00:00.75 Alex And we are back with episode 64 of archaeo animals. We're looking at the cutest animals ever and we're going to start off with our next animal. Ah Tristan if you can. 00:13.80 archpodnet Ping wings. 00:15.94 Cpt Granarius Spinishi their species. 00:18.98 Alex That's a reference for 5 people I guess. 00:20.86 archpodnet I it's the Graham Norton show that's more than 5 people that's like 10 people. Oh if you don't get the reference Benedict Cumberbatch actor cannot pronounce penguins properly so says penguins. 00:24.83 Alex Yeah, so we have listeners from different countries. You know. 00:39.10 archpodnet And the the Bbc thought to put him on a like a nature documentary about penguins and have him kind of try and work his way through that I think that they knew what they were doing sorry back to the show ladies. 00:55.97 Alex Anyway, they were talked about briefly in the Antarctica episode. Yes, we did do an episode on the zoaraeology of Antarctica we talked about it for an hour you should go listen to it with a lot of work. But I think it was very interesting and also penguins are my favorite animal. 01:03.68 Cpt Granarius Like. 01:14.33 Alex And I was the person who wrote these show notes so we are going to talk about Penguins whether you like it or not I think they're cute to say. 01:22.89 Cpt Granarius That worth noting even though they're mainly associated with places like Antarctica they're also found in Australia New Zealand and South America 01:32.99 Alex Yeah, that's one of those things you kind of I feel like is really easy to forget. They are not just Antarctica they're in a lot of more temperate places. So the largest species is the emperor penguin. 01:48.63 Cpt Granarius Atenodites Forsterri Adipula minor. 01:50.72 Alex And the smallest is the blue Penguin and it's also called the fairy Penguin and that is so cute I Love it now. Unfortunately we are going to talk about people eating them. Ah so. 01:57.34 Cpt Granarius It deserves it tis a fairy penguin. 02:09.49 Alex Because archaeologically again, you know if penguins aren't just seabird right? So they have been heavily used in pest subsistence particularly throughout the halloccene and they're basically found in these archeological contexts they actually make up 80% of the total bird. Biomass and Southern Oceans and perhaps more importantly, if you've never seen what a penguin skeleton looks like please look it up because you will. You will be shocked to look at that neck if you look up with penguin skeleton it's like all vertebra and then like 2 big legs. 02:37.36 Cpt Granarius Her. 02:46.57 Alex And because penguins are just kind of like you know, like big blobs. You don't really think about them sleily and then you look up a skeleton you're like oh ah, big chunky necks. Yeah, it's like 1 of those things where it's like it makes sense right? but. 02:53.91 Cpt Granarius But Hashtag big chunky. Next. 03:05.46 Alex It's a bit weird. Yeah, they're so cute though I do like a Penguin Yeah, all and they hold them between their feet. It's the cutest thing in the world. 03:11.10 Cpt Granarius Actually baby penguins. 03:17.53 Cpt Granarius Said the baby emperor penguins that are kind of sort of gray and fluffy like the. 03:23.37 Alex Yeah, oh they're so cute. Oh man, there's a comedian that um I knew really liked penguins and I like hung out with him after a show and he showed me. He had this huge tattoo on his arm of just a penguin and he always I always think about. How he refers to penguins when I think about penguins which he's like they're just wiener dogs that are walking on 2 legs and he's right they are weener dogs are walking on 2 legs anyway kind of in the bit of a similar. Um. 03:56.84 Cpt Granarius Yeah, just in a much bigger wiener dog with no legs Del Finaptuus locus. 04:02.00 Alex Yeah, ah Boluca whales now I don't know if you thought this was a cute animal. This is like an animal you think of when you think of cute animals but I thinklu whales are really cute. 04:13.12 Cpt Granarius The whales are cute. They're majestic. 04:16.18 Alex Yeah, and also weirdly enough that I just realized right now is beat with penguins and beluga whales put right next to each other these are 2 things that I have really strong memories writing reports about in grade school. 04:33.40 Cpt Granarius So. 04:35.39 Alex So this might be my subconscious really talking to me like I've really I internalized these 2 animals as cute animals from a young age. 04:45.36 Cpt Granarius But I mean that's very cute. They are even the big bump on their head is cute. 04:50.36 Alex Yeah, so you know we have talked about whales in various episodes. They're obviously incredibly important elements of Coastal Life. We have loads of really interesting archaeological. Context for a whales particularly here in the U K Ah but I really want to talk about blue whales because they're so cute I mean as the Samona just mentioned they have that big bump on their head and it's so cute that they even have a cute name. It's literally called a melon. 05:27.65 Alex Like it's called a Melon Baluca melon. It's so it's mainly fatty tissue and it's technically an organ that helps with echolocation like even to the point that. 05:32.48 Cpt Granarius Pelugamelon. 