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Short Stuff: Chameleons · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, you welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh Clark,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryan over there, and Jerry's
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: sitting in for our producer Dave C. Couston. And this
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: is short stuff. When you put all that info together,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: you got a short stuff. Okay, that's right, let's go, Chuck.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: It's about chameleons. Is that what we're doing? Yes, we
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: are doing one on chameleons, which I think was, um,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: surprisingly fascinating because everything I know about chameleons I learned
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: from watching paint commercials. I love chameleons. Um, we don't
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: call them chameleons. We call them lizards when they when
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: we see them all over the place here in Georgia.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Wait a minute, they're chameleons up there. Yeah, I didn't
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: know that. What do you think all those lizards are?
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: I thought there were skinks? What's a skink? Is that
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: a blue tail? I don't know. Maybe there are skinks.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: If a has a bluetail is a skink and they
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: are neural toxic. I've met somebody once who was like,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: don't let your dog anywhere near those things. I knew
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: a cat once that had cross eye because it had
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: eaten too many of those lizards. But yeah, apparently they
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: have a neurotoxin. Uh. Well, now I'm looking up a
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: picture of a chameleon, and I think you are completely right.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: This is not chameleons that we see here in Georgia.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: They're skinks. They're skinks, but we call them lizzards anyway,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: So I was still right. Yeah, you're still right. How
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: do you spell skink? I think just like it sounds
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: like you think, Well, these aren't exactly skinks, although we
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: do have skinks. What about gecko? A leopard gecko? It
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: could be one of them. Maybe. So I saw a
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: skink one time at the lake that was with tail
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: about a foot long. Oh oh my god. Well, now
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: I don't know what we see all over the place
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: in the woods and on our deck. It's probably geck goes. Okay,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: I think I think if it's not a skink, alright,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: we're talking chameleons. Yeah, okay, I got leopard geckos, if
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: I'm not mistaken. Mo loves chasing those things. Oh my god,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: she loves chasing lizards. Are these the ones that puff
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: up their neck in a balloon? Yeah, they're great they're great.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Little lizards are fun. They'll drop their tail if you
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: get too close to them and they need to escape. Right, No, chuck,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: that's absolutely wrong. But the first fact about chameleons is
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: they can't regrow their tail. If their tails ever pulled off,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: it hurt and it's not coming back. That's they don't.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: They don't release their tail like well, plenty of lizards
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: do that though, right, yeah, like a gecko. Yeah. Um,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: but that's not what people think of when they think
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: of chameleons, that they can't regrow their tail. That's that's
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: pretty arcane. That's a deep cut as far as chameleon
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: facts are concerned. What most people think of when they
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: think of chameleons is that they can change color. And
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: everybody knows they can change color because they lend in
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: with their surroundings. Right, wrong, men, we're both just batting
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: zero right now. Yeah, we're busting some chameleon myths, and
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: that that is a myth that chameleons will be green
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: if they're next to a leaf, or they will be
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: brown if they are on your deck or your mulch Uh.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: That is not true. That that may accidentally happen to
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: be true if you look and say, oh, look though
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: the same color as my deck. But it's not because
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: they're trying to blend in. They are trying to control
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: their body temperature and uh, but they do try to
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: blend into the green as their sort of natural state, right, Um,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: But they're not doing anything in that point, Like you said,
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: it's their natural state, like they're just like it worked
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: out that way. Yeah, it just worked out perfectly, almost
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: like it was designed by the hand of God himself
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: or herself. If you watch dog, Um, but they're green.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Well we'll get to why they're green, because I thought
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: that was a pretty interesting thing. But when they're when
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: they're agitated, when they're excited, when they're happy to see you, um,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: when they are scared, when they're trying to like scare
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: off somebody else, they're feeling emotional. And just like with humans,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: when you feel emotional, there's all sorts of hormones churning, right. Well,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: that's what happens with the chameleon too. When those hormones
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: get to churning, they start to change color. Um, and
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: they do it in in the same way that just
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: about every other thing that changes color in the world
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: every other animal changes color changes color. Um, but it's
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: slightly different in that the kind of structures that a
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: chameleon uses is much different than what we understood it
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: to be before. Yeah, I believe if I'm remembering correctly.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: With our good old friend the octopus, they have chromatophores,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: and with the chameleon they are ritophores. Yeah, so I
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: saw that. I also saw somewhere that a metaphors is
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: like the umbrella term for all the different kinds of
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: color changing cells, and that eritophores, like chameleons have, are
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: a specific kind. But that the big difference between like
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: an octopus and a chameleon as far as color changing goes, well,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: there's two. One is that, um, the octopus is using
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: pigment filled sacks and then they're they're changing they're opening
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: or closing the muscles surrounding each sack to like show
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: or not show that color, and they have different colors
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: in their sacks. With a chameleon, they're actually using like
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: crystals that that they're called aritaphors because they're iridescent. Right. Yeah,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: And you know what, that's a great cliffhanger, and we're
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: right in the middle. We are in the middle of
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: a cliffhanger, like I'm about to vomit. I've never been
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: in the middle of a cliffhanger before, and it's it's
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: a very uncomfortable place to be. It's kind of like,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: hold on, I'm not done. When I was in maybe
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: second grade, I was on the bus and the bus
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: came to a red light and it came to a stop.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: But have you ever been in a vehicle that never
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: fully came to a stop. It it wasn't moving forward
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: any longer. And there's like this incomplete feeling like something
