1 00:00:19,920 --> 00:00:23,220 Jane: This is But Why: a Podcast for Curious Kids from Vermont. 2 00:00:23,220 --> 00:00:26,985 Public I'm Jane Lindholm. On this show, we gather all kinds 3 00:00:26,985 --> 00:00:31,005 of questions from all kinds of kids from all kinds of places, 4 00:00:31,365 --> 00:00:34,185 and then we gather a few of the questions and present them to 5 00:00:34,185 --> 00:00:37,725 someone who might at least have some of the answers. Today, 6 00:00:37,725 --> 00:00:41,205 we've gathered questions about one specific type of animal, and 7 00:00:41,205 --> 00:00:44,625 we're going all the way from Vermont to San Diego to get 8 00:00:44,625 --> 00:00:47,850 those answers for you. The animals we're going to learn 9 00:00:47,850 --> 00:00:52,770 more about today are lizards. Here in Vermont, where I live, 10 00:00:52,770 --> 00:00:56,850 we only have one type of lizard. In fact, there's only one type 11 00:00:56,850 --> 00:01:00,090 of Lizard that lives in all of New England, the region Vermont 12 00:01:00,090 --> 00:01:04,470 is part of. It's called the Five lined Skink, and it's endangered 13 00:01:04,470 --> 00:01:07,890 here in Vermont. It's only found in two towns here, and I've 14 00:01:07,890 --> 00:01:12,075 never seen one. I love lizards. That probably comes as no 15 00:01:12,075 --> 00:01:14,235 surprise to those of you who have listened to a lot of 16 00:01:14,235 --> 00:01:17,475 episodes. I think I say I love the animals we're about to talk 17 00:01:17,475 --> 00:01:21,855 about in every animal episode we make. But since we don't have 18 00:01:21,855 --> 00:01:24,915 many lizards in my neck of the woods, I took advantage of a 19 00:01:24,915 --> 00:01:28,635 recent work trip to California and made a beeline for a place 20 00:01:28,635 --> 00:01:33,720 that has lots of lizards, like thousands of them. But here's 21 00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:38,340 the rub, the lizards in the place I visited are not alive. I 22 00:01:38,340 --> 00:01:41,520 went to a museum with a research facility where they study 23 00:01:41,520 --> 00:01:45,840 reptiles and amphibians and they preserve specimens of each 24 00:01:45,840 --> 00:01:49,260 species so they can study them even after those individual 25 00:01:49,260 --> 00:01:52,080 animals are dead. Let's go there right now. 26 00:01:52,840 --> 00:01:56,200 Adam: This is the vault. So this is the deepest part of the whole 27 00:01:56,200 --> 00:02:00,040 museum. We're about three floors underground right now, and the 28 00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:02,980 room is sort of divided into two halves. So the half off to the 29 00:02:02,980 --> 00:02:07,360 left here, this is all of the wet, preserved invertebrate 30 00:02:07,360 --> 00:02:10,120 collections, and then everything on the right hand side of the 31 00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:13,540 room facing me, these are all the reptile and amphibian 32 00:02:13,540 --> 00:02:17,245 specimens that I manage as the Collection Manager of 33 00:02:17,245 --> 00:02:19,405 Herpetology here at the Natural History Museum. 34 00:02:19,585 --> 00:02:22,705 Jane: So to give kids a little bit more of a sense, when you 35 00:02:22,705 --> 00:02:27,265 say the specimens you manage, we are talking not about live 36 00:02:27,265 --> 00:02:27,865 animals. 37 00:02:27,300 --> 00:02:29,880 Adam: We are not so we're talking about all animals that 38 00:02:29,880 --> 00:02:33,720 were once alive but which are now dead and preserved. So these 39 00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:36,720 are not replicas. These are all real animals that were once 40 00:02:36,720 --> 00:02:40,320 alive. And you can sort of think of a collection like this as a 41 00:02:40,320 --> 00:02:44,280 library, where, instead of books in my library, we have preserved 42 00:02:44,280 --> 00:02:47,820 specimens. And so just like a book, you can open up every 43 00:02:47,820 --> 00:02:50,625 specimen in every jar in this room, and you can read it like a 44 00:02:50,625 --> 00:02:53,505 book. You can look at what that specimen was eating before it 45 00:02:53,505 --> 00:02:56,445 died. You can look at what kinds of parasites it might have 46 00:02:56,445 --> 00:03:00,285 inside its body or on its body, like ticks or parasitic worms. 47 00:03:00,825 --> 00:03:04,125 And we can track change across space and change across time. So 48 00:03:04,125 --> 00:03:07,125 there's so many different things that we can learn from dead 49 00:03:07,125 --> 00:03:09,765 animals that help us to better protect and understand how to 50 00:03:09,765 --> 00:03:12,525 conserve them in the wild. And so it's a really powerful 51 00:03:12,525 --> 00:03:13,259 resource. It's, I tell people, it's sort of like drowning in 52 00:03:13,259 --> 00:03:13,463 chocolate for me to be in this room. 53 00:03:13,463 --> 00:03:18,210 Jane: It's a little bit weird to say drowning in chocolate when 54 00:03:18,210 --> 00:03:22,590 you're also talking about like dissecting animals and seeing 55 00:03:22,590 --> 00:03:25,410 what they ate and what ticks they have on their body. 56 00:03:25,410 --> 00:03:30,750 Okay, yeah, I still think it's weird to associate chocolate 57 00:03:30,750 --> 00:03:35,370 with preserved reptile specimens in jars of alcohol. But who am I 58 00:03:35,370 --> 00:03:38,475 to yuck, someone else's yum? And this, someone else we're talking 59 00:03:38,475 --> 00:03:42,375 to here is Adam Clause. His official title is collections 60 00:03:42,375 --> 00:03:45,855 manager of herpetology at the San Diego Natural History 61 00:03:45,855 --> 00:03:49,635 Museum. But sometimes it's hard to understand what someone does 62 00:03:49,635 --> 00:03:53,295 just from their title. So I asked Adam to explain what his 63 00:03:53,295 --> 00:03:54,795 job actually is. 64 00:03:55,120 --> 00:03:58,300 Adam: So I get to basically be a kid as an adult. So when I was 65 00:03:58,300 --> 00:04:01,200 about the age of many of you who are listening right now I was 66 00:04:01,200 --> 00:04:04,260 catching lizards in my backyard in Southern California, and I 67 00:04:04,260 --> 00:04:06,960 was marking them with different dots of colored paint so I could 68 00:04:06,960 --> 00:04:10,800 tell which one was which and how many are in my in my yard. And 69 00:04:10,800 --> 00:04:13,800 so I kind of get to do that all the way to today as an adult, I 70 00:04:13,800 --> 00:04:17,340 get to go out outdoors, outside in wild places, and sometimes in 71 00:04:17,340 --> 00:04:20,220 suburban areas. And I get to catch lizards. I get to catch 72 00:04:20,220 --> 00:04:22,700 snakes. I get to learn about them, and then I get to share 73 00:04:22,700 --> 00:04:25,880 that information with everybody through scientific publications. 74 00:04:25,880 --> 00:04:29,900 So writing down what I see, interpreting what I see, and 75 00:04:29,900 --> 00:04:33,320 then sharing those results, what I'm learning with the world. 