What Did You Call Me???

up with these names? Anyways? Discover this and more as we answer the angel question how do you like your Frida egg jellyfish stinger? Side up? Joining me today is our producer Joe L. Monique and entertainment journalist and scientist KB Welcome. Thanks so much for having me. What what is your science background? Yeah, so my degrees are actually in biology and chemistry, and so my master's in biology

with the concentration on immunology. So after I finished my master's UM, I taught UM at a university some biology courses, and at the same time I was actually doing biobedical research for like a biotech company, so doing all of those things, and then I transitioned to healthcare from that kind of a streamline. All while still doing entertainment because it's always a juggle. How did you sort of like

go from the healthcare field to entertainment. When I was doing the research, it was more isolating, So for me, that just it didn't work out. Like I'm definitely more of a people person, so, um, I ended up getting kind of a natural transition. Like the products that we were working on at my biotech company were used in cardiovascular surgeries. So I ended up having a hospital basically like poached me and see if I wanted to work, um just kind of on the healthcare side, doing more

like quality improvement work and process improvement. So I did that for them, and um, I've just been doing that ever since. So I actually still do a double juggle in terms of having a day job and then doing entertainment. Um just because like unfortunately I have not been at a point and the entertainment side of things to be able to you know, kind of work full time in that space, um and transition completely. So yeah, so I still do like consulting work in the health care. I'm

just I just no longer do like scientific research. But I'm still Yeah, that's incredible. So today on the show, I wanted to talk about. I mean, it's actually kind of like what we're talking about, Like science sometimes seems really stuffy, but it can be really funny and fun and lighthearted. And you can tell just by the fun

that scientists have naming animals. So uh, this idea was actually from a listener from Grace non Sycamore on Instagram, who says, can we learn about animals with silly names? For example the pig butt worm or spiny lumps Locker and Grace Heck, yes, that's what we're doing today. That is an amazing idea. Thank you so much. Yeah, if you guys also have ideas, and you can message me at creature feature pot on Instagram, and I love those ideas.

You always come up with such good ideas, my wonderful listeners. So today, Yes, silly names, ridiculous names. Why are animals named these things? Is it just scientists being rude to the animals? Are these accurate names? So our first section are names that sound like insults, and we're going to start off with the pig butt or it is? I mean, okay, you get you guys, explain what you're seeing here? What what what are you guys looking at? I sent you

both an image of the pig butt worm. One. Uh, this is an appropriate name, and I can't blame scientists. They're not bad people. This is an accurate description of I would never guess it's a worm. So okay, imagine you only like blowing bubbles, but it's like big lead chew, so it's kind of thin, but it's like meant to be super stretchy. Now imagine you blew a bubble and your friend blue a bubble right next to each other, and it kind of had a but inside. That's what

it looks like I've seen. So this looks really interesting to me. I mean, I'm not gonna lie. It does kind of remind me a little bit of like an embryo. Um. So, like when I'm looking at and I'm like, oh, okay, because you know, obviously, like the outer parts are very very translucent. Um, I do see that kind of indentation that Joel just mentioned that kind of looks like something

is going to come out of that butthole. But then in the center, you know, you kind of have this pink mass, which I assume is just you know, the the actual worm I guess on the inside. Um, but it does remind me of an embryo. I'm not it's like an embryonic but yes. So this is also own as the flying buttocks. Even its Latin name k opter Us pug a pork kindness means captured worm that looks like the rump of a pig, So even the fancy

scientific sounding word is a bit rude. This is a deep ocean dwelling worm about the size of a hazel nut that looks like a disembodied but uh, and a balloon. It's like basically an inflated butt balloon. But it is in fact a segmented worm. So what's going on is that one of their segments is inflated so large you can barely see the other segments, but they're all kind of crammed in there. That's that sort of like pink

stuff you see sort of at the front. It's just all the rest of its body all jumbled up right there. But the inflated part of the worm, which is the main part you can see, helps it float. But moreover, it looks like a hini, looks like a rear end, looks a bit like a toshi. Oh sorry, I just I had to google it, you know, because questions, and uh, it's faces. What it picture? Oh my god, it's like Katie, what is that like bear thing? But it's like microscopic.

Oh yeah, the tartar grades, the water bears, watter bears. Yes, it has a face like that thing. Oh it's so ugly. It kind of looks like a Jim Henson muppet. It looks like one of the oh yeah, the like the yipp aliens, except that it's eyes. And I hate to get rude, but its eyes do look a little bit like boobies, like a little bit like boobies. It's just irises are nipular. They are nipular. Thank you. That's a

good word. That's an excellent word. So this strange animal with boobies for eyes is found up to one thousand, two hundred meters, which is about four thousand feet under the sea, not quite at the sea floor, but in the oxygen minimum zone. And they seem to have no means of locomotion other than just being buoyant and passively drifting. So they just float along collect food in their mouths, and their mouths look a little bit like a butt

hole coming out of the butt. And they also dangle a cloud of mucus out of their mouths to help catch marine snow, and marine snow is this like you know how in documentaries where you see the camera and you see this like snow like stuff drifting in the ocean, these little party it looks like dust in in a beam of light, but it's underwater. That's marine snow, and that's just little bits of organic to try this, it can even be poop, like that's a big thing, is

fish poop. So indeed, this is a floating butt that eats poop. There's never been a less attractive animal. No, no, no, Now I beg to differ because let me tell you possums. Opossums are like horrifying, So I don't know I can at least tolerate this one. I do feel like that Jim Henson Muppets reference is accurate, Like once you look at the mouthpiece or what I'm assuming is a mouth piece, When you look at the mouthpiece, I'm like, oh, that

definitely looks like a muppet. When I look into the eyes of a possum, all I feel is terror do look a little skexas like though dark crystal skeps, Like, gosh, they're so I do like a possum. Also, you should check out possums, which are the Australian version of the opossums. North America's only more supial. But possums are actually in Australia are absolutely adorable and it's fun to see. Like Australian's idea of what a possum is is probably very different from in the US. I do love a possum,

