Original subtitles

KIRBY: Hey guys! Today we're hanging out at the

North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

Today, it's all about arthropods.

CHARLIE: What's up Kirb? KIRBY: Hey Charles. CHARLIE: Hey guys.

KIRBY: You got a little uh, something happening. CHARLIE: Whoa! Check that out!

Guess it's time to start the show.

This is Weird But True!

Hey guys! Charlie here! You know my sister Kirby.

KIRBY: Hey guys!

CHARLIE: Kirby's hard at work, because earlier today we were on the phone with our older

sister, Casey.

(ringing)

Casey.

CASEY: Hey Charles quick question, what's your favorite insect?

CHARLIE: Uhhhh, I don't know like a spider or something?

CASEY: Spider's actually aren't insects.

CHARLIE: Wait what?

Yeah, what?

KIRBY: Yeah, what? CHARLIE: A spider's not an insect?

What in the heck are you talking about Casey?

A spider's not an insect?

CASEY: Yeah.

Spiders aren't insects, they're arthropods.

CHARLIE: Arthropods.

What's an arthropod?

CASEY: Oop! Sorry, I gotta go.

CHARLIE: Wait Casey! CASEY: Yup! See ya!

CHARLIE: Casey! CASEY: Okay bye!

CHARLIE: So yeah, thanks Case.

KIRBY: For nothin'. CHARLIE: So get this.

We've been hittin' the books and it turns out that spiders are just the beginning.

Weird but True, spiders aren't insects, and Dragonflies and Mayflies aren't flies,

lady bugs and lightning bugs aren't bugs, all bugs are insects,

but not all insects are bugs.

So it's kind of entirely confusing.

KIRBY: It's enormously confusing.

CHARLIE: But the thing is, that everything we've mentioned so far today.

KIRBY: Spiders.

CHARLIE: Dragonflies.

KIRBY: Mayflies.

CHARLIE: Lady bugs and lightning bugs are all.

KIRBY: Arthropods.

CHARLIE: So that's what we're doing today!

Unraveling the world of.

CHARLIE: Arthropods! KIRBY: Arthropods!

CHARLIE: So it turns out that this world we live in is completely dominated by

arthropods.

KIRBY: Complete domination.

CHARLIE: According to some super smart expert scientists.

KIRBY: Over 80% of all animal species in the entire world, are arthropods.

Let's check out that number a bit more closely.

Imagine dividing up the entire continental US by all of the animal species

in the entire world.

Arthropods would get roughly 80%, which is all of this.

The remaining species would split up the rest, California, Montana, Texas, Virginia,

and Rhode Island, which is alright because they get Kalispell

and a city called Woonsocket.

That sounds pretty fun right?

Or think about it like this. If you had a box of candy that represented all the animal

species in the world and the green ones were arthropods, and all other animals were the

other colors this is what that would look like.

And it'd be the best candy you've ever eaten, because the green ones

are always the best.

CHARLIE: Let's dish some numbers here.

There are eight species of bears in the world.

There are around 5,400 species of mammals in the world.

There are more than 12,000 species of ants in the world, and more than

48,000 species of mites.

Both ants and mites are arthropods.

According to super smart expert scientists.

KIRBY: There are roughly ten million arthropod species in the entire world.

That's a ton of arthropods, but here's my question,

what is an arthropod and what isn't?

CHARLIE: I got you Kirb.

Okay guys, so if you have an animal and you think it might be an arthropod,

you gotta look out for these three things.

Arthropod characteristic number one!

Jointed body segments!

They're separated into segments, which are jointed, so they're super wiggly.

Arthropod characteristic number two.

Pairs of appendages.

Like the legs, see? Pairs. Pairs. Pairs.

So you'll never see an arthropod that looks like this, or like this.

Arthropod characteristic number three!

Exoskeletons!

Arthropods don't have internal skeletons, like us.

Instead, it's like they're carrying around a big old set of armor all of the time.

Pretty cool.

So that's all it takes.

You got jointed body segments, pairs of appendages, and an exoskeleton.

