What’s a Salamander’s Superpower? with Emily Graslie

Guess what mango? What's that?

Will So?

One of my favorite Mo Williams books that I used to read with my kids was this book called Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed.

It is so much fun.

Williams is the best, agreed, and this story is great because it's all about a naked mulrat named Wilburd. It's pretty fancy and prefers to wear clothes instead of being naked all the time. But now I was thinking about the book over the weekend, it made me wonder, why is nakedness the thing everyone knows about mole rats when they have all these other superhero like qualities.

I mean, the naked bit is in their name, so it's kind of hard to avoid. But explain what you mean by superpowers?

Well, first of all, they don't feel certain types of pain. They're totally immune from the sting of chili peppers or really hot temperatures for instance. They also don't get cancer, which is crazy and this isn't a superpower. But their buck teeth actually move independently and can be used like chopsticks, which is kind of just a cool move. But as I started thinking about the mole rat and its superior qualities.

So let's dig in. Hey there, podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genus.

I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend Mangesha ticketter Mango. Are you as excited as I am about today's topic, creating the ultimate superhero animal?

I'm so excited. I mean, this is something we've talked about for such a long time, trying to concoct the weirdest, funniest, most badass creature. And over the years we've learned so many crazy things about animals. I mean, we're talking about electric powers, the ability to detect danger, X ray vision, the ability to regenerate or brain like. This stuff is.

Comic book gold. It definitely is, all right.

So for our listeners, this used to be a dorm room obsession of ours, debating the sexiest dinosaur or how ugly the world's ugliest badger could be, and probably not that ugly. I mean, even a bad looking badger is pretty good looking.

I think so.

But we decided it was finally time to tackle this topic of the ultimate superhero animal when some of our favorite librarians from the Hoover Public Library and Hoover, Alabama suggested we revisit a book that came out in twenty eleven. It's called Rat Sing, Mice Giggle. It's this terrific book by a neuropsychologist, Karen Shanner and jog Meat Conwall, an associate professor in neurology at Georgetown, and several of the great facts you'll.

Hear today come from there. That's right.

It's like when you ask your kid which superhero they want to be, and they say, I want to be a superhero that combines all the most awesome parts of every.

Other superhero exactly.

Like, that's what we're going to do here, but with animals. Are you ready? Oh?

I'm ready.

And before we get going, we should probably tell you that we've got a great guest on today, the wonderful YouTube star Emily Grassley, the host of Brainscoop, and we've got super fun listener quiz as well.

So let's get to it.

And to be clear, today's hunt is not about finding the biggest and fastest animals.

We learned about his kids. No offense to the.

Cheetah and the blue whale, both awesome animals. But we're looking for something a little more creative and surprising. So where do we even start.

Well, we are creating a superhero, so I feel like we need to start off with some of the super sensory stuff, or maybe even with the ability to sense electrical charges. I mean that feels very superheroy.

Oh, definitely.

And you know, part of the reason I'm so excited about this category is because it's a chance to bring.

Back the duck build platypus.

It seemed like his kids, the duck build platypus was the weird animal that we all talked about. Then the Internet came along and we got to learn about all these other cool animals.

Sure, like the Pacific Northwest tree octopus.

Is that a real thing?

Now? It was this amazing internet hoax by this guy Lyle Zapata. He had a whole Saved the Pacific Northwest tree Octopus campaign.

It was elaborate, it sounds.

Like it so My thing with the platypus is that as much as we dropped its name into conversations as a kid, I don't think we fully appreciated just how cool the platypus is.

I mean, everybody knows that it's this.

Weird egg laying mammal with the tail of a beaver and the feet of an otter and the bill of a duck, and that the male has a venomous spur on the back of its foot. That should be enough to make it an animal we should remember.

Yeah, or avoid touching, right, But.

None of that really makes it a superhero until you remember that the platypus is a master of electrolocation.

Isn't that crazy. It's actually the most electro receptive of any land mammal. That means it's able to detect electrical signals given off by other creatures. So even when it's hunting around for food at night in very dark waters, it's able to locate its prey by actually detecting their electrical feels using the forty thousand electro sensors and that big old snout it's so very proud of, right, It's basically making a map of what it's surveying in those dark waters.