a u s possum. They're a little toilet toilet teddy bears. There's no such things a toilet teddy where it's together. They're a little they're cute, little little toilet mice scamber around, but they're they're great for the environment. They eat ticks. They eat a bunch of ticks, which is great. They eat they're sort of the terminus for a lot of disease because they're resistant to a lot of diseases and

they eat eat a lot of ticks. So there. I know they look a little bit, you know, they look a little bit like a sort of a a garbage squirrel, but you know it's they're quite quite good animals. A garbage squirrel. Yes, they do do a lot for the environment. However, I never want to cross the path. One time, truly, one knocked on my front door and I was stopping. I'm so serious. It was late at night. I think that it was honestly just trying to figure out like

what to get into. And I was just like, no, is it like, do you have a minute to talk about possum? Jesus, do you have a minute to talk about the ticks in your area? I'm not satisfied with this. Introducing tick Hoover nine thousand. Uh, poor little possums. Our next animal sounds like it would be horrifying, but it is absolutely adorable, at least in my opinion. This is

the lump sucker fish. So lump sucker fish are a family of adorably portly little fish who have modified pelvic fins that act as suckers to help them cling to the ocean floor. So I love it when a name of an animal is really accurate. These are lumpy fish that have suckers. And there you have it, it's the lump sucker fish. Oh my god, I love it. These

are kind of cute. I mean I could actually see this fish and like finding Nemo or the little Barmaid, like I could just you know, see one of these creatures being like the best friends sidekick in an animal movie. They also look they look like Miyazaki creatures, like a pan or spirited away little creature. You guys. Katie has provided us with a photo of one just sitting on

somebody's finger. Is literally the size of a fingernail. But also it looks so sad, I comforted, like so like just pouty, like on the verge of a breakdown, like it needs a hug and noone is hugging this tiny face, please help it. It kind of has the set the same sad face that Et did, like when he arrived. It's like that same kind of demeanor, like a little bit of a downturned pout, like a who. They are a family of fish, so there are many different species.

They tend to be. They all tend to be very round. They all have that sucker and they can that sucker is so strong they can like attach themselves to your fingers and you can lift your hand and they'll just dangle from your fingers. And there is a photo of that which I've provided you guys, also including the show notes. And there is a specific species called the Pacific spiny lump sucker, which is an adorable little yellow fish that only grows to be about one to three inches, which

is about the size of a grape or kumquat. And they live in shore waters, attaching themselves to reefs, help patches, and even manmade docks. They live about five feet underwater, so they're not like super super deep sea fish, but you know they're they're under there, and like all lump suckers, they are bad swimmers. They are not very good at swimming. That's where you live. It's like they're like slaws and

panda bears. You're not supposed to exist. I just I just imagined them like literally struggling for their lives and they're like I need something to land on, I need something to just stick to. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. And they like when they have to escape, it just sort of pathetically bobble around trying to get away. They can swim. It's just sad looking. It's it's bad swimming. People have a lot of bodies, so it's like a it's like a muscle thing like on the muscles like

get through that. They don't have a lot of things like yeah, it seems like their bodies are mostly built for attaching to things and not necessarily swimming, so they kind of like stick onto things and hide themselves within help or within rocks to defend themselves. And they don't typically swim that much, so it's like a lot of energy conservation because you're not fighting the currents or anything. You can just kind of attach yourself to a safe

place and stay there. And they do hunt. They eat small crustaceans and worms, but basically they hunt after stuff that's pretty easy to get so like slow moving or even completely stationary invertebrates. And when they do swim, it's usually to spawn, so the most swimming they'll do in their life is to get together and create some little babies. And the males will do most of the parental care,

so they'll spawn with the female. But the male will attach itself with its little sucker near the eggs and will defend them and use their fins to aerate the water around the eggs to get them fresh oxygen. So cute little bubble daddies. How progressive are they? The males they're I mean, if they're defending their eggs, they're pretty aggressive. They will they will nip at anything trying to approach. I mean, they're not you know, they're they're quite small,

so they don't present a serious threat. But they will, they'll do their they'll do their gosh darndists to be intimidating. Oh, I was saying, how progressive they are. As progressive they are exactly parental, parental, leave for men for fishmen for a little, for a little. Lump suckers. Yeah, right, lump suckers get it. They get it. So it's just a funny. I'm I'll put these in the show notes, but I'm sharing them with you guys to a few funny videos.

There's one of lump suckers in an aquarium in Japan called the epsom Chinogaua Aqua Stadium, and they put balloons under the water, and the lump suckers attached themselves to the balloons, just like incredible. A bunch of these guys on a disco ball and oh my god, give me a light show and let's party underwater disco ball. They look so adorable though on this, I mean, I can't, I can't lie. I mean, even though they're actually like probably scouring at us in terms of their facial it's freshions.

They're still so adorable because so yeah, and they definitely have resting grump face. There's another video of a smaller lump sucker looking for something to attach to and all it finds is an another lumpsucker's head, so it just attaches itself to the other lump sucker. I like the one that's upside you guys, there's fins are so small like they're they're they're like underneath their body and so

they can't do much with them. The ones that are on their sides are like very tiny, and so when they move like we could, it's like a little bit to the left, a little to the right. It looks like they're giant heads are trying to guide them, but they don't know what to do, and they hop they attached to something. It's just too much, too much energy. They're like, I can't exert too much energy. I really need a plushy of these. Yes, I I so sympathize with the like I feel like a lump sucker right now.

