These Animals May Sting You, Spray You With Stinky Fluid or Explode In Your Face
Copycats! This Ant Is Surrounded By Imposters
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"slug": "extreme-makeovers-arent-just-a-human-thing",
"title": "Extreme Makeovers Aren’t Just a Human Thing",
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"headTitle": "Extreme Makeovers Aren’t Just a Human Thing | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>\u003cbr>For these four animals, extreme makeovers are just a part of life. A house fly larva needs a radical transformation before it’s totally ready to annoy you. A hungry caterpillar goes on a protein bender to fuel its ultimate glow-up into a butterfly. The axolotl simply refuses to grow up, while the planarian worm has no problem growing a whole new body – and even a head – whenever it needs one.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>With an extreme makeover, looking fabulous isn’t always the goal. For these four creatures, their growing bodies take radical turns in the course of a lifetime.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Cut this flatworm in half, and you get – two flatworms!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Even after millions of years of evolution, the axolotl’s still got its youthful glow.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This caterpillar is super hungry for a good reason: it’s bulking up to fuel a whole new way of life.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But first, the common housefly has to go through a mind-blowing transformation before it’s totally ready to annoy you.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Coming of age is awkward, messy, challenging. Even for a house fly.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>See this pulsing sac on the fly’s head?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s a specialized organ that the fly uses just once … to break free from its pupal casing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Whew. What a headache!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It all started a few weeks back, when mom and dad had a brief but spirited courtship.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Which resulted in these delicate, oblong eggs. And from the eggs: maggots.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Hi!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The little squirmers dig right in wherever mom laid them!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>After chowing down for a few days, this chonker is now five times its original size.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>What it wants now is privacy.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Over the next four days or so, the maggot’s ivory exoskeleton hardens …\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Ughhh, I’m going to my room.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>… and darkens to a deep mahogany.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The fly is now a pupa.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>See these holes? This is how it gets oxygen … and that air just happens to flow through its butt.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>While things may look quiet on the outside, there’s a lot happening beneath the surface.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This is a blowfly – a house fly’s cousin.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scientists at the Natural History Museum in London X-rayed the pupa to reveal the transformation behind its opaque shell.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>See them go from chubby tube to a complex creature with legs and wings and big eyes?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The once blobby maggot has totally transformed.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But the cozy casing that protected it now holds it captive.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That’s why this inflatable organ, called the ptilinum, is essential.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The fly pumps it full of clear-colored insect blood called hemolymph – and pops the lid off its casing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Once the head’s out, the struggle continues.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Next come the front legs, abdomen and back legs.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The process of freeing itself is called eclosion.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But not everyone makes it: Some get stuck right in the middle. Forever.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The ones that do survive pull the ptilinum into their head.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>All that remains is the ptilinal suture. It’s a scar the adult fly will carry around as a reminder of the heroic effort it made to start its life on the outside.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Now what to do with all these new body parts?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Its wings extend from crumpled to elegant as they fill with hemolymph.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This insect has now realized its full potential – to fly off into your house and drive you mad.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>If you like this video, please hit the like and subscribe buttons.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It really helps us reach more people, and we truly appreciate your support!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Don’t judge a flatworm by its simple squirminess. This little worm may help humans learn how to grow new body parts.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This goofy little guy is called a planarian.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Sure, it’s just a flatworm at the bottom of a pond.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But it has a very special superpower, one that scientists would love to harness.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>To show you … well, it’s going to get a little bit “slasher movie” here.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>OK, don’t worry.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s going to be OK.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Seriously. I promise. It doesn’t even hurt.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That would be curtains for most organisms.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I mean, this piece here is just a chunk, with no head and no tail.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But watch.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>You can see under a microscope that overnight its wound heals closed.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>OK, maybe we could do that – more slowly, of course.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But then it starts to regenerate, growing new tissue. It’s that white part, called the blastema.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In a week … See those tiny little spots? They’re new eyes grown from scratch.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But the planarian – can I call it that yet? – it still kind of looks like a blob.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>By Day 12, it’s starting to look like a proper planarian. It’s got a head – an entirely new one.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And a new tail.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And it’s doing its regular planarian things, like, uh, pooping. That’s because one of the first things it started regrowing was a tube called the pharynx, which is how things go in and out. It sucks up food, like this beef liver that scientists are feeding it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>After three weeks, it looks totally normal. From that one planarian, you get four.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Other animals, like this newt, can regrow a toe or a tail. But planarians are practically the only animal that can regrow a head.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>So why can’t we do that? Well, it all comes down to powerful cells known as stem cells.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They’re the green dots here. And they make up one fifth of a planarian’s body.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They can turn into different kinds of cells and make every new body part.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>We only have stem cells that act like these when we’re embryos.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Once we grow up, we pretty much lose this ability. Though doctors have been able to get us to grow back a fingertip.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But what if we could grow ourselves anew? A whole arm, or a liver?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scientists are trying to figure out exactly how planarians do it, and maybe one day these humble flatworms could inspire new ways to heal our injuries.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This axolotl salamander just doesn’t want to grow up. They can teach us a few things about staying young, if we help them out.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The axolotl isn’t just a frilly salamander with a half-smile and a blank stare.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s named after an Aztec god, who escaped death by morphing into this amphibian shape.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s a creature that’s a bridge between worlds: the spiritual and the natural; the aquatic and the terrestrial; survival and extinction.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Like most of its salamander relatives, the axolotl begins its life as a tiny, translucent egg laid underwater. It grows into a tadpole – a larva with gills and a flattened, fin-shaped tail. In time, many salamanders shed these features, develop lungs, and crawl onto land. But the axolotl never makes the transition ashore. Even as it grows – up to a foot in length – it hangs on to its larval lifestyle.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The gills are reddish-purple from the blood cells pulsing through them, pulling oxygen directly from the water. To breathe, it just flaps those gills.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But if that doesn’t work – like if there’s not enough oxygen in the water – the axolotl has a backup: fully functional lungs it can use to gulp air from the surface. These organs are evolutionary leftovers from when its ancestors lived on land. The axolotl’s lungs are a rare example of cryptic metamorphosis – when an animal matures to its next stage of development internally, but doesn’t show it on the outside.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Despite its flexibility, this magnificent vertebrate is in trouble.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Since the 16th century, the axolotl’s native habitat, Lake Xochimilco in Mexico City, has been built over and polluted as this megacity grew. Now the lake is just a few canals, where the axolotls battle invasive predators, and warming waters from climate change. Here, in the remnants of their ancestral home, only a few hundred are left.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But scattered across the globe, you’ll find thousands of them –not in the wild though. They’re in research labs. Scientists are impressed by the axolotl’s ability to rapidly regenerate damaged limbs, organs, even parts of their brain.And that’s amazing for a vertebrate – an animal with a backbone – like us. Harnessing this healing ability for humans would be a breakthrough.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But what does it mean if an animal is thriving, only in captivity?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>What is a species without its natural habitat?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>To preserve what’s left of the axolotl’s wild home, a team of biologists at the National Autonomous University of Mexico started an innovative collaboration. They work with farmers of the chinampas – the traditional floating gardens along the Xochimilco canals where the animals still live.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The farmers filter canal water for crops through native aquatic plants and gravel, without the use of pesticides. This protects axolotls from both pollution and invasive predators.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For many in Mexico City, axolotls have come to symbolize the connection between humans and the natural world.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Humans have put axolotls and our environment in peril. But with traditional knowledge, respect, and some ingenuity, we can give these remarkable animals a chance to come back.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On a protein kick? So is this hungry caterpillar, storing up enough protein for its radical transformation – and a completely new way of life.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Now, are you on a protein kick? This hungry caterpillar is storing up enough protein for a radical transformation – and a completely new way of life.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Let’s face it. Butterflies get all the glory, fluttering around with their flashy looks.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But caterpillars? They’re more than just an awkward adolescent phase.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They do all the hard work, so that one day they can look like this.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As adults, butterflies really only have one job: mating. They’re basically flying reproduction machines, powered by sugar water.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Their proboscis is made for sipping nectar.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But that liquid diet doesn’t give them much of the protein they need to make eggs.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>So that hungry, hungry caterpillar has a big job to do. It’s not just eating for itself. It’s stockpiling the protein it will need later on to make the next generation.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It starts by eating its way out of the egg.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>No leftovers.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Then it’s onto the main course.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>These pipevine swallowtail caterpillars are chowing down on their favorite – and only – food: the pipevine.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For a monarch caterpillar, it’s all about the milkweed.