76 00:04:33,540 --> 00:04:36,120 Jane: In addition to going out and looking for wild animals, 77 00:04:36,420 --> 00:04:39,720 Adam also keeps track of all those specimens we were looking 78 00:04:39,720 --> 00:04:43,320 at when I visited the museum. You heard him mention that we 79 00:04:43,320 --> 00:04:47,040 were deep in the bottom of the museum. It's a big, climate 80 00:04:47,040 --> 00:04:51,000 controlled room that has almost 80,000 specimens or preserved 81 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:54,660 animals. The specimens are stored in jars that are filled 82 00:04:54,660 --> 00:04:58,065 with liquid, usually a kind of alcohol, that preserves the 83 00:04:58,065 --> 00:05:01,905 animals so they don't decay or deteriorate. They're mostly in 84 00:05:01,905 --> 00:05:05,325 jars with white lids that kept reminding me of pickle jars, 85 00:05:05,505 --> 00:05:09,165 some small pickle jars and some other really, really big pickle 86 00:05:09,165 --> 00:05:13,005 jars, except instead of pickles, the jars were full of 87 00:05:13,065 --> 00:05:15,765 rattlesnakes and turtles and other things that were 88 00:05:15,765 --> 00:05:19,785 definitely not pickles. Most of the animals in the collection 89 00:05:19,785 --> 00:05:22,950 come from the local area, Southern California and the Baja 90 00:05:22,950 --> 00:05:27,990 Peninsula of Mexico. They have over 1,700 different species of 91 00:05:27,990 --> 00:05:30,030 reptiles and amphibians in the collection. 92 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:32,580 Adam: And by reptiles and amphibians, just to be clear, we 93 00:05:32,580 --> 00:05:37,920 mean things like crocodilians, snakes, lizards, turtles. We 94 00:05:37,920 --> 00:05:41,520 have one tuatara and then for amphibians, those are the three 95 00:05:41,520 --> 00:05:45,540 main groups, are salamanders and newts, frogs and toads. And then 96 00:05:45,540 --> 00:05:47,880 the really weird group that almost nobody's ever heard of. 97 00:05:47,880 --> 00:05:50,340 They look like giant earthworms, but they're not earthworms, 98 00:05:50,340 --> 00:05:53,340 they're amphibians, and these are called the caecilians, and 99 00:05:53,340 --> 00:05:56,265 they are strictly tropical, so we don't have any in our region 100 00:05:56,265 --> 00:05:59,505 or any in the US, but we have a few specimens in the collection. 101 00:05:59,120 --> 00:06:01,760 Jane: Before we got to the questions, I was there to ask 102 00:06:01,760 --> 00:06:05,300 Adam about, all of your lizard questions, I asked him if he 103 00:06:05,300 --> 00:06:07,580 could show us something in the collection. 104 00:06:07,620 --> 00:06:14,220 Adam: How about we open up a tank? Yeah. And so in the room, 105 00:06:14,220 --> 00:06:18,120 as we mentioned, most of the specimens are kept in jars, but 106 00:06:18,120 --> 00:06:21,440 glass jars usually don't get manufactured much larger than 107 00:06:21,500 --> 00:06:25,460 one gallon in size. So if we have specimens like really big 108 00:06:25,460 --> 00:06:29,000 iguanas or really big snakes that just don't fit inside a 109 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:32,240 gallon jar, we have to have another way of storing them. And 110 00:06:32,240 --> 00:06:37,100 our solution is these steel tanks that we fill with fluid 111 00:06:37,160 --> 00:06:39,440 and we store the animals in there. So I'm going to open up 112 00:06:39,440 --> 00:06:41,720 one of these tanks right now. 113 00:06:41,660 --> 00:06:45,380 Jane: This is tank 10, and it says on top of it, iguanids, 114 00:06:45,860 --> 00:06:46,160 yes. 115 00:06:46,160 --> 00:06:50,420 Adam: So these are like iguanas. And then we have a Gila monster. 116 00:06:50,960 --> 00:06:54,080 And then, weirdly enough, we have a few Galapagos, tortoise 117 00:06:54,080 --> 00:06:57,260 feet, just the feet, not the shell, just the feet. 118 00:06:57,260 --> 00:06:59,840 Jane: Wow. The smell is really distinct when you open it up, 119 00:06:59,840 --> 00:07:03,080 yep. So it smells, if you're an adult, kind of like sherry, 120 00:07:03,320 --> 00:07:06,365 Adam: Sure. So it's actually the exact same chemical that you 121 00:07:06,365 --> 00:07:09,125 know adults drink in their alcoholic beverages. It's 122 00:07:09,125 --> 00:07:13,085 ethanol or ethyl alcohol. So it's not toxic, per se, but the 123 00:07:13,085 --> 00:07:16,145 way it preserves the animals is it just makes a solution, a 124 00:07:16,145 --> 00:07:19,925 mixture of ethanol and water that bacteria and fungi cannot 125 00:07:19,925 --> 00:07:23,705 live in. So if a bacterial cell were to get dropped into this 126 00:07:23,705 --> 00:07:26,600 fluid, all the water would get sucked out of it and it would 127 00:07:26,600 --> 00:07:26,638 die. 128 00:07:26,638 --> 00:07:27,013 Jane: So if I coughed into it, it wouldn't damage anything. 129 00:07:27,013 --> 00:07:31,010 Adam: It wouldn't damage anything at all. Yeah. 130 00:07:31,010 --> 00:07:34,130 Jane: So what do you do with these iguanas that are preserved 131 00:07:34,130 --> 00:07:36,650 in here? They're very it's very cool looking. They're sort of, 132 00:07:37,310 --> 00:07:40,790 some of them are preserved where they're sort of curved around 133 00:07:40,790 --> 00:07:41,690 their own tails. 134 00:07:41,690 --> 00:07:45,650 Adam: So we can do all manner of things. People can study the 135 00:07:45,650 --> 00:07:49,970 genetics. We can look at their DNA. We can look at how their 136 00:07:49,970 --> 00:07:53,555 coloration varies between males and females. We can look at how 137 00:07:53,555 --> 00:07:56,555 coloration might vary in certain parts of their distribution 138 00:07:56,555 --> 00:08:00,155 versus others. We can cut them open if we wanted, and see what 139 00:08:00,155 --> 00:08:03,095 they were eating. We can cut them open and see what kinds of 140 00:08:03,095 --> 00:08:05,915 parasitic worms might be living in their bodies, and sometimes 141 00:08:05,915 --> 00:08:08,855 those can be brand new species that nobody's ever described or 142 00:08:08,855 --> 00:08:12,215 given a name to. We can do so many things. It's almost an 143 00:08:12,215 --> 00:08:14,855 unlimited number of questions. And what's really fascinating 144 00:08:14,855 --> 00:08:18,440 about collections like these is that they're super long term. So 145 00:08:18,440 --> 00:08:21,620 these, a lot of these specimens are decades old. Some of the 146 00:08:21,620 --> 00:08:25,160 specimens in our collection are more than 150 years old. And so 147 00:08:25,160 --> 00:08:29,240 what that means is these specimens could be potentially 148 00:08:29,240 --> 00:08:31,400 used for things in the future that we don't even have any 149 00:08:31,400 --> 00:08:33,740 idea, that we could even ask these questions now. 150 00:08:34,160 --> 00:08:37,580 Jane: I'm glad you showed me the iguanas, because what we're here 151 00:08:37,625 --> 00:08:40,985 to talk to you specifically about today are lizards. And 152 00:08:40,985 --> 00:08:44,765 iguanas are a kind of lizard. So can we share some of the 153 00:08:44,765 --> 00:08:46,985 questions from kids that we got about lizards? 