0:08

Welcome to Creature Future production of iHeartRadio.

0:11

I'm your host of Many Parasites, Katie

0:14

Golden. I studied psychology

0:16

and evolutionary biology, and today on

0:18

the show, it's another listener Questions

0:21

episode. You can write to

0:23

me your questions at

0:25

Creature Featurepod at gmail dot com

0:28

and I will do my best to answer

0:30

them. So let's get right

0:33

into this comfy and cozy listener

0:36

Questions episode. First question,

0:39

According to Matt Simon's Plight of the Living

0:41

Dead, half of all animal species are

0:43

parasites. How have parasites become

0:46

so successful? And what role do they play

0:48

in healthy ecosystems? Thanks

0:50

Michael D. From Sacramento. Hey

0:52

Michael, thank you for your question.

0:55

So first I wanted to check on this

0:57

whether it is true that half

1:00

of all animals are parasites,

1:03

and it seems roughly accurate.

1:05

I've seen about forty

1:07

percent being a number

1:09

kind of bandied about, but I

1:11

think it's a little bit tricky to

1:13

get an exact proportion. One

1:16

thing is that number of species is

1:18

somewhat subjective, like do you count

1:21

subspecies? How closely

1:23

related are the different parasite species

1:25

and so on, And

1:28

of course biomass would be quite difficult

1:30

to calculate as well, but I think

1:33

the point still stands. There are

1:35

a ton of parasites

1:37

out there, perhaps more than

1:39

we would be comfortable acknowledging.

1:42

So to understand

1:45

why there are so many different

1:47

species of parasites, I think we should go over

1:50

all the different kinds of parasites

1:52

that are out there, because

1:55

not all parasites follow the flea

1:58

sucking blood type model

2:00

for parasitism. So the flea

2:03

type like the flea sucking your blood, is

2:06

an example of an ectoparasite.

2:09

Ectoparasites live on the external

2:12

body of their host, and they feed

2:14

on their host's blood, skin,

2:16

or other important bodily components

2:19

in a way that is detrimental to

2:21

the host. And endoparasite

2:24

is similar, but it lives inside

2:27

the host. So an example would

2:29

be a tapeworm. It feeds

2:31

on the blood supply, flesh fluids,

2:34

things that are inside the host's body

2:36

which the host needs. Remember,

2:39

parasites are necessarily

2:42

by definition harmful to their

2:44

hosts. It is a form of symbiosis

2:47

in which the parasite

2:49

harms the host in order to benefit

2:52

itself. So another type

2:54

of parasite are the parasitoids.

2:57

So parasitoids live on or

3:00

in their host. But the

3:02

difference between a parasitoid and

3:04

another parasite is that parasitoids

3:07

end up necessarily killing their

3:09

host. So an example

3:12

is basically any number of species

3:14

of parasitoid wasp who

3:17

will lay her eggs on a

3:19

host, and those eggs hatch either

3:22

on or inside of the

3:24

host, and the larva

3:27

will eat the host until

3:29

it is dead. Like the parasitoid

3:31

wasp that attacks

3:34

orb weaver spiders, these larva will

3:36

live on the orb weaver,

3:39

slowly drinking their fluids

3:41

until the orb weaver is dead. So

3:45

a parasite that accidentally

3:48

kills their host does not count

3:50

as a parasitoid. So say

3:52

you have a really bad tapeworm,

3:55

you get really sick, and you die. The tapeworm

3:57

is not a parasitoid. It's just a parasite.

