Summary
What has two tongues, spikes on their vertebrae, a "toilet claw," a tooth comb, and no index finger?
The Potto. Perodicticus potto.
Come learn all about an amazing animal, hear a heartbreaking story, and get an explanation for their strange body on this episode of Species.
Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QafZ6UU_G8l_m8WnPBqzJ0TQrCtswffUkAlKnWMfe1I/edit?usp=sharing
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Potto has one of the strangest skeletons on Earth. In a million years, if Potos go extinct and future |
| 0:08.8 | paleontologists, human or otherwise, find their fossils, they are going to assume they messed up somewhere. |
| 0:15.7 | They'll think pieces are missing or that they got mixed up with another animal. First off, the potto's index finger is gone. |
| 0:24.2 | The first time I saw a photo of their hand, I thought that they were injured or something. |
| 0:31.6 | I don't mean to say that they have four fingers. |
| 0:34.0 | No, their hands are like ours. |
| 0:35.7 | The base of the index finger is there, but the actual |
| 0:39.8 | useful part, the finger part, totally gone. If you don't feel like going to the website or |
| 0:45.0 | Googling Potto hand, just look at your own hand and imagine that your index finger was amputated |
| 0:53.7 | between the first and the second knuckle, and then it was healed over. |
| 0:57.3 | That's what their hands look like without surgery. |
| 1:01.3 | The second thing that'll confuse future paleontologists is the spiny mohawk these guys have on the back of their neck. |
| 1:10.3 | Their neck vertebrae have massive spikes. |
| 1:13.8 | They look like menacing spears growing straight up out of the back of their neck. |
| 1:18.0 | Paleontologists are going to see those and think, hang on, what are those for? |
| 1:23.8 | And what are they doing on the back of a primate? |
| 1:26.5 | And then on their feet, on their feet, they've got regular nails, right? |
| 1:30.7 | Just like ours. |
| 1:31.7 | And then on the second toe, they've got this totally different looking claw, complete mismatch. |
| 1:38.3 | They've also got a tooth comb, which sounds like what it is. |
| 1:42.1 | Their bottom front teeth are long and evenly spaced and, well, they look like a comb. |
| 1:48.3 | If I gave you the skeleton of a pato, you would have nothing but questions. |
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