154 00:08:46,985 --> 00:08:47,885 Adam: Yeah, let's do that. 155 00:08:47,885 --> 00:08:50,465 Jane: Maybe you can explain, since we were talking about 156 00:08:50,465 --> 00:08:53,465 reptiles and amphibians, what lizards are? 157 00:08:53,465 --> 00:08:56,825 Adam: Sure! So lizards are vertebrates, so they have 158 00:08:56,825 --> 00:09:00,785 backbones, just like we do vertebral columns, and they're 159 00:09:00,785 --> 00:09:04,910 also characterized by usually having very scaly skin, and so 160 00:09:04,910 --> 00:09:08,330 that helps them to avoid drying out, so the scales help keep the 161 00:09:08,330 --> 00:09:12,290 moisture inside their bodies. And so a lot of reptiles like 162 00:09:12,290 --> 00:09:15,950 lizards, they can live in really, really hot, dry places 163 00:09:15,950 --> 00:09:18,770 like deserts, because of how the skin keeps all their water in 164 00:09:18,770 --> 00:09:19,430 their bodies. 165 00:09:19,910 --> 00:09:23,975 Jane: So lizards are reptiles, not amphibians. That's correct. 166 00:09:24,455 --> 00:09:29,255 Some lizards look a lot like salamanders, but salamanders are 167 00:09:29,255 --> 00:09:34,775 amphibians, so and salamanders have scales, right? Or do the 168 00:09:34,775 --> 00:09:36,095 skin not have scales? 169 00:09:36,095 --> 00:09:38,855 Adam: That gets back to what defines a lizard, so those 170 00:09:38,855 --> 00:09:41,255 scales are the big differentiator. So salamanders 171 00:09:41,255 --> 00:09:44,615 are going to have smooth, sort of wet skin, or at least moist 172 00:09:44,615 --> 00:09:49,220 skin, somewhat similar to ours, versus a lizard is always going 173 00:09:49,220 --> 00:09:52,040 to have scales on its skin. That's the big separating, or 174 00:09:52,040 --> 00:09:55,400 the big that's the big differentiator between those two 175 00:09:55,400 --> 00:09:55,760 groups. 176 00:09:56,240 --> 00:10:02,600 Quentin: Hi. My name is Quentin, and I am six and a half years 177 00:10:02,600 --> 00:10:09,320 old, and I live in Alaska, Anchorage, and my question is, 178 00:10:09,680 --> 00:10:13,265 why do lizards have scales? 179 00:10:13,265 --> 00:10:17,705 Rowan: Hi, my name is Rowan. I am six years old. I live in 180 00:10:17,705 --> 00:10:23,165 Houston, Texas, and my question is, why do lizards have scales? 181 00:10:23,525 --> 00:10:31,205 Finn: My name's Finn and I'm five years old, and I live in 182 00:10:31,250 --> 00:10:36,650 Raleigh, North Carolina. I want to know why do lizards have 183 00:10:36,650 --> 00:10:37,610 scales. 184 00:10:38,440 --> 00:10:44,980 My name is Artis. I live in Torquay, Australia, and my and 185 00:10:44,980 --> 00:10:50,620 I'm six, almost seven. And my question is, why do lizards have 186 00:10:50,620 --> 00:10:51,520 scales? 187 00:10:51,760 --> 00:10:54,100 Jane: Can you go a little deeper into the scales of lizards? 188 00:10:54,100 --> 00:10:56,920 Adam: Yeah, so it really helps them to live in a lot of 189 00:10:56,920 --> 00:11:00,100 different habitats that would otherwise be very difficult for 190 00:11:00,100 --> 00:11:03,205 them to live in. The deserts, as I mentioned, are one of the 191 00:11:03,205 --> 00:11:06,625 prime examples. Deserts are very hard places for animals to live 192 00:11:06,625 --> 00:11:10,105 in, because they're so dry and because they're so hot, and so 193 00:11:10,105 --> 00:11:13,645 when you have a protective layer of armoring over your skin, like 194 00:11:13,645 --> 00:11:17,725 scales, which is what lizards do have, that opens up a whole 195 00:11:17,725 --> 00:11:20,185 realm of possibilities for places on the earth that they 196 00:11:20,185 --> 00:11:23,785 can live in and maybe avoid competition from other species 197 00:11:23,785 --> 00:11:26,650 that don't necessarily have those protections on their skin, 198 00:11:27,130 --> 00:11:30,130 and so that gives them the ability to live in places with 199 00:11:30,130 --> 00:11:30,910 less competition. 200 00:11:31,320 --> 00:11:34,740 Jane: You also mentioned the scales help them keep moisture 201 00:11:34,800 --> 00:11:36,600 in. How do scales do that? 202 00:11:36,620 --> 00:11:39,320 Adam: So you can think of scales as sort of they're very similar 203 00:11:39,320 --> 00:11:42,260 to your fingernails, so they're hard, they're impermeable to 204 00:11:42,260 --> 00:11:45,620 water, and so water doesn't travel through the scale the way 205 00:11:45,620 --> 00:11:49,520 it does through your skin. And so that's basically how it 206 00:11:49,520 --> 00:11:52,520 works. It's like a barrier. That's a good way to think of 207 00:11:53,660 --> 00:11:53,780 it. 208 00:11:53,800 --> 00:11:59,740 Evelyn: I'm from Quebec, Canada, and my name is Evelyn. I'm six 209 00:11:59,740 --> 00:12:07,260 years old, and why are lizard cold blooded? And why are people 210 00:12:07,260 --> 00:12:09,000 not cold blooded too? 211 00:12:09,360 --> 00:12:11,880 Adam: This is a really, really great question, and I'm glad 212 00:12:11,940 --> 00:12:15,660 that you asked this one so it's actually not true. Technically, 213 00:12:15,660 --> 00:12:19,440 that lizards are cold blooded. The way it works is the big 214 00:12:19,440 --> 00:12:23,220 differentiator between lizards and say, humans, is that we 215 00:12:23,220 --> 00:12:26,400 maintain our body temperature, and hence our blood temperature 216 00:12:26,400 --> 00:12:29,340 at a really consistent temperature, and we do that 217 00:12:29,700 --> 00:12:31,997 which part of the reason we do that is to make sure that all of 218 00:12:31,997 --> 00:12:35,445 our organs are at the sort of the same optimal conditions for 219 00:12:35,445 --> 00:12:36,045 operating. 220 00:12:36,525 --> 00:12:40,005 Jane: So if I go sledding in Vermont and it's one degree 221 00:12:40,005 --> 00:12:44,445 Fahrenheit, my body temperature is still staying around 98 and 222 00:12:44,445 --> 00:12:47,565 then if I come here to San Diego and I hike up the hills at 80 223 00:12:47,565 --> 00:12:50,265 degree weather, my body temperature is still right 224 00:12:50,265 --> 00:12:51,345 around 98 degrees. 225 00:12:51,400 --> 00:12:54,100 Adam: That's right. But if you were a lizard and you went from 226 00:12:54,100 --> 00:12:58,540 the Arctic to the deserts, your blood temperature and your body 227 00:12:58,540 --> 00:13:01,200 temperature would mimic whatever the surrounding temperatures 228 00:13:01,200 --> 00:13:04,320 are. So sometimes that means that lizards blood temperatures 229 00:13:04,320 --> 00:13:07,020 are quite cold, and other times it can mean that their blood 230 00:13:07,020 --> 00:13:10,560 temperature is quite a bit warmer than ours. So on average, 231 00:13:10,560 --> 00:13:13,200 yes, their blood tends to be a little bit colder than ours, but 232 00:13:13,560 --> 00:13:16,020 it can also be quite a bit warmer than ours. So it's just 233 00:13:16,140 --> 00:13:20,660 their blood is not it's not at a fixed temperature the way humans 234 00:13:20,660 --> 00:13:23,780 and mammals are their blood temperature varies according to 235 00:13:23,780 --> 00:13:24,500 the environment. 236 00:13:25,260 --> 00:13:28,440 Jane: I thought that's what cold blooded was. So why do you say 237 00:13:28,440 --> 00:13:31,560 they're not technically cold blooded? But it's this is like 238 00:13:31,680 --> 00:13:34,560 science that goes against what I was taught as a kid. 239 00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:37,000 Adam: So it depends on what you mean by cold, right? If cold 240 00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:40,840 means colder than human blood, then it's not true, because 241 00:13:40,840 --> 00:13:43,420 there are many lizards, in many contexts that can have blood 242 00:13:43,420 --> 00:13:46,660 temperatures well over 100 degrees. And so that's it's hard 243 00:13:46,660 --> 00:13:49,480 to argue that that's cold blood in that particular context. It's 244 00:13:49,480 --> 00:13:52,840 just that their blood temperature it varies. It's not 245 00:13:52,840 --> 00:13:53,680 consistent. 