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In two weeks they’ll grow 20 times longer.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That’s like a human baby growing as tall as a three-story building.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A caterpillar can’t see very well. So it uses antennae to smell for food. Not those big ones on top – those are for feeling around. It’s the tiny ones right down there.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It eats and eats and eats … storing up as much protein as possible. Leaves are about one quarter protein.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>After packing on the pounds for a couple of weeks, this monarch caterpillar is finally ready for the big day.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It weaves a ball of silk on a branch.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Then, it hooks onto it – with its backside.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And lets go.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Look through its skin. There’s something wiggling in there.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The caterpillar pumps and pushes.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Until …\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>it splits open …\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>shedding all traces of its youth …\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>including its face.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The outer skin hardens into the chrysalis that protects the pupa inside.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Its stomach shrinks. It’s giving up its gluttonous ways.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When the butterfly emerges days later, it uncurls its brand new proboscis – two pieces called galeae that have to be zipped together into a single straw before the butterfly can use it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And it lets those glorious wings unfold. They’ll take it to find mates and a juicy new plant to lay its eggs on, using that stored up protein.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This complete metamorphosis is called holometaboly.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Multiple lives in a single life.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It takes a lot of work. And butterflies only live a few weeks. But this strategy is not as rare as you might think.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the animal kingdom, it’s incredibly common. Mammals like us are the weird ones. After all, our face doesn’t fall off when we grow up.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scientists at the Natural History Museum in London X-rayed the pupa to reveal the transformation behind its opaque shell.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>See them go from chubby tube to a complex creature with legs and wings and big eyes?\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The once blobby maggot has totally transformed.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But the cozy casing that protected it now holds it captive.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That’s why this inflatable organ, called the ptilinum, is essential.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The fly pumps it full of clear-colored insect blood called hemolymph – and pops the lid off its casing.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Next come the front legs, abdomen and back legs.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The process of freeing itself is called eclosion.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But not everyone makes it: Some get stuck right in the middle. Forever.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The ones that do survive pull the ptilinum into their head.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>All that remains is the ptilinal suture. It’s a scar the adult fly will carry around as a reminder of the heroic effort it made to start its life on the outside.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Now what to do with all these new body parts?\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Its wings extend from crumpled to elegant as they fill with hemolymph.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>This insect has now realized its full potential – to fly off into your house and drive you mad.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>If you like this video, please hit the like and subscribe buttons.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It really helps us reach more people, and we truly appreciate your support!\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Don’t judge a flatworm by its simple squirminess. This little worm may help humans learn how to grow new body parts.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>This goofy little guy is called a planarian.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Sure, it’s just a flatworm at the bottom of a pond.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But it has a very special superpower, one that scientists would love to harness.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>To show you … well, it’s going to get a little bit “slasher movie” here.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Seriously. I promise. It doesn’t even hurt.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That would be curtains for most organisms.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>I mean, this piece here is just a chunk, with no head and no tail.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>You can see under a microscope that overnight its wound heals closed.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>OK, maybe we could do that – more slowly, of course.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But then it starts to regenerate, growing new tissue. It’s that white part, called the blastema.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In a week … See those tiny little spots? They’re new eyes grown from scratch.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But the planarian – can I call it that yet? – it still kind of looks like a blob.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>By Day 12, it’s starting to look like a proper planarian. It’s got a head – an entirely new one.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>And it’s doing its regular planarian things, like, uh, pooping. That’s because one of the first things it started regrowing was a tube called the pharynx, which is how things go in and out. It sucks up food, like this beef liver that scientists are feeding it.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>After three weeks, it looks totally normal. From that one planarian, you get four.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Other animals, like this newt, can regrow a toe or a tail. But planarians are practically the only animal that can regrow a head. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>So why can’t we do that? Well, it all comes down to powerful cells known as stem cells.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>They’re the green dots here. And they make up one fifth of a planarian’s body.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>They can turn into different kinds of cells and make every new body part.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>We only have stem cells that act like these when we’re embryos.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Once we grow up, we pretty much lose this ability. Though doctors have been able to get us to grow back a fingertip.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But what if we could grow ourselves anew? A whole arm, or a liver?\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scientists are trying to figure out exactly how planarians do it, and maybe one day these humble flatworms could inspire new ways to heal our injuries.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>This axolotl salamander just doesn’t want to grow up. They can teach us a few things about staying young, if we help them out.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It’s named after an Aztec god, who escaped death by morphing into this amphibian shape.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It’s a creature that’s a bridge between worlds: the spiritual and the natural; the aquatic and the terrestrial; survival and extinction.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Like most of its salamander relatives, the axolotl begins its life as a tiny, translucent egg laid underwater. It grows into a tadpole – a larva with gills and a flattened, fin-shaped tail. In time, many salamanders shed these features, develop lungs, and crawl onto land. But the axolotl never makes the transition ashore. Even as it grows – up to a foot in length – it hangs on to its larval lifestyle.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The gills are reddish-purple from the blood cells pulsing through them, pulling oxygen directly from the water. To breathe, it just flaps those gills.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But if that doesn’t work – like if there’s not enough oxygen in the water – the axolotl has a backup: fully functional lungs it can use to gulp air from the surface. These organs are evolutionary leftovers from when its ancestors lived on land. The axolotl’s lungs are a rare example of cryptic metamorphosis – when an animal matures to its next stage of development internally, but doesn’t show it on the outside.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Since the 16th century, the axolotl’s native habitat, Lake Xochimilco in Mexico City, has been built over and polluted as this megacity grew. Now the lake is just a few canals, where the axolotls battle invasive predators, and warming waters from climate change. Here, in the remnants of their ancestral home, only a few hundred are left.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But scattered across the globe, you’ll find thousands of them –not in the wild though. They’re in research labs. Scientists are impressed by the axolotl’s ability to rapidly regenerate damaged limbs, organs, even parts of their brain.And that’s amazing for a vertebrate – an animal with a backbone – like us. Harnessing this healing ability for humans would be a breakthrough.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But what does it mean if an animal is thriving, only in captivity?\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>To preserve what’s left of the axolotl’s wild home, a team of biologists at the National Autonomous University of Mexico started an innovative collaboration. They work with farmers of the chinampas – the traditional floating gardens along the Xochimilco canals where the animals still live.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The farmers filter canal water for crops through native aquatic plants and gravel, without the use of pesticides. This protects axolotls from both pollution and invasive predators.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>For many in Mexico City, axolotls have come to symbolize the connection between humans and the natural world.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Humans have put axolotls and our environment in peril. But with traditional knowledge, respect, and some ingenuity, we can give these remarkable animals a chance to come back.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>On a protein kick? So is this hungry caterpillar, storing up enough protein for its radical transformation – and a completely new way of life.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>As adults, butterflies really only have one job: mating. They’re basically flying reproduction machines, powered by sugar water.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Their proboscis is made for sipping nectar.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But that liquid diet doesn’t give them much of the protein they need to make eggs.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>So that hungry, hungry caterpillar has a big job to do. It’s not just eating for itself. It’s stockpiling the protein it will need later on to make the next generation.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It starts by eating its way out of the egg.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>No leftovers.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>These pipevine swallowtail caterpillars are chowing down on their favorite – and only – food: the pipevine.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>For a monarch caterpillar, it’s all about the milkweed.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In two weeks they’ll grow 20 times longer.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That’s like a human baby growing as tall as a three-story building.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A caterpillar can’t see very well. So it uses antennae to smell for food. Not those big ones on top – those are for feeling around. It’s the tiny ones right down there.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It eats and eats and eats … storing up as much protein as possible. Leaves are about one quarter protein.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>After packing on the pounds for a couple of weeks, this monarch caterpillar is finally ready for the big day.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It weaves a ball of silk on a branch.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Then, it hooks onto it – with its backside.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Look through its skin. There’s something wiggling in there.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The caterpillar pumps and pushes.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>When the butterfly emerges days later, it uncurls its brand new proboscis – two pieces called galeae that have to be zipped together into a single straw before the butterfly can use it.\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "Extreme Makeovers Aren’t Just a Human Thing | KQED",