That's right, So let's bring some respect back to the platypus by adding this ability as the first on our list of superhero animal traits.

Totally agree.

Now, you mentioned that it's the most electro receptive of the land mammals, but according to the Pelagic Shark Research Foundation, sharks are actually the most electrically sensitive animals known. Now, I know sharks aren't exactly underappreciated. I mean, they get their own week on TV every year.

I'm kind of surprised TV Land doesn't run a Happy Day's Marathon that same week and call it.

Jump the Shark Week.

Brilliant idea, and now they should do that. So and this only makes them more intimidating. So they've got this gel and their snouts and their heads that helps them detect incredibly low currents of electricity, which then helps them find even small fish that might be hiding from them under the sand.

As though sharks needed one more advantage. So that's another type of electrolocator. And I think between the shark gel and their snout and the platypus beak, I'd rather have the beak on style points right, But maybe a little of that special gel to spread on my hands. Sounds good,

It's them on our long list of things that aren't things like how the koala bear isn't a bear, or a strawberry isn't a berry, but apparently a banana is.

Don't get me started on the banana. So according to the Stanford Researcher, tomatoes and bananas are scientifically berries, while strawberries and raspberries aren't.

Sounds like I got you started on the banana.

I mean, my whole world is upside down. But back to eels. While there are multiple types of fish that can produce electric charges, did you know that freshwater fish like the electric eel, typically produce electricity at a higher voltage And it's because they don't have the advantage of salt water, which conducts electricity more effectively. So an electric eel puts out an insanely strong shock, it's like six hundred volts.

That is crazy.

So to put that in perspective, Atlantic torpedo rays can generate shocks of over two hundred volts, which is enough to power your microwave at home.

So six hundred volts, that's three microwave.

This is such a dumb tangent. But I read this profile on Scott Adams, the guy who created Dilbert, and he has three microwaves in his kitchen, stacked on top of one another, and when the writer asked him why, he said he needs them to make a lot of popcorn. At the same time, he could power all of that with a single eel.

I want to confess that you'd shared that fact with me a week or so ago, and I actually set that up because I knew this was the perfect three microwave fact.

So back to the knife fish.

So we're taking the platypus bill, the shark gel, the electric eel's ability to shock the snot out of something. Maybe we keep that in our super animal's power pack.

I don't know. So I think we're off to a strong start.

Definitely, but we're not done with our supercharged powers. That may cover our electric powers, but we also need the ability to harness the powers of Earth's magnetic field. Have you ever wondered how some animals travel such crazy long distances but managed to get where they're going with such accuracy?

Yeah, I've always been baffled by this.

Yeah, me too.

And before smartphones, I used to get lost all the time. Like I felt like every time I tried to navigate my mom anywhere, we'd end up in Scranton and we were never going to Scranton.

Is anyone ever going to Scranton?

Yeah? So it turns out several animals and evolved to detect Earth's magnetic field and then use it to navigate, Like birds are the most obvious with migrations, but think about creatures like the monarch butterfly, and then there are several species of fish, turtles, and plenty of others, all using their internal compasses to determine where they're going. Yeah.

And I think it's funny that even animals that don't travel long distances, like cows, will frequently be found standing north to south, and that termites orient their mounds in the same way. It's really bizarre, and it's funny when you look at something like the monarch butterfly, which has a brain smaller than the head of a pin. It's still equipped with an internal compass and timekeeper. Actually, you

Well, I'm glad you mentioned birds, because there's actually a migrating bird that I think we should use for where we get our magnetic field detection sends from.

Oh, yeah, which bird is that?

Well, there are lots of birds that make really impressive flights each year, but I'm thinking of the bar tailed godwit.

So I have to admit I don't know anything about the bar tailed godwit.

Yeah, it takes a big man, I'd admit that.

Well, thank you, But listen to this.

The godwit actually flies from Alaska to New Zealand every single year.