246 00:13:54,340 --> 00:13:57,445 Jane: I see so it's almost like it's just that a bad name for 247 00:13:57,445 --> 00:13:59,845 the way we regulate our temperature, or the way they 248 00:13:59,845 --> 00:14:01,045 regulate their temperature. 249 00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:03,700 Adam: That's right, it's kind of an over-simplification of what 250 00:14:03,700 --> 00:14:03,940 they do. 251 00:14:03,940 --> 00:14:07,600 Jane: Got it. Phew. I was gonna have to review my whole, you 252 00:14:07,600 --> 00:14:10,960 know, world view here. If that was not the case, we have 253 00:14:10,960 --> 00:14:13,240 another question from Grayson. 254 00:14:13,360 --> 00:14:17,800 Greyson: I'm Greyson. I'm five years old. I live in Pittsburgh, 255 00:14:17,800 --> 00:14:26,005 Pennsylvania. My question is, do chameleons sleep or hibernate? 256 00:14:26,005 --> 00:14:30,685 Because in the Wildcat how I saw them awake at night. 257 00:14:30,920 --> 00:14:34,940 Jane: So Grayson wonders, do chameleons sleep or hibernate? 258 00:14:35,540 --> 00:14:38,720 How do lizards think about those two things, which are quite 259 00:14:38,720 --> 00:14:39,200 different. 260 00:14:39,420 --> 00:14:42,480 Adam: They are quite different. So hibernation is typically 261 00:14:42,480 --> 00:14:45,060 something that a lizard is going to do if it lives in a really 262 00:14:45,060 --> 00:14:47,940 seasonal environment, where, if it gets really cold during the 263 00:14:47,940 --> 00:14:51,120 winter and much warmer during the summers, during the winter, 264 00:14:51,120 --> 00:14:55,080 the lizard might cease or stop most of its activity. Its blood 265 00:14:55,080 --> 00:14:58,560 temperature will get quite cold, and it won't really be running 266 00:14:58,560 --> 00:15:01,140 its metabolism anymore. So. Won't need to feed. It won't 267 00:15:01,140 --> 00:15:04,185 need to eat, and they'll just sort of let go into a long 268 00:15:04,185 --> 00:15:07,485 sleep, roughly analogous to what like a bear does during the 269 00:15:07,485 --> 00:15:11,205 winter, right? But if you're a lizard that lives in a more warm 270 00:15:11,205 --> 00:15:13,905 or a more stable environment, you can be active all year 271 00:15:13,905 --> 00:15:17,745 round, and you never really have to hibernate. Sleeping is a 272 00:15:17,745 --> 00:15:20,265 different matter. So sleeping is something that pretty much every 273 00:15:20,265 --> 00:15:23,625 vertebrate needs to do at some point on a daily cycle. And 274 00:15:23,625 --> 00:15:26,685 lizards are no different. So all lizards have to sleep, similar 275 00:15:26,730 --> 00:15:27,930 to the way humans have to sleep. 276 00:15:28,260 --> 00:15:32,820 Jane: So specific then to chameleons. Yes, they sleep, and 277 00:15:33,180 --> 00:15:35,160 are chameleons hibernators. 278 00:15:35,960 --> 00:15:39,020 Adam: Most chameleons live in pretty warm climate. I think 279 00:15:39,020 --> 00:15:42,080 most chameleons, it's safe to say, do not hibernate, but there 280 00:15:42,080 --> 00:15:45,320 might be some that do. I'm not sure. The other thing to keep in 281 00:15:45,320 --> 00:15:49,460 mind is that some lizard species are fully nocturnal, so they're 282 00:15:49,460 --> 00:15:53,000 sleeping during the day and being out and about, foraging 283 00:15:53,000 --> 00:15:56,420 and looking for food and looking for mates at night. So that's 284 00:15:56,420 --> 00:15:58,014 the other important thing to remember when we're talking 285 00:15:58,014 --> 00:16:00,065 about lizards sleeping, is they don't all sleep at night. Some 286 00:16:00,065 --> 00:16:01,265 of them sleep during the day. 287 00:16:01,265 --> 00:16:05,285 Jane: I looked this up Grayson, and it appears that chameleons 288 00:16:05,285 --> 00:16:09,005 are generally not known to be nocturnal, but I've seen the 289 00:16:09,005 --> 00:16:11,705 Wild Kratts episode you're talking about, and there is that 290 00:16:11,705 --> 00:16:15,305 chameleon in the dark. That episode, though, also features 291 00:16:15,305 --> 00:16:19,205 another animal, a type of lemur known as an aye aye, and that 292 00:16:19,205 --> 00:16:23,090 animal is nocturnal, so maybe the Wild Kratts took some 293 00:16:23,090 --> 00:16:25,790 artistic liberties to make the episode work. 294 00:16:25,900 --> 00:16:34,480 Julian: I'm I'm Julian, I'm five. I'm from Houston, Texas, 295 00:16:34,720 --> 00:16:40,480 and my question is, why do lizards can stick their tongue 296 00:16:40,480 --> 00:16:42,880 out to their eye, and we can't. 297 00:16:43,360 --> 00:16:46,720 Agatha: My name is Agatha. I'm a six year old, and I live in 298 00:16:46,720 --> 00:16:51,745 California. My question is, why do lizards and snakes and other 299 00:16:51,745 --> 00:16:56,005 reptiles stick their tongues out very often? 300 00:16:56,485 --> 00:16:58,225 Jane: Tell us about lizard tongues? 301 00:16:58,420 --> 00:17:00,760 Adam: Yeah, so there's a couple things going on there. So first 302 00:17:00,760 --> 00:17:04,240 of all, only a few lizard species can actually lick their 303 00:17:04,240 --> 00:17:07,360 eyes. Most lizards, in fact, cannot, any more than most 304 00:17:07,360 --> 00:17:11,260 humans cannot lick their eyes, right? But a lot of Geckos can. 305 00:17:11,740 --> 00:17:14,560 And part of the reason why they do this, I'm generalizing a 306 00:17:14,560 --> 00:17:17,980 little bit here, but part of the reason is that a lot of geckos 307 00:17:17,980 --> 00:17:22,240 have a thin, transparent scale that covers their eyes, and so 308 00:17:22,240 --> 00:17:26,545 they don't have eyelids, and so to clean their eyes, to clean 309 00:17:26,545 --> 00:17:29,605 the scale that covers their eyes, they don't have eyelids to 310 00:17:29,605 --> 00:17:32,425 do it. So they've co opted their tongue to do the work for them. 311 00:17:32,425 --> 00:17:34,765 So it's basically they're cleaning their eyes. Is the 312 00:17:34,765 --> 00:17:35,845 reason why they lick them. 313 00:17:35,845 --> 00:17:40,525 Is that eye scale different from a nictitating membrane that some 314 00:17:40,525 --> 00:17:43,465 animals have that can come down and protect their eye, but is 315 00:17:43,465 --> 00:17:44,545 different from an eyelid. 316 00:17:44,900 --> 00:17:48,380 It's very different in the sense that the scale is not related to 317 00:17:48,380 --> 00:17:51,380 an eyelid structure at all. It's it's a scale just like any other 318 00:17:51,380 --> 00:17:53,900 scale on the animal's body, except it's transparent. 319 00:17:53,900 --> 00:17:55,400 Jane: So they can see through it. 320 00:17:55,400 --> 00:17:57,560 Adam: They can see through it. Yeah. And that's also the case 321 00:17:57,560 --> 00:18:01,400 for snakes. Every snake has the same, the same type of eye. They 322 00:18:01,400 --> 00:18:04,220 have a transparent scale covering the eye, and this is 323 00:18:04,220 --> 00:18:06,993 why some people don't like snakes when they see them, 324 00:18:06,993 --> 00:18:08,705 because they think they have this rigid, unblinking stare, 325 00:18:08,705 --> 00:18:11,525 right? It's because they literally can't blink. They 326 00:18:11,525 --> 00:18:13,025 don't have eyelids. 