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In the cloud forests of the mountains of Brazil, on the rainforest floor, there lives an

itty bitty orange critter called the pumpkin totale.

And I should caveat this with the very important descriptor that it is not a proper toad and

a tot is really kind of a made up thing anyway, but we don't need to get into that.

This is Atlantic writer Katie Wu.

And these things are ridiculously small about a centimeter from nose to butt or snout to

vent as you would say it more formally.

No, to vent.

Okay.

And you can imagine that it is about the size of a skittle or a chickpea.

And newborn pumpkin totals coming at around half a skittle.

They skip right over the whole tadpole thing.

And that means that all along they have some of the tiniest inner ears in any animal.

And like big deal, right?

Well, the inner ear is the home of the vestibular system, which is the thing responsible for

keeping us balanced and moving smoothly.

And so if you think about all of the important structures in your head that help you balance

and help you not fall over when you're just walking from place to place or help you land

a jump when you make a slight hop over the edge of a curb or something, that is all attributable

to your vestibular system.

And that can be traced back to your inner ear.

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