Strange Animals Podcast

This week we’ll learn about a long-forgotten animal of folklore! Further reading: https://www.anomalist.com/ The Pictish Beast: A dragonesque brooch: Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. The Picts were a population of Celtic people who lived in what is now northern and eastern Scotland between around the third and tenth centuries. They had their own...

Let’s learn about some of the oldest life ever discovered! Further reading: Microbiologists Find Living Microbes in 2-Billion-Year-Old Rock Chart of life extended by nearly 1.5 billion years Show transcript: Back in episode 168 we talked about the longest-lived organisms known, and finished the episode by discussing endoliths. I’ll quote from that episode as a refresher. An endolith isn’t a...

Further reading: Beavers Have Metal Teeth Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. Let’s find out about some animals that incorporate metal into their bodies in more than just trace amounts. We’ll start with the scaly-foot gastropod, a deep-sea snail. It lives around hydrothermal vents in the Indian Ocean, about 1 and ¾ miles below the surface, or about 2800 m...

Is there life on Europa? We take a look at Greenland and Antarctica to find out more about life on Jupiter’s icy moon. Further reading: Life on Venus claim faces strongest challenge yet Stanford researchers’ explanation for formation of abundant features on Europa bodes well for search for extraterrestrial life  Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate S...

It’s Albert the Albanerpetontid! Further reading: Earliest example of a rapid-fire tongue found in ‘weird and wonderful’ extinct amphibians Amphibian skullllll: Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. Let’s learn about a long-extinct amphibian that looked a lot like a reptile. It’s a family of animals called Albanerpetontidae. That’s a mouth...

Further reading: Identifying the beasts in Caesar’s forest Reindeer: Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. After the glaciers retreated from Europe at the end of the last ice age, around 11,000 years ago, forests grew wherever there was enough soil to support a tree. As these new forests spread, they joined forests that had survived the glaciations. By the...

This week let’s look at the work of a really astonishing number of spiders! Further reading: Megaweb! Some of the webs: Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. Baltimore, Maryland is a city in the northeastern United States, in North America, with a population of 2.8 million people. In 1993 a new wastewater treatment plant was built called the Back Rive...

DRAMA! Bird drama! Here are some further-reading links if you want to verify that I’m not vilifying anyone: Buff-breasted Buttonquail: An image claimed to be of this species revealed Buff-breasted Buttonquail: Smoke & Mirrors A review of specimens of Buff-breasted Button-quail Turnix olivii suggests serious concern for its conservation outlook A painted button quail: Show transcript: Wel...

This week let’s learn about some blue frogs! Further reading: Scientists make chance discovery of rare blue skin mutation in Kimberley magnificent tree frog White’s True-Blue Green Tree Frog Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. When most of us draw a frog, we reach for the green markers, because most frogs are green. That’s true of the magnificent tr...

Further reading: Parallels for cetacean trap feeding and tread-water feeding in the historical record across two millennia Haggling over the Hafgufa Many renditions of the hafgufa/aspidochelone: Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. Back in the olden days, as much as 1700 years ago and probably more, up through the 14th century or so, various manuscripts ab...

Further reading: I Can Has Mutant Larvae? 200-Year-Old ‘Monster Larva’ Mystery Solved ‘Snakeworm’ mystery yields species new to science Hearkening back to the hazelworm Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. A few weeks ago when I was researching big eels, I remembered the mystery eel larva we talked about back in episode 49, and that led me down a fun rabbi...

It’s the annual discoveries episode! Thanks to Stephen and Aryeh for their corrections and suggestions this week! Further reading: Salinella Salve: The Vanishing Creature That Defied Science for Over a Century Three new species of the genus Scutiger Baeticoniscus carmonaensis sp. nov. a new Isopod found in an underground aqueduct from the Roman period located in Southwest Spain (Crustacea, I...

Thanks to Aila, Stella, George, Richard from NC, Emilia, Emerson, and Audie for their suggestions this week! Further reading: Creature Feature: Snipe Eel How removing a dam could save North Carolina’s ‘lasagna lizard’ Why Has This North Carolina Town Embraced a Strange Salamander? Scentists search for DNA of an endangered salamander in Mexico City’s canals An X-ray of the slender snipe...