Sometimes it's just like I want to attach myself to something and just have food float by and just like nab it, you know what I mean? Yes, Yes, the life right now. I mean, I feel like, since we're just all at home, this is the ideal life for us being lump suckers. We're having the lump sucker life. They embody my whole attitude right now. I think, just the perpetual grump face trying to stick on to something else mine, maybe without the ground face, but their general

laid back to me or at pretty much everything. I'm like, yeah, that's definitely me right now. This is my expression reading the news every day, just like m M m M. So our next animal also found under the ocean, where its name sounds like an insult. I'm not sure what it means, but it definitely sounds like one. It is the tasseled wolf. Wait, the tasseled wobegong ah grandpa face. Yeah, I mean this fish looks like an angry old man. What in the okay? So all these features are from

a Miyazaki film that has yet to be made. He's taking notes and he's ready. This thing literally it blends in so good with the sea floor, and it looks like a face on the sea floor, like it's got a giant mouth, and like, imagine, what's a Christmas tree and evergreen it's not like evergreen like nettally like all over its base, and then a big like big bird's best imaginary friend looks his mouth. It does have gonzo vibes to it, and that it's like kind of furry

and wild. And then it's got these eyes which don't look like they can see much. It's like so far up on its head and then spread apart that it only getting side vision. It's only peripheros. I am. It's almost a sure that we have seen this creature in Howard the Duck, Like it just feels like it belongs there. This would it surprise you guys to learn this is actually a shark A shark A shark, Yes, it does give me wheel shark vibes now that you say it.

It's a carpet shark that lives in the coral reefs off the coast of northern Australia and New Guinea. When it's swimming, it looks kind of like you took a regular shark and just pancaked it and then added a bunch of tassels to it, like a shark rug, you know, like a bear skin rug if it's like a shark skin rug, except you added a bunch of tassels along the edges, but when it's resting, it will often curl its tail in so it's more spherical and kind of looks like a bath mat with like an angry face

on it and a huge mouth. And it grows to be about four to five feet a little over one meter in length, and it's not like too dangerous, but it has been known to bite and attack people. Basically because it's so well camouflaged, people will just like step on it or step near it, and then it'll bite you exactly. Do you think you're walking on a bath mat but it's somebody's face. I'm not gonna lie. When you said it was a carpet shark, I immediately thought that was like a vacuum. Like it just like a

carpet shark. I'm like, is this the new vacuum that's about to come out? Oh my god, it does sound like a vacuum. I bet hang on, I'm gonna google carpet It may already be a vacuum vacuum because if not, you have to patent that immediately. Oh no, it's a it's a vacuuming. I was like, I mean carpet shark. I was like, I'm getting vacuum vibes. I mean, the evergreen is so ever present. Like when Joel said that, I'm like, yes, it looks so piny, like the sides

of this animal just looks very piny. Like it's small like trees, almost like a Douglas fur or nobody. Yes, yes,

so those eyes are terrified now. It does look even though it looks like a Doofy Miyazaki character or a muppet or like Beauty and the Beasts living carpet, it is a fierce predator and it is an ambush predator, so all of that fringe is meant to help its profile blend in with the sea floor, so like an unsuspecting fish will pass by and then suddenly this like carpet matt comes to life and eats it on up. Oh yeah, what a slick predator. It's always the cute

ones that are the most ferocious. I feel like I feel like, you know, it's always the unassuming ones that are the most ferocious. And you know, this guy's like, oh I'm gonna get you. Just wait, yeah, naughty little carpet, naughty little rug. It's like if the magic carpet and the Laddin had like a big face and just ate the monkey and was a terror behind the a booze back. I mean, if I remember were incorrectly, they did fight like the monkey and the carpet did fight a lot.

So I feel like if it had a mouth, it would have eaten eaten that monkey right up. I mean a boom was kind of a terror though, like he was kind of a jerk, so I get it. The carpet was like, leave me alone. I've been chilling, you know in this cave for forever, is what it seems like. Let me live. I wish the remake had had the carpet eat eat the monkey. That is what I'm saying. That's what that's the only bad part of the remake is that they give the carpet teeth in a face

and have it eat that gosh dang monkey. Maybe they're listening now, and we will do the sequel. They will incorporate a carpet shark, or they will turn the carpet into a carpet shark. And about a decade when they do the re remake of all these things, where maybe they'll do like an animated remake of the live action remake of the animated version. Then just give the carpet a face and I'll and I'll give you my my bucks. Disney, Disney, are you listening, here's the new plan for give us this.

Here are some honorary mentions of names that sound like insults. There's the penis snake, which is neither a snake nor a penis, but a limbless amphibian that looks unfortunately phallic. The c pig, which is a little pink c cucumber, which really only looks like a pig if you mean an inflatable, faceless, tentacled pig. Then there's the bah Humbuggy, a small land snail found in the Ba district and Fiji. Apparently biologists are hopeless dad jokesters and couldn't resist naming

this newly discovered boss snail bah Humbuggy. When we return, will quit with the insults and brainstorm some names for your band. Oh and they happen to be the names of some real animals too, So in this action we're going to talk about some incredible names. But this time I think rather than insults, we sound like metal bands. So if you are an aspiring musician and you're looking for a name for your metal band. I've got some

for you here, and the first one is the hellbender salamander. Really, Dad, that's wow. That was not a good metal impression. Do they do? Do do? Do? It's metal at the Renfair, Katie my metal band with my lute, just you know, grinding on that lute. So. The hellbender salamander is a

giant salamander found in eastern and central United States. It is the largest salamander in North America, living in freshwater streams and rivers, and it reaches up to about five pounds, which is about two point three kill grounds, and up to two and a half feet which is about seventy centimeters in length. So it's the size of I don't know, a ferret, a small ferret. Yeah, it's not terribly large,

but it's big for a salavador. Yeah, it's not like the giant Chinese salamander big, where it's basically the size of a toddler. But this, yeah, it's it's pretty big. And the name hellbender seems to be from early settlers who found the salamanders grayish brown skin which has these skin flaps on the side that sort of undulate, and it's got the slimy body that it just undulates in

this really weird psychedelic way. And so they thought that this looked like the horrible tortures of the infernal regions, and that it is hell bent on returning to Hell, which is a very like, very settler thing to be. Like, this is a new thing for me. I bet it's a demon from Hell. I mean, honestly, it looks so kind that like being a demon from Hell is the exact opposite of what I think. I mean, honestly, though, it does just kind of look like a pile of mud. Yeah,

these are chill. They're chill like these settlers had, you know, they had issues, and they are harmless to humans. It is a carnivore. They eat small fish and crayfish, but so do we exactly. And they breathe underwater through gas exchange on those skin folds, so that that undulating skin, the kind of loose skin on its side, that's so it can breathe, So layoff, come on. Lungs, Yeah, it's so,

it's like it actually has lungs and gill slits. But it also basically sort of like other amphibians like frogs. It can breathe through its skin, so it does gas exchange through its skin underwater. And actually, speaking of the whole issue of giltlets and lungs, so in its early stage and its larvel stage, it actually has um these sort of like external gill feathery gills um like an axelattle, and axlattles are just a species of permanently immature salamanders.

