The Brain Scoop

I watched the most recent Brain Scoop video, and fell in love with Janelle (the rat queen)

[Video of venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough standing amid vegetation.  On a near-horizontal branch above his head is a brown and yellow greater bird of paradise, about the size of a crow, with big floaty yellow plumage puffing out along its back.]

Bird:  Pwuk.  Pwuk. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough:  This, surely – Bird (hopping along the branch):  WUKWUKWUkwukwukwukoooh.  Oooh.  Oooh.

[Cut.  Same shot.]

Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough:  This, surely, is one – Bird:  Kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough:  This, surely –

[Cut.  Same shot but the bird is on the other side now and venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough has his hand on the branch.]

Bird (hopping up and down on venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough’s fingers):  Eh-eh.  Eh-eh.  Eh-urrrr.  Eh-urrrr. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough:  Close up – Bird (hopping away from him):  Tiktiktiktik.  Tiktiktiktik. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough:  – the plumes – Bird (hopping around):  Huek. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: – are truly – Bird:  Huek. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough:  – exquisite. Bird:  Huek.  Eh-eh. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough:  The gauzy – Bird (hopping and spinning on the spot):  HukWUKWUKWukwukoooh.  Oooh. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough:  …

[Cut.  Same shot but the bird is back on the original side of the branch.]

Bird:  Aark. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough:  Of course, by the eighteenth century – Bird:  Ehhh. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough:  – naturalists realized that birds of paradise – Bird (hops across to the other side of the branch) Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough:  – did have – Bird (hopping back again):  Krrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough:  – legs.  Even so – Bird:  WUKWUKWUKWukwukwukooh.

[Cut.  Same shot.] Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough (apparently trying to tickle the bird’s tummy):  – by about the eighteenth century – Bird (hops away and spins round) Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough:  – and so – Bird:  AAAAAK AAAK AAAK AAAK AAAK AAAK AAAK AAAK AAAK AAAK AAAK aaak. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough (wearily):  …  Very well.

[Cut.  Same shot.]

Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough:  – but Karl Linnaeus, the great – Bird (vibrating rapidly on the spot and then flapping its wings):  PWAAAAAAAK. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough:  – classifier of the natural world – Bird:  AAAAAUUUH AAAUUUH AAAUUUH AAAUUUH AAAUUUH AAAUUUH AAAUUUH AAUUH. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough:  – when he came to allocate a scientific name – Bird:  … Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough:  – to this bird – Bird:  … Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough:  – called it – Bird:  Wooo-ooo. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough:  – wooo-ooo – Bird (surveys the surroundings with a dignified turn of the head) Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough:  ‘paradisia apoda’: the bird of paradise – Bird:  Hoooo. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough:  – without legs. Bird:  Eh-eh.

[Close-up of the bird.]

Bird:  WUKWUKWUKWUkwukwukwukwukoooh.  Ooh. Bird:  Ooh.

Cyclonaias tuberculata Purple Wartyback

ft. Emily Graslie / @thebrainscoop

It all began during a happy hour chat between staffs of the Field Museum, Chicago. Emily Graslie, Chief Curiosity Correspondent, was talking with her colleague, Dr. Janet Voight, about how ‘easy’ it is for endangered animals like tigers and pandas to find support while many others are rarely talked about.

The subject of their conversation, the mussels of the scientific family Unionidae, fall into this group. Among them is the Purple Wartyback.

It was the first name of a mussel she learned and she thought, “Jesus, we’re not doing these animals any favors by giving them names like WARTYBACK.”

Unsavory name aside, they are masters of trickery. A part of their soft body, the mantle, mimics a tiny fish. When they’re ready to breed, female mussel waves this part around to attract a larger fish that preys on the real fish the mussel resembles.

Once the fish takes the bait, she shoots her babies into the fish’s mouth. These then latch onto the fish’s gills until they’re big enough to drop off somewhere else in the river and continue growing.

“What blows my mind is that even though it’s not like bivalves have eyes or can see — their mantles have evolved to look AND ACT LIKE the favorite prey species of the fish they are trying to attract. This is just such an amazing, mind-blowing feat of hundreds of millions of years of evolutionary adaptation and success.”

Emily thinks animals like mussels should not only be celebrated for their cool, sexy, lives, but also understood and cared about for their ecological, cultural, and economic values. “I’m committed to helping people redefine what we consider to be charismatic. Charisma is, for better or worse, a currency that seems to pay for advocacy.”

This is what she’s doing through her YouTube channel ‘The Brain Scoop’ where she creates fun, educational videos for an international audience, highlighting the research and collections of natural history museums.

“I know we can’t/won’t reach everyone — but I wish more people felt a shared sense of personal responsibility for being stewards of our planet, wherever they are in the world. Individuals truly do make a difference.”

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Emily Graslie is the Chief Curiosity Correspondent at the Field Museum. Get to know Emily and her work behind-the-scenes of natural history museums.

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Just had to share a design I recently finished up! I’ve actually had this design on the backburner for years, but got the drive to come back to finally finish it.   It’s referencing the amazing youtube channel The Brain Scoop and a discussion on conservation efforts being spent towards marketable animals like pandas vs more environmentally necessary animals like unionid bivalves.

HOLD ON

We made it happen!

Freshwater bivalves are the largest group of threatened/endangered species on the planet. To help raise awareness for these under-appreciated filter-feeders, we have a limited number of shirts and decals – just in time for Endangered Species Day (tomorrow!)

Just had to share a design I recently finished up! I’ve actually had this design on the backburner for years, but got the drive to come back to finally finish it.   It’s referencing the amazing youtube channel The Brain Scoop and a discussion on conservation efforts being spent towards marketable animals like pandas vs more environmentally necessary animals like unionid bivalves.

HOLD ON

We made it happen!

Freshwater bivalves are the largest group of threatened/endangered species on the planet. To help raise awareness for these under-appreciated filter-feeders, we have a limited number of shirts and decals -- just in time for Endangered Species Day (tomorrow!)