Hey, oligites. Hi, Alli Ward in your space. Hi, it's me. So... Herps. Let's talk about it. Herptology.

What is it? Okay, it's the study of amphibians, like noots and salamanders and little froggies and toads and reptiles, like tortoises and turtles and crocodiles. Also snakes, what? Huh? Don't worry about them. Don't worry about it.

Okay, listen, if you're afraid of the S word, we will address that. We will sue your fears for real. But herptology, generally, it's a lot of different animals. And technically it's the study of...

Poicillothermic ectothermic tetrapods. What are those words? Are they words? Yes, okay. I had to look it up, but I'm gonna break it down.

Poicillothermic, no idea how that's pronounced, means an animal whose internal temperature varies considerably.

Ectothermic is when the regulation of your hot bod depends on external sources, like sunlight or a heated rock surface. Now a tetrapod...

It means four-legged. Although I think of a toad and tell me, tell me those front two-armed arms. Like toads have hands, right? Am I on drugs? Okay, so herptology. Okay, what's the anemology here? It's far more brutal than you can even imagine.

So you think herpes and herptology. Maybe this was about scales, like scaling it. I had no idea. I was like skin rashes. Okay, it's more poetic.

So the viral skin conditions, which for fun, we're gonna call Jenny Herpes, cold sores, chicken pox. Those come from the Herpes virus, which comes from a Greek word, hair...

which means to creep, like a rash. That's where it comes from. Now herptology comes from the Greek hair pain. Same word, to creep.

Not really helping this image issue is the fact that when you think of adults who keep lizards in a tank in their garage, like the word creep may or may not come into play.

But once you understand the splendor of green and scaly critters, you'll be like, aw man, I too want a reptile condo in my home.

Now every time you hear the word creep in this episode, a bell will sound, and you can feel free to take a big sip of whatever beverage you're having.

Or you can do a small, inconspicuous dance. Speaking of, let's take a quick break to step into a segment. I like to call creepin your reviews.

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Also, I record all my slides in a closet and it really makes my day. So I read every single one of them and I'm gonna read you a fun one every week.

Okay, Blue De Blot said the format is great. Allie's interjections are awesome and it makes the podcast unique almost like those 90s TV shows where the character is aware of the camera.

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