4:00

It's not obligatory

4:03

for the tapeworm to kill you,

4:05

but parasitoids necessarily

4:08

consume their host. Parasitoids

4:11

can be ectoparasites, endo

4:13

parasites, or in some cases,

4:16

the host can be paralyzed,

4:19

dragged back to a din, and

4:21

slowly eaten over the course

4:24

of hours, days, or even

4:26

months. In fact, some

4:28

parasitoids will specifically

4:30

target non essential organs

4:33

first so that the host species

4:35

lives longer. This gives them

4:37

more opportunity to eat

4:40

flesh that is not rotting, that is

4:42

fresh, So parasitoids

4:44

blur the line between

4:46

the categories of predation and

4:49

parasitism. Also

4:51

blurring lines are micropredators

4:54

such as mosquitoes or vampire

4:56

bats. They are parasites,

4:59

but they don't don't live on their host

5:02

or on a single host. Instead,

5:04

they go from host to host and

5:07

will take little SIPs of their

5:09

blood or feed

5:11

on whatever it is that they feed

5:13

on. But they are not quite

5:16

predators because they do not directly

5:19

kill or consume their host.

5:22

They can incidentally kill

5:24

their host through spreading of pathogens,

5:28

but this is not the same as you

5:30

know as by definition

5:33

killing their prey, So

5:36

they are micro predators. They

5:38

are parasites. They don't kill their host,

5:40

but they can accidentally kill their hosts

5:43

through pathogens. And actually,

5:45

speaking of spreading pathogens, this

5:47

is related to another way

5:49

to categorize parasites in

5:52

terms of the way that transmission

5:54

works. So vector

5:58

transmitted parasites use

6:00

a taxi in

6:02

order to infect their host. So think

6:05

of a protozoan

6:07

parasite that lives inside a mosquito.

6:10

That mosquito goes to its

6:14

target, maybe a human, maybe an animal,

6:16

and plunges its proboscis

6:19

into your skin, and then that

6:21

protozoan can go on to

6:23

infect you. So the protozoan

6:26

is a vector transmitted parasite.

6:28

It is using the mosquito

6:30

as a taxi and

6:32

it enters the host via this

6:35

little living taxi, and it

6:37

causes us all sorts of problems

6:39

like malaria. So very

6:42

important thing to know about these vector

6:44

transmitted parasites if you are, say

6:46

a doctor or epidemiologist.

6:50

So directly transmitted

6:53

parasites go by foot

6:55

or wing flagella, wind, et

6:57

cetera. They directly trans port

7:00

themselves to their host. So an

7:02

example would be a flea jumping

7:04

onto your dog, or you picking up

7:06

a tick while walking through grass.

7:10

Another type is trophically

7:12

transmitted parasites. These are parasites

7:14

that want to be eaten. They

7:18

are eaten by their host, or,

7:21

as is often the case, they are eaten by

7:23

one species and then a subsequent

7:26

species, which is their true target, and

7:28

then they reproduce and feed

7:30

inside of their final

7:33

target. An example of this

7:35

includes roundworms. Another

7:37

example is te gandhii, everyone's

7:40

favorite rat Zombi Fie protozoan.

7:43

It will infest rats.

7:46

It will cause lesions in their brains,

7:48

which makes the rats uncharacteristically

7:51

bold an affectionate towards

7:53

felines, who return

7:55

the love by eating the rat and

7:57

the protozoan. This Tea gandhii

8:00

will happily reproduce inside

8:02

the cat, who then poops out more

8:04

Tea Gandhi. The poop gets around the

8:06

rat accidentally in just some of that poop

8:08

particle, and then it gets the Tea

8:10

gandii and the cycle begins again.

8:13

This is a trophically transmitted parasite.

8:16

There are other types of parasites

8:19

that are sometimes forgotten different

8:21

categories, such as kleptoparasites.

8:24

These are parasites that steal food

8:27

from other animals. So seagulls

8:30

who love to snatch food out of another

8:32

bird's beak are kleptoparasites.

8:35

Brood parasites are parasites

8:37

that will use the

8:40

paternal or maternal care of

8:42

another species in order

8:44

to benefit their own offspring, so cuckoo

8:47

birds laying their eggs and tricking

8:49

other birds into raising their chicks

8:52

is an example of a brood parasite.

