddling, worm fiddling,

worm fiddling. Actually, people have a contests worm fiddling contests where you like trying to get the most earthworms out of the ground. Yeah, yes, they're different earth fiddling techniques. Like you can play music. Some people like drive a fork into the ground and like hit the fork and the most earthworms winds. I'm fascinated by the idea of that. Yeah, it's it's a tactic that humans have used for a while to get worms for things like fishing and so on. Yeah,

and animals use it all the time. Birds other insectivorous animals who eat earthworms will use it. I feel like that's the so is that Pardon me if this is uh? I mean, is that kind of like where tippy taps come from? Like you see you see like birds doing tippy taps and stuff like that, and that could be Yeah, definitely could be related. They do do tippy taps. It is tippy tap behavior. I'm sure is varied, but this

is one case of tippy tap behavior. Yes. And and the reason the tippy taps works is that it actually vibrates the soil and it tricks the earth worms into thinking that rain is coming or maybe a subterranean predator like a mole, So they come out of the ground. They like, they gotta scoop because they don't want it. Like if rain permeates the ground, they can actually drown, so they want to get up to the surface. But then, oh, is the streak tin ric and it's cute little face

eating them up? Want want? Yes. So. Also another cute thing these guys do is they rub their quills together to produce a high frequency sound, thought to be used by tin ricks to warn one another of danger, or by mothers to communicate with her young. Yes, yeah, does that seem like a made up thing? Like, oh this Pokemon like rubs her quills together. Sound it seems like, yeah,

it seems very animates. Yeah, they're actually the only mammal known to use stridulation, which is where you produce sound by rubbing body parts together. So that's something crickets do. Rattle stinks, Do crickets rub their leg parts or sorry no, I actually think their wing parts together. Rattlesnakes rubbed their tail, and the club winged mannequin, which is a bird, actually

vibrates its wings in a way that causes strigulation. But yeah, this is one of the only mammals, or actually think it is the only mammal we know of that does

that except for humans. Uh. They they also stick out their quills and vibrate them as a defensive method when they encounter an enemy or predator, which again is just so I don't know Pokemon like, yes, I mean keep saying that again over and over this episode, but it is just cartoonishly cute, like don't bother me and just like sticks out its quills and spikes out all cute? Does it also go turn turn? I wish I wish

that's another thing. I want to do a whole episode on animals whose name is the same as just the sound they made, like whipper wills, Yeah, oh my god, what or the go away bird. There's a great go away bird that in the reason it's called the Great go away bird is it has a call that sounds like are you serious? I'm serious, it's called the Great goat away. It's like, I'm all about that. There's a video that my friend showed me where it's a cat

going Southern cat exactly. Ever since then, I'm just looking for animals talking. Yes, I mean I I am of the generation that remembers the O Long Johnson cat who women with Now it would go like the true Internet classic. Yes, yes, this is I think it ages me though I'm with you, there with you, It's okay. So, as I was looking at this animal, this is this is true, so I was like like, oh, this is really cool. I wonder

what Pokemon might look like this. I kind of wanted to make a comparison, so I was like googled like spiky Pokemon and it turns out that while it's not in a fish, Pokemon. An artist on Devian art named Greg Andreid I think, drew a fan art of his own Pokemon, which is based on the Oh that's so cool, it's super that's that's your tender right there there. It is exactly ten radic and I'm definitely gonna include a link to that. Warning don't just willy nilly look around

dev and art is that's my only caveat. Just do well safe search on. I think be prepared some there's definitely going to be some like sexy Pika choose. I was going to say, especially if you search, if you're just like, oh, let me go find more Pokemon Sonic and Pikachu lovingly looking into each other's eyes, completely nude. A good time, called Devon art for a reason. So now I want to move on to another Pokemon esque animal, because that's what this episode is indeed. And do you

know that that Pokemon worlapede um that sounds familiar? Yes? Is it? Is it any relation to Polly Whirl? I don't don't know. I think, I think, I think I know what you're talking about. Fake Pokemon nerd smokes. Okay, it's like it's like the tire one it's got Yes, a man there's some fans who are listening to be like, no, it's not like Polly World. I am actually going to call that talk about polywag. But this is not this

is not the time. No, this is worlapede time. And so there is an animal called the armadillo girdled lizard, and I'm just gonna show it. I'm like, I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves. These animals are identical. Yes, that is the worlapeede right there. Oh my god, I'm gonna go. Is it biting its tail? Yes, yes, So

let me just paint a picture for the audience. Obviously, as always, all include links to photos, and you can google armadillo girdled lizard and you will be pleased to see what you find in You will be pleased to see the the armadillo gurgle lizards. But I will use I will use my mouth words to try to do this animal justice, but I simply can't. You do have to look at a photos. So they are a chunky, spiky lizard who bites its own tail to form a ball.

They are small, they fit in the palm of your hand. They are very thorny looking. Like looking little dragons, sort of like a Game of Thrones dragons, very chunky, and they have interlocking cylinders of chunky geometric spikes. They are very cool. They're sort of a dusty gray, dusty brown again, like little tiny baby Game of Thrones dragons, but in little balls. Yeah, I mean, that's that. That's that sounds

like a great description to me, thank you. They are only found in South Africa along the deserts of the western coast. It eats insects and spiders and they are highly social lizards, which is not always the case for lizards. They live with large families and they sunbathed together, very cute. As you may know, sunbathing is very important for lizards. Uh. They are a quote cold blooded animal. They're not actually

that isn't like their blood isn't cold. It just means that they can't thermoregulate on their own, so they have to sit in the sun or in the shade to regulate their body temperature. So when a predator tries to snatch them up. Since there are sunbathing in these big families, usually somebody in the group spots it and panics, and everybody else panics, and they all scramble back into the safety of the rocks. But if that teamwork, team panic. That's see, this is the thing. I'm an anxious person.