"description": "For these four animals, extreme makeovers are just a part of life. A house fly larva needs a radical transformation before it’s totally ready to annoy you. A hungry caterpillar goes on a protein bender to fuel its ultimate glow-up into a butterfly. The axolotl simply refuses to grow up, while the planarian worm has no problem growing a whole new body – and even a head – whenever it needs one. TRANSCRIPT With an extreme makeover, looking fabulous isn’t always the goal. For these four creatures, their growing bodies take radical turns in the course of a lifetime. Cut",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>\u003cbr>For these four animals, extreme makeovers are just a part of life. A house fly larva needs a radical transformation before it’s totally ready to annoy you. A hungry caterpillar goes on a protein bender to fuel its ultimate glow-up into a butterfly. The axolotl simply refuses to grow up, while the planarian worm has no problem growing a whole new body – and even a head – whenever it needs one.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>With an extreme makeover, looking fabulous isn’t always the goal. For these four creatures, their growing bodies take radical turns in the course of a lifetime.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Cut this flatworm in half, and you get – two flatworms!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Even after millions of years of evolution, the axolotl’s still got its youthful glow.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This caterpillar is super hungry for a good reason: it’s bulking up to fuel a whole new way of life.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But first, the common housefly has to go through a mind-blowing transformation before it’s totally ready to annoy you.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Coming of age is awkward, messy, challenging. Even for a house fly.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>See this pulsing sac on the fly’s head?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s a specialized organ that the fly uses just once … to break free from its pupal casing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Whew. What a headache!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It all started a few weeks back, when mom and dad had a brief but spirited courtship.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Which resulted in these delicate, oblong eggs. And from the eggs: maggots.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Hi!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The little squirmers dig right in wherever mom laid them!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>After chowing down for a few days, this chonker is now five times its original size.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>What it wants now is privacy.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Over the next four days or so, the maggot’s ivory exoskeleton hardens …\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Ughhh, I’m going to my room.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>… and darkens to a deep mahogany.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The fly is now a pupa.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>See these holes? This is how it gets oxygen … and that air just happens to flow through its butt.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>While things may look quiet on the outside, there’s a lot happening beneath the surface.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This is a blowfly – a house fly’s cousin.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scientists at the Natural History Museum in London X-rayed the pupa to reveal the transformation behind its opaque shell.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>See them go from chubby tube to a complex creature with legs and wings and big eyes?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The once blobby maggot has totally transformed.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But the cozy casing that protected it now holds it captive.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That’s why this inflatable organ, called the ptilinum, is essential.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The fly pumps it full of clear-colored insect blood called hemolymph – and pops the lid off its casing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Once the head’s out, the struggle continues.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Next come the front legs, abdomen and back legs.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The process of freeing itself is called eclosion.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But not everyone makes it: Some get stuck right in the middle. Forever.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The ones that do survive pull the ptilinum into their head.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>All that remains is the ptilinal suture. It’s a scar the adult fly will carry around as a reminder of the heroic effort it made to start its life on the outside.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Now what to do with all these new body parts?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Its wings extend from crumpled to elegant as they fill with hemolymph.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This insect has now realized its full potential – to fly off into your house and drive you mad.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>If you like this video, please hit the like and subscribe buttons.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It really helps us reach more people, and we truly appreciate your support!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Don’t judge a flatworm by its simple squirminess. This little worm may help humans learn how to grow new body parts.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This goofy little guy is called a planarian.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Sure, it’s just a flatworm at the bottom of a pond.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But it has a very special superpower, one that scientists would love to harness.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>To show you … well, it’s going to get a little bit “slasher movie” here.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>OK, don’t worry.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s going to be OK.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Seriously. I promise. It doesn’t even hurt.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That would be curtains for most organisms.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I mean, this piece here is just a chunk, with no head and no tail.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But watch.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>You can see under a microscope that overnight its wound heals closed.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>OK, maybe we could do that – more slowly, of course.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But then it starts to regenerate, growing new tissue. It’s that white part, called the blastema.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In a week … See those tiny little spots? They’re new eyes grown from scratch.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But the planarian – can I call it that yet? – it still kind of looks like a blob.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>By Day 12, it’s starting to look like a proper planarian. It’s got a head – an entirely new one.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And a new tail.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And it’s doing its regular planarian things, like, uh, pooping. That’s because one of the first things it started regrowing was a tube called the pharynx, which is how things go in and out. It sucks up food, like this beef liver that scientists are feeding it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>After three weeks, it looks totally normal. From that one planarian, you get four.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Other animals, like this newt, can regrow a toe or a tail. But planarians are practically the only animal that can regrow a head.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>So why can’t we do that? Well, it all comes down to powerful cells known as stem cells.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They’re the green dots here. And they make up one fifth of a planarian’s body.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They can turn into different kinds of cells and make every new body part.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>We only have stem cells that act like these when we’re embryos.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Once we grow up, we pretty much lose this ability. Though doctors have been able to get us to grow back a fingertip.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But what if we could grow ourselves anew? A whole arm, or a liver?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scientists are trying to figure out exactly how planarians do it, and maybe one day these humble flatworms could inspire new ways to heal our injuries.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This axolotl salamander just doesn’t want to grow up. They can teach us a few things about staying young, if we help them out.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The axolotl isn’t just a frilly salamander with a half-smile and a blank stare.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s named after an Aztec god, who escaped death by morphing into this amphibian shape.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s a creature that’s a bridge between worlds: the spiritual and the natural; the aquatic and the terrestrial; survival and extinction.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Like most of its salamander relatives, the axolotl begins its life as a tiny, translucent egg laid underwater. It grows into a tadpole – a larva with gills and a flattened, fin-shaped tail. In time, many salamanders shed these features, develop lungs, and crawl onto land. But the axolotl never makes the transition ashore. Even as it grows – up to a foot in length – it hangs on to its larval lifestyle.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The gills are reddish-purple from the blood cells pulsing through them, pulling oxygen directly from the water. To breathe, it just flaps those gills.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But if that doesn’t work – like if there’s not enough oxygen in the water – the axolotl has a backup: fully functional lungs it can use to gulp air from the surface. These organs are evolutionary leftovers from when its ancestors lived on land. The axolotl’s lungs are a rare example of cryptic metamorphosis – when an animal matures to its next stage of development internally, but doesn’t show it on the outside.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Despite its flexibility, this magnificent vertebrate is in trouble.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Since the 16th century, the axolotl’s native habitat, Lake Xochimilco in Mexico City, has been built over and polluted as this megacity grew. Now the lake is just a few canals, where the axolotls battle invasive predators, and warming waters from climate change. Here, in the remnants of their ancestral home, only a few hundred are left.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But scattered across the globe, you’ll find thousands of them –not in the wild though. They’re in research labs. Scientists are impressed by the axolotl’s ability to rapidly regenerate damaged limbs, organs, even parts of their brain.And that’s amazing for a vertebrate – an animal with a backbone – like us. Harnessing this healing ability for humans would be a breakthrough.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But what does it mean if an animal is thriving, only in captivity?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>What is a species without its natural habitat?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>To preserve what’s left of the axolotl’s wild home, a team of biologists at the National Autonomous University of Mexico started an innovative collaboration. They work with farmers of the chinampas – the traditional floating gardens along the Xochimilco canals where the animals still live.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The farmers filter canal water for crops through native aquatic plants and gravel, without the use of pesticides. This protects axolotls from both pollution and invasive predators.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For many in Mexico City, axolotls have come to symbolize the connection between humans and the natural world.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Humans have put axolotls and our environment in peril. But with traditional knowledge, respect, and some ingenuity, we can give these remarkable animals a chance to come back.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On a protein kick? So is this hungry caterpillar, storing up enough protein for its radical transformation – and a completely new way of life.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Now, are you on a protein kick? This hungry caterpillar is storing up enough protein for a radical transformation – and a completely new way of life.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Let’s face it. Butterflies get all the glory, fluttering around with their flashy looks.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But caterpillars? They’re more than just an awkward adolescent phase.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They do all the hard work, so that one day they can look like this.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As adults, butterflies really only have one job: mating. They’re basically flying reproduction machines, powered by sugar water.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Their proboscis is made for sipping nectar.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But that liquid diet doesn’t give them much of the protein they need to make eggs.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>So that hungry, hungry caterpillar has a big job to do. It’s not just eating for itself. It’s stockpiling the protein it will need later on to make the next generation.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It starts by eating its way out of the egg.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>No leftovers.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Then it’s onto the main course.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>These pipevine swallowtail caterpillars are chowing down on their favorite – and only – food: the pipevine.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For a monarch caterpillar, it’s all about the milkweed.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In two weeks they’ll grow 20 times longer.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That’s like a human baby growing as tall as a three-story building.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A caterpillar can’t see very well. So it uses antennae to smell for food. Not those big ones on top – those are for feeling around. It’s the tiny ones right down there.