So have you guys seen an ax a lottle before? No, Okay, I got to spell it because that is ax my tom phonics education really holding me back. It's not an ax a little, it's an ax alttle. Oh my god. Yes, I've seen this thing before. It definitely looks like a pokemon if you're at home trying to research it's a x O l O T L s H. It's got pink spiny things on its head and blue eyes and like the legs, and I kind of wish it were like five feet I could like love it and hug

on it. Oh my god. People do actually keep these as pets because they're so cute. You can't really, I don't think it's a really good idea to handle it like a lot of amphibians, and you know their skin is sensitive, but yeah, they do. They are very very cool looking, very cute. I think they have rather sort of the opposite of the lump sucker. They have a perpetual little smile. I know, I'm saying they're are like a lot of animated films, But what is the animated

film that looks almost exactly like this? I mean, the creature is like a lot larger. How to train your dragon? Oh yeah, I feel like it is. Maybe I feel like they may have created that dragon based off this, because the same type of like ear structures and face shape and yeah, okay, basically acts altels look a lot like the immature stage of other salamander species, And normally salamanders go through this larval stage where they look like

ax lattels, and it's the same as like frogs. So frogs go through a larval stage where they're little tadpoles. Looks like it's got feathers coming out of the side of its head. Those are actually external gills that collect oxygen from the water. And they do have little feet, little arms, and little legs and little tails that are kind of like um, look like a little there. They're hind tail, looks a little bit like a fin, and

they're completely aquatic. And while normally salamanders like the hellbender salamander will actually grow to a mature stage where they lose those external gills and they actually have lungs, but they also have they can do gas exchange on their skin. Axlttles just permanently stay in this larval juvenile stage. Um their whole lives and um uh. If you actually inject an ax alttle with I think it's iodine, it will turn into an adult morph of it, which it's its

species will not. Yeah, it's species will not do that without human intervention, which is incredibly amazing. It's yeah, humans don't screw this up for the ax alattles because honestly, to be enjoy your childhood and your youths forever, it is a trap. So stay young while you can. Don't let the humans turn you into an adult. They're sort of like vampires of of the salamander world a little bit. They do sometimes eat each other too. I forgot to

mention that horrifying. Listen, they went from so cute just so horrifying, and just seconds imagine watching one of these like munch on another one of these, I mean, and they have like cannibal morphs where it's like bigger ones that tend to eat their siblings more. But look, that happens in a lot of animals. I don't want to judge these just because they engage in some light cannibalism. That's pretty common, so common amongst a lot of species exactly.

But I will say, you know, just keep your youth no matter what. They're here at Creature Future Pod, we are anti cannibalism. They just want you to know. I don't know what's happening today. Yourself, Joel, speak for yourself. Protein is protein. Kidding, you're scaring me. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Our next animal, the screaming Harry armadillo near near Lunar. I just love these like random riffs

that you're doing. Yeah, yeah, the screaming Harry armadillo. Which God, please, somebody, if you have a band that you have not named yet, please name it this. I would love that this is named a screaming Harry armadillo because it is an armadillo who screams and is Harry. You gotta love an accurate name. You just I love it. So this armadillo is found

in South America. It looks a lot like a regular armadillo, but it's got a lot of hair grown out of its plate armor, a bunch of these long white hairs, and indeed screams so when it is handled, it squeals. So here it is doing one of its famous screams. So like it sounds kind of like a crying man drake sound, I think, yes, And it's harry with like a lot of like thready things like a man drake. This is the inspiration. Yes, oh my gosh, look at these nails though in this kind of I mean truly, like,

can we get some nail clippers for this? It needs those because it loves to burrow, so it is, it is a burrowing animal. Those long hairs probably protect it from sand and other substrate because it actually lives in a variety of areas in South America, from dry forests to grasslands to hot deserts. So it basically needs to

protect its botty and to be able to burrow. Throw in these different kinds of substrates, and those long claws will help it dig into the sand or into the dirt um and one of the things they love to do is actually dig under rotting carryon so dead bodies and wait around. And it's like, why are they doing this? Are they just creepy and gothic. It's actually because they are insectivores, and they will wait for the insects that come to eat rotting carrion and then just like burst

up from the crown and eat these insects. And it's that's definitely after this because then you can reenact on stage like just a nerde dead bodies and beast on the bugs underneath, and that is the start of your show. This is very death metal black metal is I think, except it's really interesting that this armadillo's underbelly kind of reminds me of that at the same like underbelly of the turkey, the way it's fashioned. It just has the longer hairs around it. But yeah, yeah, it's I think

they're adorable. They're like really hairy, and they're kind of pudgy, and they've got that classic little triangle armadilla face and little ears and then when you pick it up, it'll it'll just like you, oh, you know what. It actually sounds almost exactly like porges from Star Wars. Yes, you know the pork alarm cry? Yes, so I guess they stole it from Star Wars. Huh, do we know what the dream is? Like? An alarm thing? Is it warning others?

It's actually not necessarily warning other armadillos because they aren't very social. Most likely it is to startle the predator. Or it's kind of like this car alarm system with a lot of preyed upon animals where they do an alarm call that will threaten the predator to get more predators to come. So they're like saying, I'm gonna put up a fuss, and then other predators that are maybe bigger than you is going to come over to see

what's going on. So it scares them off because they a lot of predators are themselves prey to larger predators, so they can be easily spooked by an alarm call like that. And here I just thought that this armadillo was mostly a scorpio and wanted to be left alone and was doing the high pitched screens so that it

would be dropped and could continue on its way independently. Yeah, yeah, it's a it's definitely a narc i would say, although, although I feel like if you're about to get eaten, I think that's the one time you get to be an arc. So our next animal with a very metal band sounding name is the scenarious mourner. So this is a bird that lives in South America in tropical and subtropical forests, and it's na ame sounds very metal, but it's just kind of like a standard bird name, I guess.