I actually love to surround myself with anxious people and we all work together to turn our anxiety into a

huge anxiety bubble. It's great sounds. I do not recommend escape rooms that so if that doesn't work, they actually have one more trick up their sleeve, which is that they bite their tail, curling into a little ball or like an ouroborous if you show like the snake eating its own tail, and that turns them into like a little ouchie tire and they are protecting their squishy bits and only exposing the hard, thorny scales on their back legs and tails. Yes, so I do want to show

you a video of David Attenborough bothering an armadilla lizard. David, you know I love you, but I do also find it hilarious how many animals he goes and bothers. Obviously, he's being very responsible about it. He's not handling animals that like it's dangerous to handle for the animal. He's doing in a very respectful way. But I think he is annoying. That definitely annoying. So here he is and

it's like look at his expression. It's not doesn't feel to hold on these because it's covered in thorns, but you see like he picks it up and it's just like he's trying to He's definitely poking and prodding it. That's a real cheese get that. Yeah, it's it looks like it's covered in thorns and actually David Ambrose like he's trying to like hold it like uh, And yeah,

I think they're quite cute. They look just so like tee it off, like when they are biting their tails and they look quite quite annoyed and spiky and it's just so cute. Though. They look fierce, look like Pokemon, like Pokemon, like the cutest, fiercest Pokemon. Another cute thing about them is that they give live birth and sometimes the mother's feet and take care of their young, which is not very common amongst lizards. I was gonna say,

do what's the I mean, do they lay eggs? No, they do live bearing the lizards usually typically they do, but there are other species that are life bearing. But yeah, I think it's not super common for them to be life bearing uh, and sometimes the babies will sit on top of the adults in the family, like when their sun bathing together, so you'll see. Are they spiky from the start? I think they are, but probably they harden

over times, so that that's generally. The thing with like these like spiky animals is usually they start out with the scales from birth, but then the older they get, the harder their scales got. And in fact, we're going to talk about that with the pangulum. Another another armored animals, and this one looks a lot like the sandlash. Yes, it does totally. In fact, I do believe that the

sandlash is based on the penguin. So pangolins, if you don't know, they are these weird scaled animals who look like sand lash and they kind of look like a weird reptile, but they are in fact mammals, and they are also maybe responsible for corona. Wait, yeah, well all because people were suck. It does suck, But well I'll talk about that actually in the outros there's a yeah, it's a it's a complicated issue with researchers aren't a

hundred percent sure that coronavirus comes from penguins. But there could be a silver lining in this, so uh, don't don't get too downcast yet. Um, but I'm really praying for that silver lining. But before we talk about that, I do just want to talk about how cool penguins are. So they have protective keratin scales covering their body. Keratin is that stuff that's in your nails. Yeah, and it they kind of look like a living pine cone. Yes, they do. Yeah, like a like an ant eater and

a pine cone kind of mashed up. I had not heard pine cone before, but that's really funny. I like that a lot so penguins. It's not just one species. They're actually a whole clade, and there are many different species. There are our boreal species that live in trees, usually in big tree hollows. There are terrestrial ones who dig really long burrows. Some of their burrows can be like eleven ft long, and they are generally found in Asia

and Sub Saharan Africa. The smallest pegul in is the black belly peglin, who is I believe lives in the trees. Their bodies are about a foot long and their tails are quite long, so they're they're about long. You said, these are the smallest ones. Yeah, these are the smallest ones, not quite small enough to fit in your pockets. Not quite not big pockets though, that's true, you know, shorts. I don't know if I don't know if you want me to put you on blast here. But you had

a little bit of a pocket catty. We had a pocket snapt we had a pocket snaff food. Uh, Dan, I'm sorry, do you want to tell the trauma? Oh? You know, just sitting down too quickly, not paying attention, your pocket getting caught on the arm of a chair. And then well, I guess my pockets a little bit bigger. Now it's a little torn. But you know what, maybe this is blessing in disguise. Maybe you can fit a penguin in that pocket. Now perfect fate works in mysterious ways.

Now that's the real silver lining. Coronavirus cure. Sure actually fit a pangulin in my pocket now, now we're talking. So the largest species of penguin, penguin pangolin, is the giant pangolin, who grows about five ft long and can way up to seventy pounds. What about the tail? The tail I believe is included in that five ft and so for hang on and ghost. You're good. Also, that was nice. I don't want to I don't want to like um actually, but I think it's sand slash. He

said sand blash. And I know that's not like a big deal, but it just feels like the kind of thing that's I'm going to get like destroyed. That's a very good thing. I'm sorry about that. No, no, that's uh let's uh absolutely despise doing that. I am so no, no, no, do not feel. I am much prefer to be well. First of all, I actually don't mind being corrected about stuff, and also I would much prefer that now then like later, people are absolute flam flash. You're a big poper nerd.