8:55

Now, a very tiny but interesting

8:58

category is sex actual

9:00

parasitism. It describes only

9:03

what anglerfish do. This only

9:05

applies to anglerfish specifically.

9:08

It is where the male attaches

9:10

itself to the female physically

9:12

graphs itself to the female.

9:14

It actually uses an enzyme that kind of

9:16

melts the skin of the female a little

9:18

bit, so it can kind of melt itself

9:21

onto the female's flesh.

9:23

Then it feeds off of her blood supply,

9:25

and the only thing it doesn't return is

9:28

produce sperm. So the argument

9:31

for this as a case of parasitism

9:33

versus say, mutualism, is

9:36

that the male takes more than he provides,

9:38

so like if he's taking more

9:40

of their female resources than

9:43

he provides in terms of say, sperm

9:45

donation. Social

9:48

parasites are another category parasites.

9:51

These are parasites that infiltrate

9:53

usocial or other types of social

9:55

groups of animals, mimicking

9:58

them or sneaking by a notice, stealing

10:01

resources from the group, tricking

10:03

adults into feeding them, or feeding

10:05

on their young. So there's

10:08

a type of blue butterfly species

10:10

where the caterpillar mimics the

10:13

larva of ants, the ants will take it in,

10:15

and sometimes it actually can

10:18

imitate the queen signals

10:20

of the ants, further tricking the ant

10:22

colony, and it can go around

10:24

feeding on larva or allowing

10:27

itself to be fed by the ants. So it's

10:29

a really sneaky form of parasitism.

10:33

Another category is hyper

10:35

parasitism. So hyperparasitism

10:38

is basically the old rhyme. Big

10:40

fleas have little fleas upon their backs

10:43

to bite them, and little fleas have lesser

10:45

fleas, and so on at infinitum. So

10:47

I actually had another listener question

10:50

about how many levels of parasites you

10:52

could have. This is from Jean Luke Picorgi,

10:55

and the answer seems to be at least

10:57

five. And you see these chin

11:00

anes of parasites in gal

11:02

wasps. So a gal wasp,

11:05

the basic gal wasp, is

11:07

a species of keeeny tiny wasp

11:10

that forms a gall on a

11:13

plant like an oak tree. What

11:16

a gall is it's a bulb of

11:18

flesh that the plant

11:21

or tree is induced

11:23

to create that does not benefit

11:25

the tree, but it benefits this wasp.

11:28

So the wasp will drill a hole

11:30

into the bark or skin

11:33

of the plant. Sometimes these

11:35

galls are created on leaves and stuff, but

11:37

we're focusing on an oak gal wasp.

11:39

So it drills into the oak's

11:41

flesh and then this bulb

11:44

forms and the

11:47

gal wasps will lay it's a

11:49

inside of this bulb that

11:53

is formed from basically

11:55

this chemical that the larvae

11:57

excretes. And then this bulb

12:00

that grows around the larva has

12:03

a fleshy interior that the larva

12:05

feeds on, So it's feeding on the

12:07

tree. It's harming the tree, and so that

12:09

is why it is a parasite. Now

12:12

there are other gal wasps that

12:14

then take advantage of

12:16

the previous gal wasp, the gal

12:18

wasp that created this gall, this

12:21

bulb, and then it lays

12:23

its own offspring inside

12:25

the other gal wasps gall.

12:28

So it will sometimes

12:30

harm the larva of

12:33

the previous tenant of this gall.

12:36

Sometimes it won't prevent

12:38

it from developing, but it certainly steals

12:41

resources from it. And

12:43

then you have parasitoid

12:46

wasps like the crypt keeper wasp.