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It eats and eats and eats … storing up as much protein as possible. Leaves are about one quarter protein.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>After packing on the pounds for a couple of weeks, this monarch caterpillar is finally ready for the big day.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It weaves a ball of silk on a branch.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Then, it hooks onto it – with its backside.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And lets go.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Look through its skin. There’s something wiggling in there.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The caterpillar pumps and pushes.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Until …\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>it splits open …\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>shedding all traces of its youth …\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>including its face.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The outer skin hardens into the chrysalis that protects the pupa inside.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Its stomach shrinks. It’s giving up its gluttonous ways.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When the butterfly emerges days later, it uncurls its brand new proboscis – two pieces called galeae that have to be zipped together into a single straw before the butterfly can use it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And it lets those glorious wings unfold. They’ll take it to find mates and a juicy new plant to lay its eggs on, using that stored up protein.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This complete metamorphosis is called holometaboly.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Multiple lives in a single life.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It takes a lot of work. And butterflies only live a few weeks. But this strategy is not as rare as you might think.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the animal kingdom, it’s incredibly common. Mammals like us are the weird ones. After all, our face doesn’t fall off when we grow up.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "these-animals-may-sting-you-spray-you-with-stinky-fluid-or-explode-in-your-face",
"title": "These Animals May Sting You, Spray You With Stinky Fluid or Explode In Your Face",
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"headTitle": "These Animals May Sting You, Spray You With Stinky Fluid or Explode In Your Face | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps://youtu.be/KT3vyVBacSA\n\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Meet four animals that have mastered the art of chemical defense and offense. Sneak up on a bombardier beetle and it will shoot boiling acid from its behind. Cone snails will inject a fish with venom and swallow it whole, while the reclusive vinegaroon has a stinky surprise for anyone who messes with it. The Arizona bark scorpion has a sting powerful enough to send humans to the hospital, but it doesn’t seem to bother the tiny southern grasshopper mouse.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Lookout! Duck! Run for cover! These four wild creatures use chemical weapons for offense and defense.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The mysterious vinegaroon sprays a vinegary blast into the face of hungry predators.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Arizona bark scorpion is powerful – but this cute mouse is basically immune to it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attackers beware of the Bombardier beetle’s explosive backside.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>First, cone snails use a hidden harpoon to inject a fish with venom and swallow it whole.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Cone snails are striking, in more ways than one.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They lurk in the sand around coral reefs.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And wait til you see what’s under the hood.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That pretty veneer is hiding an impressive array of tools and weapons.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A cone snail’s breathing tube, called a siphon, is actually more like a sheet of muscle rolled into a snorkel.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Besides drawing water to gills deep in its shell, the siphon also can pick up the scent of unsuspecting prey.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That’s when the cone snail goes spearfishing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Its extendible proboscis is packing a concealed weapon.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A tiny, hollow harpoon made of chitin, the same tough stuff in a lobster shell.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And the end of the proboscis is tricked out with receptors – taste buds that help it close in on its target.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When it strikes, the snail’s pace jumps to light speed.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The embedded harpoon doubles as a hypodermic needle to inject the victim with paralyzing venom.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As it reels in the catch, the cone snail uses another covert tool called a rostrum.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It opens up to swallow the fish whole.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Some cone snails hunt more familiar prey. Other snails.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The smaller snail digs down to hide its shell opening.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The predator looks for a way in.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When it finds it, the hunter hits its prey with more than one shot of venom.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A lot is going on in the fifth of a second before the snail fires that harpoon.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>So let’s rewind and break it down.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>First the proboscis flexes as the muscles inside prepare for the strike. Then the venom floods into the proboscis, but stops just short of the harpoon. A round muscle holds the lethal fluid in check, like a kink in a hose, building even more pressure.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Then, everything blows, and propels the venom into the harpoon, the harpoon into the prey.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>What has scientists interested in cone snails is that their venom varies not only from species to species but also from individual to individual, and even from shot to shot.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In fact they seem to mix their venom cocktail on the fly from thousands of unique ingredients, each with its own purpose.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>All this variety means a world of new drugs could lie under that shell.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Novel ways to treat things like chronic pain, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Most cone snail strikes hurt as much as a bee sting. A few can kill you though, like this geography cone, it has the most venomous sting in the world.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Here’s a tip: Don’t go gathering these shells when you’re snorkeling in Australia.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>If you love learning about wildlife, subscribe to our weekly newsletter. It’s free! Link in the description.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>How about a little defense? The reclusive and well-armoured vinegaroon has a stinky surprise for anyone who messes with it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Late at night, after a rain in Arizona’s high desert, a dark shape creeps out from its underground lair. It’s as big as your palm, and it’s hungry.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And if it feels bothered…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>OK what just happened? And seriously, what is this thing?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A mutant land lobster?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I mean, it’s got claws like a scorpion…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The mouth of a spider?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Antennae-like things coming out of its armpits.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A long, skinny tail like a rat?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This surprising combo of monster body parts is a vinegaroon, also known as a whip scorpion.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s in a group of animals called arachnids, that includes scorpions and spiders.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But it doesn’t sting like a scorpion, or hunt with a web like many spiders.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A vinegaroon has its very own style.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This tail may look dangerous, but it’s actually a finely-tuned sensor. It picks up vibrations and chemicals in the air, in this case, to stalk its prey\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Up front, those antennae-looking things are actually specialized legs. They help the vinegaroon feel its way around.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s basically blind. So it relies on touch and smell to close in on its meal.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It will break through this cricket’s tough exoskeleton with its claws and bristly mouth.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The vinegaroon also uses these wicked claws to excavate its burrow.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Adults and their young use the burrows for protection from predators, and to stay out of the scorching desert sun. Vinegaroons and their ancestors have survived this way for hundreds of millions of years.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>So, what does it need that spray for? Researchers observe it by gently holding the animal with forceps.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Despite those frightening looks, this surprising spritz is actually its strongest defense against anything that wants to eat them – like skunks, raccoons or coyotes.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Even with poor eyesight, the vinegaroon sprays with incredible accuracy.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Inside, two pygidial glands, also known as “stink glands,” hold the foul fluid.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The base of the tail is extremely flexible, and can aim the blast in any direction.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Touché, skunk!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The instant it sprays, the gland openings appear as two retractable nozzles.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>An adult vinegaroon can shoot up to five times before it needs to let its stink glands fill up again. The spray reeks.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That’s because the solution is mostly acetic acid, the same stuff in the vinegar in your salad dressing, except this cocktail is 16 times stronger. A blast of that to the face of a larger predator is like pepper spray.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>While the vinegaroon’s signature defense is unlikely to do any lasting damage, it will certainly leave a lasting impression.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Arizona bark scorpion has a sting potent enough to send humans to the hospital, so why isn’t this fuzzy mouse afraid of that venom?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There’s an arms race underway in the Sonoran desert: mouse versus scorpion.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Locked in a battle of one-upmanship, each animal evolving better, stronger chemical defenses against the other.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Consider the Arizona bark scorpion.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Its tail contains the most powerful venom of any scorpion in the United States, delivering white hot electrical pain.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This sting sends hundreds of people to the hospital each year.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That venom isn’t just potent – it’s sophisticated.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Researchers at The California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco are studying how this venom has become increasingly complex over time to deal with the threats scorpions face.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They milk the scorpion. They use a piece of wax paper to coax it into stinging.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That droplet contains a complex brew of chemicals, including neurotoxins that quickly paralyze prey, like this cricket….\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But venom also serves as a powerful] defense… against being eaten…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That’s… where the mouse comes in.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Do not be fooled by its cuteness.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The southern grasshopper mouse is a ferocious hunter, which is rare among mice.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And it’s got a taste for scorpion.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Which would seem like a death wish. But it isn’t.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scientists at Michigan State University are studying how the battle unfolds – not just physically, but at a chemical level.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This mouse is on the attack.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But the scorpion is not having it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>See how it keeps stinging the mouse?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For any other animal – including you or me – this would hurt. Badly.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And for a second, with the grasshopper mouse, it does.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>See how it’s rubbing its face?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But after a brief moment of pain, its nerves go numb.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Most animals its size would be dead by now.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But the grasshopper mouse has evolved a specific defense against scorpion venom.