Put it all together, you got yourself a nice little arthropod.

KIRBY: Alright, so we know what they're like physically, but what does that name mean?

Arthropods.

CHARLIE: Arthropods.

KIRBY: Like "grizzly bear" is a species.

And "mammal" is a group of a bunch of species.

What does arthropod refer to?

CHARLIE: It's a phylum. KIRBY: Ooooooo!

CHARLIE: Oooo, right? Cool science word! Phylum!

It's a category in biological taxonomy.

Basically that's a system that scientists use to group together plants and animals,

to make 'em easier to study.

In order to understand what a phylum is, we need to introduce you to a very old

friend of ours.

The father of biological taxonomy.

Carolus Linnaeus.

KIRBY: Hello. CHARLIE: We'll call him Carl. KIRBY: That works.

CHARLIE: Carl was a Swedish botanist that lived about 300 years ago and there was

nothing Carl loved more than organizing things into groups.

KIRBY: Ah much better.

CHARLIE: He decided to take on the project of organizing every living thing

in the entire world.

And created a new system that managed to do just that.

KIRBY: Yes I did.

CHARLIE: This new system allowed scientists to separate animals and plants into groups

so they can study how they're different, and also find out what makes them the same.

This new system was called "Linnaean taxonomy".

And it still influences biology today.

We'll let Carl explain the details.

KIRBY: Here's how it works.

There are seven levels to this organizational system, from incredibly broad to

super specific.

From all the plants and animals in the entire world, to one specific species,

and each level has a name.

The first level is the kingdom.

Kingdoms are super broad groups like Animalia, all the animals, or Plantae,

all the plants.

Each kingdom is then split into different phyla.

Then each phyla is split into different classes, which are split into different orders,

then families, then genuses, then we get a single species.

Very broad all the way down to very specific.

And all the plants and animals in these groups are similar in some way.

Let's check this out with a wonderful example, the grizzly bear.

Grizzly Bears are generally awesome and also in the kingdom Animalia.

Along with other animals like polar bears, pandas, tigers, cows, fish, and even spiders!

Then, they're in a phylum called chordata.

All the animals in chordata, have certain things in common, for example they all have

nerve fibers running down their backs.

All of these other animals are also in the phylum chordata, except spiders because they

don't have a spinal cord.

See! Our groups are getting more specific! Okay.

Grizzly bears are in the class, mammalia.

Mammalia, that's mammals!

They all have hair, three middle ear bones, mammary glands,

and a part of their brain called the neocortex.

All of these animals are mammals too. Except, fish of course!

Narrowing it down some more for ya.

So you can see the pattern now. Right?

Grizzlies are in the order carnivora, for carnivores, with everything except cows

since cows don't eat meat.

Next grizzlies are in the ursidae or bear family, so tigers are out.

Next is ursus, those are all of these bears except pandas since pandas have differences

in their teeth.

And finally they're the individual species arctos or brown bear.

(growl).

Animalia, Chordata, Mammalia, Carnivora, Ursidae, Ursus, and Arctos.

Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.

We got it! Wonderful work.

I'm immensely proud.

CHARLIE: Cool, Linnaean Taxonomy, just a simple way of organizing every living thing

that exists in the entire world.

Why are we talking about this again?

KIRBY: Arthropods!

CHARLIE: Arthropods! Because "arthropod" is the name of a phylum.

The phylum arthropoda is the largest animal phylum.

KIRBY: And that means it's separated into different classes.

CHARLIE: Boom. Got it.

So to understand arthropods a bit better.

We gotta check out the classes that they're split into.

KIRBY: We got four of 'em.

CHARLIE: There are hexapods, arachnids, crustaceans, and myriapods.

And the easiest way to tell 'em apart is how many legs they have.

Myriapods are defined as having like a ton of legs.

So it's no surprise centipedes and millipedes are in this group.

All Crustaceans have just ten legs.

These are crabs and lobsters and other marine animals.

Arachnids have eight legs.

Like spiders! But also ticks and scorpions.

And arthropods in the Hexapod class have six legs,

that's all the insects in the entire world.