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: is terribly wrong. Like that Twilight Zone episode where Darren
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: from which like flips a coin and it lands on
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: its side, and after that you can hear everybody thoughts.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: The same thing happens when a bus doesn't fully stop
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: at a red light. That's what I feel like right
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: this moment, in the middle of the cliffhanger. I can
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: hear your thoughts and I want to throw up. We'll
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: be right back. Game that you should know that you
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: should know it knows. But Josh Clark, all right, everyone,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Josh just vomited. I had to turn off my my
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: computer camera. Thank you for the towel. So now I'm
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: only listening, but we left it the cliffhanger where you
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: were talking about the crystal like cells called a ritofors.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: That what they do instead of um, squeezing pigment is
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: they work with actual light and color and light across
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: the entire color spectrum, even if human beings can't see it. Yes,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: that's the huge that's the huge thing. Like if you
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: have a pigment stack, you can you can reflect the
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: color that that pigment reflects it, and so it's showing
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: blue or red or yellow or orange or something like that,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: and a ritofor can reflect whatever color needs to be
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: reflected at that moment. And like you said, even once
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: that humans can't see impossible colors is what they're called amazing.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: It really makes you wonder, like what dazzling displays chameleons
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: are putting on. We just can't even see it because
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: our eyes aren't it's not possible for our eyes to
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: pick up light on that that that part of the
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: visible spectrum or the non visible spectrum. Right. And there
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: are a lot of species of chameleon and depending on
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: the species, they have different kind of color changing capabilities. UM,
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  Speaker 1: some are way more vibrant and bright. Some aren't quite
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: as vibrant and bright um. Some of them have a
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  Speaker 1: lot of variants and the kind of colors, but it's
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  Speaker 1: a general thing where they can basically use any color
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: on the spectrum, like it's all open. All those those
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: wavelengths are open for business for these chameleons. And it
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: has to do with again, whether the chameleon the rotifors
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: um or the muscle surrounding each rotors relaxed or agitated,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: And that has to do with hormones. So when it's relaxed,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: the muscles are contracted around it and it's just Reford
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: reflecting short wavelength light like blue right right. And then
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: when they're excited, I did, those cells go farther apart,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: and they can get more red and orange, yes, which
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: is how they change color. But because they're excited and
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: those hormones are churning, that's what triggers those erotophores to
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: expand or contract um, which is a difference between chameleons
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: and octopi. That um octopied control. They're uh their chramatophor
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: sacks with neurons, so it's like instantaneous opening or closing.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: With chameleons, it takes I mean it's fast, but it
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: takes a little longer because the hormones have to go
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: signal the cells to open or clothes, depending on whether
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: the animals excited or relaxed. Yeah, and here to me
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: is one of the coolest facts is the actual natural
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: sort of color of a chameleon is more of a yellow,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: but when you see them, they're usually green when they're
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: just chilling out. And that's because and it's very simple everybody,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: when they're relaxed, they're reflecting blue light in blue and
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: yellow make green and the neat that's all there is
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: to do it. Yeah, very cool. I love that one too.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: Um So, those those erota force chuck are actually beneath
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: their skin, you can see them, and they're able to
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: reflectract light well because their skin, the outer layers of
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: skin are actually transparent. And apparently chameleons have a little
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: um quick change act where if they're really trying to
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: get vibrant in a hurry, they'll just like shed those
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: clothes like um Otho in Beetle Juice when he enters
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: the spotlight. You remember, his leisure suit just gets pulled
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: or No, his suit gets pulled off and he's wearing
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: a leisure suit underneath. That might be my favorite movie
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: all of all time. I think, I think doing a sequel.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: They're developing a sequel, same cast, I think, so. I mean,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: I think everyone's there. I can't wait. I'm behind it. Okay,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: same here man. One of my favorite parts ever that
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: movie is when uh, he's in the waiting room mhm
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: with a guy with a little head, and he just
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: leans over and goes, let me ask you something. How
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: do you get him down so small? It's good stuff?
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: How do you get him down so small? One of
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: my favorite lines? And then the song of course, I'll
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: eat anything you want me to eat. I'll swallow anything
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: you want me to swallow. Remember that? No, what are
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: we talking about? Beetle juice? Yes, he has the song
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: I'll eat anything you want me to eat. I'll swallow
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: anything you want me to swallows. Come on down? Is
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: that in his ad? I think, yeah, I'll just classic.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: It is classic. I was watching Michael Keaton's early stand
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: up earlier, No, Yesterday, how did that go? It was? Okay?
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: He wasn't great, um, but you could see the seed. Okay,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: I can imagine it. Can see him being like real
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: judgy and like come on, will be a bone head
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: kind of facial expression and smoking cigarette and no, it
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: wasn't that. You should check it out. It's interesting, Okay,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: I'll I will, because I definitely have no idea what
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: it's going to be like then. And I met him
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: one day, I know, right, Yeah, he lived across the
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: street from where you're shooting and just sort of entertained
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: that the pas and the driveway for ten minutes one day.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: Very nice, very nice guy. Oh yeah, yeah, he was
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: super nice. I'm really glad to hear that he's not.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: He's a chameleon. You can blend into wherever he is.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: A group of pas in the driveway, no problem, or
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: um a rock in the desert, rock in the pain
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: and desert. Are we done with chameleons? I think so, man,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: I think we're done. I think there's no one listening anymore.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: It's just you and me now, agreed. All right, Well, goodbye, Chuck.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: This is the end of short stuff. Stuff you Should
• 12:50
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• 12:53
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