This is Scientific Americans 60 Second Science.

I'm Steve Mursky.

May 18th is the 37th anniversary of the massive explosion of Mount St Helens, but within days of the volcano erupting, the local ecosystem

started to bounce back, thanks to some unassuming little animals that spent lots of time underground.

The Pocket Gophers were the ecological heroes of Mount St Helens.

Emory University paleontologist and geologist Anthony J. Martin.

You normally don't hear those words put together,

pocket gopher and hero, but they were.

These small burrowing mammals were able to survive

this massive devastating volcanic eruption.

Just as numerous animals that live underground have survived catastrophes and predators

for hundreds of millions of years, as Martin discusses in his new book, The Evolution Underground,

Burrows, Bunkers, and the marvelous subterranean world beneath our feet.

The reports I was reading about this, about how these researchers and helicopters are

flying over the devastated landscape. Just a few days later there were the

Burrow mounds. Pop, pop, pop, pop. Thinking about these gophers that were below the ground and they

survive that so that to me was a golden opportunity to talk about that as

this incredible story of survival, but also renewal that these

little burrowing mammals brought back that landscape because their burrows

served first of all as refuge for any other small

animals that were there. So of the small mammals and other vertebrates such as

amphibians and reptiles that live there. They were either in

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