Life, Death, and Taxonomy

In the dusty old texan desserts, ain’t no one gonna help you when buzzerds and coyotes come a-callin. If you wanna survive out here, you better make like a lizard with a deep bag of tricks. Set a spell and learn you a thing or two about the lengths one wasteland reptile will go to to maintain the balance of Life, Death, and Taxonomy.

Lizards are some of the coolest animals there are. They squat like mighty dragons atop majestic rocks and also on the hood of your car. The only problem is that they tend to be on the menu for a wide variety of predators. But there’s one lizard that is equipped with a special and disgusting weapon to fend off attackers. Most lizards just drop their tails and chalk it up to a loss, but the horned lizard releases a very different body part to avoid being eaten.

Superheroes are great. They save the day, beat the bad guy, and rake in ticket sales at the box office. But what if one of those heroes could leap off the silver screen and right into your electron microscope? That’s right, we’re talking about the tardigrade–nature’s indestructible little potato worm. But what is a tardigrade? Why is it a superhero? And why should I care?

All valid questions.

Let’s put on our sciencing caps and take a deep dive into the semi-microscopic world of the teeny tiny titan tardigrade to see just how resilient this little sucker is.

Deep in the heart of East Africa, where powerful lions prowl the savannah and graceful giraffes trim the treetops above, there dwells a small population of wolves with a keen sense of self-sacrifice. But the fact that this canine is sharin the plains with the largest predators in the world isn’t the most interesting fact about the Ethiopian wolf. Keep reading to learn why humans could learn a thing or two from nature’s goodest boy.

When you think of the most ferocious predators in the ocean, very few people think of the squishy squid as being in the top of the list. Join us as we take a look at one of the most aggressive polychromatic denizens of the deep as it stealthily eats up everything it can get its slimy tentacles on in Life, Death, and Taxonomy.

Featuring the vocal talents and expert barks of Yoshi the Hound Dog.