327 00:18:13,540 --> 00:18:16,660 Jane: So when a snake is about to shed its skin, sometimes its 328 00:18:16,720 --> 00:18:20,380 eye looks cloudy. And is that because it's it's sort of 329 00:18:20,380 --> 00:18:23,080 separating all of its scales from its body? 330 00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:25,940 Adam: Exactly so, because the scale over the eye is just like 331 00:18:25,940 --> 00:18:29,240 any other scale, it gets shed when the snake sheds its skin, 332 00:18:29,660 --> 00:18:32,900 and during that process, a very thin layer of moisture gets 333 00:18:32,960 --> 00:18:36,140 produced between the new skin and the old skin. And when 334 00:18:36,140 --> 00:18:38,180 you're looking at the eye, you're basically looking at that 335 00:18:38,180 --> 00:18:41,660 cloudy moisture separating the two scales, and it's only once 336 00:18:41,660 --> 00:18:45,260 the old scale gets left off that the transparency comes back. 337 00:18:45,819 --> 00:18:48,999 Jane: But lizards don't shed, or do they? 338 00:18:49,059 --> 00:18:52,179 Adam: They absolutely shed. All lizards shed their skin, just 339 00:18:52,179 --> 00:18:52,779 like snakes do. 340 00:18:53,260 --> 00:18:56,860 Jane: So you might see a lizard with a foggy eye too. 341 00:18:56,860 --> 00:18:59,260 Adam: If it's one of the lizards that doesn't have eyelids, 342 00:18:59,260 --> 00:19:00,220 that's a possibility. 343 00:19:01,299 --> 00:19:03,719 Jane: Okay, so back to their eyes, so and their tongues is 344 00:19:03,719 --> 00:19:06,479 where we were really supposed to be going. So some of them can 345 00:19:06,719 --> 00:19:10,379 lick their eyes, but most can't. So what do they use their 346 00:19:10,379 --> 00:19:11,219 tongues for? 347 00:19:11,420 --> 00:19:14,420 Adam: So they use it for similar things that we use it for, for 348 00:19:14,420 --> 00:19:17,480 sort of manipulating food and moving food around within their 349 00:19:17,480 --> 00:19:22,040 mouths. Other species or groups like chameleons, for instance, 350 00:19:22,040 --> 00:19:24,440 have highly adapted tongues where they're shooting the 351 00:19:24,440 --> 00:19:27,680 tongue way outside the mouth, and the tongues are very sticky, 352 00:19:27,920 --> 00:19:31,220 and they glom on to a prey item, like a cricket that they want to 353 00:19:31,220 --> 00:19:33,440 eat, and then the tongue pulls that cricket back into the 354 00:19:33,440 --> 00:19:36,965 mouth. That's sort of an extreme case. And then another purpose 355 00:19:36,965 --> 00:19:40,925 for the tongue is that a lot of lizards use it to sense smells 356 00:19:40,925 --> 00:19:44,585 in their environment. So they're using their nose similar to the 357 00:19:44,585 --> 00:19:47,705 way we use our nose, but the tongue is sort of the secondary 358 00:19:47,705 --> 00:19:52,625 sensory mechanism where they're detecting smells by sticking 359 00:19:52,625 --> 00:19:55,325 their tongue out and tasting the air or tasting the ground, as 360 00:19:55,325 --> 00:19:59,090 the case may be. So multi- purpose tongues for a lot of 361 00:19:59,090 --> 00:19:59,510 animals. 362 00:19:59,510 --> 00:20:02,030 Jane: Do lizards have forked tongues? 363 00:20:02,300 --> 00:20:05,240 Adam: Some do and some do not. So it depends on the group of 364 00:20:05,240 --> 00:20:08,600 lizard. So you can imagine a Komodo dragon, for instance, 365 00:20:08,600 --> 00:20:11,900 they have very deeply forked tongues. But your Bearded 366 00:20:11,900 --> 00:20:14,480 Dragon, which you might have as a pet at home, they have just a 367 00:20:14,480 --> 00:20:16,820 tiny, tiny little fork at the tip of the tongue, but it 368 00:20:16,820 --> 00:20:18,800 basically looks like your tongue, unless you're looking 369 00:20:18,800 --> 00:20:19,460 really closely. 370 00:20:19,460 --> 00:20:22,340 Jane: Do you know how many kinds of lizards there are? 371 00:20:22,340 --> 00:20:26,165 Adam: There are over 7,000 described species of lizards, 372 00:20:26,165 --> 00:20:29,345 and there are more being described every day. And so 373 00:20:29,345 --> 00:20:32,045 that's something that I do as part of my work as a scientist. 374 00:20:32,045 --> 00:20:35,405 So I've participated in the description of three new lizard 375 00:20:35,405 --> 00:20:37,805 species in my life, and we're working on a couple more right 376 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:42,040 Jane: That's so exciting. What does it feel like to find a new 377 00:20:37,805 --> 00:20:37,925 now. 378 00:20:42,040 --> 00:20:45,940 lizard that hasn't been as you as you say, described before, 379 00:20:46,120 --> 00:20:48,640 that, you know, human. That doesn't mean that that humans 380 00:20:48,640 --> 00:20:51,700 didn't know about it before, but it hasn't been put into the 381 00:20:51,700 --> 00:20:53,980 scientific record. What is it like to do that? 382 00:20:53,980 --> 00:20:57,580 Adam: It feels really cool. It's a real thrill. So one of my 383 00:20:57,580 --> 00:21:00,160 childhood dreams was to do this when I was the age of many of 384 00:21:00,160 --> 00:21:03,145 you listening right now, I wanted to describe new species 385 00:21:03,145 --> 00:21:06,985 when I was a boy, and so when I turned 30, I was finally able to 386 00:21:06,985 --> 00:21:07,765 do that. 387 00:21:07,799 --> 00:21:09,899 Jane: What did you name them? Did you get the naming rights? 388 00:21:09,960 --> 00:21:12,600 Adam: Absolutely. So we were part of a team, so it wasn't 389 00:21:12,600 --> 00:21:16,320 just me. And so the team agreed for this particular lizard. We 390 00:21:16,320 --> 00:21:19,920 wanted to call it the Sierra Morena arboreal alligator 391 00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:23,420 lizard. So it's kind of a mouthful, but they're very cool 392 00:21:23,420 --> 00:21:26,360 lizards that live up in the forest canopy, and that's part 393 00:21:26,360 --> 00:21:28,940 of the reason why this one went undiscovered for so long, is 394 00:21:28,940 --> 00:21:31,760 because they're really out of sight of where most humans are 395 00:21:31,760 --> 00:21:33,020 when they're walking in the forest. 396 00:21:33,260 --> 00:21:34,700 Jane: What about its scientific name? 397 00:21:34,880 --> 00:21:38,180 Adam: Scientific name is abronia marinica. 398 00:21:38,780 --> 00:21:42,920 Grace: My name is Grace, and I'm five years old, and I live in 399 00:21:42,920 --> 00:21:48,620 Tempe, Arizona, and my question is, how do lizards stick to 400 00:21:48,740 --> 00:21:49,280 things? 401 00:21:49,700 --> 00:21:53,360 Nicholas: Hi, my name is Nicholas. I live in Halifax. I'm 402 00:21:53,360 --> 00:21:57,680 six years old, and my question is, how do lizards attach to 403 00:21:57,680 --> 00:21:57,980 walls? 