12:48

Remember a parasitoid necessarily

12:52

kills its host. So the crypt keeper

12:54

wasp will lay its eggs inside

12:56

the gall on top of an existing

12:59

larva, and those

13:01

eggs will hatch into carnivorous larva

13:03

which will feed on the other gal wasp

13:06

slowly. Again, the

13:08

sort of distinction between a

13:10

predator and a parasitoid is a

13:12

parasitoid feeds slowly

13:15

on its host over a long period

13:17

of time before killing it. So this

13:19

parasitoid gal wasp will feed

13:21

on the host larva and

13:24

then it will continue to consume this

13:26

victim larva slowly, and as the

13:29

victim larva grows and develops into

13:31

an adult wasp, the parasite

13:34

larva will compel it to

13:37

drill its way out of the gall, and

13:39

then at this point the parasite

13:42

will actually be head the host

13:46

gal wasp, and that head

13:48

blocks up the opening to the

13:51

gall and basically

13:53

creates a fleshy door. And

13:55

then once that parasite larva

13:57

continues to develop into an adult, it

14:00

can then just basically eat its

14:02

way through this head and emerge

14:04

from the gall, so you can have

14:06

chains of Basically, the first layer

14:09

of parasitism is the initial

14:11

gall creating wasp that is

14:13

a parasite on the oak tree,

14:16

and then you have maybe

14:18

a gall wasp that is a parasite

14:20

and infesting this

14:23

gall by stealing essentially

14:25

the resources from the gall from the bulb

14:27

itself, and then another type of parasite

14:30

that will steal resources directly from

14:32

the larvae, eat them, consume them, a

14:34

parasitoid, so you

14:36

could actually get chains of this, and

14:39

apparently it's been observed to be up to

14:41

around five levels of parasitism,

14:44

so things get wacky

14:46

with these gall wasps, really interesting.

14:50

So the point of giving

14:52

you all these examples is to demonstrate

14:55

the wide variety of parasites

14:57

and parasitic strategies, which

14:59

gives you a sense of why there are so

15:01

many parasites in the world.

15:04

There are near endless

15:06

opportunities for parasites to take

15:08

advantage of, and typically when

15:10

there is a niche say there's some

15:13

form of nutrition that can be exploited,

15:16

there will be an organism that,

15:18

over millions of years evolves to

15:20

exploit it. We have

15:23

limited resources on the

15:25

planet, there's a lot of competition for resources,

15:28

so finding shortcuts or cheets

15:31

can greatly enhance an animal's

15:33

success, and of course

15:35

the host animals are also

15:38

forced to develop strategies

15:40

through evolution to try to counteract

15:43

the parasite's attack. So

15:45

in terms of what good they do for

15:47

the ecosystem. By definition,

15:50

parasites are bad for the individual

15:52

host. There is no good

15:55

parasite for an individual,

15:58

but for say an

16:00

ecosystem, they can actually

16:02

be critical. So an ecosystem is a

16:04

whole group, a delicate

16:07

chain and web of animals interacting

16:09

with each other, and so even

16:12

though a parasite may harm an individual,

16:15

they could provide a benefit

16:18

to the ecosystem. So, for instance,

16:20

nutritional biomass mosquitoes

16:23

provide a huge biomass

16:25

for other animals to

16:27

feed on. There's

16:30

potential for parasites to keep

16:32

certain species from growing too

16:34

numerous two dents which

16:36

can maybe help with plant growth. Say

16:38

you have you know, too many deer

16:41

or too many rabbits or something,

16:43

and they're too dense. Much like how predators

16:45

will help keep these in check, parasites

16:48

can also help keep them in check. And this

16:50

can help prevent say, plants

16:53

from being devastated by too

16:55

many herbivores or

16:58

you know, it could keep predatorspecies

17:00

in check, and then that helps prevent

17:03

too mini predators from going

17:05

around killing herbivores. So

17:07

it can keep some of these things

17:10

in balance, and

17:13

it can also increase the

17:15

biodiversity of the host

17:17

species through selective pressures.

17:20

If you're a parasite and you're putting selective

17:22

pressure on your host, you may force it

17:24

to adapt in some way, and this

17:26

can actually result in

17:29

speciation, so a new species arising

17:31

from this. So this can increase biodiversity,

17:34

increase genetic diversity, which is really

17:36

important in a changing world

17:38

where you may have certain shocks to an ecosystem.