So it the scenarious part, even though it sounds amazing, it just means an ashy grayish color um sort of an ashy gray brown, which is usually used to describe bird plumage, So scenarious like kind of grayish brown bird plumage. And then it's called mourner, probably for its sad sounding calls, sort of like a mourning dove. It kind of does a which I guess is uh, it's sad sounding, But the really interesting part of this bird's life happens when

it's just a baby, so nestling. Scenarious mourners are not a sort of ashy gray. They're actually bright orange with long feathers covered in these white tips. And the reason they look this way is they're actually meant to mimic the look of this toxic hairy caterpillar of the flannel. So this is the only known instance of a bird mimicking and invertebrate to protect itself. So this bird is

so intriguing to me, like masking as a caterpillar. Yeah, I think this is the only known instance of like a bird mimicking and invertebrate and something that's you know, a lot smaller than them. I mean, it's not necessarily smaller than the nestlings though, because like these caterpillars are quite big, a lot of their bulk is taken up by their hair. So I just posted the picture. There's this like it's this sort of yellowish orange caterpillar that

looks people say looks like Trump's hair. I actually think it looks. It's a lot fuller, a lot more heresuit. But the hairy caterpillar that this bird nestling imitates is orange with sort of black hairs and white tips. It looks very, very similar. And to step it up a notch, the nestling will also mimic its movement by slowly moving its head back and forth like it's caterpillar kind of moving along. So there's actually a video of that. I'm putting it in the show notes, but you guys can

take a look at that. Oh my gosh, the way that it turns its head. Yeah, that's so strange. It is of how in the second part of the video, it's just the birdie getting food from its mom, and so it's like goes from this very like slow moving like I'm a caterpillar. I'm a caterpillar, and then it like pokes its little head up and you see it's a little bird face and he's like, oh food, and it just turns back into a bird. When they're head

they're down. Can it see at all? I mean, I can see the ground, but it's not really interested in looking at the predator. Its main thing is it sees a predator. It feels in danger somehow, and then it just puts its head down and starts moving like a caterpillar because it's a nestling, so it really doesn't have means of escape. It can't run away, it can't fly away, so looking like a toxic caterpillar is probably it's best bet.

And these caterpillars are not only toxic to eat, but also they have venomous spines in all of that hair that will sting you if you touch them, So like if you see I would say, in general, a hairy caterpillar, even though they look soft and like you could pet it, they you don't want to do that because a lot of them have irritating or even venomous spines. So yeah,

leave leave those fuzzy caterpillars alone. There are some species of caterpillars that aren't too dangerous that you can pick up, but I would air on the side of not touching a fuzzy caterpillar unless you know what it is, but definitely not these ones that are these orange, huge caterpillars in South America, like for for reference, It's like, I feel like one of these caterpillars could sort of like take up the space of your hands, so you could

like hold it in your hand, but you shouldn't because it'll sting you. It's sleep screaming. Look at these bright colors. I'll kill you, Yes, kill you if you touch me, making itself super appealing, like you don't I look attractive with these great bright colors, And then it takes a turn for the worst. Well, it's actually a case of

APIs semitism. Where to us humans. It may look very beautiful, but these bright, exaggerated colors are sort of warning these other animals, sort of like what tide pods are trying to do with humans, where it's like this is hard, like you don't want to eat it. It's right, bright orange, bright orange, and fluffy. That's no good. It's kind of the the I like to call it the gritty defense, you know, the mascot gritty. It's like yes from the team, Yeah, yeah, yeah,

some something like that. I don't know hot bands, hockey, I apologize hockey, but yeah, it's gritty and gritty. Of course, as we know, if you try to tell they're gonna kill us Philadelphia, please, I do love my bad. I do love gritty. But if you do touch Gritty, he does sting you with his venom, and he will also consume you and eat you. Gritty's mouth is a good example of the fish you're talking. Oh yes, shark, yeah, carfect,

the tasseled Woebegong. Yes, yes. I feel like if you crossbread, the tasseled Woebegong and the scenarios Mourner, you would get Gritty absolutely figured out. We've done it. We've figured out how scientists genetically engineered the gritty. You're welcome, Philadelphia. I know, I'm like, I need to look at gritty and see what gritty looks like. We always need to look at gritty. You can't not look at okay, yeah, also real Jim

Hinson esque, Yes, got it with a menacing aura. I would say, like a muppet with a very menacing aura and mean definitely carpet shark for sure. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Just you know, flags Welcome back to our podcast, Gritty Talk the Nitty. Oh eight. Damn it, I should have said the nitty gritty. Here are some honorary mentions of totally metal sounding animals. There's the ghost bat, a bat

who is well surprisingly corporeal. Then there's the goblin shark, a shark who honestly looks too goofy to be scary, with a long snout and wonky teeth. And finally, the black ghost knife fish, which is a long eel like fish that floats like a ghost and can actually produce electric signals, which it uses to search for food and to signal to mates. When we return, hold onto your Cabusians were about to get Susian. Okay, so now I want to talk about silly animal names that to me

sound like something that Dr Seuss came up with. I love. I love the Doctor SEUs books when I was a kid. I think any person who has an interest in evolutionary biology, all of the creatures that Dr SEUs comes up with and all the fake like biology facts about them, it

is so amazing and so fun. Like I remember there was oh and I guess I don't remember the rhyme, but it was this this animal that would like nip its tail, but its tail was so long that it took a long time for the nerves to reach the brain, and then it would like nip it at night, and then it would finally feel the nip in the morning and it would wake up. Just incredible Dr Seuss logic. Of course, neurons and nerves act very quickly, so this would not be the case, but still I love that idea.