404 00:21:57,980 --> 00:22:01,580 Adam: So it's a little bit complicated, and I will just say 405 00:22:01,580 --> 00:22:05,825 that it's not the same type of sticking that is like when you 406 00:22:05,825 --> 00:22:09,305 think about stickiness, like if it's a post it note or tape, 407 00:22:09,845 --> 00:22:12,185 it's not that way on the lizard's feet, they don't have 408 00:22:12,185 --> 00:22:15,485 technically sticky toes. What they do have is toes that have 409 00:22:15,485 --> 00:22:20,465 these really big patches on the underside of the toes that have 410 00:22:20,465 --> 00:22:24,845 all these teeny, teeny, tiny hairs. And those hairs increase 411 00:22:24,845 --> 00:22:29,030 the surface area of those toe pads, they're often called. And 412 00:22:29,030 --> 00:22:33,290 so when they touch a surface, they have all this surface area 413 00:22:33,290 --> 00:22:36,230 from the toe that's contacting whatever it is that they're 414 00:22:36,230 --> 00:22:40,610 touching. And there's these very strange forces that only apply 415 00:22:40,610 --> 00:22:43,970 in really small distances, and they're called Van der Waals 416 00:22:43,970 --> 00:22:47,690 forces. It's a very complicated name, and basically these Van 417 00:22:47,690 --> 00:22:52,115 der Waals forces are what allow geckos to stick, quote, unquote, 418 00:22:52,115 --> 00:22:53,975 stick their feet to the walls. 419 00:22:53,975 --> 00:22:55,415 Jane: So they don't have suction cups. 420 00:22:55,415 --> 00:22:58,655 Adam: They do not have suction cups. A lot of, some frogs do, 421 00:22:58,655 --> 00:23:01,955 and they frogs use a suction cup action. But with lizards, it's a 422 00:23:01,955 --> 00:23:03,815 very different style of stickiness. 423 00:23:03,815 --> 00:23:05,915 Jane: And not all lizards can stick to walls. 424 00:23:05,915 --> 00:23:08,555 Adam: Goodness, no. There's actually only a small subset of 425 00:23:08,555 --> 00:23:11,495 lizards that can stick to walls. Most lizards cannot climb walls 426 00:23:11,540 --> 00:23:12,020 like that. 427 00:23:12,360 --> 00:23:15,360 Jane: Coming up. You may have heard that lizards can lose 428 00:23:15,360 --> 00:23:19,860 their tails and then grow new ones. Is that true? Stay with 429 00:23:19,860 --> 00:23:20,220 us. 430 00:23:21,620 --> 00:23:24,260 This is But Why. I'm Jane Lindholm, and today we're 431 00:23:24,260 --> 00:23:27,620 learning all about lizards with Adam Clause, who manages the 432 00:23:27,620 --> 00:23:31,220 reptile and amphibian collection at the San Diego Natural History 433 00:23:31,220 --> 00:23:34,460 Museum. We did the interview down in the basement of the 434 00:23:34,460 --> 00:23:38,120 museum, where 80,000 specimens are preserved in jars full of 435 00:23:38,120 --> 00:23:41,540 liquid for scientists to be able to study and learn from them. 436 00:23:42,140 --> 00:23:44,765 Adam has been answering all kinds of lizard questions you've 437 00:23:44,765 --> 00:23:46,505 sent us. So let's get to some more. 438 00:23:46,505 --> 00:23:51,665 Lizards are famous for being one of the kinds of animals that 439 00:23:51,665 --> 00:23:56,825 sometimes loses their tail and can grow it back. And we have a 440 00:23:56,825 --> 00:23:59,585 lot of kids who are wondering how they do that. 441 00:23:59,600 --> 00:24:06,320 Rahan: Hi, I'm Rahan. I live in Jakarta, Indonesia. I'm six 442 00:24:06,320 --> 00:24:13,100 years old, and my question is, how do lizards grow their tails 443 00:24:13,100 --> 00:24:13,880 back? 444 00:24:14,240 --> 00:24:17,660 Luis: Hi, my name is Luis. I am 11, and I live in Fort Collins, 445 00:24:17,660 --> 00:24:21,800 Colorado. And my question is, how do lizards tails grow back? 446 00:24:21,800 --> 00:24:26,105 Lenka: Hello. My name is Lenka. I'm seven years old. I live in 447 00:24:26,105 --> 00:24:30,725 the Czech Republic, and my question is, when lizard's tail 448 00:24:30,725 --> 00:24:32,945 falls off why does a new one grow? 449 00:24:32,945 --> 00:24:39,485 Thomas: My name is Thomas. I'm four years old. I live in 450 00:24:39,485 --> 00:24:45,905 Pennsylvania, Harmony and my question is, why do lizards lose 451 00:24:45,905 --> 00:24:46,505 their tails? 452 00:24:46,840 --> 00:24:49,840 Adam: So not all lizards can, can break their tails, or at 453 00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:53,260 least not intentionally, but many lizards can, and they do it 454 00:24:53,260 --> 00:24:56,740 as a defense mechanism, as a way to escape a predator. So you can 455 00:24:56,740 --> 00:24:59,980 imagine, if you know a dog or a cat were to attack a lizard. 456 00:24:59,980 --> 00:25:03,040 Bird and just grab it by its tail, the lizard would want to 457 00:25:03,100 --> 00:25:05,740 sort of separate itself from the tail, which is somewhat 458 00:25:05,740 --> 00:25:09,220 disposable, right? It can live without its tail, and then it 459 00:25:09,220 --> 00:25:12,685 can use that mechanism to sort of escape while the dog or the 460 00:25:12,685 --> 00:25:15,145 cat or whatever it is that attacked, it is focused on the 461 00:25:15,145 --> 00:25:18,805 tail. And so most lizards that can lose their tails in that 462 00:25:18,805 --> 00:25:23,485 way, on each on each bone of the tail, each vertebra, there's 463 00:25:23,485 --> 00:25:27,025 actually a crack, and that crack serves as the point where that 464 00:25:27,025 --> 00:25:30,625 tail will break if you squeeze it or grab it really tightly. So 465 00:25:30,625 --> 00:25:32,845 they're adapted to lose their tails. It doesn't really hurt 466 00:25:32,845 --> 00:25:36,550 them. They bleed very little when this happens. And in fact, 467 00:25:36,550 --> 00:25:39,550 the muscles at the tip of the tail where the break happens, 468 00:25:39,790 --> 00:25:43,150 they all clench down and prevent a lot of blood loss. So it's not 469 00:25:43,150 --> 00:25:45,790 great for the lizard, but they've adapted to where it's 470 00:25:45,790 --> 00:25:52,150 not this, this, this potentially lethal event in their lives. And 471 00:25:52,150 --> 00:25:54,550 then they regrow their tails because a lot of lizards use 472 00:25:54,550 --> 00:25:57,895 their tails for things like balance when they run or balance 473 00:25:57,895 --> 00:26:02,275 when they're climbing, they'll often use it as sort of a device 474 00:26:02,335 --> 00:26:05,515 or a way for males to signal their health to females. And so 475 00:26:05,515 --> 00:26:08,515 having a full tail is really important to some lizards for 476 00:26:08,515 --> 00:26:11,695 reproduction. And so the way they regrow it is they don't 477 00:26:11,695 --> 00:26:15,115 regrow the bone. They can never regrow the bone, but what they 478 00:26:15,115 --> 00:26:18,295 can grow is like a little cartilaginous rod that grows out 479 00:26:18,295 --> 00:26:21,520 and has a little bit of muscle and soft tissue around the edges 480 00:26:21,580 --> 00:26:25,180 and scales on the outside for the skin, but the regrown tail 481 00:26:25,180 --> 00:26:28,780 never ever looks exactly like the original. So you can always 482 00:26:28,780 --> 00:26:31,960 tell when a lizard has broken off its tail if you look really 483 00:26:31,960 --> 00:26:34,900 closely, because the scales aren't the right size, the 484 00:26:34,900 --> 00:26:39,220 scales aren't the right color, and there's no bone inside. So 485 00:26:39,220 --> 00:26:41,680 if you X ray a lizard, you can know for sure if a tail is 486 00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:44,725 regenerated, because the bones will just stop and then it's 487 00:26:44,725 --> 00:26:46,045 just cartilage from then on. 488 00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:49,120 Jane: Cartilaginous is one of my favorite words. It's such a good 489 00:26:46,420 --> 00:27:06,400 Adam: Yeah, that's right. That's exactly right. 