There you go. Myriapods, many legs.

KIRBY: Crustaceans, ten legs.

CHARLIE: Arachnids, eight legs.

KIRBY: Hexapods, six legs.

CHARLIE: And they're all classes of arthropods.

KIRBY: Charles! CHARLIE: What?

KIRBY: Do you know what this means?

Do you remember the phone call with Casey?

CASEY: Good answer but, spider's actually aren't insects.

CHARLIE: Wait, what?

KIRBY: Spiders and insects are both arthropods, but they're in different classes.

Spiders are arachnids, so they have eight legs.

And all insects are in the hexapod class, with six legs.

So it all makes sense now!

CASEY: Yeah. Spiders aren't insects, they're arthropods.

CHARLIE: But in order to really understand arthropods we gotta to max it out a bit.

KIRBY: Max it out!

CHARLIE: We wanna check out some of the weirdest arthropods in the entire

world, to help us really wrap our heads around this phylum.

KIRBY: So I think there's one thing to do.

We gotta hit the road.

CHARLIE: We're going to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences to check out

their Arthropod collection, visit their Arthropod zoo, test our arthropod knowledge,

and get our arthropod questions answered.

I guess we'll see you guys in a bit.

KIRBY: Weird but True , the praying mantis is the only insect that

looks over its shoulder!

CHARLIE: Hey guys! Welcome back.

Kirby and I have just finished up packing.

We're going to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

KIRBY: They've got some arthropod experts and an arthropod zoo

to help us learn more!

CHARLIE: It's perfect! You ready to go?

KIRBY: Yup! CHARLIE: Awesome guys let's roll!

We're setting off to Raleigh, North Carolina.

Home to the state's capital, a bunch of oak trees, and this place,

the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences!

Here, you can find millions of biological specimens.

Preserved, pickled, stuffed.

Including thousands of arthropods.

So it's the perfect place to learn more about 'em!

Kirb there's so much stuff around here.

I'm kind of overwhelmed.

KIRBY: I think it's a bit crazy.

CHARLIE: We need to find someone to talk to.

And I heard there's a guy around here named Dr. Colin.

Dr. Colin Brammer, he's got a PHD in biology and is a full on expert in anything related

to flies.

His favorite Weird but True fact is, ladybugs squirt a smelly liquid from their knees

when frightened!

Dr. Colin this is perfect!

COLIN: Great, I'm glad you like it!

CHARLIE: This is exactly why we came here.

COLIN: I'm glad you guys came. There's a lot of stuff to see.

CHARLIE: Before we put our arthropod knowledge to the test Dr. Colin let's us take a

look at some of his arthropod specimens.

And we come across one set that totally weirds us out.

KIRBY: How about these?

These are arachnids that are like.

COLIN: These are also arachnids. KIRBY: Crazy.

CHARLIE: Those are spider arachnids. COLIN: Right.

CHARLIE: These aren't around here right?

COLIN: These are around here they're known as the Carolina wolf spider.

CHARLIE: This is so unsettling Dr. Colin.

COLIN: Oh but they're, they're excellent to see.

When you see them crawling across your porch.

CHARLIE: I'm trying to ask these questions to settle me down here.

It's not working man.

COLIN: That's alright, that's alright.

The thing is, if you don't wanna get bitten, don't pick the spider up.

CHARLIE: Don't bother the spider, spider won't bother you.

KIRBY: It won't bother you. COLIN: Yes exactly.

KIRBY: Weird but True, the largest spider in the world is the size of a dinner plate!

CHARLIE: Now it's time to test our knowledge with some specimens.

COLIN: Alright let's test your knowledge. CHARLIE: Yeah?

Get ready for a Weird but True battle royal!

Today's competitors, Charlie vs Kirby.

The topic, arthropods.

Dr. Colin will present us with two weird facts about an arthropod,

but only one is true.

Most points after five rounds is the victor!

COLIN: Okay round number one. We know this is a horseshoe crab.

KIRBY: Yup.