Should I'll just say like sand you can. Honestly, I think you could just say sand slash. Let me just say sand slash, sand slash, sand slash, sand slash. I'll do. I'll do a bonus track of me just saying sand slash. Yeah. But so like for comparison, the black bellied pengulin is only about five pounds, so this guy is like sevent a big chunkster. Yeah. So so all species of pengulin have really long tongues to eat ants and termites and

other small invertebrates. Uh, they've got those protective keratin scales all over their bodies. They're nocturnal and they have claws either for climbing trees or burrowing and digging into ant or termite mounts, large pengulins, and stick their tongues out over a foot. So that's cool. I love thinking about that big long foot, long sticky tongues. That's uncomfortable. Yeah, they're also good swimmers. They don't look like they would really,

but they Yeah, and sometimes they will be bipedal. Not not all the time. All of them walk on all fours, but like they will get up on their hind legs and walk around for mysterious reasons, just to stretch, just to show up and be like, hey, humans, don't get too comfortable. Yeah, this is our world. This is the parent girls. Yeah, they have no teeth, and their no teeth,

they don't need it, don't need it. Sticky sticky tongue, yeah, they they're saliva is really sticky, so they jab out those big long tongues and ants and termites stick to their long, long tongues and uh, some species actually have strong prehensile tails that they can use to hang from branches or kind of rasp at the ark to expose ants and termites and underneath, yeah yeah, yes, just like

slurping get them. And like the armadilla lizard, they will roll up into a ball when threatened, only exposing that hard keratin scale mail armor. And so like we're talking about before, you had that great question about like are the armadilla lizards born with the scales, And they are, and they harden over time, same thing with the penguin.

So when they're born, these scales are very soft and they're kind of like pink, and and then they and then they slowly harden over time, and mothers will actually wrap themselves around their babies to protect them, I know, heartwarm,

love it. And while they do look like they may be related to aunt eaters or armadillos, and they actually share a lot of these physical traits with them, like the long, sticky tongues and the big claws to dig into termite aunt mauls, they're actually more related to Carnivorans, which is the clade that contains big cats, bears, wolves, hyenas, raccoons, mongooses, and seals. Ain't it weird seals. Seals are in the

carnivorren clay Wow. Interesting, yeah, weird, confirmed weird. They look like they should be arm like ant eaters or armadillos, but no, they're more related to yeah cats, yeah, bears. I mean they aren't like super closely. They are their own clade, so they aren't like directly related to them, but they are closer to them than they are too in the in the in the Kingdom phil which where does the split happen? What is what is carnivore? I'm sorry,

what was the word carnivora? That is the clade? Let me please excuse my dear aunt Sally Wait of Operations, Kingdom piling class order, family, genus, species, Holy crap, Yes that's right, that's right. You had to say those first couple. I was like, at some accommodation, you're actually better at that than me. I am not. I'm only good at manemonic devices, not science. But yes, yes, so that would be car Carnivora. I already forgot the word. I'm so sorry.

Carnivora yea order, Yeah, okay, got it, yeah, exactly. Well, it's like it's not necessarily that they branch off at just um mammals, so like the class would be like like mammals, but they branch off from like common ancestors along a long the way. Cool. Cool. Yeah, So I just googled penguin to show you some pictures, and the onion has the headline that, let me just show it to you. It's so we have coronavirus under control, announces

CDC directors. No slowly transforms into penguins now and they have a disturbing photoshop by a man turning into a panglan. That is intense, that is very u But yeah, let me let me show you some actually of these of these guys. Look at them right there, pine combs and like like sometimes the babies just hanging out, just hanging out.

That is too adorable. They look they also look like the hate to bring it back to a Game of Thrones again, but you know that the dragon eggs in with a little snouts and legs, so even better, even better, even better. I got some people were upset with me by by bragging that my show is going to be more like intense than Game of Thrones, but I stand by it given where Game of Thrones actually, yeah, I think like now in retrospect, it's like and I'm not

happy about it. Classic. Right now, humans are struggling with the coronavirus in searching for an origin. Pengulins have been fingered for the crime, but isn't really their fault. Scientists sequence genomes from the human coronavirus and found a match to the pengulin coronavirus and suspect it jumped from pegulin to human. However, other researchers urge caution in jumping to conclusions.

It's yet to have been conclusively proven that pengulins are the culprit, but the suspicion that penguins are the root of the coronavirus might actually help them. China has banned the trade of wildlife as food in response to the potential that the virus came from the wildlife market. However, pengulin scales are often used in traditional medicine, so it's feared that poachers might exploit a loophole in the new law, possibly allowing them to still trade in pengulin as long

as it's for medicinal purposes. On the other hand, perhaps paranoia over pegulin pathogen sorry will make them go out of fashion as medicine. Already, the Ivory Coast burned three tons of the eugally poached penguin scales that were seized. Maybe, now that our human butts are on the line, we'll also care about those penguin pine cone butts. When we return, We're going to dive right into some water type pokemon, and let me tell you, their butts are very cute.

Why do I keep talking about butts? Anyways, We'll be right back. So why has got to catch them all? Such a human need? The psychology of collecting is a whole field of research also in economics, from Pokemon to humble figurines to Garfield paraphernalien just for example, humans love to collect things. Obviously, resource gathering or financial benefit is one reason to collect, but it's not the only, or

even the main reason. The urge for set completion has been studied in economics literature, and while it's loosely tied to financial gain, it seems motivated more by the satisfaction of completion, and like ash catchum, the goal of becoming the ideal collector i e. A Pokemon master is also a major motivator for collection. The closer collector gets to being a master, the more benefits it brings to self esteem. You know what else? Improve your self esteem knowing that

you share a planet with the sea bunny. Are you ready to talk about some sea bunnies? Yes, I know it's not quite Easter yet, but I'm about about it. We are talking about sea bunnies. They are adorable little seed dwelling animals who look like bunnies made out of marshmallow. Dan, have you ever heard of a sea bunny? Uh? No, I haven't heard of a sea monkey. But I hear those are not chill. They're not chill. They're fine. I think a brine shrimp mostly um. But yeah, so I

