Episode 124: Updates 2 and a new human

Published: June 17, 2019, 7 a.m.

b'It\\u2019s our second updates and corrections episode! Thanks to everyone who sent in corrections and suggestions for this one! It\\u2019s not as comprehensive as I\\u2019d have liked, but there\\u2019s lots of interesting stuff in here. Stick around to the end to learn about a new species of human recently discovered on the island of Luzon.\\n\\nThe triple-hybrid warbler:\\n\\n\\n\\nFurther reading:\\n\\nNew species of ancient human discovered in the Philippines: Homo luzonensis\\n\\nShow transcript:\\n\\nWelcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I\\u2019m your host, Kate Shaw.\\n\\nYes, it\\u2019s our second updates episode, but don\\u2019t worry, it won\\u2019t be boring!\\n\\nFirst, a few corrections. In episode 45 I talked about monotreme, marsupial, and placental mammals, and Tara points out that the placenta and bag of waters are different things. I got them mixed up in the episode. The bag of waters is also called the amniotic sac, which protects and cushions the growing baby inside with special amniotic fluid. The placenta is an organ attached to the lining of the womb, with the bag of waters inside the placenta. The umbilical cord connects the baby to the placenta, which supplies it with all its needs, including oxygen since obviously it can\\u2019t breathe yet.\\n\\nNext, I covered this correction in in episode 111 too, but Judith points out that the picture I had in episode 93 of the Queen Alexandra\\u2019s birdwing butterfly was actually of an atlas moth. I\\u2019ve corrected the picture and if you want to learn more about the atlas moth, you can listen to episode 111.\\n\\nNext, Pranav pointed out that in the last updates episode I said that the only bears from Africa went extinct around 3 million years ago\\u2013but the Atlas bear survived in Africa until the late 19th century. The Atlas bear was a subspecies of brown bear that lived in the Atlas Mountains in northern Africa, and I totally can\\u2019t believe I missed that when I was researching the nandi bear last year!\\n\\nFinally, ever since episode 66 people have been emailing me about Tyrannosaurus rex, specifically my claim that it was the biggest land carnivore ever. I don\\u2019t remember where I found that information but it may or may not be the case, depending on how you\\u2019re defining biggest. Biggest could mean heaviest, tallest, longest, or some combination of features pertaining to size.\\n\\nThen again, in 1991 a T rex was discovered in Canada, but it was so big and heavy and in such hard stone that it took decades to excavate and prepare so that it can be studied. And it turns out to be the biggest T rex ever found. It\\u2019s also a remarkably complete fossil, with over 70% of its skeleton remaining.\\n\\nThe T rex is nicknamed Scotty and was discovered in Saskatchewan. It lived about 68 million years ago, and turns out to not only be the biggest T rex found so far, it was probably the oldest. Paleontologists estimate it was over 30 years old when it died. It was 43 feet long, or 13 meters. This makes it bigger than the previously largest T rex found, Sue, who was 40 feet long, or 12.3 meters. Scotty also appears to be the heaviest of all the T rexes found, although estimates of its weight vary a lot. Of course some researchers debate Scotty\\u2019s size, since obviously it\\u2019s impossible to really know how big or heavy a living dinosaur was by just looking at its fossils. But Scotty was definitely at least a little bigger than Sue.\\n\\nScotty is on display at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Canada.\\n\\nWay back in episode 12, I talked about snakes that were supposed to make noises of one kind or another. Many snakes do make sounds, but overall they\\u2019re usually very quiet animals. A snake called the bushmaster viper that lives in parts of Central America has long been rumored to sing like a bird. The bushmaster can grow up to ten feet long, or 3 meters, and its venom can be deadly to humans.\\n\\nRecently, researchers discovered the source of the bushmaster\\u2019s supposed song. It\\u2019s not a snake singing. It\\u2019s not a bird singing. It\\u2019s not even a single animal\\u2013it\\u2019s two,'