COLIN: We'll have two facts, one is they spend their entire life in the ocean.

Fact number two is they're related to spiders.

KIRBY: Oh man. COLIN: Two crazy facts.

KIRBY: I'm going with they're related to spiders.

CHARLIE: I'm going with they spend their entire lives in the ocean.

COLIN: Okay well round one actually goes to Kirby.

They actually come out of the water to lay their eggs on the beaches.

So they don't spend their entire life in the ocean.

CHARLIE: Aww. KIRBY: Yeah-ya.

COLIN: Round two! This is known as a Dobsonfly.

Weird fact number one, they actually can live up to three years.

Weird fact number two, they actually use those jaws to pinch through your skin and

suck your blood.

CHARLIE: Whoa! KIRBY: Oh man! What's your guess?

CHARLIE: I'm gonna go with they live for three years.

Cause I hope that doesn't suck my blood.

KIRBY: Okay I'll go with the blood sucking.

Let's do it.

COLIN: Okay round two goes to Charlie. CHARLIE: Ahhh.

COLIN: 'Cause the weird but true fact is they actually live for three years as the

larva in the water.

No need to be afraid of 'em, they're completely harmless, but they're very cool to see.

That means you've got a clean stream near your house.

KIRBY: Awesome. CHARLIE: Alright. COLIN: Round number three.

Here we go, here's another arthropod known as velvet ants.

So fact number one, they are actually known to sting and kill cows.

Or fact number two, they are actually wasps.

CHARLIE: What is yours?

KIRBY: They're actually wasps.

CHARLIE: I'm going with that the velvet ant is a cow killer.

COLIN: Round number three goes to Kirby. CHARLIE: No!

COLIN: 'Cause they are actually wasps, they are called velvet ants because the

females are always wingless.

They do have a powerful sting, doesn't kill a cow, but you don't wanna get stung by one.

Round number four.

Here we have, the largest, North American moth.

This is known as the cecropia moth.

Weird fact number one, it has no mouthparts as an adult.

Weird fact number two, it lives also for three years.

CHARLIE: Alright, I'm going to go with the fact that it doesn't have a mouth.

KIRBY: I'm going with it lives for three years.

COLIN: Okay. Round number four actually does go to Charlie.

CHARLIE: Mmmm. KIRBY: No! CHARLIE: Ah!

COLIN: Ah yes, yes. Cecropia moth do not have mouthparts as adults.

They don't need to feed, they stored all their energy as caterpillars.

CHARLIE: That's a really weird fact, these moths, no mouths.

COLIN: Round number five, the tie breaker round.

Here we have a bullet ant.

Weird but True fact number one, is they get their name because they move so fast you

can hardly see 'em before they're on top of you.

Fact number two, when they sting you it feels like you're getting shot by a bullet.

-Ohhh.

CHARLIE: Shot by a bullet sting?

Or they're super quick?

Alright.

KIRBY: Yikes. CHARLIE: Let's go, let's see what we got here.

KIRBY: Whoa, whoa, whoa slow down man.

CHARLIE: Whoa, whoa, whoa. So many weird facts guys!

Which one's true?

Bullet ants are called bullet ants because they're super quick like a bullet.

KIRBY: My answer is 'cause when they sting you it feels like a bullet.

COLIN: The round, everything goes to Kirby!

CHARLIE: No! COLIN: Yes! KIRBY: Yes!

COLIN: Weird but True fact of the bullet ant is that it feels like you're getting shot

by a bullet when you get stung.

CHARLIE: Alright good competition Kirb.

KIRBY: Good work. CHARLIE: I'll get 'em next time.

COLIN: If you wanna see some live things?

Go over to the nature exploration center on the other side of the building.

CHARLIE: That sounds great to me. What do you think?

KIRBY: Absolutely. CHARLIE: You guys wanna go?

Alright. Thanks it's been great.

COLIN: Alright. KIRBY: Thank you.

CHARLIE: We'll see you later Dr. Colin, thanks so much. KIRBY: We'll see you later.

Weird but True, the pirate ant has black marks on its head that look like eye patches!