don't think you are prepared to see it. I really, I really, I'm complete. Prepare your self. I'm coming around to melt into a puddle. That is a thing to describe the experience you're having right now to the listener. I'm looking at a spotted cotton ball with the cutest little ears I've ever seen, that lives underwater. How does it feel to transcend? I guess this this life form into like to to see, to see the perfect animal? How does it feel? I mean, I've truly never wanted

to pet something in my entire life. This is the cutest little thing. Also, does it have eyes? Yes, sort of kind of. Let's let's let's explain what's going on one picture, just so you can see it's a little It looks like it's stretching in that picture. It is yeah, oh oh right, sorry, I haven't even more pictures of its own. God, look at that, but look at waite. It looks like the butt almost resembles like an It's got a little contail man of v b pre coma deoishi.

It's so cute. So the sea bunny their scientific name is Jerona parva, which is the last time I'll ever be calling them that, because sea bunny is the best name. Guys already forgot. Sea bunnies are actually a type of new to brink, which are in turn a type of sea slug. So new to brinks are soft but bodied marine gastropod mollusks, which are related to terrestrial snails and slugs.

Practice your bunnies. So they are found off the coast of Japan, and they went viral in Japan in like people could not stop talking about the sea bunnies on the Internet and I want to bring sea bunny madness to the US or wherever you're listening to this broadcast. We're bringing it global. We're bringing sea bunnies are going global love bunny mania. So sea bunnies look like little white bunny rabbits with black tipped ears and fur covered in black spots and a feathery, little cotton ball tail.

And also some of them come in lemon flavor. What, oh my gosh. Actually the lemon flavored ones I think are more common than the white ones. Um, the standard marsha, Yes, the standard marshmallow lemon is everywhere it's it's hot these days. They are teeny weeny teeny teeny tiny, teeny tiny. They're about the size of a thumbnail. Yes, So this is the kind of tininess that I love because they're big enough for you to see with the naked eye and see all their features in detail with just your eye,

but tiny enough to fit on your fingers. Truly, the pockets nous of monsters. There's such a pocket monster that they can fit in that little fake pocket that girl that girl jeans have. Yeah, they can, They're right in there. So their bunny ears are actually rhinofores which are antenna like structures, which are chemosensory organs, which is a fancy way of saying that they can smell and taste the water. They can be used to detect food mates, and they can even detect the current of water. A lot of

complex science going on in them little bunny ears. Yeah, they're that Like those little fur is actually fleshy protuberances known as papillae, which are thought to be used as sensory organs. All those scientists kind of strug when it's like, well, what are they sensing? It's like probably and that feathery, little cotton ball tail on their butts is actually their gills breathe out of their body, breathing out their butts. That tushy does a lot of work breathing out that tushy.

That's really actually new to Braak means um nude braink which is like the term for basically like exposed gills, So so branch brank, you know, have that branch, so like expose gills. So interesting. Yeah, So they eat sea sponges and they actually ingest toxins from sea sponges that they borrow and use as their own defensive toxins. So even though they're teeny tiny and they look like cute little edible marshmallows, and they even come a limit flavor,

they actually come in in ikey poison flavor. It's danger flavor because you cannot eat these guys. They will hurt. That's honestly. I'll tell you what. When you said that they went viral in Japan, I was worried that it was because something. No, no, no, they are disgusting in taste, very good. It's it is, it's like it's such a

relief because they will never be eaten. So like other New to Branks, they are actually hermaphrodites, which means that they possess both male and female reproductive organs, and they kind of just like when they're mating, they kind of just sword fight and just spar and then like whoever gets what nozzle and war gets what nozzle and wear. Yeah, oh my gosh. So the competition for sex is it's

it's just trying to get their nozzles in all the places. Yeah, I know, he just you know, getting where you offended as it were, Yeah, I remember college. But they are oh man, they are just so cute. I just I am so in love. I feel like every time this happens, like I know that I keep falling in love with these animals, and then I'm like, I'm like, oh, this is my favorite animal. Now this is my favorite animal. But right now this is my favorite animal right now

in my heart. My heart is full of cease. Just also thinking about the fact that it is this big. Is the size of a thumbnail. You couldn't say you could fill your hands with thousands of So now I want to talk about another sea slug, the sheep belief sea slug that looks like a doofy leafy cow Pokemon, a doofy leafy cow Pokemon. Oh, before I do move on, I do want to say that I guess like all new to branks kind of look like shellos the Pokemon. Okay, yeah, yeah,

and c slugs too. So so this, uh, this ceasel like I don't think actually qualifies as a new to brank another classification thing that you know that I have no idea how that works, but I don't actually know. Yeah I'm not it doesn't matter. But the other the other pokemon like thing about the sheep leaf cea slug is it looks hand drawn. It looks it looks like an anime, even beyond just Pokemon. It looks like someone drew it as an anime. And I think you'll understand

once I show you a picture of it. Holy smokes. Yeah it's I mean, yeah, a thousand person. It looks like a sheep that's going like green hair super sayan three out there, and it's face looks like a poorly drawn cow face. It almost looks like Um the Wallace and Granma Sheep. Yes, it looks like Sewan the Sheet. Yeah, Shawn the Sheep, and it is h So that thing is gorgeous. It is beautiful too, so like many Pokemon like Bulbasore, Burmi Chikarita, the sheep leaf sea slug looks

like it's covered in leaves. Yes, its face looks like a poorly drawn cartoon cow or Shawn the Sheep. It's got these two close set doofy little cartoon eyes. It has long ears and pink nostrils. Of course, while it looks like a cow face, these features function very different. So the ears are actually Rhino four's like we talked about before. They're they taste and smell. The eyes actually are I spots, although they probably can't see very well.

