Episode 314: Animals Discovered in 2022
b"Let's learn about some of the animals discovered in 2022! There are lots, so let's go!\\n\\nFurther Reading:\\nIn Japanese waters, a newly described anemone lives on the back of a hermit crab\\nRare \\u2018fossil\\u2019 clam discovered alive\\nMarine Biologists Discover New Giant Isopod\\nMysterious \\u2018blue goo\\u2019 at the bottom of the sea stumps scientists\\nNew Species of Mossy Frog Discovered in Vietnam\\nA Wildlife YouTuber Discovered This New Species of Tarantula in Thailand\\nMeet Nepenthes pudica, Carnivorous Plant that Produces Underground Traps\\nScientists discover shark graveyard at the bottom of the ocean\\n\\nFurther Watching:\\n\\nJoCho Sippawat's YouTube channel\\n\\nA newly discovered sea anemone (photo by Akihiro Yoshikawa):\\n\\n\\n\\nA mysterious blue blob seen by a deep-sea rover:\\n\\n\\n\\nA newly discovered frog:\\n\\n\\n\\nA newly discovered tarantula (photo by JoCho Sippawat):\\n\\n\\n\\nShow transcript:\\nWelcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I\\u2019m your host, Kate Shaw.\\nIt\\u2019s the 2022 discoveries episode, where we learn about some of the animals discovered in 2022! Most of the time these animals were actually discovered by scientists before 2022, but the description was published in that year so that\\u2019s when we first learned about them. And, of course, a lot of these animals were already known to the local people but had never been studied by scientists before. There are lots of animals in the world but not that many scientists.\\nThe great thing is, so many animals get discovered in any given year that I have to pick and choose the ones I think listeners will find most interesting, which in a stunning coincidence turns out to be the ones that I personally find most interesting. Funny how that works out.\\nWe\\u2019ll start in the ocean, which is full of weird animals that no human has ever seen before. It\\u2019s about a hermit crab who carries a friend around. The hermit crab was already known to science, but until a team of scientists observed it in its natural habitat, the deep sea off the Pacific coast of Japan, no one realized it had an anemone friend.\\nThe sea anemone is related to jellyfish and is a common animal throughout the world\\u2019s oceans. Some species float around, some anchor themselves to a hard surface. Many species have developed a symbiotic relationship with other animals, such as the clownfish, which is sometimes called the anemonefish because it relies on the anemone to survive. Anemones sting the way jellyfish do, but it doesn\\u2019t sting the clownfish. Researchers aren\\u2019t sure why not, but it may have something to do with the clownfish\\u2019s mucus coating. Specifically, the mucus may have a particular taste that the anemone recognizes as belonging to a friend. If the anemone does accidentally sting the clownfish, it\\u2019s still okay because the fish is generally immune to the anemone\\u2019s toxins.\\nThe clownfish lives among the anemone\\u2019s tentacles, which protects it from predators, and in return its movements bring more oxygen to the anemone by circulating water through its tentacles, its droppings provide minerals to the anemone, and because the clownfish is small and brightly colored, it might even attract predators that the anemone can catch and eat.\\nAnemones also develop mutualistic relationships with other organisms, including a single-celled algae that lives in its body and photosynthesizes light into energy. The algae has a safe place to live while the anemone receives some of the energy from the algae\\u2019s photosynthesis. But some species of anemone have a relationship with crabs, including this newly discovered anemone.\\nThe anemone anchors itself to the shell that the hermit crab lives in. The crab gains protection from predators, who would have to go through the stinging tentacles and the shell to get to the crab, while the anemone gets carried to new places where it can find more food. It also gathers up pieces of food that the crab scatters while eating, because crabs are messy eaters.\\nThe problem is that hermit crabs have to move into bigger shells..."