17:41

So having more genetic diversity

17:44

prevents a species from say, being

17:46

wiped out by a change in the environment.

17:48

Because you have such a rich genetic

17:50

library, you might be able to adapt to this

17:52

change. So removing parasites

17:55

from the planet I think would

17:57

be very very harmful, would be devastating

18:00

because it would weaken this

18:03

intricate web. I like to call it like

18:05

a Jenga tower, these

18:07

complex interspecific relationship

18:10

between different species. And you remove one

18:12

piece, maybe it doesn't do anything, but if

18:14

you remove it, it could also make the whole tower collapse.

18:17

So parasites very important

18:19

for an ecosystem, very harmful

18:21

for an individual. But

18:24

I love them because they're so weird and

18:26

their strategies are so intricate,

18:29

and it's almost spooky sometimes

18:31

how good they are exploiting. So

18:34

we're going to take a quick break, and when we get

18:36

back, we are going to answer another listener question.

18:43

All right, onto the next listener

18:45

question. This

18:48

one says less of a question

18:50

and more a layman's observation. Maybe

18:52

you've covered it before. Kind of unusual,

18:54

how frogs don't have teeth yet eat flies,

18:57

making them omnivorous. Right, and this is

18:59

from Sherman. So Hi,

19:02

Yeah, So some frogs are

19:05

omnivorous, meaning they eat plants

19:07

as well as meat or other things.

19:10

So omnivores eat a variety

19:12

of different different fruits, usually meat

19:15

and plants, maybe fruit, maybe nuts,

19:17

seeds, whatever. So some frogs

19:20

do eat both plant matter and insects.

19:23

But if a hypothetical frog

19:26

I'm among which there are many species

19:29

that only eat flies or only

19:31

eat insects, it

19:34

would make it insectivorous.

19:36

So insectivores are a type of

19:38

carnivore, a carnivore that specializes

19:41

in eating insects. So some

19:44

frogs will be omnivores, some frogs

19:46

will be insectivores, or

19:48

some will be carnivores because they can

19:50

eat both insects, small mammals,

19:53

other frogs It kind of depends on the frog

19:55

size. Frogs really love

19:58

to basically eat anything can can

20:00

fit in its mouth. Frogs typically aren't

20:02

super picky when it comes to live

20:05

prey as long as they can fit it inside

20:07

of them. So onto

20:10

the teeth. Uh. Now, it's

20:12

true that frogs do not have a

20:14

prominent visible set of teeth,

20:17

but not all frogs are

20:19

toothless. Some are,

20:22

and almost all frogs lack

20:25

lower teeth, but there

20:27

are many species

20:29

of frogs that have tiny upper

20:31

teeth or teeth on the roof

20:34

of their mouths. Frog

20:36

teeth are really teeny tiny.

20:38

They are not easily seen with the

20:41

naked eye. You usually have

20:43

to use a CT scan of a

20:45

skeleton or microscopic photography

20:47

in order to see these teeth. But

20:51

in terms of frogs that have both an upper

20:53

and lower set of teeth, there's only one known

20:56

species of frogs that have this.

20:58

This is Gunther's mare supial

21:00

frogs. They have a set of upper and

21:02

lower teeth, all extremely tiny

21:05

teeth about the size of a

21:07

grain of sand. So this is

21:09

really weird that

21:11

this is the case for Gunther's

21:14

marsupial frogs because these

21:16

frogs lost their lower teeth

21:18

two hundred million years ago along

21:20

with these other frog species that don't

21:22

have lower teeth. But it

21:25

has re evolved these

21:27

lower teeth, which it's unclear

21:29

exactly why they have. It's

21:32

really fascinating that that they can

21:34

re evolve these teeth after so long.