So the same thing with the sea bunny. They have probably a couple of eye spots somewhere, but they don't use them as much, I think as their other sensory organs. So the nostrils appear to be small oral tentacles. I couldn't actually find like a definitive anatomy of these guys, but I do believe those are their oral tentacles. But they're kind of pink, so they look they look like nostrils. Uh. So they are actually a species of Sacco Glossa, which

are sea slugs who ingest algae. So, uh, some species of these seco Glossa, the sheep leaf sea slug included, actually steal chloroplasts from the algae that they eat and incorporate it into their own bodies and they use them for to synthesis. Was wow, this is called kleptoplasty, where it's like me, it's like literally, you're stealing the plasty um. So yeah, they are stealing chloroplasts, incorporating them into their body, and then they use their ability to photosynthesize and steal

that energy. Yeah, oh my god. So I mean, are those more or less actual petals on the back of the They function the same way that leaves do in a way. Yeah yeah, yeahzing wild. That's incredible and so and some species of the Psychoglossa, the chloroplasts are stored in uh, these big fan like wings, so they look like the big, big leaves. But in other species, including the sheep leaf sea slug, it is stored in the serata, which are the fleshy structures all over its body that

looks like leaves. Like I would say, these kinds they look like a a cool hip succulent that you would get totally yes, with a little cow face it is. It's incredible, it's so adorable. That's funny. And speaking of pokemon that have plants grown on them, because there seemed to be a lot of them, there are you know the grottle Yes, so I believe the grottle is based on the real life fact that algae actually does grow

on turtles sometimes. Yeah so, uh, many species of aquatic turtle actually do grow algae on their heads and backs. And Mary river turtles are an endangered turtle found in Australia. Who uh, there are viral photos of these guys with a lot of algae growing on them. In one you may have seen this before. It's the one that has

like a mohawk. Yeah, he's got a mohawk made out of algae, and it's not I mean, this individual, I think is pretty special because there it's not like all merry river turtles will have an algae mohawk, which just happens to have one, and but that we know of it that we know, well, yeah, I mean they're like the the algae does grow on many species of turtles and it's just like, you know, it's possible. Yeah, it's possible. Uh,

and they they'll grow on their backs as well. So yeah, it's the fun little little Pokemon fact about how like they really do borrow a lot of stuff from actual actual biology, which I love. Another one is polywag and it is based on the tadpole. And you know polywogs got that big circle and actually, uh, tadpoles have spirals

on their tummies as well. So here's a photo yo what yeah, so and it's it's a big, big, little little spiral just like yes, just right there like that, And that is something that seems like the most far fetched when it comes to Pokemon reference. But that's also just it feels the most like out of bounds of like reality read like this like small blue creatures like, okay, that could be a tadpole, but this giant spiral on

the bell act. It seems like like the cartoonish element of like, oh, this is an animal, so we're gonna draw spirals on everything. But yeah, no, So what that is, sorry to say is actually it's intestines. Oh delicious. Yeah, that you can see through its belly because the skin on its belly is thin and translucent, so you can actually see that coiled up intestines. And that's why there's spiral on it. To me, Yeah, but now when you look at a Pollywag Pokemon, just think that's probably stestic

It's belly is exposed. Cool, you could see the pook go through, Yes, you can. Pollwag used visible PI super effective, the enemy ran away? Could Pokemon help save the planet? EO. Wilson, one of the most highly regarded evolutionary biologists of our time, believes in biophilia. That is the idea that humans have an innate desire to discover and catalog living creatures. In

other words, we got to catch them all. A study by Blam ford at All, published in Science looked at whether children were better at identifying real animals or Pokemon in flash cards. Surprise, surprise, the kids were great at ideing Pokemon and not as strong as ideing real animals. I don't think this is anything to feel sad about. It shows children have a great capacity to learn about

and categorize animals, even if they are imaginary. It just means that we have to think as educators how to appeal to kids, because they'll soak things up like little sponges if they're motivated enough. So I humbly propose that scientists work with artists to make Pokemon like cartoons of real life incredible animals, maybe even a card game based on their real life traits. Or at the very least, teachers, let your students know how many of our real life

animals are even cooler than Pokemon. When we return, I'll prove this to you by bugging out over some real life bug type Pokemon. The charming thing about Pokemon isn't just their looks, but all their varied behaviors. Do Pieder, the spider shaped Pokemon, has a bubble of water over its head. It can use as a defense against fire attacks. Lots of Pokemon have ridiculous looking defensive horns or use light to attract, pray or ward off enemies. Some pokemon,

like Cubane, even wears a skull as a helmet. These are fantastical imaginings of behavior, or maybe they're just a cheap rip off of real life animals. So yeah, I'm going to talk about real life animal behavior in some of these bug type pokemon that seems like it be found in the Pokadex is one of them. Like, yes, oh my gosh, I'm not ready. You are and you must be yourself down. So first I'll ease you into it by talking first about the diving bell Spider. Yeah,

so this one is like the Dupider. Yes, and the dupider is sort of a spider like Pokemon. It's got like a little bulb of water over its head and it's but the diving bell Spider is like the opposite. It has a bulb of air that it keeps on his little body. So I am going to bet big money that the Dupider is actually based on the diving bell Spider. I think that that these whoever these are these people at Pokemoning the Pokemon creator that pump these