Alaska to New Zealand. That is not possible.

Well believe it. The trip is over seven thousand miles long, or since we're measuring things in microwaves, that's about fourteen point eight billion microwaves. Been.

That's good science right there.

It's the longest NonStop flight observed among birds. So that is such a crazy long trip.

I just can't even wrap my head around that.

So, yeah, this is definitely the bird we want to borrow magnetic detection powers from.

Yeah, I'm glad we agree on that. So anything else before we get to things like the best weapons and the scariest features and immortality.

Well, I think we should probably create an animal that has the ability to sense when danger is nearby or something's going on around it, like a spider sense exactly. So spiders have this amazingly fine tuned sense of touch that helps them know what's happening all over their web. So when something, even a tiny something, touches the web, a single hair on that spider could detect the smallest vibration.

I like that.

There's even a a certain type of vibration that allows a female spider to know that a suitor has arrived, and she can send a certain jiggle back to him to let him know it's time for one of those upside down spider kisses, you know, like from the Toby Maguire Kirsten Dunt's version of Spider Man.

The jiggle.

I like that, So I think I want to put in a vote for a different creature for best spidy sense, even though it's not a spider.

And what's that the alligator?

So this is something I didn't know before reading up for this episode, but alligators have these tiny black dots all over their faces and especially around their jaws.

And really only in the past couple.

Decades of researchers started to better understand what these things are.

They're these little receptors.

That helped the alligator sense movement from the other things in the water.

That's so crazy. I always assume that they were just freckles or blemishes, but now that you mention it, with those receptors being around the jaw, it kind of explains why we see alligators floating with just a little of their mouths above the water.

That's right.

So these receptors help them detect even the smallest disturbances in the water, and they also help the alligator know where the serviances came from.

That's so weird. So today's episode of Part Time Genius is brought to you by Sale, a new esum service app by the creators of Nord VPN who if you know this show, you know I love and they have got a special deal for you. But first, what is an eSIM. So let me tell you what I could have used an eSIM. This February, I was in Goa. I was reporting on a new show and I went out to the Boonies to meet with this aur vedic doctor. And after the appointment, I said, hey, can you help

While you're processing just how crazy alligator receptors are, why don't we take a break for a quiz? So our guest today is the host of one of our favorite YouTube channel, the Brain Scoop, which is hosted at the Field Museum in Chicago, and it just made too much sense to have her on today because she's taught us so much about crazy cool animals.

Emily Grassley, Welcome to Part Time Genius.

Hey, thank you for having me so.

Emily, I think you have one of my favorite job titles. You're the Chief Curiosity Correspondent at the Field Museum, which kind of sounds like you just get to sit around and ponder things.

So what exactly does this mean?

Yeah, so, you know, I love my job title, and it's my primary role at the museum. Of course, is you know, writing and producing and hosting these educational YouTube videos about natural history and the work and research of

The Field Museum.

And yeah, I mean I'm usually they're corresponding to my curiosities.

Which is so great. So this episode we're combining the real abilities of real animals to build this ultimate animal superhero. And we wanted to hear if you have any favorite animal skills or talents that you could tell us about.

Oh my gosh, so many. I mean, you know, like our humans, our real strong ability is our brain, right like it, we're actually pretty limited in like physical prowess, just innately. Of course, I'm not like talking about you know, Olympic athletes, but the one good physical trait is that being bipedal and with the respiratory system that we have, we can run really long distances, right, Like we can outrun almost any animal and endurance wise.

But that's not always got coaches.

But you know, like we can't breathe underwater without creating systems to accommodate that. We can't fly without creating systems and machines to accommodate that. So I think it's just like, look at any environment of the natural world, and it has been colonized through evolutionary adaptation for some organism to thrive no matter what it is. Like the most hostile environment I'm talking about like deep sea hydrothermal vent, there's

I think I think she's gonna I think she's gonna like this this episode.

Are there any favorite animals that you've been studying recently?

