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World's Smallest Animals

2012-02-18 · Hank · watch on YouTube · Science & nature · curiosity idea

Prompted by the newly discovered smallest chameleon and SciShow's tardigrade success, Hank runs through the world's smallest animals by category, from the dwarf gecko and male anglerfish to the Etruscan shrew, the mouse lemur and record-small pets, and plugs a No Edge shirt.

What is said

00:00:12 — Why: the newly discovered smallest chameleon in Madagascar and SciShow's popular tardigrade episode; 'Tardigrade don't care'

  • ★★ Hank says the world's smallest chameleon was recently discovered in Madagascar, one reason for this video about the tiniest things. — 00:00:12
  • ★★ Hank says the other reason for the video is that SciShow's episode on tardigrades went really well. — 00:00:15 · SciShow

00:00:30 — Smallest reptile (Virgin Islands dwarf gecko), the frog-or-fish smallest-vertebrate controversy, dime and quarter for scale, and the male anglerfish

  • ★★ Hank says the chameleon is not the smallest reptile: that is the Virgin Islands dwarf gecko, shown full-grown on a dime. — 00:00:30
  • ★★ Hank says the smallest vertebrate is a frog or a fish depending on the side of a controversy, and that it makes sense it lives in water, where gravity matters less. — 00:00:40
  • ★ Hank shows a dime for non-Americans: the smallest US coin, though worth more than pennies and nickels; the smallest snake is shown on a quarter. (playful) — 00:01:02
  • ★★ Hank says the male anglerfish is smaller than the frog and the smallest vertebrate, though most biologists don't count it because it relies on sexual parasitism to survive. — 00:01:16

00:01:36 — Smallest warm-blooded animals: bee hummingbird, Kitti's hog-nosed bat, Etruscan shrew, extinct Batodonoides vanhouteni, Madame Berthe's mouse lemur

  • ★★ Hank says the smallest warm-blooded creature is the bee hummingbird. — 00:01:43
  • ★★ Hank says the smallest mammal is harder to determine: by length it is Kitti's hog-nosed bat, by mass the Etruscan shrew, which he picks. — 00:01:51
  • ★ Hank says there was once a smaller mammal, the long-extinct Batodonoides vanhouteni, a kind of shrew he mentions because of the name Van Houten. — 00:02:07
  • ★★ Hank says the world's smallest primate is Madame Berthe's mouse lemur, which weighs just over an ounce. — 00:02:15

00:02:29 — Domestic record-holders: Ducky the dog, Thumbelina the miniature horse, Mr. Peebles the cat; the 'cat in a cup' search

  • ★★ Hank names domestic record-holders: Ducky, the current smallest dog at 1.4 pounds, and Thumbelina, a miniature horse just 17 inches tall, which he says does not sound healthy. — 00:02:31
  • ★ Hank says Mr. Peebles, a tiny cat, is his favourite animal of the video because it led him to Google 'cat in a cup', where he found many cats in cups. (playful) — 00:02:43 · Google

00:03:10 — Sign-off; the No Edge shirt is available for pre-order at DFTBA.com

  • ★★ Hank says he made a No Edge shirt design, 'like my face', now available for pre-order at DFTBA.com. — 00:03:13 · DFTBA Records

Humor (significant)

  • Hank turns the viral 'honey badger don't care' line on tardigrades, which survive the vacuum of space. — 00:00:23 > «Maybe shove honey badger out of an airlock into the vacuum of space and see if he cares then.»
  • Tiny animals are always pictured on a dime for scale. — 00:01:02 > «Unless you're the world's smallest snake, in which case you're so massive that you have to be pictured on a quarter.»
  • Hank notes most biologists exclude the male anglerfish from the smallest-vertebrate title. — 00:01:34 > «I'm on the anglerfish side of every debate!»
  • After finding many cats in cups via Google, Hank sings over music. — 00:02:58 > «it's a cat in a cup, girl...»

Threads in this video

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