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A protein built into the mouse’s nerve cells – binds to the toxin.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It blocks it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Instead of causing pain and paralysis, the toxin does the opposite.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It acts like a painkiller – an analgesic.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>After the first couple stings, the mouse barely feels anything.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bad news for the scorpion.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Researchers think this trick could point the way to more precise pain medications for people, with fewer side effects.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Once upon a time, the scorpion’s venom was enough to protect it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But today – in this desert arms race – the mouse has the upper paw.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>At least for now.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Next up: get too close and the back end of this beetle will literally explode in your face.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The bombardier beetle is one of nature’s most improbable creatures.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For some, it throws a monkey wrench into the whole idea of evolution.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This beetle is a walking powder keg.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That cloud you see is the result of a lightning fast chemical reaction inside his body.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When attacked, the beetle sets off the explosion, releasing a boiling hot, stinging poison that sends his enemies running.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He can even aim it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This potent mixture inside the beetle is made up of three main ingredients.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mix the first two of them together and nothing happens – but throw in the third, and boom.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>So the beetle has a trick – he keeps these ingredients separate inside his body.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>From an evolutionary standpoint that’s what’s interesting.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In fact, people have been scratching their heads over this for decades.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>How did this complex system evolve over time?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Wouldn’t earlier generations of beetles have blown themselves up, like a bunch of amateur bomb-makers?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>To some, this beetle’s very survival is proof that the whole theory of evolution is wrong.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But it turns out there is a way this system could have evolved gradually.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Remember that third ingredient?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s an enzyme. It’s like a spark. It sets the explosion in motion. and enzymes…evolve.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>At first, maybe this one wasn’t so dangerous. But gradually, it became more potent, more specialized, more explosive.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As the beetle’s body changed to contain it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scientists at UC Berkeley are trying to figure out how this system came together.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They think one of those explosive chemicals evolved from the same raw materials as the beetle’s shell.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003ca>\u003c/a>That happens a lot in evolution. It’s called “exaptation.” one body part repurposed for something else.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The improbable bombardier beetle.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Living proof that what doesn’t kill you, only makes you stronger.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Meet four animals that have mastered the art of chemical defense and offense. Sneak up on a bombardier beetle and it will shoot boiling acid from its behind. Cone snails will inject a fish with venom and swallow it whole, while the reclusive vinegaroon has a stinky surprise for anyone who messes with it. The Arizona bark scorpion has a sting powerful enough to send humans to the hospital, but it doesn’t seem to bother the tiny southern grasshopper mouse.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Meet four animals that have mastered the art of chemical defense and offense. Sneak up on a bombardier beetle and it will shoot boiling acid from its behind. Cone snails will inject a fish with venom and swallow it whole, while the reclusive vinegaroon has a stinky surprise for anyone who messes with it. The Arizona bark scorpion has a sting powerful enough to send humans to the hospital, but it doesn’t seem to bother the tiny southern grasshopper mouse.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Lookout! Duck! Run for cover! These four wild creatures use chemical weapons for offense and defense.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Lookout! Duck! Run for cover! These four wild creatures use chemical weapons for offense and defense.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The mysterious vinegaroon sprays a vinegary blast into the face of hungry predators.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>The mysterious vinegaroon sprays a vinegary blast into the face of hungry predators.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The Arizona bark scorpion is powerful – but this cute mouse is basically immune to it.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>The Arizona bark scorpion is powerful – but this cute mouse is basically immune to it.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Attackers beware of the Bombardier beetle’s explosive backside.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Attackers beware of the Bombardier beetle’s explosive backside.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>First, cone snails use a hidden harpoon to inject a fish with venom and swallow it whole.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>First, cone snails use a hidden harpoon to inject a fish with venom and swallow it whole.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Cone snails are striking, in more ways than one.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Cone snails are striking, in more ways than one.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>They lurk in the sand around coral reefs.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>They lurk in the sand around coral reefs.\u003c/p>\n"
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"blockName": "core/paragraph",
"attrs": {
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>And wait til you see what’s under the hood.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>And wait til you see what’s under the hood.\u003c/p>\n"
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"blockName": "core/paragraph",
"attrs": {
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That pretty veneer is hiding an impressive array of tools and weapons.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>That pretty veneer is hiding an impressive array of tools and weapons.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A cone snail’s breathing tube, called a siphon, is actually more like a sheet of muscle rolled into a snorkel.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>A cone snail’s breathing tube, called a siphon, is actually more like a sheet of muscle rolled into a snorkel.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Besides drawing water to gills deep in its shell, the siphon also can pick up the scent of unsuspecting prey.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Besides drawing water to gills deep in its shell, the siphon also can pick up the scent of unsuspecting prey.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That’s when the cone snail goes spearfishing.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>That’s when the cone snail goes spearfishing.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Its extendible proboscis is packing a concealed weapon.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Its extendible proboscis is packing a concealed weapon.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A tiny, hollow harpoon made of chitin, the same tough stuff in a lobster shell.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>A tiny, hollow harpoon made of chitin, the same tough stuff in a lobster shell.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>And the end of the proboscis is tricked out with receptors – taste buds that help it close in on its target.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>And the end of the proboscis is tricked out with receptors – taste buds that help it close in on its target.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>When it strikes, the snail’s pace jumps to light speed.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>When it strikes, the snail’s pace jumps to light speed.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The embedded harpoon doubles as a hypodermic needle to inject the victim with paralyzing venom.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The embedded harpoon doubles as a hypodermic needle to inject the victim with paralyzing venom.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>As it reels in the catch, the cone snail uses another covert tool called a rostrum.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>As it reels in the catch, the cone snail uses another covert tool called a rostrum.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It opens up to swallow the fish whole.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>It opens up to swallow the fish whole.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Some cone snails hunt more familiar prey. Other snails.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Some cone snails hunt more familiar prey. Other snails.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The smaller snail digs down to hide its shell opening.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The smaller snail digs down to hide its shell opening.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The predator looks for a way in.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>The predator looks for a way in.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>When it finds it, the hunter hits its prey with more than one shot of venom.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>When it finds it, the hunter hits its prey with more than one shot of venom.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A lot is going on in the fifth of a second before the snail fires that harpoon.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>A lot is going on in the fifth of a second before the snail fires that harpoon.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>So let’s rewind and break it down.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>So let’s rewind and break it down.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>First the proboscis flexes as the muscles inside prepare for the strike. Then the venom floods into the proboscis, but stops just short of the harpoon. A round muscle holds the lethal fluid in check, like a kink in a hose, building even more pressure.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>First the proboscis flexes as the muscles inside prepare for the strike. Then the venom floods into the proboscis, but stops just short of the harpoon. A round muscle holds the lethal fluid in check, like a kink in a hose, building even more pressure.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Then, everything blows, and propels the venom into the harpoon, the harpoon into the prey.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Then, everything blows, and propels the venom into the harpoon, the harpoon into the prey.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>What has scientists interested in cone snails is that their venom varies not only from species to species but also from individual to individual, and even from shot to shot.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>What has scientists interested in cone snails is that their venom varies not only from species to species but also from individual to individual, and even from shot to shot.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In fact they seem to mix their venom cocktail on the fly from thousands of unique ingredients, each with its own purpose.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>In fact they seem to mix their venom cocktail on the fly from thousands of unique ingredients, each with its own purpose.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>All this variety means a world of new drugs could lie under that shell.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>All this variety means a world of new drugs could lie under that shell.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Novel ways to treat things like chronic pain, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Novel ways to treat things like chronic pain, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes.\u003c/p>\n"
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"blockName": "core/paragraph",
"attrs": {
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Most cone snail strikes hurt as much as a bee sting. A few can kill you though, like this geography cone, it has the most venomous sting in the world.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Most cone snail strikes hurt as much as a bee sting. A few can kill you though, like this geography cone, it has the most venomous sting in the world.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Here’s a tip: Don’t go gathering these shells when you’re snorkeling in Australia.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Here’s a tip: Don’t go gathering these shells when you’re snorkeling in Australia.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>If you love learning about wildlife, subscribe to our weekly newsletter. It’s free! Link in the description.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>If you love learning about wildlife, subscribe to our weekly newsletter. It’s free! Link in the description.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerBlocks": []
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"blockName": "core/paragraph",
"attrs": {