There are just a group that I just learned about that is blowing my mind. These are called uh solifuges or camel spiders, and they're are racknets. They're not spiders, but they are iraknids. They're in that group. They're they're not scorpions, they're not spiders, but I was recently talking to an expert who works on this group describing new species, and she described them herself as the spawn of Satan. Look it's because how you know, really how they look.

It coming at them.

And they'll try to run away and it'll just keep coming and they're like, what does this try to do? But they also have their jaws are super interesting. It's like two lobster claws on the front of their face and they independently move. So like, these things are pretty pretty amazing. They're pretty terrifying, and they're just really cool little creatures.

I think we should have included this in the episode I'm glad you've added this to it.

This is this will be good superpowers to add to it.

So back in April, you were the keynote speaker at the March for Science in Chicago, and we were just curious what that experience was, Like, Oh.

My gosh, one of the most simultaneously like gratifying and terrifying experiences in my life. Yeah, you know, because like I I'd never obviously been in front of that many people before. You know, I do public speaking, but it's just like bite sized doses, right, It's like it's a college class here in a science communications event there. And I don't think before then I'd ever really talked to more than a thousand people. And that's a pretty big audience.

Right?

I mean, there wasn't.

There wasn't like heckling or you know. It was just like such a warm, inviting environment. I found it to be really inspiring personally to see so many people there.

In support of science. It was it was awesome.

That's great.

Well, something almost as inspiring, I think, is this quiz that you're about to play with us so awesome. We appreciate having you on. So what's the quiz we're going to be playing today?

Mango?

Because Emily knows too much about real animals, we thought we'd give her one about fictional animals. So this one's abouttional bears.

That's right.

So all the answers have the word bear in it, and we're trying to get Emily to say as many correct fictional bear names in thirty seconds as possible.

Emily, are you ready?

Oh my gosh, I guess we're gonna prompt you.

Yes, don't worry, I'll tell you.

We'll give you a clue and you have to tell us the name. So Mango, you got the time?

Are ready? All right? Here we go.

Number one Bear who's good at putting out forest fires.

Bear?

That's right, Bear, who hangs with Christopher Robin and eats lots of honey. Who Bear Bear, known for stealing picnic baskets? Bear, comedian Bear from the Muppets. His catchphrase is waka waka.

Oh oh jeez, I know him. I can't think of this one.

That's Okay Bear who hails from Darkest Peru and loves marmalade.

Oh my gosh, I have no clue.

That would be Paddington all right, sidekick to picnic baskets stealing.

But she did pretty well.

And I think she probably knew Fozzy right, the comedian bear from the Muppets.

I think we should. Probably it was in your brain. It just wasn't there right now.

So yes, I was thinking of snuffle up again, and that's not a bear. I know what scientific order you would put that one in.

Speaking of animals with superpowers. Yeah, So, how did Emily do today? Mango?

Emily got four right, which wins her the grand prize of our Endless Admiration.

Oh congratulations that yes, absolutely well.

Everybody should be sure to check out Emily's delightful YouTube show, The Brain Scoop. Emily Grassley, thanks so much for joining us on part time genius.

Oh, thanks for having me.

Welcome back to.

Part time Genus or PTG, as I hear people are starting to call it. So, we're talking about creating the

I have such a clear picture of this hybrid animal.

Yeah, I think we're doing a good job so far, but our creation definitely needs some more amazing abilities.

So what do you think we should add next?

Maybe we should sprinkle in some xtra vision.

All right, Well, that would definitely be cool, But we're talking about real animal traits here.

You can't just say stuff that sounds cool.

I know, and I know what I'm about to say isn't technically X ray vision. But dolphins have this thing that's about as close to it you can get with their echolocation system.

Okay, right, right, So when an animal uses echolocation, they're sending out pulses of sound and then the sound bounces back as an echo. They use that information to understand the objects around them exactly.

But dolphins are insanely good at this. Like in ratsing mice giggle. The authors describe this ability. Let me just read this paragraph for you. Dolphins are able to discriminate between two metal discs placed in front of them, in which the only difference is the texture on the surface of the backside, the sign opposite to the surface that the dolphin is scanning with its echolocation pulse. Disability to detect internal structure is simply mind boggling. It's more like

Oh wow, yeah, that really is crazy. So we need some dolphin X ray vision for sure. And I want to apologize for doubting you on that one.