05:44.98 Alex Even slightly changes shape based on the sounds being made and again, that's just that's so cute. So yeah, a bit but you know it's um, a really kind of interesting element because really like. 05:51.49 Cpt Granarius Now now to the bit where they eat the. 06:04.59 Alex Whales are really interesting on an archaeological perspective because of the fact that they're not only consumption ah like food resources but they're also kind of material resources as well. Obviously we have loads of really interesting artifacts made from. Whalebone which I actually I always found really interesting and amazing to look at um, but more specifically indigenous populations in the Arctic have utilized bluego whales for both subsistence as well as toolmaking now. Unfortunately for belugas they can get. Stuck quite close to shore when temperatures quickly drop and that causes ice to form so them along with narwals can often be really accessible for hunting and again for being used for toolmaking. So. That tends to make very fragmented bone assemblages but fortunately for us zooms or zoology by mass spectrometry which we have talked a lot about in our podcast episodes. They've made that quite easy. For identification and purposes which is great. 07:24.53 Cpt Granarius But next up, we're keeping the c theme going we move. We're moving on to sea otters andidra Luriss which is technically one of the smallest marine mammals but also mustered wise it's actually the heaviest. 07:27.83 Alex Yeah, yeah. 07:41.99 Alex Which I've never really thought about them being muscle lids but they are. 07:48.20 Cpt Granarius Yeah, um I mean sea otters are an example of a keystone species which I mean we've mentioned this in the past, but just the rate rate. It's a species with a significant influence on the wider environment that doesn't necessarily correlate with the size of its Population. So That's when it comes in very useful pely environmentalmental reconstruction. 08:08.34 Alex So traditionally sea otters have been used for both pelts and as food by indigenous people including the clinket people in Alaska and Canada and 1 of the really interesting things about. Zoo archaeological work with sea otters and kind of one of the reasons why I wanted to mention them in this episode although they are so cute and I don't know if you've seen these videos Simona of that when they hold hands in the water. They don't float away that's like the cutest thing in the world. 08:37.35 Cpt Granarius Um, yes. 08:40.65 Alex Oh to be a little sea otter getting their hands held in the water. Ah I'm in a really good place mentally guys. It's fine I've gone to my copy bar place and then in there I've gone into my sea otter place. It's like like a. 08:49.57 Cpt Granarius Have you gone to your cape bar a place. 08:59.14 Alex Multiple mind palaces of cuteness. Ah, ah, ah my heart's gonna stop I'm just gonna die in the will of this podcast. Yeah, it's fine. It's fine. We can get. We can get a ah ah life preserver on them. 09:00.92 Cpt Granarius Um, imagine a sea otta holding a Capy Barra by the hand of course not a crappy bar is going to need like a buoyancy aid or something. But yeah. 09:16.96 Cpt Granarius Yes. 09:18.49 Alex But yeah, going back to kind of a more serious topic There's been some really interesting zo archeological work. Even you can even refer to it as kind of decolonial zo archaeological work that's been done in collaboration with clinket people. Which has shown that what we traditionally use as cutmark typologies in ZoArcheology are actually not useful in investigating butree for sea otters. So you know obviously we have cut marks that we associate with butry that is usually. Useful for most animals particularly domestic animals but you can't really apply those to sea otters. Um, so zoo archeologists have taken um, kind of modern day ah processed sea otters and compared them to archaeological ones. Ah, to really get an idea of what we might be missing. Um, as far as having typologies and also it's been able to showcase the importance of pelt for clinket ancestors when it came to utilizing sea otters. So. It's a really cool study to be honest and something that again I don't think most of us would think about so that's why it's really important to have kind of indigenous worldviews as part of archeological interpretation. 10:35.66 Cpt Granarius So also like bringing these communities on board for what is actually their heritage so you know all good at my book. 10:39.62 Alex Exactly and and see and all sea otters are cute. We're getting out of the ocean though. Don't worry, we're getting out of the water. Yes, a bit. 10:53.14 Cpt Granarius We're getting quite far out of the water. Um, we're going bigger of that as well because the next one is giant Pandas Iur Uppo that milanolioca. 11:02.22 Alex So we have discussed them a little bit in our episode on asian archeology which is obvious because they're kind of the icon for modern day China but weirdly enough it's not really an animal that's had a long history of iconography. You actually can't really find like a longstanding historical ah tradition of the the panda being utilized as like an icon for China or even for like imperial power or anything like it's just kind of been a more recent. Invention. 11:41.90 Cpt Granarius I Guess maybe as the numbers dwindled possibly. 