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>How about a little defense? The reclusive and well-armoured vinegaroon has a stinky surprise for anyone who messes with it.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>How about a little defense? The reclusive and well-armoured vinegaroon has a stinky surprise for anyone who messes with it.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Late at night, after a rain in Arizona’s high desert, a dark shape creeps out from its underground lair. It’s as big as your palm, and it’s hungry.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Late at night, after a rain in Arizona’s high desert, a dark shape creeps out from its underground lair. It’s as big as your palm, and it’s hungry.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>And if it feels bothered…\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>OK what just happened? And seriously, what is this thing?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>OK what just happened? And seriously, what is this thing?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A mutant land lobster?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>A mutant land lobster?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>I mean, it’s got claws like a scorpion…\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>I mean, it’s got claws like a scorpion…\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The mouth of a spider?\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Antennae-like things coming out of its armpits.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Antennae-like things coming out of its armpits.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A long, skinny tail like a rat?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>A long, skinny tail like a rat?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>This surprising combo of monster body parts is a vinegaroon, also known as a whip scorpion.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>This surprising combo of monster body parts is a vinegaroon, also known as a whip scorpion.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It’s in a group of animals called arachnids, that includes scorpions and spiders.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>It’s in a group of animals called arachnids, that includes scorpions and spiders.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But it doesn’t sting like a scorpion, or hunt with a web like many spiders.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>But it doesn’t sting like a scorpion, or hunt with a web like many spiders.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A vinegaroon has its very own style.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>This tail may look dangerous, but it’s actually a finely-tuned sensor. It picks up vibrations and chemicals in the air, in this case, to stalk its prey\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>This tail may look dangerous, but it’s actually a finely-tuned sensor. It picks up vibrations and chemicals in the air, in this case, to stalk its prey\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Up front, those antennae-looking things are actually specialized legs. They help the vinegaroon feel its way around.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It’s basically blind. So it relies on touch and smell to close in on its meal.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It will break through this cricket’s tough exoskeleton with its claws and bristly mouth.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The vinegaroon also uses these wicked claws to excavate its burrow.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Adults and their young use the burrows for protection from predators, and to stay out of the scorching desert sun. Vinegaroons and their ancestors have survived this way for hundreds of millions of years.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>So, what does it need that spray for? Researchers observe it by gently holding the animal with forceps.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Despite those frightening looks, this surprising spritz is actually its strongest defense against anything that wants to eat them – like skunks, raccoons or coyotes.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Even with poor eyesight, the vinegaroon sprays with incredible accuracy.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Inside, two pygidial glands, also known as “stink glands,” hold the foul fluid.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The base of the tail is extremely flexible, and can aim the blast in any direction.\u003c/p>\n",
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"attrs": {
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Touché, skunk!\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The instant it sprays, the gland openings appear as two retractable nozzles.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>An adult vinegaroon can shoot up to five times before it needs to let its stink glands fill up again. The spray reeks.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That’s because the solution is mostly acetic acid, the same stuff in the vinegar in your salad dressing, except this cocktail is 16 times stronger. A blast of that to the face of a larger predator is like pepper spray.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>That’s because the solution is mostly acetic acid, the same stuff in the vinegar in your salad dressing, except this cocktail is 16 times stronger. A blast of that to the face of a larger predator is like pepper spray.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>While the vinegaroon’s signature defense is unlikely to do any lasting damage, it will certainly leave a lasting impression.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The Arizona bark scorpion has a sting potent enough to send humans to the hospital, so why isn’t this fuzzy mouse afraid of that venom?\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>There’s an arms race underway in the Sonoran desert: mouse versus scorpion.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Locked in a battle of one-upmanship, each animal evolving better, stronger chemical defenses against the other.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Consider the Arizona bark scorpion.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Its tail contains the most powerful venom of any scorpion in the United States, delivering white hot electrical pain.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>This sting sends hundreds of people to the hospital each year.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That venom isn’t just potent – it’s sophisticated.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>That venom isn’t just potent – it’s sophisticated.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Researchers at The California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco are studying how this venom has become increasingly complex over time to deal with the threats scorpions face.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>They milk the scorpion. They use a piece of wax paper to coax it into stinging.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>They milk the scorpion. They use a piece of wax paper to coax it into stinging.\u003c/p>\n"
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"blockName": "core/paragraph",
"attrs": {
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That droplet contains a complex brew of chemicals, including neurotoxins that quickly paralyze prey, like this cricket….\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>That droplet contains a complex brew of chemicals, including neurotoxins that quickly paralyze prey, like this cricket….\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But venom also serves as a powerful] defense… against being eaten…\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That’s… where the mouse comes in.\u003c/p>\n",
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{
"blockName": "core/paragraph",
"attrs": {
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Do not be fooled by its cuteness.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Do not be fooled by its cuteness.\u003c/p>\n"
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"blockName": "core/paragraph",
"attrs": {
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The southern grasshopper mouse is a ferocious hunter, which is rare among mice.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>And it’s got a taste for scorpion.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Which would seem like a death wish. But it isn’t.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Which would seem like a death wish. But it isn’t.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Scientists at Michigan State University are studying how the battle unfolds – not just physically, but at a chemical level.\u003c/p>\n",
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{
"blockName": "core/paragraph",
"attrs": {
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>This mouse is on the attack.\u003c/p>\n",
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"blockName": "core/paragraph",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But the scorpion is not having it.\u003c/p>\n",
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"blockName": "core/paragraph",
"attrs": {
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>See how it keeps stinging the mouse?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>See how it keeps stinging the mouse?\u003c/p>\n"
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"blockName": "core/paragraph",
"attrs": {
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>For any other animal – including you or me – this would hurt. Badly.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>For any other animal – including you or me – this would hurt. Badly.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>And for a second, with the grasshopper mouse, it does.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>And for a second, with the grasshopper mouse, it does.\u003c/p>\n"
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"blockName": "core/paragraph",
"attrs": {
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>See how it’s rubbing its face?\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But after a brief moment of pain, its nerves go numb.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Most animals its size would be dead by now.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But the grasshopper mouse has evolved a specific defense against scorpion venom.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A protein built into the mouse’s nerve cells – binds to the toxin.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>A protein built into the mouse’s nerve cells – binds to the toxin.\u003c/p>\n"
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"blockName": "core/paragraph",
"attrs": {
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It blocks it.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>It blocks it.\u003c/p>\n"
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"blockName": "core/paragraph",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Instead of causing pain and paralysis, the toxin does the opposite.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Instead of causing pain and paralysis, the toxin does the opposite.\u003c/p>\n"
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"blockName": "core/paragraph",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It acts like a painkiller – an analgesic.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>It acts like a painkiller – an analgesic.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>After the first couple stings, the mouse barely feels anything.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>After the first couple stings, the mouse barely feels anything.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Bad news for the scorpion.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Bad news for the scorpion.\u003c/p>\n"
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"attrs": {
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Researchers think this trick could point the way to more precise pain medications for people, with fewer side effects.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Researchers think this trick could point the way to more precise pain medications for people, with fewer side effects.\u003c/p>\n"
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"blockName": "core/paragraph",
"attrs": {
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Once upon a time, the scorpion’s venom was enough to protect it.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But today – in this desert arms race – the mouse has the upper paw.\u003c/p>\n",
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"attrs": {
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>At least for now.\u003c/p>\n",
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"blockName": "core/paragraph",
"attrs": {
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Next up: get too close and the back end of this beetle will literally explode in your face.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Next up: get too close and the back end of this beetle will literally explode in your face.\u003c/p>\n"
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"blockName": "core/paragraph",
"attrs": {
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The bombardier beetle is one of nature’s most improbable creatures.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The bombardier beetle is one of nature’s most improbable creatures.\u003c/p>\n"
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"attrs": {
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>For some, it throws a monkey wrench into the whole idea of evolution.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>For some, it throws a monkey wrench into the whole idea of evolution.\u003c/p>\n"
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"blockName": "core/paragraph",
"attrs": {
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>This beetle is a walking powder keg.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>This beetle is a walking powder keg.\u003c/p>\n"
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"blockName": "core/paragraph",
"attrs": {
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That cloud you see is the result of a lightning fast chemical reaction inside his body.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>That cloud you see is the result of a lightning fast chemical reaction inside his body.\u003c/p>\n"
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"attrs": {