So our first Dr susie an animal is the fried egg jellyfish. I bet you guys will never guess what this is. Look like a fight eggs Yes, it's a jellyfish that wait for it, it looks like a Friday egg. Um Frida egg is not cute, but it is gorgeous and I can't understand why. But something about like the yellow sheen of the yolk and then like the whites of it. Frida egg just looks pretty and it does. Fish is no exception, is also pretty. Yeah, it's stunning.

Like the translucent part is really really gorgeous. Obviously, you know, the translucent part at the top where the yellow kind of center is looks great. But then of course you have the translucent kind of tentacles that are happening at the end. Um, it is really adorable. I mean yeah, I actually share that that feeling of like eggs are pretty to look at, like Friday eggs and raw eggs. I'm not so sure about like hard boiled eggs unless you do it like I used to not like hard

boiled eggs until I found out could do it. There's a way to do it so that the yolk is like not super hard. Um, so it's still kind of like orange and gelatinous. And that I think, yes, yes, that sort of that like the I think I feel like the once the yolk turns yellow, no no thank you, no thanks, not into it, but like the orange joke, it's really good. Yes, I'm I'm I'm a huge snob about it's just your preference. But I guess back to jellyfish and not just me ranting about my egg preferences.

I mean it's relevant because this definitely just looks like a Friday egg. It does, yeah, and like it has a yellow colored center, the rest of its gelatinous body is off white. And because it's a jellyfish and it has this radial symmetry, it looks like a perfect Friday egg. And there's a few like different species of jellyfish that kind of look like fried eggs. Um, here's another one, a photo of it on the beach, and it looks indistinguishable from like someone just like dropped an egg, like

a raw egg on the beach. Like that's what I would think walking vibe like this is a raw egg. And then you know, if you poke it, probably it also looks dramatically different outside of water. Yeah, I mean part of that is probably because it's yeah, it's translucent to the sand is Yeah, it's taking on the sands actual components. But a lot of it too is just they're so fascinating. I wonder though, like what are there, like, what's the purpose of this jellyfish, you know, this fried

egg jellyfish. I mean, I can't. I couldn't really find like a reason for why it's yellow on the inside. The closest I could find is just their coloration seems to depend on their diet um. So I would assume the food that it's eating is giving it this pigment. And to understand sort of like why jellyfish looks this way, we could learn a little bit about jellyfish anatomy because it is very weird. So this is this is just

sort of a basic rundown of most jellyfish in their anatomy. Uh, jellyfish may not seem like an animal, but they are. They do not have a centralized nervous system or a respiratory system. They breathe through gas exchange all over their body, but they do have some organs I think that are surprising. So first of all, the main part of the jellyfish, the part that kind of looks like a mushroom cap, is called the bell or hood, which is sort of a that that membrane is sort of like dome shape.

They actually do have eye spots, so they I think this is something that you know, a lot of people may not know about jellyfish. They have eyes. A lot of jellyfish have these very rudimentary eye spots that can just tell light from dark. But some jellyfish, like the box jellyfish, have any four eyes arranged radially around the jellyfish, so they have three hundred sixty degree vision and they can see some color and they wink at you. Though they can wink wink win quin quick quick wink at you.

I don't believe they have eyelids. They do not have isolids. They also probably their site is pretty rough. I would imagine it's just seeing sort of rough light and dark and sort of blobby color shapes. Someone make a twenty four lens glasses so that they can see better. Under the law is yes, twenty four eyes. Though they'll be called by others, Oh no, not horribully jellyfish. And along the rim of the bell often jellyfish have tentacles that

can sting and stun their prey. They also like inside so that outer rim of these sort of thinner tentacles on the inside, these more bull key looking things are called oral arms. And these are these arms that can pull food into their mouths and they also have stinging cells often on these these parts, and in the center of the jellyfish is a mouth and a stomach pouch.

And again these these are completely radially symmetrical, so they have radial gonads and so you know, like on the top of jellyfish often, especially like moon jellies and other sort of translucent jellyfish, you see the sort of like almost floral design. It looks like a little flour on the top of the jellyfish. That is actually it's go nuts because they are radially um symmetrical um and jellyfish

can do sexual and asexual reproduction. So adult jellyfish, which are called medusa, can release sperm and eggs into the water for sexual reproduction, and baby jellyfish, which are called polyps, can actually re produce a sexually through butting, which is cloning, so basically like like growing a smaller another polyp off

of them. So really really interesting creatures, these jellyfish. So with this fried egg jellyfish, it seems like it's bell part is sort of this off white translucent color and the inside so it's like it's um stomach and its mouth parts and it's gonads and all that stuff on the inside is this yellowish color, and my guests would be it's because of its diet, having some it's getting some sort of yellow coloration from its diet. So it's really interesting and delicious looking. Kind of want to fry

one up. I know it wouldn't be good. I understand. I understand it wouldn't be good. It wouldn't taste good, it would probably hurt me. Um, I I still want it. They're out. Yeah. Yeah, it's like things that that look edible that are not going to be edible, but they just you know what I mean. It's like, ah, it's like tide pods to the pods, always the tide which are literally the products we have right now. Yeah, or like fabuloso. It's so delicious, looks like I could just

drink it up. Why do they make they make cleansing products look so refreshingly good. It's like it's febinosa, actually fresco with a twist. You know, you'll never know. So another gorgeous creature. I'm really just now realizing a lot of these are marine animals, and I guess we just some of the best names we reserve for marine animals. But this is the red lipped batfish, which again sounds very Dr. Sussian. Seems like there'd be some kind of like doctor rhyme that's like the red lap batfish? Is

that fish which lips is red? I'm not good. The rhymes that Dr SEUs came up with were like, I just I can't try to rhyme anything with us, but I can say that it is not cute to me. It kind of has the face of a squirrel with like, you know, these very bright red lips, the lips are studying, and then this kind of bat like body, but an aquatic gat like it just it reminds me of a

