(Intro plays)

Hank: Hello, and welcome to another edition of the SciShow Talk Show. Today we are joined by Emily Graslie of the UM Zoological Museum and also the new Youtube channel, The Brain Scoop.

Emily: Woo!

Hank: Emily, today, is gonna try to stump me a couple times and then we're gonna move on to an amazing animal at the end. Now first, we have what appears to be a skull. I haven't seen it yet, facing me. It just got put on the table, so I don't really know what's going on. So let's turn it toward - Oh shoot.

Emily: Does that help at all? To clarify? I can also take this part off.

Hank: Yeah, can I handle it?

Emily: Yeah.

Hank: Woah! Why doesn't it have any teeth?

Emily: It's lost a couple, I'll give it that, but-

Hank: -but they're all back here. It's very heavy. Something sturdy. And it's an herbivore.

Emily: Good.

Hank: That's all I got so far.

Emily: Gettin close.

Hank: Let's look at - Oh, I think I might have a guess. I might have a guess. I don't know though 'cause I don't really know what these things look like, but I'm gonna just wild leap and say: Is it a tapir?

Emily: No. It's not.

Hank: Oh, it's not. Am I close, at all?

Emily: Kind of.

Hank: Well I guess-

Emily: Morphologically close, genetically: not so much.

Hank: Okay. So tapirs - Are tapirs rodents?

Emily: No! Tapirs are actually perissodactyls. They're in the same - they're in the same order as rhinos and horses. Kinda looks like a tapir.

Hank: Yeah. Is it, uh, is it a pig?

Emily: No, it's not a pig.

Hank: Is it something like a pig?

Emily: Mmm, not really.

Hank: No?

Emily: I think you're thinking the wrong kind of environment.

Hank: How so?

Emily: Well-

Hank: Does it not live on the land?

Emily: Well, maybe it doesn't.

Hank: Ohh. Geez. It's definitely grinding up leafy matter.

Emily: Yeah, you're getting close. You're warmer. You're tepid.

Hank: But it lives in the ocean?

Emily: Kind of.

Hank: But it walks around-

Emily: No.

Hank: -in the water.

Emily: Yes! Yes.

Hank: It walks around in the water.

Emily: Yup, in the water.

Hank: So it's - I don't know. I've gotten so close.

Emily: You're so close! I know when I tell you-

Hank: Is it - It's not big enough to be a hippo, obviously.

Emily: Ehh.

Hank: What?

Emily: But maybe it is.

Hank: Big enough to be a hippo?

Emily: Yeah! It's not a hippo, but it's kinda hippo sized.

Hank: What am I missing? What am I forgetting about?

Emily: It doesn't live on land and water. It only lives in water.

Hank: But it has legs?

Emily: Vestigial legs.

Hank: You had me believing that it was - It's a manatee?

Emily: Yes! Yeah!

Hank: I got there.

Emily: It's a manatee!

Hank: You had me, uh, you had me believing that it had legs, um-

Emily: It does have legs; it just doesn't use them to walk on wa - on the land.

Hank: It doesn't use them to walk on water either.

Emily: (laughter)

Hank: I thought manatee a couple of times but I don't know why I avoided that.

Emily: I don't know. Just go with your gut, man. I think it'd be awesome to be a manatee, personally.

Hank: Just eatin' and fartin' all day long.

Emily: Pretty much.

Hank: They do fart a lot. That is one thing I know about manatees.

Emily: Do they?

Hank: 'Cause you can see the bubbles, so you know when they're farting.

Emily: Ew! Really?

Hank: Yeah!

Emily: That's not as cute.

Hank: Ah, get over it. Alright, well I got there eventually. So we will say, stumped. But fascinating animal. Thank you for showing it off. We have a second-

Emily: We do.

Hank: -second thing to show off today.

Emily: I'm gonna move this guy over here.

Hank: Sometimes I worry that you're gonna run out of weird things from the museum to show us.

Emily: I was worried about that too and then our curator just stopped showing me everything. And he's like, "You'll find it." Which is awesome for me, because I'll open a locker or something I've never looked in before and then it's like, "We have seahorses?!" Pfff!

Hank: Alright.

Emily: But see if you can figure out this one.

Hank: Alright, we've got another skull. You think that it would be a little easier. Oh, something just sort of like-

Emily: Oh come on, isn't if obvious?

Hank: This is terrible! I don't know very much about this stuff. I can see in its sinuses.

Emily: Just think of it with all the fur and the flesh on it.

Hank: Well know you told me it has fur.

Emily: Dang it!

Hank: My first impulse, but this doesn't seem quite right, is an otter.

Emily: No.

Hank: Not even close?

Emily: No.

Hank: Not even close.

Emily: Like a totally other side of the animal kingdom.

Hank: I wish I had the bottom half of the skull. I'm going to blame it on that.

Emily: Okay! Well, I actually wasn't - I don't know - It got broken on the seam.

Hank: Oh, okay. It's in pieces. Um, it would eat some kind of vegetation.

Emily: Mmmm.

Hank: No?

Emily: Kinda, well - No.

Hank: It's got flat molars. What does it eat?

Emily: That's a misconception.

Hank: It's a misconception. What are flat molars good at?

Emily: Grinding.

Hank: Grinding.

Emily: But not always-

Hank: But not always vegetation.