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>When attacked, the beetle sets off the explosion, releasing a boiling hot, stinging poison that sends his enemies running.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>When attacked, the beetle sets off the explosion, releasing a boiling hot, stinging poison that sends his enemies running.\u003c/p>\n"
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"attrs": {
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>He can even aim it.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>He can even aim it.\u003c/p>\n"
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"blockName": "core/paragraph",
"attrs": {
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>This potent mixture inside the beetle is made up of three main ingredients.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>This potent mixture inside the beetle is made up of three main ingredients.\u003c/p>\n"
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"blockName": "core/paragraph",
"attrs": {
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Mix the first two of them together and nothing happens – but throw in the third, and boom.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Mix the first two of them together and nothing happens – but throw in the third, and boom.\u003c/p>\n"
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"attrs": {
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>So the beetle has a trick – he keeps these ingredients separate inside his body.\u003c/p>\n",
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"attrs": {
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>From an evolutionary standpoint that’s what’s interesting.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In fact, people have been scratching their heads over this for decades.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>How did this complex system evolve over time?\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Wouldn’t earlier generations of beetles have blown themselves up, like a bunch of amateur bomb-makers?\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It’s an enzyme. It’s like a spark. It sets the explosion in motion. and enzymes…evolve.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>As the beetle’s body changed to contain it.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003ca>\u003c/a>That happens a lot in evolution. It’s called “exaptation.” one body part repurposed for something else.\u003c/p>\n",
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"subhead": "Meet four animals that have mastered the art of chemical defense and offense. Sneak up on a bombardier beetle and it will shoot boiling acid from its behind. Cone snails will inject a fish with venom and swallow it whole, while the reclusive vinegaroon has a stinky surprise for anyone who messes with it. The Arizona bark scorpion has a sting powerful enough to send humans to the hospital, but it doesn’t seem to bother the tiny southern grasshopper mouse.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/KT3vyVBacSA'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/KT3vyVBacSA'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Meet four animals that have mastered the art of chemical defense and offense. Sneak up on a bombardier beetle and it will shoot boiling acid from its behind. Cone snails will inject a fish with venom and swallow it whole, while the reclusive vinegaroon has a stinky surprise for anyone who messes with it. The Arizona bark scorpion has a sting powerful enough to send humans to the hospital, but it doesn’t seem to bother the tiny southern grasshopper mouse.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Lookout! Duck! Run for cover! These four wild creatures use chemical weapons for offense and defense.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The mysterious vinegaroon sprays a vinegary blast into the face of hungry predators.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Arizona bark scorpion is powerful – but this cute mouse is basically immune to it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attackers beware of the Bombardier beetle’s explosive backside.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>First, cone snails use a hidden harpoon to inject a fish with venom and swallow it whole.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Cone snails are striking, in more ways than one.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They lurk in the sand around coral reefs.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And wait til you see what’s under the hood.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That pretty veneer is hiding an impressive array of tools and weapons.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A cone snail’s breathing tube, called a siphon, is actually more like a sheet of muscle rolled into a snorkel.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Besides drawing water to gills deep in its shell, the siphon also can pick up the scent of unsuspecting prey.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That’s when the cone snail goes spearfishing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Its extendible proboscis is packing a concealed weapon.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A tiny, hollow harpoon made of chitin, the same tough stuff in a lobster shell.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And the end of the proboscis is tricked out with receptors – taste buds that help it close in on its target.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When it strikes, the snail’s pace jumps to light speed.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The embedded harpoon doubles as a hypodermic needle to inject the victim with paralyzing venom.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As it reels in the catch, the cone snail uses another covert tool called a rostrum.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It opens up to swallow the fish whole.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Some cone snails hunt more familiar prey. Other snails.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The smaller snail digs down to hide its shell opening.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The predator looks for a way in.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When it finds it, the hunter hits its prey with more than one shot of venom.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A lot is going on in the fifth of a second before the snail fires that harpoon.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>So let’s rewind and break it down.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>First the proboscis flexes as the muscles inside prepare for the strike. Then the venom floods into the proboscis, but stops just short of the harpoon. A round muscle holds the lethal fluid in check, like a kink in a hose, building even more pressure.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Then, everything blows, and propels the venom into the harpoon, the harpoon into the prey.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>What has scientists interested in cone snails is that their venom varies not only from species to species but also from individual to individual, and even from shot to shot.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In fact they seem to mix their venom cocktail on the fly from thousands of unique ingredients, each with its own purpose.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>All this variety means a world of new drugs could lie under that shell.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Novel ways to treat things like chronic pain, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Most cone snail strikes hurt as much as a bee sting. A few can kill you though, like this geography cone, it has the most venomous sting in the world.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Here’s a tip: Don’t go gathering these shells when you’re snorkeling in Australia.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>If you love learning about wildlife, subscribe to our weekly newsletter. It’s free! Link in the description.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>How about a little defense? The reclusive and well-armoured vinegaroon has a stinky surprise for anyone who messes with it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Late at night, after a rain in Arizona’s high desert, a dark shape creeps out from its underground lair. It’s as big as your palm, and it’s hungry.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And if it feels bothered…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>OK what just happened? And seriously, what is this thing?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A mutant land lobster?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I mean, it’s got claws like a scorpion…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The mouth of a spider?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Antennae-like things coming out of its armpits.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A long, skinny tail like a rat?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This surprising combo of monster body parts is a vinegaroon, also known as a whip scorpion.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s in a group of animals called arachnids, that includes scorpions and spiders.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But it doesn’t sting like a scorpion, or hunt with a web like many spiders.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A vinegaroon has its very own style.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This tail may look dangerous, but it’s actually a finely-tuned sensor. It picks up vibrations and chemicals in the air, in this case, to stalk its prey\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Up front, those antennae-looking things are actually specialized legs. They help the vinegaroon feel its way around.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s basically blind. So it relies on touch and smell to close in on its meal.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It will break through this cricket’s tough exoskeleton with its claws and bristly mouth.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The vinegaroon also uses these wicked claws to excavate its burrow.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Adults and their young use the burrows for protection from predators, and to stay out of the scorching desert sun. Vinegaroons and their ancestors have survived this way for hundreds of millions of years.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>So, what does it need that spray for? Researchers observe it by gently holding the animal with forceps.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Despite those frightening looks, this surprising spritz is actually its strongest defense against anything that wants to eat them – like skunks, raccoons or coyotes.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Even with poor eyesight, the vinegaroon sprays with incredible accuracy.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Inside, two pygidial glands, also known as “stink glands,” hold the foul fluid.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The base of the tail is extremely flexible, and can aim the blast in any direction.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Touché, skunk!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The instant it sprays, the gland openings appear as two retractable nozzles.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>An adult vinegaroon can shoot up to five times before it needs to let its stink glands fill up again. The spray reeks.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That’s because the solution is mostly acetic acid, the same stuff in the vinegar in your salad dressing, except this cocktail is 16 times stronger. A blast of that to the face of a larger predator is like pepper spray.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>While the vinegaroon’s signature defense is unlikely to do any lasting damage, it will certainly leave a lasting impression.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Arizona bark scorpion has a sting potent enough to send humans to the hospital, so why isn’t this fuzzy mouse afraid of that venom?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There’s an arms race underway in the Sonoran desert: mouse versus scorpion.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Locked in a battle of one-upmanship, each animal evolving better, stronger chemical defenses against the other.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Consider the Arizona bark scorpion.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Its tail contains the most powerful venom of any scorpion in the United States, delivering white hot electrical pain.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This sting sends hundreds of people to the hospital each year.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That venom isn’t just potent – it’s sophisticated.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Researchers at The California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco are studying how this venom has become increasingly complex over time to deal with the threats scorpions face.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They milk the scorpion. They use a piece of wax paper to coax it into stinging.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That droplet contains a complex brew of chemicals, including neurotoxins that quickly paralyze prey, like this cricket….\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But venom also serves as a powerful] defense… against being eaten…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That’s… where the mouse comes in.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Do not be fooled by its cuteness.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The southern grasshopper mouse is a ferocious hunter, which is rare among mice.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And it’s got a taste for scorpion.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Which would seem like a death wish. But it isn’t.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scientists at Michigan State University are studying how the battle unfolds – not just physically, but at a chemical level.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This mouse is on the attack.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But the scorpion is not having it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>See how it keeps stinging the mouse?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For any other animal – including you or me – this would hurt. Badly.