490 00:26:49,120 --> 00:26:53,080 word. And if you if you want to think about what is cartilage 491 00:26:53,080 --> 00:26:56,920 versus what is bone, you can feel in your nose, the part that 492 00:26:56,920 --> 00:26:59,740 wiggles, but is a little bit hard that's cartilage. Or you 493 00:26:59,740 --> 00:27:02,920 have cartilage in the top of your ears, and you can kind of 494 00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:06,760 bend it, but it still gives your your body part, that structure. 495 00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:14,665 Talia: Hi. Mine is Talia. I'm six years old. I live in Marina, 496 00:27:14,665 --> 00:27:19,285 California. My question is, why do lizards have different teeth 497 00:27:19,345 --> 00:27:20,725 than humans? 498 00:27:21,059 --> 00:27:23,839 Adam: So it's mostly related to their diet. So if you have an 499 00:27:23,839 --> 00:27:26,359 herbivorous lizard, it's going to have teeth that are going to 500 00:27:26,359 --> 00:27:29,839 be slightly different, for shearing off and then chewing up 501 00:27:30,439 --> 00:27:36,199 leaves or vegetation, versus a lizard that might be feeding on 502 00:27:36,199 --> 00:27:39,319 insects and it needs to sort of capture its prey and hold on to 503 00:27:39,319 --> 00:27:42,099 it with much larger, sharper teeth. So it really all depends 504 00:27:42,099 --> 00:27:44,919 on what you're eating. Humans sort of have a mixture of teeth, 505 00:27:44,919 --> 00:27:47,379 right? We have a couple sharp teeth in our mouth, and then 506 00:27:47,379 --> 00:27:49,779 towards the back we have our molars, which are better for 507 00:27:49,779 --> 00:27:54,639 grinding food. And so we're well adapted to sort of eat both meat 508 00:27:54,639 --> 00:27:59,739 and plants. But most lizards don't do that, sort of that 509 00:27:59,739 --> 00:28:02,219 breadth of what they can eat. They sort of specialize on one 510 00:28:02,219 --> 00:28:06,479 type of prey or another, and so their teeth just reflect that 511 00:28:06,719 --> 00:28:07,199 that diet. 512 00:28:07,660 --> 00:28:09,400 Jane: Are some lizards carnivores? 513 00:28:09,839 --> 00:28:13,259 Adam: Most lizards are. There's very few lizards that don't eat 514 00:28:13,739 --> 00:28:14,939 any meat, per se. 515 00:28:15,299 --> 00:28:18,299 Jane: Yeah. All right, so here's one that we always have to 516 00:28:18,299 --> 00:28:21,679 answer for every animal, because it's just, I don't know, I think 517 00:28:21,679 --> 00:28:22,879 it fascinates us. 518 00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:23,860 Maeve: Hi, my name is Maeve. 519 00:28:23,860 --> 00:28:26,800 Adult: How old are you? 520 00:28:27,160 --> 00:28:28,900 Maeve: Six years old. 521 00:28:28,900 --> 00:28:31,900 Adult: Where do you live? 522 00:28:33,760 --> 00:28:35,140 Maeve: Massachusetts. 523 00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:46,465 My question is do lizards poop or pee, or do they have a 524 00:28:46,465 --> 00:28:47,785 combined? 525 00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:54,260 Iris: My name is Iris, and four years old, and I live in Rupert, 526 00:28:54,500 --> 00:28:57,860 and my question is, why do lizards poop? 527 00:28:58,260 --> 00:29:01,320 Adam: All lizards poop and pee. I can say that unequivocally, no 528 00:29:01,320 --> 00:29:05,340 exceptions. The weird thing about their pee is that most 529 00:29:05,340 --> 00:29:09,780 lizards do not pee a fluid the way we do their pee is actually 530 00:29:09,780 --> 00:29:13,800 a solid, sort of chalky white or whitish yellow substance that's 531 00:29:13,800 --> 00:29:18,480 called uric acid. And so they do that to help reduce the amount 532 00:29:18,480 --> 00:29:20,865 of water that they lose from their bodies. And so this is 533 00:29:20,865 --> 00:29:23,745 particularly common in lizards that live in hot, dry places, 534 00:29:24,165 --> 00:29:27,225 because pee creates a lot of water, and water is really 535 00:29:27,225 --> 00:29:29,325 valuable if you're in the desert, so you don't want to 536 00:29:29,325 --> 00:29:32,685 lose a lot of your body's water by peeing. And so what lizards 537 00:29:32,685 --> 00:29:36,225 do instead is they concentrate their urine down to this chalky 538 00:29:36,225 --> 00:29:39,345 white substance, and that's how they get rid of their nitrogen 539 00:29:39,345 --> 00:29:43,035 waste, instead of using water to dilute the nitrogen waste and 540 00:29:43,035 --> 00:29:46,470 expel it from the body. Poop is just kind of poop. It's the 541 00:29:46,470 --> 00:29:49,470 waste materials, or the materials that an animal can't 542 00:29:49,470 --> 00:29:53,790 digest in its in its stomach or in its intestine, and so it's 543 00:29:53,790 --> 00:29:54,930 just pooped out as waste. 544 00:29:54,990 --> 00:29:55,830 What color is tha? 545 00:29:55,830 --> 00:30:00,870 Typically brown, but it can depend. Yeah, it can depend. 546 00:30:01,140 --> 00:30:03,600 Jane: When I got here to San Diego from Vermont, and I knew I 547 00:30:03,600 --> 00:30:07,440 was going to come and talk to you, I was on a mission to see a 548 00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:11,160 lizard as quickly as possible, and I landed at night, so I 549 00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:13,140 didn't have a chance at night, because we talked about how 550 00:30:13,140 --> 00:30:16,020 they're not going to necessarily be out as much in the in the 551 00:30:16,020 --> 00:30:19,260 night, when it's cooler, and then in the morning, I went for 552 00:30:19,260 --> 00:30:23,460 a walk, and I saw a Western fence lizard. Tell me about 553 00:30:23,460 --> 00:30:23,760 those. 554 00:30:24,200 --> 00:30:26,300 Adam: So they're really great lizards. I think you may have 555 00:30:26,300 --> 00:30:29,120 heard me talk about earlier, the lizards that I was catching in 556 00:30:29,120 --> 00:30:33,380 my backyard as a kid growing up. That was the lizard. So they're 557 00:30:33,380 --> 00:30:36,920 often sometimes called Blue bellies, because on the 558 00:30:36,920 --> 00:30:40,220 underside of their bellies, the males, in particular, the boys, 559 00:30:40,400 --> 00:30:43,880 they will have these bright blue patches, and they use those to 560 00:30:43,880 --> 00:30:46,460 signal both to other male lizards, hey, this is my 561 00:30:46,460 --> 00:30:50,225 territory, stay away, as well as to signal to female lizards. 562 00:30:50,225 --> 00:30:53,045 Hey, I might make a good mate. I'm really healthy and vigorous. 