Summary
Today's episode is all about the incredible unicorn of the sea, and the mystery surrounding their famous tusk.
This show covers a wide range of related topics, including Leonardo da Vinci's interest in trapping unicorns and the etymology of the word "narwhal." This episode covers all the bizarre explanations for how the narwhal's terrible tooth evolved, listen and tell us what you think!
Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1j5EV672tgsvGDxU21c43zTMtY-rQ8hfAastD5O2aF1w/edit?usp=sharing
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an impossible hypothetical, obviously, but if this podcast existed about five centuries ago, |
| 0:09.1 | there would have been an episode about unicorns. Not a bonus episode about them, not a special show, |
| 0:15.4 | but a full-on, real animal episode about unicorns. Because back then, they were just another species, a regular |
| 0:25.1 | animal, a super rare one, sure, but an animal all the same. They would show up in the same |
| 0:31.5 | bestiaries as bears and lions and chickens and salmon and other animals we wouldn't think were imaginary even for a second. |
| 0:40.4 | Leonardo da Vinci was writing about the most effective methods to trap unicorns. I'm not joking. |
| 0:49.9 | Europeans were buying unicorn horns as a panacea, a cure-all, at a rate of over ten times their weight in gold. |
| 0:59.6 | Ten times their weight in gold. |
| 1:02.4 | A unicorn horn could be more valuable than a castle. |
| 1:08.8 | Now hang on, I can hear some of you saying. |
| 1:11.6 | How are they buying unicorn horns if unicorns aren't real? |
| 1:16.6 | How indeed. |
| 1:18.6 | Today we are going to talk about the real unicorn. |
| 1:22.6 | An animal whose scientific species name Monococeros, translates literally to one horn, |
| 1:31.2 | which in turn, of course, can be translated to unicorn. |
| 1:36.9 | Today we are going to talk about the narwhal. |
| 1:41.3 | Monodon Monoceros. |
| 1:55.6 | I'm Mackin. This is Species. Happy Species Sunday. This is our first whale episode, |
| 2:02.8 | and fittingly, or perhaps ironically, we are coming at you live from Nantucket, the former whale-killing capital of the world. Or maybe we are coming at you pre-recorded from Nantucket. I'm on vacation |
| 2:08.2 | right now and you are hearing a recording from Nantucket. I guess that's my only point here. |
| 2:13.5 | So welcome. Subscribe wherever you can. Send the show to someone who likes animals. Find the show on Facebook and Twitter, both at Species Podcast. Find me personally on Twitter at Mac and Murphy. Five star reviews from iTunes and Facebook are read aloud on the show. Every show at the end of the show. So leave one. Thank you, Eric and the Animals for playing me in, and now, without further ado, I present |
| 2:35.8 | to you the narwhal. |
... |
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