Hey I doubted it too, but now I'm a believer. Good, Okay, So what trait do you want to add? Next.

All right, So no doubt when we create our animal superhero and it decides to say of the day, despite all its other crazy abilities, it'll probably face injury from time to time. So I think we need the ability to regenerate post injury. So when I say regeneration, what animal comes to mind?

The starfish, of course. I mean they can regrow pretty significant chunks of their body.

Yep, that's one of the things that always comes to mind, and it's obviously moderately impressive, but it's not the one I'm thinking of.

I'm thinking about the salamander.

What just because they can regrow their tails.

Yeah, but it's even more than that.

Not only are they capable of regenerating their tails and their retinas and intestines.

What they can regrow their intestines.

Yeah, and it's so much more impressive than that. So when neuroscientists removed a salamander's brain, ground it up, and then return it to its normal spot in the brain cavity, the salamander is able to return to pretty normal function and relatively short order.

Good god, I mean, first of all, what the hell scientists? Okay, that doesn't seem like it should be an experiment, and.

Also what again, I know it's crazy, and so it's weird to imagine scientists just the sitting around deciding, like, you know, what I want to do with the new office blender.

So it's pretty gross.

Yeah, all right, well, I guess the ability to regrow brain is way better for a superhero animal than having to wear a helmet. But staying on the gross track, I'd like our critter to be able to look and act scary, to hopefully avoid real battle whenever possible, and you know, just get the job done with intimidation. And I've got two really good ones for this, the kind of scare tactics that'll leave a foe saying Okay, this superhero is clearly not stable, so I think I'll just

Good God, that's definitely crazy. I mean it seems like that should do the trick right there. But I guess go ahead and tell me the other one.

The other one also has a great name, the Texas horned lizard. Nice, and it's just as crazy. So if one of these feels threatened, it can actually shoot this tight stream of blood right out of its eye. Oh and we're not talking just a little squirt, We're talking more than six feet And the blood contains this chemical that has this horrible taste which makes predators just want to get out of there. It's called auto hemorrhaging. By the way, Wow, those are both so gross.

Swell done on that.

So the hairy frog and the Texas horned lizard, and both of those seem like really necessary skills, I have to say, though, hopefully they don't.

Have to be put to use that often.

So you know something we need to keep in mind though, is that all the popular superhero movies always show the hero as a good lover too, right, So we need to make sure that.

Our creation knows how to woo its lover.

That's a pretty good point. We definitely want our hero to have a healthy dating life. So what animal are you thinking about?

Well, it just so happens I have the perfect creature, and it also happens to be the loudest animal on earth, at least relative to its size.

Well that doesn't sound that sexy.

Oh just wait, So have you ever heard of the water boatman?

Never?

Well, the water boatman also known as the singing penis bugs.

I definitely haven't heard of that. I'm pretty sure I would have remember that name.

Well, let me introduce it to you.

So this little critter just hangs out at the bottom of the river and produces a love song that's as loud as an orchestra. We're talking one hundred decibels and this thing is only about the size of a grain of rice.

Oh wait, it's penises. I don't understand why it's called a penis bug.

Mango quit saying penis so much.

But it's called that because the water boatman sings by rubbing its penis along its abdomen, you know, the old washboard ab move. And it's so loud that you can hear this from the bank of a river. So think about how loud that has to be. You know, when you used to go underwater as a kid and scream things to see if another person could hear what you were saying, well, screaming at the top of your lungs, you couldn't possibly get someone standing outside the water to hear you.

It's that loud.

Ah, I need a minute to recover. Maybe you should break for a quiz.

I agree, so Mango.

I know our show today is about creating the ultimate animal superhero, combining the real abilities of lots of different animals. But for today's quiz, I thought we'd talked to two people who handle a wonderful animal that really doesn't need much improvement.

Dogs.

