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The Weirdest Living Animals - (With Dr. Lawrence Turtleman)

2017-11-10 · explainer · Hank · 3:50 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Science & nature · mode: Curiosity & trivia · tags: calendar ritual, self promotion, song or performance

On the last day of Pizzamas, Hank as Dr. Lawrence Turtleman explains taxa and presents 'taxonomic islands': the aardvark and hoatzin alone in their orders, the coelacanths and tuatara as runners-up, and the ginkgo alone in its division.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Dr. Lawrence Turtleman takes over the last day of Pizzamas and recalls its videos

  • ★★ Dr. Lawrence Turtleman: Dr. Turtleman says Hank handed him the last day of Pizzamas, and he loved its videos: the haul videos, reunions, almond orchards and reviews. (playful) — 00:00:02 · Pizzamas, Hank Green

00:00:16 — All organisms are related; morphology, genetics, the miacid; what a taxon is

  • ★★ Dr. Lawrence Turtleman: All organisms on Earth are related; scientists traced this for hundreds of years through morphology and can also trace it through genetics. — 00:00:16 · Earth
  • ★ Dr. Lawrence Turtleman: Tigers and lions, and wolves and foxes, are visibly related, and a lion and a wolf are more related to each other than to a sheep. (playful, hedged) — 00:00:32
  • ★ Dr. Lawrence Turtleman: The fossil record shows the common ancestor of dogs and cats, the miacid, a proto-carnivore. — 00:00:41
  • ★★ Dr. Lawrence Turtleman: Every taxonomic category from domain down to species is a taxon containing multiple taxa, e.g. the order Carnivora holds canids, felids, ursids, pinnipeds and mustelids. — 00:00:52

00:01:12 — Taxonomic islands: aardvark, hoatzin, coelacanths, tuatara, ginkgo

  • ★★★ Dr. Lawrence Turtleman: A 'taxonomic island' is an order with only one family, one genus and one species, like there being only one living carnivore. — 00:01:12
  • ★★★ Dr. Lawrence Turtleman: Only two terrestrial vertebrates are alone in their order: the aardvark (order Tubulidentata) and the hoatzin (order Opisthocomiformes). (hedged) — 00:01:28
  • ★ Dr. Lawrence Turtleman: Aardvarks are extremely successful and roam all across Africa, but all their ancestors have gone extinct. — 00:01:37
  • ★★ Dr. Lawrence Turtleman: The hoatzin is a really weird South American bird, as its looks show. (playful) — 00:01:45
  • ★★ Dr. Lawrence Turtleman: Runner-up: the non-terrestrial order Coelacanthiformes has two species; coelacanths were thought extinct for 66 million years until one was found in 1938, and later another species. — 00:01:51
  • ★★ Dr. Lawrence Turtleman: Order Rhynchocephalia holds the two tuatara species; the second was found living on only one island off New Zealand. — 00:02:04
  • ★★ Dr. Lawrence Turtleman: Tuatara look like modern lizards, but their last shared ancestor with lizards and snakes lived over 150 million years ago. — 00:02:17
  • ★★ Dr. Lawrence Turtleman: Instead of teeth, tuatara grow their bones up through their gums to bite and chew. — 00:02:34
  • ★★★ Dr. Lawrence Turtleman: The ginkgo tree takes the cake: a plant sharing only its kingdom with other plants, the only species in its division. — 00:02:45
  • ★★ Dr. Lawrence Turtleman: Because humans enjoy ginkgos, they have been planted all over the world from their original home in Asia, welcomed into the Anthropocene. (playful) — 00:03:04

00:03:22 — Hank thanks Dr. Turtleman, Pizzamas ends, last chance to buy the gear; sign-off

  • ★★ Hank thanks everyone for hanging out this Pizzamas; it has been a great time and he can't believe it is already over. — 00:03:29 · Pizzamas
  • ★★ Hank says now is the last chance to get this year's (2017) Pizzamas stuff, made for two weeks then never again, at DFTBA.com/pizzamas or via the end screen. — 00:03:33 · Pizzamas, DFTBA Records

In the description and comments

  • ★★ Dr. Lawrence Turtleman: Dr. Turtleman notes these organisms are sometimes called 'living fossils' because they resemble their fossils, but says the label is somewhat inaccurate, pointing to an Eons episode. — video description · Eons

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Ginkgo biloba · Taxonomy (biology)

Also: Projects: DFTBA Records · Pizzamas

Concepts: Aardvark · Anthropocene · Coelacanth · evolution · Hoatzin · tuatara

Places: Africa · New Zealand

Characters: Dr. Lawrence Turtleman

Only in the description or credits: Eons

Also centred on Ginkgo biloba: At Least There Are Trees

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