21:39

But it likely has something to

21:41

do with grips. So you

21:43

know, you think of sand paper, right, even

21:45

though these teeth are the size of a grain of sand.

21:47

With sandpaper, it's got a lot of traction,

21:50

it's got a little grip. So it's

21:52

thought that with frog teeth, whether

21:54

they only have an upper set or they have that upper

21:57

and lower set, has something

21:59

to do with providing some friction

22:02

to keep struggling prey from

22:04

escaping, especially

22:06

when it comes to larger prey. So,

22:09

in fact, there are some species of frog

22:11

that have developed a set of

22:14

lower things that kind of

22:16

look like buck teeth, but

22:19

really these are bony projections.

22:21

They're not teeth. They lack dentin.

22:24

True teeth has dentin, whereas

22:26

these bony projections kind

22:29

of look like little things, but they are not true

22:32

teeth. But yeah, you

22:34

do not need teeth to

22:36

be a carnivore. So examples

22:40

of other carnivores

22:42

that do not have teeth. Giant ant

22:44

eaters do not have teeth. Their jaws

22:47

barely function. Instead,

22:49

they rely on a long, sticky

22:51

tongue to capture and slurp

22:54

up ants and termites. Similarly,

22:57

pangolins have no teeth. Pangolins

23:00

are those little living pine

23:02

cone like animals. Well they're not that little, actually,

23:04

they're definitely

23:07

an armful, but they have those

23:09

scales that kind of look like a pine cone,

23:12

and they feed on ants

23:14

and termites, but they don't have any teeth.

23:17

They just have, you know, a tongue and

23:19

kind of viscous saliva.

23:22

Pangolins will also eat stones

23:25

to help pulverize food in their stomachs.

23:28

Stones that are eaten in

23:30

order to help with digestion are called

23:32

gastroliths. Pangolin

23:35

stomachs are also lined with spines,

23:38

which help further macerate the insects

23:40

they eat. So even though they don't have any teeth

23:42

in their mouth, they do have ways

23:44

to crush insects in

23:47

their gizzard, which is interesting

23:49

because this is a strategy also used

23:51

by birds. Of course, birds

23:53

do not have teeth. There are some

23:56

birds, especially filter feeders, who

23:58

will have kind of tooth like ridges in

24:01

their beaks, but they're not true teeth. But most

24:04

many, many species of birds don't even have these.

24:07

They rely instead on

24:09

their beaks. They can be really

24:11

sharp, they can be shaped differently

24:14

in order to achieve different kind of things,

24:16

but they don't have teeth, and they, like

24:19

the pangolin, will actually sometimes

24:21

swallow stones or sand in

24:24

order to help with digestion in

24:26

their gizzard. Of course,

24:29

beaks are also used by octopuses

24:31

and squids, who are also carnivores,

24:34

and they don't need teeth. They use these

24:37

beaks along with their tentacles

24:39

in order to entrap and rip

24:42

up and eat prey. Another

24:45

one of the world's biggest carnivores,

24:47

in fact, one of the biggest animals.

24:50

The biggest animal in the world has

24:54

no teeth but is a carnivore. These are

24:56

toothless whales, baylean

24:58

whales, who use these broom

25:01

like balen to sift out

25:03

huge amounts of krill, which

25:05

they gulp up. I know it's weird

25:08

to think of a baling whale

25:11

as a carnivore, but they are.

25:13

They eat krill. Krill is a

25:16

living animal, it's meat. They

25:19

will eat so many of them. They are actually

25:21

really really good carnivore,

25:24

very very high number

25:27

of prey that they can get all at once. But

25:30

yes, despite their prey being so small,

25:32

baling whales are carnivores and

25:34

they don't have to use teeth to do

25:36

it, and they are the world's

25:39

largest animal. So teeth

25:42

are important for us though, so brush

25:44

them. You know. It's not like we can put

25:47

brooms in our mouth and use that to filter soup.