Yeah, we've got two incredible dog handlers on the line. We've got Julie from New York City and Mark culling in from Alexandria, Virginia.

So Julie, let's start with you. We're thrilled to have you on. I know you're a very serious dog walker in the city, and I'm curious to know, like, what's been the most bizarre experience for you as a dog walker in New York City.

Yeah, it's a great time being a dog walker in New York City and there's lots of stories, but one that comes to mind is it's really hard to get an uber or taxi with a dog during rush hours.

And it was instead of one.

Winter one time, and all the ubers and taxis were stopping, but then they would see I had a French bulldog with me, and they would say, no, I don't take dogs in my car. So finally, after a half hour in the freezing cold standing outside, we finally got an uber that would take us. And I was just like, oh, thank goodness, I'm freezing, the dog's cold, blah blah blah.

Yeah, Joey's always causing problems like that.

That's pretty great. Oh wow, Well, Mark, what about what about for you?

I know you're in the DC area. Have there been any any big surprises for you as you've as you've become a dog walker.

Yeah, you know. I'm originally from so I'm more of a Midwestern guy. When I first moved down here, I was just blown away by the amount of strollers, the amount of dogs and strollers tonight on a daily basis.

The dogs actually live in a good life.

And we're all we're all out here trying to work, but we should all just be little, tiny dogs and strollers.

It's not a bad life, all right. Well, thank you guys again for joining us today. Mango, what game do we have them playing today?

So this is a really stupid game. It's called the Most Powerful Quiz Ever. And basically we used Atlas Obscure to locate some very punny dog store names across the US and turn them into quiz answers.

All right, We'll sure there are lots of wonderful places given punny names like Citizen K nine and Howl to the Chief. So we're going to give you some clues to figure these out and see how many you can get, right, So, are you guys ready? Oh yeah, all right, So Julie, I'm going to start with you, and if you don't know the answer, you can throw it to Mark. Remember, you guys can work together. So here's the first one.

You got it.

Store pund that combines the movie about Darth and her friends trying to get to the Emerald City plus a word for a dog's feet one for one. Okay, well done, here we go. Question number two, This one's for you, Mark, all right. Store pun that combines another word for wolf with a pink Floyd album title.

Oh, okay, bark Side of the Moon.

Yes, Bark Side of the Moon's located in Chicago.

These guys are so smart. I thought these were going to okay all right. Question number three, This one's coming to you, Julie.

Okay.

Store pun that combines what a dog will do at the Moon plus a popular and affordable hotel chain. So what a dog will do at the moon plus a popular and affordable hotel chain.

This is a hard one.

Oh my goodness, plan at the Oh gosh, Pal, I can't even think of I'm blanking on hotel chains.

That's all right, Mark, idea to you.

I'm trying to think myself. You want the rich, the rich? Howelton, But you said it was affordable.

We were looking for holiday and I think they deserve a bonus point for that one.

Well done. Okay.

Question number four, We're coming back to you, Mark. Okay, here we go. Doggie Daycare. That's named for the author of To the Lighthouse.

Although her last name is replaced with a word for bark, her first name is the state that you live.

In, Virginia. It's got to be Virginia.

I hope, yep.

I'm going to toss this one back to Jewels here. You know, I don't really yes, so Virginia.

Say that again.

Virginia woo, yes, Virginia Wolf.

Here we go. Last question. You guys can this is real.

This is terrible, So you guys can work together if anybody knows this one?

All right?

Question number five, last one.

This pet Styling Place has not one, but two puns in its title. The first part of the name combines a Harrison Ford archaeologist character with a thing dogs like to chew on, and the second part refers to a holy place he visits in the second movie, combined with another word for styling.

Oh my god, mango. This is horrible. Okay, all right, so let's see if we can figure out the character's name.

So it's a hat it.

Okay, let's hear it.

I feel I feel pretty good about it. I'm fairly certain you're you're hinting at Indiana Bones and the Temple of Groom.

Wow.

That is unbelievable.

And there's one located in Semi Valley, California.

Wow, that is so impressive. Let's let's let's tell him what they've won, Mango.