guys out. They are really good at driving inspiration from real animal and if they aren't, like that's still pretty great that they are. The serendipity is too much convergent evolution of Pokemon. So dupider has that water bubble on its head, and the diving bell spider is the opposite. It has a bubble of air that it constructs using silk and collected air, and it actually is able to

hold water on its body and breathe it underwater. So the diving bell spider is found in fresh bodies of water in Europe and Asia, and it's the only species of spider that lives almost in its entire life underwater. It only surfaces to get more oxygen for its bubble, so it hunts, it eats prey, it mates, it lays eggs, and even sleeps underwater. And it is an air breathing animal, so when submerged, air becomes trapped on its body by chiny teeny tiny hydrophobic hairs, and it kind of looks

like it's wearing this silver suit. It's actually very beautiful. Let me show you. I feel like I've seen a video of this thing WHOA, Yeah, it's gorgeous. It's beautiful. It's this shiny, silvery But in order for it to actually have a constant supply of oxygen, it constructs a diving bell. So first of all, I want to talk about how spiders breathe because I kind of have to

know that before understanding how this works. So spiders breathe through their abdomen, either with book lungs, which are small slitted openings in their abdomen that take an oxygen, or through spiricles, which in a trachea. So those are small openings and like a tube in their abdomen. They both work in a similar way where they kind of passively, like oxygen kind of just comes in there. They breath through.

The bees breathe through their bellies and they don't. It's not like a human where they're just like, you know, sucking in air like that. It's just kind of like coming in through through these lungs on their abdomen. I'm uncomfortable. Yes, So if you are a spider and you want to breathe, you want to coat your abdomen and oxygen. So, uh, that's why when you see it underwater and it has that like sort of a bubble. It's on its body,

not on its head. So to construct the diving bell, it actually builds a dome shape shaped web between aquatic plants, which is made of like this webbing is kind of this like hydrogel like substance. Uh. And then it collects air on its body from the surface and fills the web loom with this air. And it can So it's interesting because it can both wear these this like air on its body like a suit, just like the air

clings to its body. Um, it can also like carry around the diving bell and and kind of wear that. It can also like just have the diving bell as its home base and sort of like pop in and out of this diving element and like so that it doesn't have to go all the way to the surface to get more oxygen. Yeah, it's it's very a very dynamic dynamic extress animal here or rather insect or are yes exactly? And Arthur pod which is interact you were able to here's the thing you were able to name

like kingdom final and order. Yeah, but then it's a bug, right, I do I do call like all Arthur podgs bugs. I think that's okay. I appreciate that. So the diving bell that it makes can be big enough for it to just go inside, it can be small enough for it to carry around. It can like pop in and kind of collect more oxygen that like sits on its abdomen, just all sorts of things. But it also can act

as a gill. So the diving bell itself is like an artificially well not artificially but aracn officially constructed gilt that actually takes in oxygen from the surrounding water. So if the diving bell is big enough, the spider can shell out inside of it for an entire day without having to get new oxygen from the surface, because there is gas exchange that happens on the surface of this diving bell where it is pulling in oxygen from the water,

the bubble itself, the bell itself. Yes, wow, yeah, yeah, that's amazing. It is. So, is there like a I mean, is there like a how how long has a what's the longest one of these spiders can stay underwater? I think, well, I mean they stay, they live underwater for their whole lives. But how long has it I think about a day. I don't know if that means I could be twenty four hours. Um, but yeah, a long time hours a lot, that's a lot. That's amazing. Yes, yes, but it is

breathing like it's getting the oxygen totally. So it is. It is crazy. And yeah, some of these these diving bells become really big, elaborate. It's a it's it's nuts. It is nuts. But I do want to talk about now some interesting caterpillars who are very pokemon like, and I'm not going to just kind of do a cop out and do caterpy and that's very very cute. I want to talk about the pipeline swallowtail caterpillar that looks like scullapede to me. Yeah, that's sort of the red

uh centipede looking as things. So the pipeline swallow tail butterfly is a gorgeous blue and gold elegant beauty, but their caterpillar form looks like a crazy spiky piece of red liquorice. So let me show you here's the adult. Beautiful, gorgeous water absolutely gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous, baby, I mean not as gorgeous, but like wow, to go from one to the other caterpillars crazy, right, So it looks like it looks like a licorice. I kind of kind of want

to put it in my mouth. Hey, you know, I kind of grub up, girl, want to put in it. It does look like a lion king grub like, you know, I'm not seeing the lion king. Rather, they're like squishy. It's satisfying. It ruined me. Oh my god, just like I could eat that. I want to put it my mouth. Put that in my mouth. It just feels crunchy, and it just looks it looks so liquorish. Yeah, so it actually has a more goth morph as well. So here heck, yes,

oh wow, that is metal. That one is telling mom that it's going out and it will be home later and don't wait up. What I do like about this photo is if you will notice someone has photo shopped in a pipe that's like a flower pipe, so it looks like the caterpillar is smoking a pipe, which I do. I especially like that. I didn't really notice that until I put it in the document. So yeah, it's it's black and shiny with like orange spikes. It's very like

early two thousand's hot topic. Heck yeah yeah. But so the red morphs are found in higher temperature regions such as Texas and Arizona. And then that black with orange spikes kind of hot topic morph is in cooler areas, So that vibrant color is actually a warning to predators that they are very toxic, which I gotta say, opposite effect on me obviously put in my mouth in there. Yeah, but it is. It is. Caterpillars are just amazing. Here's