squirrel bat, an aquatic squirrel bat with perfect lipstick. I feel like they took the fancy red that's supposed to match everybody and we're like, yes, this is my color. I've discovered it. The white mustache is very relatable usally you mustache, but it's not going anywhere unless you wax it. Uh. And I'm confused by Okay, listen, scientists, a bat fish. It's got no wings. Uh, it is not black in color. It does not have like bad ears. Where why a

bad fish? I don't know. It's bone structured, is kind of similar to a bat, like, even though it doesn't have the wings. If you're looking at the bone like, look at the legs and the things. Those are very bad like to me, I think if you look at it like aerially, maybe it looks a little more. I actually agree. I don't think it looks too much like a bat. To me, it looks more like a weird kite with legs. Oh my goodness, I'll show you a

diagram of what its top sort of looks like. I actually love this diagram because the red lips are lovingly rendered. It actually looks a little bit like a manta ray, but with legs when you look at it aerially. But when you look at its front, it's just sort of this weird triangle shape with angry little eyes in the middle and uh kind of big nose and then just the most kissable maybe line list just this amazing pout, a powdered limping. What's under these lips I mean are perfect?

I mean, yeah, you probably don't want to go too far underneath joel Um, you might find focus on the legs. Just focus right here in this bold lip. It's a bold lip, but I do like it. I'm still getting those that, like the legs still remind me of a bat. I mean, like I still feel like that in terms of but that's the only thing. I mean that base is one present squirrel like look at the nose, look at the eye placement, like a squirrel that did A

did A got your lipstick for a gift card. But those limbs, those limbs are actually modified fins that have become these limb like appendages. And it's actually lost most of its ability to swim in favor of walking along the ocean floor. So it just kind of like skitters across the ocean floor looking for small fish. And it has this modif fied fin on its forehead called an elysium, which is similar to an anglerfish that is used as a lure for small fish. And it also has a

bioluminescent bulb on it. And it grows to be it's not actually that big. It grows to be um, although I guess it's surprisingly large when I think about how goofy it looks. But it grows to be a little over a foot in length, so forty centimeters um. And it's those huge pouty lips, which I think are just I'm honestly, jealous are used to attract mates during spawning, So yeah, they the sexy red lips are in fact meant to look sexy. That's right there, what they where's

my partner? Essentially there to lure lure their partners on open. I don't know if this color would work on me. Maybe I think it would look lovely. You're very sweet. I'm wondering, though, like has you know, I feel like maybe it's got it's got too much of an orangy undertone, and like I need more of a Barry undertone. But honestly, it could just be the lighting. It could just be the lighting. That's true. Well, if I could borrow borrow

their lipstick, did you ever do that? Like? As kids are so gross though, just like sharing makeup with your friends. Now I think about it, I'm so disgusted, but you know, you just try it. You got try on trial on those colors. Spread your germs and get some mono the old fashioned way. Kids today are too coddled, what with germ theory and everything, and now kids I'm trying to think what the kids are like kindergarten for a second grade who are like not sharing must be the most

drilled into them. Thing ever, like like share and make sure like somebody asked, you know, just let him take it for a little bit. Be friendly. And now I feel like, like you don't even share a pencil, No, don't, because I don't know if it's been in their mouth or what. Bring your own door knobs, Bring your own door knobs. Children in plastics, yeah, just in bubble wraps to protect them from every direction, and so they won't

touch anything, they won't share anything. They won't you know, they'll bounce if anyone hits them with anything because of bubble Boy. Bubble Boy for real, in real life, we're headed that way. We are in a world well in other news, there is a there is an animal called the proboscus monkey, and this is one of my favorite monkeys in the world. They are amazing, lovely. They sound like a Doctor Who's character, and they look like a

Doctor Seu's character, and I think they're absolutely gorgeous. Proboscus monkeys have a big nose, and it's actually seems a little bit rude to be like, oh, you you have a big nose, Well, we're going to call you proboscis monkey. It's like, okay, thanks. I guess, I mean, you know, it's nice of you. I suppose just set rude rude scientists. So these are found in mangrove forests in Borneo, and they actually live in the similar areas to where orangatans live,

and they co exist relatively without incident. So males grow to be about two and a half feet long, not including the tail, which is about seventy five and up to fifty pounds, which is about so a little smaller than like a laboratory retriever. And females are about half their weight and a little shorter. And males are the only ones that have those huge proboscis is. So those

big noses that look like a cartoon character. They look like it looks like a cartoon knows that you drew on them like as a child, like you know, the the old like World War two drawing. What's it called? Like Kilroy was here, do you guys know what I'm talking about? There was like but it does look like a caricature, like an exaggerated character. It looks like ziggy cartoons. Oh that thing A lot of guys got a tattoo of in the nineties. Oh, I mean, yeah, I don't

know what that is. I feel like there's a lot of a lot of cartoons that have that, just like this knows profile, but yeah, like like Ziggy. Remember Ziggy for those of you guys if you don't know. He's like flesh colored but he like has no torso it's just like his legs in a giant head and then he wears a big shirt and no pants and no pants. Right, Yeah, I mostly know Ziggy from the Seinfeld episode where Elaine accidentally played giarizes a Ziggy cartoon, which I thought was great.

But yeah, Ziggy cartoons were basically like Ziggy sadly looking at something and being like, well, my life isn't great, Ziggy off, that's really sad. I don't know anything about this character. I don't either, but I do think so. I looked at like the photos that the National Geographic took of these monkeys, and they're like the most stunning portraits.