563 00:30:53,525 --> 00:30:56,405 And so what they do is this really distinctive display that 564 00:30:56,405 --> 00:30:59,885 we call the push up display. So they will sort of push their 565 00:30:59,885 --> 00:31:03,125 belly out so that it's sort of flattened. And then they will 566 00:31:03,125 --> 00:31:06,425 literally do push ups from their front legs to show off their 567 00:31:06,425 --> 00:31:09,365 bellies to any other lizards that happen to be standing by. 568 00:31:09,485 --> 00:31:11,690 Jane: Well, that lizard was either not a male or not 569 00:31:11,690 --> 00:31:13,670 impressed by me. It did not do any push ups. 570 00:31:13,670 --> 00:31:16,130 Adam: Sometimes they'll even do push ups at people, if they sort 571 00:31:16,130 --> 00:31:18,410 of feel threatened and they're like, Get away from me. This is 572 00:31:18,410 --> 00:31:21,050 my territory. They'll push up at you. They're very, very spunky. 573 00:31:21,290 --> 00:31:23,990 Jane: What are some other cool lizards that are native to this 574 00:31:23,990 --> 00:31:27,830 area in the southwest, Southern California and Mexico? The Baja 575 00:31:27,830 --> 00:31:28,490 Peninsula. 576 00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:28,756 Adam: There's so many. It's Southern California and the Baja 577 00:31:28,756 --> 00:31:33,940 Peninsula are some of the best places to be a lizard biologist, 578 00:31:33,940 --> 00:31:37,300 because there's so many different types. One of the most 579 00:31:37,300 --> 00:31:39,820 famous one is a lizard that some of you may have heard of. It's 580 00:31:39,820 --> 00:31:43,540 called the chuckwalla. So this is the second largest lizard 581 00:31:43,540 --> 00:31:45,940 species in California. They're about the size of a bearded 582 00:31:45,940 --> 00:31:49,480 dragon, and similar to a bearded dragon, they're sort of plump, 583 00:31:49,480 --> 00:31:51,940 right? They have a big belly. They're strict herbivores, so 584 00:31:51,940 --> 00:31:54,865 they're only eating plant material, and they like to live 585 00:31:54,865 --> 00:31:58,705 in rocks, specifically like rock crevices. And so when 586 00:31:58,705 --> 00:32:02,425 chuckwalla's feel threatened, they will enter a rock crevice, 587 00:32:02,425 --> 00:32:05,545 and they'll wedge themselves as deeply as they can, and then 588 00:32:05,545 --> 00:32:08,725 they'll gulp air into their lungs, and they'll blow up their 589 00:32:08,725 --> 00:32:12,205 body like a balloon with air in their lungs. And by wedging 590 00:32:12,205 --> 00:32:13,926 themselves in with that air pressure, it's impossible to 591 00:32:13,926 --> 00:32:15,490 pull them out unless you do what the first peoples or the Native 592 00:32:16,150 --> 00:32:20,650 Americans would have done, because these are such large 593 00:32:20,650 --> 00:32:22,810 lizards, they have really meaty legs, so there's a lot of 594 00:32:22,930 --> 00:32:26,050 dietary value in a lizard like that. So they would take 595 00:32:26,110 --> 00:32:29,410 chuckwalla sticks, basically a sharpened stick, and they would 596 00:32:29,410 --> 00:32:32,290 pop the chuck wallahs like balloons, and then pull them out 597 00:32:32,290 --> 00:32:35,050 from the rocks. Yeah. So that's one. 598 00:32:35,110 --> 00:32:35,890 Jane: Good technique. 599 00:32:35,890 --> 00:32:38,995 Adam: It is a good technique. It worked. It worked. And you can 600 00:32:38,995 --> 00:32:43,195 find them in the deserts of Southern California, as well as 601 00:32:43,195 --> 00:32:45,775 in parts of Arizona, Southern Utah. So they're pretty 602 00:32:45,775 --> 00:32:51,175 widespread. Another really popular lizards, or type of 603 00:32:51,175 --> 00:32:54,595 lizard, is the banded gecko. So these are much smaller lizards, 604 00:32:54,595 --> 00:32:57,535 unlike the chuckwalla, which are active during the day, the 605 00:32:57,535 --> 00:33:00,595 banded geckos are mostly active at night. And if you go and 606 00:33:00,640 --> 00:33:04,000 drive slowly on desert roads in the spring and summertime, you 607 00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:08,020 can find these geckos crossing the roads, walking along. And 608 00:33:08,020 --> 00:33:10,720 they're also pretty special, because if they feel threatened, 609 00:33:10,840 --> 00:33:13,540 they can squeak, they can actually vocalize. Very few 610 00:33:13,540 --> 00:33:16,240 lizards can do this, but banded geckos are one of them. 611 00:33:16,680 --> 00:33:19,560 Jane: Geckos are kind of famous for their vocalizations, right? 612 00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:21,580 Adam: Yeah, a lot of geckos can squeak. Yeah. 613 00:33:21,780 --> 00:33:26,280 Geckos are very cool, but so are a lot of other kinds of lizards. 614 00:33:26,700 --> 00:33:28,920 We're going to end today's episode here because it's 615 00:33:28,920 --> 00:33:31,920 already getting really long, but we're going to come back with a 616 00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:35,880 bonus episode next week where we can get really specific about 617 00:33:35,880 --> 00:33:38,760 some extra cool kinds of lizards, and your questions 618 00:33:38,760 --> 00:33:43,200 about them, like, how do chameleons change color? What's 619 00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:46,245 a Komodo dragon, and how did it get that name? What's the 620 00:33:46,245 --> 00:33:50,565 smallest lizard in the world? And have you ever heard of a 621 00:33:50,565 --> 00:33:56,445 tuatara, looks just like a lizard, but is it? Adam Clause, 622 00:33:56,445 --> 00:33:59,265 who manages the reptile and amphibian collection at the San 623 00:33:59,265 --> 00:34:02,625 Diego Natural History Museum, will be back to answer even more 624 00:34:02,625 --> 00:34:07,005 of your questions in that bonus episode. As you know, you can 625 00:34:07,050 --> 00:34:10,410 ask us a question on just about anything. Have your adult help 626 00:34:10,410 --> 00:34:13,050 you record you asking the question. They can use one of 627 00:34:13,050 --> 00:34:15,870 the free voice apps that comes on a smartphone. And if you 628 00:34:15,870 --> 00:34:18,270 aren't able to talk, or you don't want to share your voice, 629 00:34:18,270 --> 00:34:23,010 you can have your adult type out your question, then send it to 630 00:34:23,190 --> 00:34:26,010 questions@butwhykids.org. We really wish we could answer all 631 00:34:26,010 --> 00:34:29,730 of your brilliant and thought provoking queries, but we do 632 00:34:29,730 --> 00:34:32,835 listen to them, and sometimes, like in this episode, we come 633 00:34:32,835 --> 00:34:35,655 back to them months or even years after you've sent them. 634 00:34:35,655 --> 00:34:39,135 It's hard not to get them answered right away. I know, but 635 00:34:39,135 --> 00:34:42,975 did you know we have more than 20,000 questions we are trying 636 00:34:42,975 --> 00:34:47,715 as hard as we can to get to as many as we can. But Why is made 637 00:34:47,715 --> 00:34:50,715 at Vermont Public and distributed by PRX. Our 638 00:34:50,715 --> 00:34:54,075 producers are Sarah Baik, Melody Bodette and me,Jane Lindholm, 639 00:34:54,555 --> 00:34:57,420 Joey Palumbo is our video producer, and Luke Reynolds 640 00:34:57,420 --> 00:35:00,720 wrote and performed our theme music. If you like our show, 641 00:35:00,780 --> 00:35:03,660 please give us a review or a like on whatever platform you 642 00:35:03,660 --> 00:35:08,160 use to listen to us. We'll be back in one week with an all new 643 00:35:08,160 --> 00:35:11,640 episode. Until then, stay curious.