Yeah, so Julian Mark combined for a total of five points, which wins them handredden notes to their mom or boss from us singing their praises. And this week we're also going to send you a Mister Tuniverse qew doll, which is the world's squeakiest strong man doll from BarkBox.

Wow.

Well, congratulations guys, and thank you guys.

So much for being on Part time Genius.

Thank you, thank you both.

Okay, so, before the quiz, we had just added some pretty incredible skills to our superhero animal. I mean, the ability to scare predators with the powers of the Hairy Frog and the Texas Horn Lizard while having the serenading skills of the water Boatman. Those make a pretty unbeatable combination. But we need to bring it all together with a few other amazing qualities.

We've gotta have a good weapon, not.

Just any weapons, the kind that makes our foes say do what?

Wait, we want them to say do what.

That means they're super surprised and confused and possibly scared.

Oh okay, all right, well let's talk about something that could make a foe say do what?

So what weapon do you think we should add?

Well, do you know about the pistol shrimp.

Oh, that's a good one, so tell me more so.

An article from Wired called pistol shrimp the greatest real life gun slingers, And that's because they have the ability to shoot these bubble bullets out of a huge claw. And it's loud too. So if you consider that the average gun produces a shot that's about one hundred and fifty decibels, well, this shrimp fires at an insanely lowed two hundred ten decibels.

Holy cow, how does that happen?

Well, they have two claws, but as I mentioned, one of them is enormous, up to half their body length. And inside the bigger claw is this crazy muscle system that builds tension and when its closer muscle contracts a tiny plunger slams down into the socket of this claw, and that's when the magic happens, Like water comes jetting out at over one hundred miles per hour.

Oh wow.

Yeah. And in this explosion, these water bubbles swell and then collapse, and that's where the sound comes from. But what's crazier than the sound is that the collapsing of theb it creates temperatures of eight thousand degrees fahrenheit.

Wow. I didn't know that, but that is incredible.

So I was going to put a vote in for the bullet ant, which is also a pretty incredible creature. So according to entomologist Justin Schmidt, who's been bitten by over one hundred and fifty venomous animals, one hundred.

And fifty, I don't want to be anywhere near this guy.

So this thing is so bad that it feels like you've been shot by a gun. So Schmidt called it the worst pain known to man. But for sheer coolness, it's pretty tough to argue with a water bullet shot from a claw that blast temperatures of eight thousand degrees.

So we'll go with that one.

But I would just add that the fearlessness of the honey badger is something that we should probably consider as well. It's an animal that I feel like has gotten a lot of attention in the past decade or so, but for good reason. So the Guinness Book described the savannah dwelling relative of the weasel as the world's most fearless animal, and in an Esquire article I was reading, I saw them described as a tiny skunk or from the front, like a tiny bear wearing an old man's two pey.

They're not afraid of anything.

I mean, you kind of have to be fearless to pull off a tupey in the savannah.

That's a good point.

Also, can I just point out that the description sounds like a bad definition of a mullet two pay in the front, tiny skunk in the back. So perhaps we need a little more self control than the honey badger. But when aggression is necessary, you definitely don't want to mess with this one.

Okay, agreed? And also, I really do love that this fearsome creature of ours is going to wear a two.

Pegs me too.

But finally, I feel like we need to wrap up with near immortality, like we need to know this creature is built to be indestructible. We talked about naked mule rats at the beginning of the show, but who else do you think we should consider? Well, naked mole rats are definitely a good one.

I think I might prefer the scarlet jellyfish, though now I know we talked about regeneration earlier with the salamander, but scarlet jellyfish do something a bit different that's equally amazing. Chin Kubata researcher at the Caido Marine Biological Laboratory at Kyoto University. He's been studying these creatures for nearly four decades, and he describes them as being nearly immortal because, as he says, they rejuvenate.

They rejuvenate, Like what's that mean?

Well, as Kubata describes, one day on my plankton net, there was a small scarlet jellyfish from the south. It had all these sharp sticks in its body, and I thought, poor thing. Removed all the sticks, hoping maybe it would get better and swim again, but it didn't and it shrunk.