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And for a second, with the grasshopper mouse, it does.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>See how it’s rubbing its face?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But after a brief moment of pain, its nerves go numb.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Most animals its size would be dead by now.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But the grasshopper mouse has evolved a specific defense against scorpion venom.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A protein built into the mouse’s nerve cells – binds to the toxin.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It blocks it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Instead of causing pain and paralysis, the toxin does the opposite.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It acts like a painkiller – an analgesic.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>After the first couple stings, the mouse barely feels anything.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bad news for the scorpion.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Researchers think this trick could point the way to more precise pain medications for people, with fewer side effects.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Once upon a time, the scorpion’s venom was enough to protect it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But today – in this desert arms race – the mouse has the upper paw.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>At least for now.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Next up: get too close and the back end of this beetle will literally explode in your face.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The bombardier beetle is one of nature’s most improbable creatures.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For some, it throws a monkey wrench into the whole idea of evolution.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This beetle is a walking powder keg.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That cloud you see is the result of a lightning fast chemical reaction inside his body.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When attacked, the beetle sets off the explosion, releasing a boiling hot, stinging poison that sends his enemies running.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He can even aim it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This potent mixture inside the beetle is made up of three main ingredients.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mix the first two of them together and nothing happens – but throw in the third, and boom.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>So the beetle has a trick – he keeps these ingredients separate inside his body.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>From an evolutionary standpoint that’s what’s interesting.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In fact, people have been scratching their heads over this for decades.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>How did this complex system evolve over time?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Wouldn’t earlier generations of beetles have blown themselves up, like a bunch of amateur bomb-makers?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>To some, this beetle’s very survival is proof that the whole theory of evolution is wrong.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But it turns out there is a way this system could have evolved gradually.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Remember that third ingredient?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s an enzyme. It’s like a spark. It sets the explosion in motion. and enzymes…evolve.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>At first, maybe this one wasn’t so dangerous. But gradually, it became more potent, more specialized, more explosive.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As the beetle’s body changed to contain it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Scientists at UC Berkeley are trying to figure out how this system came together.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They think one of those explosive chemicals evolved from the same raw materials as the beetle’s shell.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003ca>\u003c/a>That happens a lot in evolution. It’s called “exaptation.” one body part repurposed for something else.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The improbable bombardier beetle.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-post-excerpt\">\u003cp class=\"wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt\">Green tree ants are a dominant species in tropical forests stretching from India to northern Australia. Aggressive, industrious and highly territorial, most of their neighbors don’t want to mess with them. With a reputation like that, over millions of years multiple animals evolved to mimic them– some to stay safe, and others to kill. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In this tropical rainforest green tree ants are everywhere. And they bite.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A single colony can hold up to half a million ants, spreading across a dozen trees and 150 nests — all built by weaving leaves together with silk produced by larvae — their own offspring.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They form living chains, to pull leaf edges together while they weave.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The canopy bustles with ants that are industrious, aggressive, and highly territorial.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what’s this slacker doing? Working hard or hardly working?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This isn’t a green tree ant at all. It’s a wannabe, a young bean bug. Pretty convincing disguise.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This proboscis gives it away. It’s how they eat.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ants have mandibles. They carry knives, not straws.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bean bugs spend their lives drinking the sap of this bean plant.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When bean bugs grow up, they shed their disguise.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>So why the getup in the first place?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s an example of Batesian mimicry, when a vulnerable species like the bean bug evolves to look like a more dangerous one.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A predator is likely to skip a green tree ant meal. It’s not worth the fight risk.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>By looking like the green tree ant, this docile little bean bug seems like a real threat.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As an adult, it’s much larger and now has wings.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There’s another ant imposter lurking near the colony.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The abdomen of this comb-footed spider resembles the head of a green tree ant – just enough to make predators think twice.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This spider isn’t just some harmless bean bug. It’s here to hunt.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The comb-footed spider lays a silk trap just outside the ant nest.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This is an example of aggressive mimicry.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Where one animal mimics another in order to eat it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But this isn’t the only spider in ant’s clothing around here.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This crab spider mimics the look and behavior of green tree ants.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It even waves its front legs around, kinda like the ants’ antennae.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The crab spider is an ambush hunter who will wait outside the ant nest, until – gotcha!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Enter mimic number 4: these jumping spiders don’t look so much like green tree ants, but they use another type of aggressive mimicry.They smell just like them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Also known as chemical mimicry – it’s a convincing enough disguise for the spider to sneak into the ant nest to steal its favorite food: green tree ant larvae.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Researchers think that these jumping spiders live their whole lives next to the same colony.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As they feed on the larvae, they absorb pheromones, which lend the spiders a convincing green tree ant aroma.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Despite all the backstabbers, the wannabes, and infiltrators, green tree ants remain a dominant species from India to Papua New Guinea.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Why have so many different species evolved to look, behave, and smell like this one type of ant?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For millions of years, green tree ants have played such an important role in tropical ecosystems that their neighbors are more likely to survive by mimicking them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There are masses of them, so finding a way to eat them means access to an abundant food source. They’re also formidable predators, so looking like them means staying safe.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>After all, mimicry is the highest form of flattery.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Or trickery.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>If you liked this video, please consider supporting KQED, the PBS station that produces Deep Look. Donations from viewers like you allow us to continue making our award-winning series. Click the link on-screen or in the description below.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, see more green tree ant action as they battle peppermint stick insects.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what’s this slacker doing? Working hard or hardly working?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This isn’t a green tree ant at all. It’s a wannabe, a young bean bug. Pretty convincing disguise.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This proboscis gives it away. It’s how they eat.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ants have mandibles. They carry knives, not straws.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bean bugs spend their lives drinking the sap of this bean plant.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When bean bugs grow up, they shed their disguise.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>So why the getup in the first place?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s an example of Batesian mimicry, when a vulnerable species like the bean bug evolves to look like a more dangerous one.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A predator is likely to skip a green tree ant meal. It’s not worth the fight risk.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>By looking like the green tree ant, this docile little bean bug seems like a real threat.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As an adult, it’s much larger and now has wings.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There’s another ant imposter lurking near the colony.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The abdomen of this comb-footed spider resembles the head of a green tree ant – just enough to make predators think twice.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This spider isn’t just some harmless bean bug. It’s here to hunt.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The comb-footed spider lays a silk trap just outside the ant nest.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This is an example of aggressive mimicry.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Where one animal mimics another in order to eat it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But this isn’t the only spider in ant’s clothing around here.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This crab spider mimics the look and behavior of green tree ants.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It even waves its front legs around, kinda like the ants’ antennae.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The crab spider is an ambush hunter who will wait outside the ant nest, until – gotcha!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Enter mimic number 4: these jumping spiders don’t look so much like green tree ants, but they use another type of aggressive mimicry.They smell just like them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Also known as chemical mimicry – it’s a convincing enough disguise for the spider to sneak into the ant nest to steal its favorite food: green tree ant larvae.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Researchers think that these jumping spiders live their whole lives next to the same colony.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As they feed on the larvae, they absorb pheromones, which lend the spiders a convincing green tree ant aroma.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Despite all the backstabbers, the wannabes, and infiltrators, green tree ants remain a dominant species from India to Papua New Guinea.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Why have so many different species evolved to look, behave, and smell like this one type of ant?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For millions of years, green tree ants have played such an important role in tropical ecosystems that their neighbors are more likely to survive by mimicking them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There are masses of them, so finding a way to eat them means access to an abundant food source. They’re also formidable predators, so looking like them means staying safe.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>After all, mimicry is the highest form of flattery.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Or trickery.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>If you liked this video, please consider supporting KQED, the PBS station that produces Deep Look. Donations from viewers like you allow us to continue making our award-winning series. Click the link on-screen or in the description below.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, see more green tree ant action as they battle peppermint stick insects.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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