Episode 181: Updates 3 and a lake monster!

Strange Animals Podcast

It's our annual updates and corrections episode, with a fun mystery animal at the end! Thanks to everyone who contributed, including Bob, Richard J. who is my brother, Richard J. who isn't my brother, Connor, Simon, Sam, Llewelly, Andrew Gable of the excellent Forgotten Darkness Podcast, and probably many others whose names I didn't write down! Further reading: Northern bald ibis (Akh-bird) Researchers learn more about teen-age T. rex A squid fossil offers a rare record of pterosaur feeding behavior The mysterious, legendary giant squid's genome is revealed Why giant squid are still mystifying scientists 150 years after they were discovered (excellent photos but you have to turn off your ad-blocker) We now know the real range of the extinct Carolina parakeet Platypus on brink of extinction Discovery at 'flower burial' site could unravel mystery of Neanderthal death rites A Neanderthal woman from Chagyrskyra Cave The Iraqi Afa - a Middle Eastern mystery lizard Further watching/listening: Richard J. sent me a link to the Axolotl song and it's EPIC Bob sent me some more rat songs after I mentioned the song "Ben" in the rats episode, including The Naked Mole Rap and Rats in My Room (from 1957!) The 2012 video purportedly of the Lagarfljótsormurinn monster A squid fossil with a pterosaur tooth embedded: A giant squid (not fossilized): White-throated magpie-jay: An updated map of the Carolina parakeet's range: A still from the video taken of a supposed Lagarfljót worm in 2012: An even clearer photo of the Lagarfljót worm: Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. This is our third annual updates and corrections episode, where I bring us up to date about some topics we’ve covered in the past. We’ll also talk about an interesting mystery animal at the end. There are lots of links in the show notes to articles I used in the episode’s research and to some videos you might find interesting. While I was putting this episode together, I went through all the emails I received in the last year and discovered a few suggestions that never made it onto the list. I’m getting really backed up on suggestions again, with a bunch that are a year old or more, so the next few months will be all suggestion episodes! If you’re waiting to hear an episode about your suggestion, hopefully I’ll get to it soon. Anyway, let’s start the updates episode with some corrections. In episode 173 about the forest raven, I mentioned that the northern bald ibis was considered sacred by ancient Egyptians. Simon asked me if that was actually the case or if only the sacred ibis was considered sacred. I mean, it’s right there in the name, sacred ibis. I did a little digging and it turns out that while the sacred ibis was associated with the god Thoth, along with the baboon, the northern bald ibis was often depicted on temple walls. It was associated with the ankh, which ancient Egyptians considered part of the soul. That’s a really simplistic way to put it, but you’ll have to find an ancient history podcast to really do the subject justice. So the northern bald ibis was important to the ancient Egyptians and sort of considered sacred, but in a different way from the actual sacred ibis. In episode 146 while I was talking about the archerfish, I said something about how I didn’t fully understand how the archerfish actually spits water so that it forms a bullet-like blob. Bob wrote and kindly explained in a very clear way what goes on: “Basically, the fish spits a stream of water, but squeezes it so that the back end of the stream is moving faster than the front. So it bunches up as it flies and hits the target with one big smack. Beyond that, the water bullet would fall apart as the back part moves through the front part of the stream, but the fish can apparently judge the distance just right.” That is really awesome.