25:49

I mean, maybe we could. I don't

25:51

recommend it, though, Keep those teeth brushed

25:54

and flossed, and you know, like

25:57

drink a lot of water. Anyways,

25:59

We're gonna take another quick break, and when we

26:01

come back, I'm going to answer the last

26:04

listener question. Next

26:09

listener question. Recently,

26:12

orchidmantis species have been shown

26:14

that was once thought to only

26:16

be camouflage for mimicry are

26:19

actually gliding surfaces too. What

26:23

are your favorite surprise animal abilities

26:25

only found years after the species

26:27

was known and studied. This is from

26:30

URF the MIRF. This

26:32

is amazing. So orchidmantises,

26:34

which are beautiful, beautiful

26:37

insects. They are

26:39

a species of mantises

26:41

that look like orchids,

26:44

I mean the name is truly

26:46

accurate. They have pinks and whites

26:48

and green colors, and they have

26:51

all of these like petal like protrusions,

26:55

and they have these petal

26:58

shaped lobes on

27:01

you know, basically their their legs,

27:04

and it looks beautiful. It makes them look

27:07

like an orchid. It helps with their camouflage

27:09

so that they can be both protected

27:12

and an ambush predator, which is really

27:14

cool. But the new news

27:17

is that they can also use them as

27:20

gliding surfaces, essentially, like because

27:23

the surface area has increased,

27:25

they can glide for short distances

27:28

using these petals, which

27:31

can also be used for camouflage, which

27:33

is just beautiful and

27:36

fantastic. Other discoveries

27:39

of animals that we've known about for a really

27:41

long time. I love it when there's like a I

27:44

don't want to say mundane animal, because I think

27:46

they're all really interesting, but an animal we know,

27:48

it's well known, and then suddenly something

27:51

new pops upwards we had no idea.

27:53

One of the things that I think is really

27:55

funny is we keep discovering

27:58

that so many mammals biofluoresse,

28:01

have biofluorescence, and

28:03

we don't know why. So it

28:05

started out with a few discoveries

28:07

of mammals being biofluorescent.

28:10

So biofluorescence means that they

28:12

absorb and re emit light. You

28:14

can't see this with the naked human eye,

28:16

but you can see it under black light.

28:19

So this was discovered in apossums,

28:21

flying squirrels, and platypuses

28:24

and they were found to be biofluorescent.

28:27

And then researchers started testing

28:29

more mammals under black light. They

28:31

did this with specimens in

28:34

museum or research catalogs,

28:37

so they kept finding more

28:39

and more species who were biofluorescent,

28:42

and the list kept getting longer and longer.

28:44

So wombbats, bilbies,

28:46

armadillas, red foxes, dolphins,

28:49

cats, house cats, bats,

28:51

zebras, big cats, they

28:54

all were found to have biofluorescent

28:56

fur or other body parts. In fact,

28:59

one hundred and twenty five species of

29:01

mammals were found to biofluoresse

29:04

when Western Australia Museum

29:06

puts specimens under UV

29:08

light. So it's

29:10

still not really well understood exactly what

29:12

is causing this. The

29:16

emerging pattern seems to be that nocturnal

29:19

animals have stronger biofluorescence,

29:23

but this is still something found in

29:25

diurnal animals animals that are active

29:28

during the day. So another

29:31

pattern I guess is that white fur seems

29:34

to be more likely to be biofluorescent.