Thanks to Conner, Tim, Stella, Cillian, Eilee, PJ, and Morris for their suggestions this week! Further reading: Extinct Hippo-Like Creature Discovered Hidden in Museum: ‘Sheer Chance’ The golden lion tamarin has very thin fingers and sometimes it’s rude: The golden lion tamarin also has a very long tail: The cotton-top tamarin [picture by Chensiyuan – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://co...

Thanks to Audie, Katie, Eilee, Emily, Maryjane, and Dylan for their suggestions this week! Sorry this episode is late–the site was down. 🙁 Further reading: Bobolinks A frill-neck lizard showing off: A bobolink: The great-eared nightjar [picture by Venkata Shreeram Mallimadugula, taken from this site ]: Another great-eared nightjar [Picture by Nigel Voaden from UK – Great Eared-Nightja...

Here’s the big invertebrate episode I’ve been promising people! Thanks to Sam, warbrlwatchr, Jayson, Richard from NC, Holly, Kabir, Stewie, Thaddeus, and Trech for their suggestions this week! Further reading: Does the Spiral Siphonophore Reign as the Longest Animal in the World? The common nawab butterfly: The common nawab caterpillar: A velvet worm: A giant siphonophore [photo by Cat...

Thanks to Holly for suggesting this week’s topic! Further reading: Mermaids: Myth, Kith and Kin [this article is not for children] Feejee Mermaid A manatee: A female grey seal, looking winsome: A drawing of the “original” Fiji (or Feejee) mermaid: Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. Let’s close out the year 2025 with a mystery episode! H...

Thanks to Emily, Jo, and Alexandra for their suggestions this week! Further reading: Highland Cattle Society Mongolian Sheep The Donkey Sanctuary The Highland cow is so cute (picture taken from the first site linked above): Some fat-tailed sheep (picture taken from the sheep article linked above): Donkeys: A happy donkey and a happy person (photo taken from the Donkey Sanctuary’s site, linke...

It’s an episode just absolutely full of fish! Thanks to Arthur, Yuzu, Jayson, Kabir, Nora, Siya, Joel, Elizabeth, Mac, Ryder, Alyx, Dean, and Riley for their suggestions this week! Further reading: Study uncovers mechanics of machete-like ‘tail-whipping’ in thresher sharks Business end of a sawfish: Giant freshwater stingray! The frilled shark looks like an eel: The frilled shark...

Thanks to Måns, Sam, Owen and Askel for this week’s suggestions! Further reading: Shingleback Lizard What controls the colour of the common mānuka stick insect? The mossy leaf-tailed gecko has skin flaps that hide its shadow. There’s a lizard in this photo, I swear! [photo by Charles J. Sharp – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92125100]: A s...

Further reading: Study: Giant Therizinosaurs Used Their Meter-Long, Sickle-Like Claws for Display Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. I am delighted to report that Therizinosaurus lived in what is now Mongolia in Central Asia, in the Gobi Desert. 70 million years ago, the land wasn’t a desert at all but a forest with multiple rivers and streams flowing th...

Further reading: Mysterious ‘blue goo’ at the bottom of the sea stumps scientists Three new species of ground snakes discovered under graveyards and churches in Ecuador Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. I’ve come down a cold this week, and while I’m feeling better, it is settling into my chest as usual and I’m starting to cough. Since I’m still recoveri...

Thanks to Alexandra, Jayson, and Eilee for their suggestions this week! Further reading: Scientists have discovered an ancient whale species. It may have looked like a mash-up of ‘a seal and a Pokémon’ The nomenclatural status of the Alula whale Field Guide of Whales and Dolphins [1971] The little Benguela dolphin [photo taken from this site ]: The spinner dolphin almost looks like it has racing s...

Thanks to Viki, Erin, Weller, and Stella for their suggestions this week! Further reading: Tasmanian tiger pups found to be extraordinary similar to wolf pups The thylacine could open its jaws really wide: A sugar glider, gliding [photo from this page ]: A happy quokka and a happy person: A swimming platypus: Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. This week...

Thanks to Fleur, Yuzu, and Richard from NC for their suggestions this week! Further reading: World’s rarest parrot, extinct in wild, hatches at zoo Kakapo recovery This Parrot Stood 3 Feet Tall and Ruled the Roost in New Zealand Forests 19 Million Years Ago The magnificent palm cockatoo: The gigantic kakapo: Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. This week w...