Emily: -fibrous vegetation.

Hank: Are you saying it likes to eat bones?

Emily: No, not quite, but-

Hank: What's it grinding?

Emily: -similar in texture.

Hank: Oh, wood? No?

Emily: Closer, but-

Hank: There are so many animals, Emily.

Emily: I know.

Hank: There are a lot of animals.

Emily: I know. Do you want me to tell you what it is?

Hank: Yeah.

Emily: It's an aardvark skull.

Hank: Oh, how the heck did you think I was gonna get that?

Emily: I don't know! I picked it up. I was like, "Oh yeah, this is an aardvark."

Hank: And apparently, what, ants and insects-

Emily: Yeah!

Hank: -are the same texture as leaves?

Emily: Similar! They have the crunchy exoskeleton. They have to - I don't - psh - I don't know. But yeah, we have an aardvark skull in our collection and I love it. I think it's awesome.

Hank: Do they have long tongues that come out?

Emily: Yeah, they do.

Hank: Where does that connect? On the bottom, I suppose.

Emily: Yeah, yep, through the mandible. They have the big hyoid which attaches it, "oohgh."

(aardvark tongue sounds)

Emily: Aardvarks are pretty cool. They are the only animal that consists of their entire order. So they're unique in that.

Hank: So they're a bit of a-

Emily: -bit of a freak.

Hank: There are many species of aardvark though?

Emily: There are a couple.

Hank: Okay. But they're sort of an island, a little genetic island.

Emily: Yeah, they're their own little freaky island. They're also thought to be really closely related to things like elephants and whales.

Hank: Huh, wow, aardvark. I had a hard time imagining his face. I see him now.

Emily: Oh yeah, you have the big nose, they have a big bulbous nose and they have the big funny ears and they're kind of pig shaped.

Hank: Pig-shaped!

Emily: They're pig-shaped. So, there you go!

Hank: There it is! Now it's time for visiting with another amazing animal from Animal Wonders! We're gonna get to see some reptiles.
We have with us now, Jessi from Animal Wonders. What do we have for us now?

Jessi: We have Blueberry the blue tongued skink.

Hank: This is Blueberry. She doesn't look very blue on the outside.

Jessi: Not on the outside. She has a trick up her sleeve.

Hank: How do you make her- There it is!

Emily: Woah.

Jessi: She has a blue tongue.

Hank: Yeah, why?

Emily: Why? Can I get one of those?

Jessi: You want a blue tongue?

Emily: Yeah I do!

Hank: Just tattoo it. The whole thing.

Emily: Nah.

Jessi: She has a blue tongue. It actually helps her to survive. She's going to use that tongue to kind of fake out anyone that might want to eat her.

Hank: I would think that that would just attract attention.

Jessi: Well, in the animal world, bright colors mean "danger" "warning" "something's wrong with this animal" usually poisonous. So by having that blue tongue she's pretending that she's poisonous. 

Hank: But she's not poisonous? 

Jessi: She's not.

Hank: She would be totally delicious?

Jessi: She would. What makes her even more delicious is this tail.

Emily: That is a gorgeous tail.

Hank: That is a gorgeous tail.

Jessi: She uses this as her second, like her back up, protection in case that animal is not tricked by the blue tongue.  She's gonna turn around and try and run away. Well her legs are quite short so she's not gonna get very far very fast, but that animal is most likely gonna grab on to that tail. So, she can let go of that tail, drop it off-

Hank: So is that like a conscious, just like going to the bathroom, kind of like "I just gotta shed my tail" or is it-

Jessi: "I'm scared to death" and they're gonna pull a little bit.

Hank: So there is a requirement for the predator to be pulling a little bit.

Jessi: Yeah, yep. It will bleed but it'll stop. It's made to stop real fast and she'll grow that back within about a year, granted she finds enough food because it is her built in refrigerator.

Emily: Oh!

Hank: That's her energy storage back there?

Jessi: Mhmm

Emily: Where could you find one of these things?

Jessi: In Australia actually, and she would be found in northern Australia, that's the color she is. That pattern there is going to be the northern species.

Emily: Why exactly are her legs so incredibly short?

Hank: It seems kind of useless, yeah, not very effective.

Emily: Is she half - Is she trying to be a snake?

Hank: She's on her way!

Jessi: She's working on her way there, yeah. If they were longer they'd actually just get in her way because she does like to burrow down into holes and other small crevices on the ground. If she had really long legs they would just get in the way.

Emily: Okay.

Jessi: She actually has another really neat thing about her back legs there. If she were going into a hole to escape someone, something trying to eat her, and all the sudden she came face to face with maybe a snake, she couldn't turn around because it's a pretty small hole so she can take these back legs and flip them 180 degrees and run as fast backwards as she can forward.

Hank: Emily now really wants to see this in a skeleton.

Emily: I do! I've been thinking about how that proximal end of the femur fits into the ilium, but I can check that out on my own time.

Hank: Well, Blueberry, that you very much for coming in today. We love to see you.

Jessi: Say, "thank you!"

Hank and Emily: Awww

Hank: Thank you for joining us on this episode of the SciShow Talk Show. Emily, thank you for joining us as well.

Emily: Thank you for having me.

Hank: It was a very fun time.

Emily: Ah, it's the best time! Yeah.

Hank: Bye!

Emily: Bye!