Hey there, friends, and welcome to episode 216 of Just the Zoo of Us.

This week I'm joined by a familiar voice.

Science communicator Ralph Crewe is back with us to review the wiggly little living fossils

full of teeth and blood, Pacific lamp rays.

We discussed the intersection between the natural and man-made world, what lamp rays can tell us about the history of vertebrate evolution, the unique adaptations that have let them thrive from riverbeds all the way to the open ocean and back for hundreds of millions of years, and why you should thank a lamprey today.

This episode works really well as a follow-up to our last guest

episode in which fish biologist Brenda Prachel from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory,

which will be mentioned in this episode. She joined us to talk about sturgeon. So if this episode

catches your interest, pop back over to episode 216 and check that one out too. But for now,

just sit back and enjoy as Just the Zoo of Us presents Pacific Lamprays with Ralph Crew.

Music I'm.. Hello everybody. It's Ellen Weatherford with Just the Zoo of Us, your favorite animal review podcast this week. We have not a new friend, a returning friend, returning champion, shall I say.

I'll take it.

The reigning champion.

We have a returning friend.

Longtime listeners will recognize the name and the voice of our friend Ralph Cruz.

Say hi, Ralph.

Hi, thanks for having me back.

Thank you for coming back.

It feels like so many of our friends are like transient, right?

People just come on, share their knowledge and then disappear into the ether, never to be seen again.

It's like making friends at an airport.

That's just a for now friend.

...