another one. This is the tailed Emperor butterfly caterpillar. Oh my god, look at that thing. That's beautiful. It looks it looks like a Polka man dragon creature right there. I never really got into Digimon, to be honest, you know. It was just a little too much, too much, too much. I like, I don't like Yugi. Who is this guy? Yeah, I can't. I It's like it's like, hey, kids, do you want do you want a familiar premise but all

different characters? No? I know, I know, but it's got the Yugi feel it that Yugi take that Ugi tape, that Yugi stank. That's why it's called Yugio. Oh. I hope I don't actually offend any like fans actually also watched Yugio as a kid, it's hopeless. So the adult. The adult butterfly is white and black, very elegant, looking like a wedding butterfly. But the babies look like pokemon's. They are green with even brighter green stripes, and their head has four large horns sprouting off of it like

a teeny mini dragon. In fact, emperor butterflies, there are multiple beacies emperor butterflies, and they have all sorts of adorable caterpillars. Consider the Japanese emperor butterfly caterpillar, who has two little horns, and the best part is that it's got these dark mouth parts that make it look like it's call mustache. You cat see it? What a picture too? It lookally just popped and was like, hello, hello, beep here cover mustache. That's really cute. Hello, Hello, I hope

you ever a murder. I will show with your modori panther. It's like it's yeah, like pink path panther porl Like did somebody getting married there? Yes, exactly, Like like magnifying glass like yeah, someone someone needs to find this picture. It just photoshop a magnifying glass into the right side and type in mirroreder. So those little horns are likely deterrence against predators or defensive Ultimately, though they're extremely cute,

they are very cute. But slightly less cute is the gum leaf Skeletonizer LEA wow, okay, so let me see this. Let me see this gum leaf skeleton mazer. Yeah, that's I mean, that's wow. That's airy. It's got lots of little little hairs, lots of little hair. I think this is actually this is one that is more metal like once I explain it than it is visually, which is great for podcast Normally I'm on this podcast and I'm just like, please look at this. Animals really cool. Hit

me with the metal. So it sounds like the gum leave Skeletonizer will eat your flesh down to your bones, turning you into a spooky skeleton. Please, But it is actually referring to how they eat leaves down to its skeletal structure. I know, right, it is so excited. I was so ready to get Oh man, this is how I want to die. But yeah, no, it's it munches as leaves down just to the veins and mid ribs, so it looks like ab But that is not the horrifying thing about it, nor is their name the horrifying

thing about them. This is the horrifying thing about them. You see this like unicorn horn they have at the top of their heads. And remember how it is like talking about Cuban earlier. So well it's not so bad now. It is made out of okay, maybe it's a little bit. It's made out of a bunch of old dead heads that they used to own, so the okay, So the gum leaf skeletonizer goes through up to thirteen molts before

finally building a cocoon and metamorphosizing into a moth. So most caterpillars shed and disc guard and sometimes eat their old skin, but the gum leave skeletonizer keeps its old head skins and wears them as a unicorn horn. That is that's a lot to take. So that horn is like it's like these Like the reason it's like smaller on the top is like that was my baby head and this is like my teenager head and these are slightly larger and larger like head skins. Just carrying around

your photo book of be a dead carcasses. Yeah, like like the Facebook of like flashbat, what are those like the flashback? Yeah, yeah, except it's your old head. Yeah, and it's on you. The flashback is just like, oh, look at this side, that's baby me. Like if we just like had our baby like our faces and we like they peeled off of our face and then just like migrated up on the top of our head and we have this huge hat of like our face is getting younger and younger and on the very top is

just our baby face. Yeah, good job, gum leave skeletonithers horrum, thank you for the dreams. So they use this as a defensive lance, but really, who wants to mess with someone who has a unicorn horn made out of their old baby faces? Yeah? But yeah, it's like like Cubane. I don't know if everybody knows this about Cubane, but he wears it's that little like dinosaur looking Pokemon, very cute, has like a dinosaur skull on its head. It's got like a little bone and he's like carabon bone. It's

it's mother's it's mother's skull. What the heck? Pokemon guys. Yeah, normally I'm like like, oh, you guys are great at like doing evolutionary biology stuff. Why did you have to put that thought in my head as a child. Yeah, you made me think about death and stuff. I didn't like that. Like, it's it's mother's head that it wears and it cries at night. I'm like like ten years oh jees. The stains on its school are due to the tears it cries for a mother. It will never know.

Literally literally literally this is in the polka dex. I'm not doing a bit. It's really yeah, brutal. It's dark. It's dark. It's dark. Well, how about I illuminate the dark nose. So, first of all, I want to talk about the thuing Goodie day beetle. Alright, I said. I said that like a computer was trying to pronounce the word Fingodie day beetle thing. Yeah, So the Fingodi Day Beetle family, they don't just look like Pokemons as larva. They also look like pokemons as adults. So I want

to show you first the adult. It looks like a complete dofa goofus. What a goofy google goofer. I'm gonna enhance, enhance. You gotta see it. And oh my gosh, look at that goofy goober. Right, it's so goofs. So they are light brown there, they're skinny winged beetles with antenna that looked like big feathers or weird moose antler. Yeah, those

are some. Those are some antler looking things. Yeah. They look like kind of like a weird feathery moose antlers to They have big googly eyes and a pointy nose. They are very cartoony. They're a mess. Yeah, they're a mess cartoon looking insect right there? What like they look like one of those Pokemon where it's like you could tell like the Pokemon designers just want to go home, and they're like, I don't know, it's like a bug, but it's got moose antlers. Just take a cat and