However, it rejuvenated.

You just keep saying rejuvenated over but I don't understand what's that mean?

All right, So here's the crazy part.

What he observed is that when a scarlet jellyfish gets hurt, it goes to the ocean floor.

Then it morphs from its adult.

State, which is called the medusa, back to an infant state or polyp, and the polyp grows back into a medusa again.

That's crazy.

So it's basically Benjamin buttoning itself into an infant again.

Well, it's more like it hits the reset button and then starts life all over again.

It's really crazy.

So Kubata believes there's much more to learn from these amazing creatures, and that they may hold the key to humans living much longer if we can just figure out what's happening that'll allows them to do this.

I don't know about you, but I feel like we've created a pretty incredible superhero animal to me too.

In fact, I want to see this thing.

So maybe we should challenge our listeners to see if anyone's up for drawing it. So let's recap the beautiful combo we've put together.

Yeah, so it's pretty easy. It's part platypus, part electric eel, a little shark gel, part bartailed godwit. There's a dash of alligator, dolphin and salamander, some harry frog and Texas horned lizard. Oh, and it's got the charm of the water boatman, the quick draw of the pistol shrimp, the aggression of the honey badger, and a reset button of a scarlet jellyfish. Easy enough, I feel like I could

Wow.

Yeah, So you can either send your picks to us on Facebook, Twitter, or email us at part Time Genius at House Stuff Works, And you should also send us a message if you feel like we've left out a real superpower that just might make this animal even more heroic.

We can't wait to see what you come up with.

Well, I can't wait to see what you've come up with, because you know what time it.

Is time for the part time Genius fact off.

That's right, it's the PTGFO Animal Edition, all right, and I'm going to kick this off with a little fact about fingernail clan. Okay, did you know that scientists in the nineties experimented with giving prozac to clams. No, and while it didn't actually make them happier, it did cause them to spawn prolifically. By the way, this is a total aside, but one of the articles I saw about this was titled clam dunk, which makes no sense, but it made me laugh.

Clam duck definitely belongs on a Novelty Beach T shirt.

So if we're talking about pure strength, one of the most incredible creatures on Earth has to be the dung beetle. This is a friend you want to call over when you're moving because dung beetles can haul up to one hundred and forty one times their own body weight. That's the most in the animal kingdom, and as the website One Kind Planet put it in perspective, that's the equivalent of an average person being able to lift.

Six double deck or buses full of people. Wow.

Total respect for the dung beetle. So I'm generally not that impressed by bird calls, but the superb liar bird is something to behold. It's basically like the Michael Winslow of birds. And not only will liarbirds imitate other calls, but in a National Geographic Wild episode, they showed how it can recreate the sound of a camera taking a picture, or a chainsaw felling a tree, even a car alarm. The bird can basically imitate any sound it's exposed to.

So we all know cockroaches are gross for a whole host of reasons, but here's something amazing about them. They have three knees on each of.

Their six legs.

There's a lot of knees, right, So it's crazy, But that dexterity allows them to make twenty five rotations in a second, the most of any animal.

So this is more of an animal's kryptonite than a superpower. But did you know kangaroos can't hop backwards like they can swim if they need to, or jump about the distance of three times their height, but they'd never be able to foxtrot with you.

Oh that sounds sad but also kind of a funny mental image.

So I think you're gonna be the.

Winner of today's fact Off, So congratulations.

I am truly honored.

That's it for this episode of Part Time Genius. Thanks so much for listening.

Thanks again for listening to Part Time Genius. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to your.

Podcast, and because we're a brand new show, if you're feeling extra generous, we'd love it if you give us a rating on Apple Podcasts. Part Time Genius is produced by some of our favorite geniuses. It's edited by Tristan McNeil, theme song and audio mixing by Noel Brown. Our executive producer is Jerry Roland. Our research team is Gabe Bluesier, Lucas Adams, Autumn white Field Madrano, Austin Thompson and Meg Robbins.

Jason hop Because our chief chair later