Episode 181: Updates 3 and a lake monster!
b'It\'s our annual updates and corrections episode, with a fun mystery animal at the end!\\n\\nThanks 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!\\n\\nFurther reading:\\n\\nNorthern bald ibis (Akh-bird)\\n\\nResearchers learn more about teen-age T. rex\\n\\nA squid fossil offers a rare record of pterosaur feeding behavior\\n\\nThe mysterious, legendary giant squid\'s genome is revealed\\n\\nWhy giant squid are still mystifying scientists 150 years after they were discovered (excellent photos but you have to turn off your ad-blocker)\\n\\nWe now know the real range of the extinct Carolina parakeet\\n\\nPlatypus on brink of extinction\\n\\nDiscovery at \'flower burial\' site could unravel mystery of Neanderthal death rites\\n\\nA Neanderthal woman from Chagyrskyra Cave\\n\\nThe Iraqi Afa - a Middle Eastern mystery lizard\\n\\nFurther watching/listening:\\n\\nRichard J. sent me a link to the Axolotl song and it\'s EPIC\\n\\nBob 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!)\\n\\nThe 2012 video purportedly of the Lagarflj\\xf3tsormurinn monster\\n\\nA squid fossil with a pterosaur tooth embedded:\\n\\n\\n\\nA giant squid (not fossilized):\\n\\n\\n\\nWhite-throated magpie-jay:\\n\\n\\n\\nAn updated map of the Carolina parakeet\'s range:\\n\\n\\n\\nA still from the video taken of a supposed Lagarflj\\xf3t worm in 2012:\\n\\n\\n\\nAn even clearer photo of the Lagarflj\\xf3t worm:\\n\\n\\n\\nShow transcript:\\n\\nWelcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I\\u2019m your host, Kate Shaw.\\n\\nThis is our third annual updates and corrections episode, where I bring us up to date about some topics we\\u2019ve covered in the past. We\\u2019ll 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\\u2019s research and to some videos you might find interesting.\\n\\nWhile 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\\u2019m 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\\u2019re waiting to hear an episode about your suggestion, hopefully I\\u2019ll get to it soon.\\n\\nAnyway, let\\u2019s 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\\u2019s right there in the name, sacred ibis.\\n\\nI 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\\u2019s a really simplistic way to put it, but you\\u2019ll 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.\\n\\nIn episode 146 while I was talking about the archerfish, I said something about how I didn\\u2019t 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: \\u201cBasically, 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.\\u201d That is really awesome.'