put a coin on its head. We're calling it meoth go home and mouth, and it talks. It's the only one that talks. Everybody else doesn't talks. It's like wait, wait, but they all just say their names is then no, not, that's one. Not that's one, And he's with the bad guys, and the bad Guys are named after a classic Western robbers. Look, we're just going with it. We all want to go home,

and they've all got moose horns anyway. Next, so in their larval stage, they actually glow so in their larval stage. They are predators who feed on millipedes and other arthropods, but they're also vulnerable to predation, so they are full of glowing beautiful toxins, which both make them yucky to eat and the glowing actually wards off predators. So let me show you some photos of that. Oh my goodness,

look at that thing? Is that one that's one? Uh yeah, that's one one specimen, So you have it in the Daylight's still very pokemony, even like not verny dark. It's like looks kind of almost like made out of plastic. I guess it's like very very rigid, rectangular, geometrical shaped. This one actually also looks like what I was gonna say, given me self eating tail wizard vibes. Yeah, it looks like oh what was that Pokemon named bop weirlipede? Definitely,

it looks super but it also glows. I love that glowy glow worms. Yeah, it's it's incredible. There's no there's no like it's I love how with these animals I look into them, like, Okay, I'll do a little bit on this one because it kind of looks like a Pokemon. And for this one, I was like looking at some bugs and it's like, oh, that is a Pokemon looking beetle and looking into it and in its larval stage, it glows and it looks like a whirl apede. So

I didn't expect that exactly exactly. And it's the same thing with the caterpillars, as like, I don't look up some horn caterpillars and then I find out, oh, you make a horn out of your baby face? Is cool? Cool, horrified? Nice? Good, good, thank you? Yeah, yeah, it's it's I am I don't know. Nature is one big pokadex. Yes it is. I love that completely is and the inspirations are very very clear. Yes, yes, it's incredible. I really do. I love the fact that

it's so popular. It makes me have a lot of hope that I think people all love bio diversity and hope. I think so, And I think again, I really hope that maybe we can, like I guess, convert some of that Pokemon energy into like animal knowledge energy learning. Wait, how does the learning? How does this song? It's like we're gonna grown learn together. Didn't got this? That's the Pokemon song? What Pokemon song? And I learned together? And the Pokemon song. Which part of it? Oh god, oh god,

it's the You teach me and I'll teach you, of course. Perfect. Who's the pokemon? Right? Wait? Pokemon? Nice? Nice, perfect, and a podcast can't be more perfect. But it is actually the end of the podcast. Thank you so much for joining me, delight I can't believe I haven't had anyone until now. It's all good. This was the perfect episode that it was a great episode to be on. Thank you so much for having me. Not absolutely you got anything plugged. Listen to all the podcasts on the network.

Listen to Katie's podcast. Keep listening to the podcast you're listening to right now. You never had a plugged me on the show. I mean, if you want to follow me on Twitter, you can at DJ Underscore Daniel d A n L. Yes, that's delightful tweets and you also screamed some games sometimes I do. Oh yeah, I guess I'll plug that as well. Follow my twitch channel twitch dot tv the same twitch dot tv slash, DJ Underscore Daniel play lots of video games, and I talk people

in chat. If you want to know the behind the scenes of some of the podcasts here, I'm may or may not tell you he's got he's got the hot god, I've got the secrets. I've got all the things that we cut out. And you can find us on the internet Creature Feature Pot on Instagram, Creature Feet Pot on Twitter. That's f A T F E Tina huh. You can also find us on the I Heart Radio website. Just search for Creature Feature and we are there. We're in there. There,

We're in there. We're on the podcast. H I mean, gosh, dang it. Where you listen to this right now? We're in here. You're things gosh darn ittt Yeah, thank you so much for listening. Oh um, yeah, I mentioned this last time, but we finally have shirt shirts, shirt shirts, shirt shirts. Yeah. Yeah, it's got the Creature Feature logo which I expertly traced. It looks awesome, Thank you, It looks yeah. I Well. The reason I drew it over again is I felt like the photo just like I

think the photo is so detailed. It's such a great photoshop, but the detail I didn't think really came out in the shirt printing process. So I I drewed it and now it's drawing. You nailed it. Its perfectly encapsulates that like classic horror. Look, thank you Pulp Comics. It's awesome, it's perfect. Get it. Thank you God, you're such a good hype man. But yeah, yeah, it's the logo that you can wear on your body. To put it on there. Yeah, I'll include a I'll probably include that in the show

notes too. But it is on t public Slash Stores Slash Creature feature and it's a shirt there. There's also a few other shirts. I'm wearing the bird Crimes Bird Crimes. There is another shirt. It's a good one. I think that's one of my favorites too. It's a bird crime shirt with a bird in the pretzel on it stealing a pretzel. Full support go birds. And if you want to just listen to my Katie thoughts, you can follow me on Twitter at Katie Golden g O L D I N and just here on my little Katie thoughts.

Sometimes they're silly and an excellent Twitter. That's true. I also have a pro bird rights Twitter where I advocate for birds. That's right, birds, birds, birds, that's right. Oh, I'm sorry, did you not want birds too bad? There's some birds thanks to the Space Classics for their Super POKEMONI song ex Alumina. Creature features a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts like the one you just heard, go to i heart radio dot com, diheart radio app,

or wherever you are listen to your favorite shows. See you next Wednesday, Creature mon