CHARLIE: What's up guys? Welcome back! KIRBY: Hey!

CHARLIE: Today we're hanging out at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

And right now we're in their living conservatory.

There are a bunch of animals in here, including my favorite arthropod, butterflies.

KIRBY: We're literally surrounded by hundreds of butterflies right now.

CHARLIE: Hey Kirb, do you uh know any Weird but True facts about butterflies?

KIRBY: Charles I am the arthropod champion,

of course I know some things about butterflies.

CHARLIE: Weird but True, some butterflies taste with their feet

and have ears on their wings.

KIRBY: Alright, well Weirder but True,

a group of butterflies is called a flutter.

CHARLIE: Well that's cute, but I think I have the weirdest Weird but True fact. Ready?

KIRBY: Mmkay. CHARLIE: Some butterflies never poop.

KIRBY: How do they never poop?

CHARLIE: They convert everything they eat into energy.

KIRBY: Alright well that's kind of weird I guess.

CHARLIE: I have a feeling there've gotta be some awesome arthropods around here.

You wanna go explore?

KIRBY: Absolutely. CHARLIE: Alright let's see what else we can find.

The Arthropod Zoo has a huge collection of arachnids, crustaceans, millipedes,

centipedes, and other arthropods from around the world.

This guy's in charge of them all, Bill Reynolds.

Cicada authority and arthropod expert.

He's going to show us some of the awesome arthropods from the zoo's living collection.

Bill's favorite Weird but True fact, ancient physicians often used spiderwebs as bandages!

Whoa what's this?

BILL: A lot of bugs, a lot of arthropods for you guys.

CHARLIE: Can we touch any of these guys?

BILL: Certainly. CHARLIE: So what kind of insect is this?

BILL: They are commonly known as leaf insects.

CHARLIE: Leaf insects, and we know it's an insect, it's a hexapod,

'cause it's got six legs.

BILL: Correct. KIRBY: We got it.

CHARLIE: And it's an arthropod. BILL: Correct.

KIRBY: Look at him! CHARLIE: This guy. BILL: Actually it's a she.

-She.

CHARLIE: Oh pardon me. BILL: In fact. CHARLIE: I'm so sorry.

BILL: There's a general rule they are female.

CHARLIE: There are no males in this species?

BILL: Males can occasionally occur, but it's generally because of some sort of

environmental shift.

KIRBY: Oh yeah. CHARLIE: That's wild.

BILL: So. KIRBY: That's awesome.

BILL: Technically they're kind of self cloning.

CHARLIE: You check out the back.

It's got these parts that look like it's been chomped away by a caterpillar or something.

They're shaped like leaves so it's harder for predators to find them.

So it's a defense mechanism.

These guys are absolutely awesome.

Kind of prickly, a little tickly too.

So we're looking at an Australian stick insect here.

We know it's an insect, so that means it's a.

KIRBY: Hexapod. CHARLIE: And it has.

-Six legs.

CHARLIE: If you count 'em around there.

And it's an arthropod so we got them all in there.

It's kind of shimmying around a little.

It does that so it can blend in with rustling leaves on the ground.

So that predators have a harder time finding it.

So this guy is not an insect right?

BILL: Correct, this is not an insect.

CHARLIE: Decapod, ten legs.

BILL: And it's also an arthropod because it has an exoskeleton

and jointed appendages.

This is a terrestrial hermit crab.

They're common in the pet trade.

If you look at this guy, you can see it's got a pretty powerful pincher.

KIRBY: Oh yeah. BILL: Its capable inflicting a pinch that would hurt.

CHARLIE: Alright so we learned that this is an arachnid right?

BILL: Correct. How many legs?

-Eight legs.

BILL: Eight legs.

CHARLIE: And these pincers in front are part of their mouths right?

BILL: Correct, arachnids have two pairs of mouth appendages and the actual legs are the

smaller eight walking legs.

CHARLIE: I see you're uh pretty careful of holding that stinger up there.

BILL: The venom is not that dangerous, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt.