I'm like, wow, I think they're beautiful, Like I understand, like, oh, it's it's funny they have they have these cartoonish noses, but I think they are actually stunning animals because they have this orange fur on their backs and tops of their heads, lighter fur on their bellies, and they have

these kind of like round pop bellies. They have grayish limbs and a long gray tail, sort of long face, and their faces are wreathed in this really neatly koifed fur, and they also have this like band of fur around their neck and shoulders. It's very neat. It looks like they like they have a haircut like a like a groomed dog or something where it looks very like Regal, almost like it looks like very like European Regal. Their

fur looks incredibly soft, and they just look so well taken. Kira, I don't know, I don't know another way to say it, but they just looking together. Self care is important, um right on the head when you were like Regal, Yes, I feel like Star Wars Wishes, Star Wars and Alien look exactly exactly. And females, even though they don't have the characteristic big nose, they do have a quite interesting little sort of upturned I think it's very cute little

upturned nose. And they are a bit smaller than the males, but they also have this very wise looking face like they contain multitudes, and they are also very very beautiful there. For this auburn color at the top is really really beautiful. I wish I had that, you know, like I have sort of reddish hair. I wish you know, I want what she has. So I'll take the number whatever that is. Yeah,

And males have a lot to offer for females. Not so they're big noses are very attractive to the females because they allow males to produce very loud mating calls. So they are these resonant chambers. They can produce these loud mating calls. They also have you know, I'm gonna get get a little bit crude, but this is you know, this is just truth. This is just like they have bright red penises and a black scrotum, which is very attractive to the females. You know. Look, they're like they're

jasmine up and they're actually relatively mellow monkeys. So they will live in groups that typically have a dominant male and a bunch of females and that sometimes like comes across as like oh, well, you know, this is unfair to the females. But basically, like the dominant male kind of switches out sometimes and like membership and these groups sort of like switches, and the females kind of have a hierarchy um and often sort of determine dynamics about

the group. H And also these groups are not very violent, so they're not a lot of infighting, although there's some sort of like dominance competition amongst females and they're but they're also not violent towards other groups, and they coexist with other groups, like sometimes they'll share sleeping areas and water holes and just kind of like they're very chill and mellow. There's not that much aggressive competition. There's like, of course a little bit some conflict, but it's just

they're really pretty mellow, which is really cool. There are a lot of monkeys and primates that are a little more on edge, like baboon troops are quite can be quite aggressive. Chimpanzees can be quite aggressive. But uh, yeah, these guys are chill, they're mellow. They just eat fruits and leaves. They are fantastic swimmers. They love to leap into water and belly flop and they have these web toes that help them swim. They're just kind of like

surfer dude monkeys, you know what I mean. Very chill, very community oriented, exactly. Yeah, I love these I love these monkeys are They're one of my favorites. They're just so I love. I love the whole vibe. You know, it's just it's a cool vibe. It's a chill vibe. I think they might be my favorite one that we've discussed today, for sure, clearly the superior funny named animals. Ah. I do love the lump sucker a lot. Yes, Oh, I know, yes, I forgot about. Maybe it's the tie

I die. Okay, here's the pitch. It's the monkey and the fish and their best friends. But they can only kind of like hang out at the water, and the monkey likes to help a fish like find good like places to sit. But then someone messes up the monkeys do and I don't know, only all the suckers have to help him get it together, and they do it by all sitting there, and then they use their bodies to help basically home his hair back into the They use their suckers and do a perm Oh my god,

is so good. This is so good. I need it. Let's do it? What an idea? Oh my goodness? Yes, yeah, And I feel like any of these, any of these animals could just be the star of the show. May it might struggle a little bit with the pig boat worm. Gonna be honest, might struggle a little bit. Three year olds are gonna love saying pig but worm. That's true. It'll be a big hit with the three year old

and prop boulders. It's part jokes. I was like and probably the teenagers to Adam Sandlers stars in pig butt All. I guess Adam Sandler has gone serious now, hasn't he? I mean kind of. I feel like at his at his core, he's still Rob Schneider turned into a pig butt worm. That's a movie. That's definitely a move. We can make anything happen. We can. I think we can. Well, that is all of these silly named animals that I

want to share with you today. Thank you so much for joining me, Kay, I especially appreciate that you are coming on the show today. And do you have anything to share with our audience, any projects, anything of plug and where could people find you? Yeah? Well, thank you again for having me. This was great. I learned so much about these fascinatingly wonderful creatures with these insane names.

Um and Yeah, you can find me on all social media at at the Lady k B that's t h E l A d y k A y b um and I do have a few articles of pieces coming out today. I had an article from out with Michael Hey Williams about his role in HBO's Luck Trap dree um and I have a couple of pieces coming out next week from my interviews with the cast of The Boys, with premieres next Friday, season two of that show as well. So yeah, where can they find those? Yes, I'm so sorry,

thank you picture. I'll keep me on track. Um, Yes, so you can find my pieces um at comics beak dot com. All of those pieces will be out. I know I'm checking those out. I love Lovecraft Country. It's amazing. And Joel, where can people find you? You guys know what? You can find me all over the internet at twellmo meek that's j O E L L E m O N I Q you eat. I've got things over at a B club if you want to read some of those on Lovecraft Country, I'm breaking it down weekly. The

episodic recaps of each episode also show me podcasts. Come check out Big Doctor's Real Friends. That's a Scrubs rewatch show. You can check out Nightcall, where the girls look into weird things that are happening at our actual dystopian reality. It used to be fun and now it's scary, but it's still so good. Yeah, and then always what you hear. Yeah, And you can find us on the internet at Creature feature Pot on Instagram, at Creature feet Pot on Twitter. That's fi A T not EPI E T. That is

something very different. And you can find me at Katie Golden k A T I E G O L D I N. Just you know if you're interested in my Katie thoughts. And of course, as always I am at pro bird rites where I I'm not secretly a bird. That's silly and ridiculous and also slander and I will sue you crow bono. If you guys are enjoying the show and you want to leave a review in a comment, I really appreciate that and I read them all and I got I just really appreciate all my listeners so much.

I'm so happy that you are listening to the show. Um. I think someone commented on the show that they wanted to send me some art. You can do that by sending it to my Instagram at Creature feature Pod or I also have an email Creature feature Pod at gmail dot com. So for that listener who had some artwork and was wondering where to send it to, those are two places you can do that. Thanks to the Space

Classics for their super awesome song x Alumina. Creature features a production of I Heart Radio or more podcasts like the one you just heard. Visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or Hey, just between you and Me wherever you get your favorite shows. See you next Wednesday Day.