29:36

So like in the case of housecats, only

29:39

white fur has been found to be

29:42

biofluorescent, it's the only type of fur

29:44

that does so, but in other

29:46

species of animals, like there can be

29:48

other colorations of fur that is

29:51

biofluorescent. So yeah,

29:53

it's really interesting. We kind of

29:55

had no idea that this

29:58

was a feature for so many

30:01

mammals, and so it's I'll

30:04

be keeping my eye on this for sure to

30:06

find out if they come

30:08

up with any more hypotheses

30:11

or do any more testing to figure

30:13

out why exactly this is the

30:15

case. Is this just a basically

30:18

like a evolutionary spandrel something

30:21

that serves no

30:23

function but it's just it just happens

30:26

to be there and it's cool, or does it serve

30:28

some kind of function, So yeah,

30:30

it's very very interesting. Another

30:33

thing is I love it when

30:35

we make new discoveries about ants

30:38

because ants are so common

30:40

and they're everywhere, and

30:42

it feels like we already know everything

30:45

about ants, but then ants

30:47

always surprise us. So of

30:50

course there are many different ant species,

30:52

so Just because we know a

30:55

bunch of things about one ant species doesn't mean

30:57

we know everything about all the ant species.

31:00

But still it's really cool when we discover new

31:02

things. So there is a species

31:04

of ant called the Indian jumping

31:06

ants, which are found

31:08

in India. They are really interesting

31:11

looking ants with elongated mandibles,

31:14

and their colony structure is a little

31:16

different from most ants. They have

31:18

pretty small colonies, about

31:20

one hundred individuals. They

31:23

do have queens, but

31:26

the queen's position is a lot less secure

31:28

and high up on a hierarchy than in typical

31:31

ant colonies. You see workers

31:34

that can rise to become queens and

31:36

workers that can control who

31:38

is their queen. So if

31:42

there is a queen who has not been approved

31:44

of by the colony, she can be dethroned

31:47

and placed in queen custody, where

31:49

a very weird body transformation can

31:52

take place. So when

31:54

an old queen dies in

31:56

one of these Indian jumping ant

31:58

colonies, the queen

32:00

is selected in a jousting

32:02

competition. Yeah, this is very

32:05

medieval or Middle Ages. I'm

32:09

not a historian. So they

32:12

have those elongated manibles that I

32:14

talk about, and they will essentially joust with each other

32:17

until there is a clear dominant

32:19

winner. That winner will become the

32:21

new queen. And what happens

32:24

when you attain power, Well, your

32:26

brain shrinks and your ovaries expand.

32:29

So yes, the queen's brain will shrink

32:31

and her ovaries will expand,

32:34

and she assumes the

32:37

position of being the breeding dominant

32:40

queen. But if there

32:42

is multiple ants

32:44

that are starting to develop into queens

32:47

and one is unauthorized, or if there's

32:49

a queen that is not performing her royal

32:51

duties correctly, the

32:54

worker ants will seize her into

32:56

a restrictive hold. They don't kill

32:59

her, though. Ants are more civilized than

33:01

humans are. When they are deposing a queen, this

33:04

ant is just held until

33:07

its brain expands and

33:09

ovary shrinks and it

33:12

biologically turns back into

33:14

a worker. So it's

33:17

kind of like a representative

33:19

monarchy, democratic monarchy.

33:21

It's a very violent one, but maybe

33:23

not as violent as people. I'm

33:26

just saying the ants may have some

33:28

things figured out, you

33:30

know, except

33:33

for the part where their leader's brain shrinks.

33:35

It's not like that happens with humans

33:38

anyways. I really hope

33:40

that you enjoyed this Listener Questions

33:43

episode. If you want

33:46

your question to be answered. You

33:48

can write to me at Creature feature Pod at gmail

33:50

dot com. You can write

33:52

to me on Twitter if

33:55

you dare delve in

33:57

that murkiness. I'm still Katie Golden.

33:59

There a T I E G O L

34:01

D I N. And

34:04

I will definitely keep doing these

34:06

listener questions episode because I love answering

34:08

your questions. It forces me to do research

34:12

on topics sometimes or study

34:14

up on things I've forgotten, so it's a learning

34:16

experience for me as well. Help

34:19

me help you, help me help

34:22

you to learn. Yes. Anyways,

34:24

hope you're all doing well. Thanks

34:28

to the Space Classics for their super

34:30

awesome song Xolumina.

34:32

Creature features a production of iHeartRadio.

34:35

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34:42

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34:44

next Wednesday.