KIRBY: Yeah. CHARLIE: Bill's a professional guys, don't try this at home.

We've seen hexapods, we've seen.

KIRBY: Arachnids. CHARLIE: Decapods. And arachnids.

That means this guy is a myriapod right?

BILL: Correct, this is a myriapod, and this particular myriapod is.

KIRBY: It's a, millipede.

CHARLIE: Millipede, two. KIRBY: Pairs. CHARLIE: Pairs of legs.

-Per body segment.

BILL: Correct. And unlike the other myriapod, the centipede, these guys are herbivores,

which means they eat leaves, fallen fruit, things like that.

And these guys, for the most part, are harmless.

Some millipedes actually smell like almonds or cherries.

CHARLIE: Can we try to hold him?

KIRBY: Alright. CHARLIE: This guy seems a little shy.

KIRBY: Look at all these legs! CHARLIE: He's got, he's got.

BILL: Because they are quite delicate.

KIRBY: Ugh.

BILL: Alright, I have here some blue death feigning beetles.

Why do you think they're called death feigning beetles?

CHARLIE: They fake being dead.

KIRBY: Do they. BILL: That's correct. CHARLIE: Like opossums.

BILL: Correct. KIRBY: I thought they were dead. They're not dead!

BILL: They're not dead. Playing dead is a strategy of survival.

A lot of times predators will think something might be wrong with it and so they are less

inclined to eat it if the animal doesn't show any movement.

CHARLIE: Weird but True, 25% of all described animal species are beetles,

so one out of every four is a beetle.

That's a lot of beetles in the world.

Remember our jar of candy?

25% of that would be about this much.

So there's a lot of different kinds of beetles in the world.

Thank's so much for showing us everything Bill!

It's been a blast.

BILL: I enjoyed it, my pleasure. CHARLIE: Awesome insects.

Alright so I think we've gone over everything right?

Arthropods, we got it down.

We're gonna head over to HQ.

See you there in a few.

Weird but True, a lobster's teeth are in its stomach!

Hey guys!

KIRBY: We just back from the museum.

CHARLIE: Dr. Colin's the man!

But Bill, and those giant insects!

Aw we learned so much today!

You remember that first phone call we had with Casey?

CASEY: Good answer, but spiders actually aren't insects.

CHARLIE: Wait, what?

I can't wait to chat with Casey about everything we learned today.

We sorted out so many weird arthropod facts.

For an animal to be an arthropod is must have three characteristics.

Jointed body segments, pairs of appendages, and finally the exoskeleton.

Boom!

KIRBY: We did it! CHARLIE: Knowledge!

What else did we learn today?

There were so many Weird but True facts!

Over 80% of all animal species in the world are arthropods.

KIRBY: There are four living classes of arthropods.

Each with a different number of legs, arachnids, hexapods, myriapods, and crustaceans.

CHARLIE: Some butterflies taste with their feet and have ears on their wings.

CASEY: Hey Charles! CHARLIE: Aw Casey! I'm glad you picked up.

Cause we've figured out this whole arthropod thing.

CASEY: Nice, pretty cool huh?

CHARLIE: Yeah, and we know spiders aren't insects because spiders are arachnids,

they got eight legs and hexapods are insects and they got six legs.

CASEY: Cool, cool Charles, but I'm over arthropods now.

I'm doing something with whales.

What's your favorite whale?

CHARLIE: Whales, uh I like killer whales.

CASEY: Pretty good answer, but killer whales are actually dolphins.

CHARLIE: Wait, killer whales are what?

Dolphins? Why?

CASEY: Sorry I really gotta go.

CHARLIE: No! Casey!

CASEY: Yeah gotta go. See you later! Bye!

CHARLIE: Kirb, get this.

Apparently killer whales aren't whales.

They're dolphins.

KIRBY: Are we doing this? CHARLIE: Oh we're doing this.

Alright guys, thanks so much for coming by.

We got another project on our hands so stop by again when we discover more things

that are weird.

KIRBY: But true! CHARLIE: See you guys soon!

Captioned by Cotter Captioning Services.