11:44.60 Alex Yeah. So there is one historical instance of its significance which is the empress Dowager Beau who lived during the hand Dynasty allegedly had a pet panda in her garden which I would love that to be me, but it's not. Um, so this is up for debate as you know we don't really have that much evidence to go ah and support this. But when archeologists did find her tomb complex. They actually found a pandas skull in it. She's really interesting. She might have also just like pandas who knows. 12:28.95 Alex Kind of. 12:29.20 Cpt Granarius And to keep it in the panda real um, all, it's still like same sort of but genus ish because we go from iuroppoda to allurru species close enough. Probably it's the red panda so I mean like it's not actually. That closely related to the giant panda although though they do have 1 thing in common. They're both super cute though they they do are actually closer to raccoons. 12:55.94 Alex More on that later. There's actually 2 species of red panda the himalayan red panda and the chinese red panda and they are really cute I mean they're one of those things where it's like you see videos of them and you're kind of like. 13:02.75 Cpt Granarius All luris full gens Allurris Theni 13:15.61 Alex That could be like a person in a costume. They're just so cute and like I don't know yeah like my face is round I could be red panda. 13:21.97 Cpt Granarius I Guess because their face is so round they've the fit your room. Can be whatever you wish to be if for your like archo animals also comes with affirmations. 13:32.60 Alex Oh thank you Simona. 13:40.46 Alex So like the the giant panda it's difficult to find historical documents to connect it to like older folklore cultural traditions. However, it's still culturally significant for its pelt and as medicinal. Ah, resources in part to Tibet to make our purpose as a zoo archeology podcast a bit more difficult There's actually no fossils for the living species that have been identified at least as of this recording. Um, and older fossils originally associated with the genus have now been identified as something else. So we really don't know too much about the red panda in the past. Um, so that yeah it. 14:28.38 Cpt Granarius Just that one day it appeared and it was here. 14:35.34 Alex And thank God Um, so more recent work has been done trying to kind of locate signifiers for the species which would be useful in kind of establishing a baseline to look at paleo-environmental data and of course. Because we can't be cute without being a little gross. That's mainly being done through their poop. It's a very poop heavy episode actually more so than you but that's like more than usual. 15:03.27 Cpt Granarius Oh We've only mentioned it like twice just like which is zero. Hopefully um, um, B s but like analyzing their scat. Allows to identify specific vegetation. There's linked to the species as well as any seasonal variations uns stailized stuff that baselines to compare Extinct species with so hopefully that yield something interesting. 15:32.59 Alex Yeah,, we'll see um to to round off our Panda Run. We have 1 final Panda to talk about to end our episode as well and it's the trash Panda Aka. Raccoons So weird enough despite many archeologists finding kinship with the trash Panda due to our share a love of rummaging through garbage I Don't think we've actually talked about raccoons. 15:50.49 Cpt Granarius Frachian lotot. 16:02.19 Cpt Granarius Just shake because they're super cute and like in their hands. So like you when they're looking for something in the water and they just put their hands like do do do is I think. 16:06.67 Alex They got graphy hands. 16:14.31 Alex They got graphy hands I love them. So one of the reasons why I think we haven't really talked about it is because or at least one of the things the times we may have talked about it is because around the time I realized that we had squirrels in the Uk which happened on this podcast I'm not. Really sure what episode that was but I'm sure you can find it. Yeah of course. Yeah, no, um, it also took me a long time to realize that there weren't raccoons in the u k. 16:33.93 Cpt Granarius It was quite early on but I have never forgotten that I'm sure the listeners have not forgotten that. 16:49.42 Cpt Granarius No, at least not except for the odd ones that are probably kept us pets somewhere I think I remember I think with this Custer in the episode where we mentioned raccoons the first time round but it was in the news a few years back with some people found a raccoon in the front room. 16:51.32 Alex I don't. 16:56.15 Alex You. 17:03.28 Alex Um, oh yeah. 17:08.31 Cpt Granarius They they they heard a noise downstairs and it was a burglar so they came downstairs to find a raccoon in England which was most fuzzling I'm not sure what happened to the raccoon if it did belong to some someone but the article wasn't clear but there you go just random raccoon in your living room. 17:11.21 Alex Um. 17:20.90 Alex Um, um. 17:23.40 Alex But you you you can understand why they're so cute. 17:27.56 Cpt Granarius Like grabbing all your pots and pans. 17:32.36 Alex So yeah, even though we don't have raccoons in the yeah uk raccoon pelts were actually really commonly exported to the united kingdom um sometimes to even be exported further to Eastern Europe where raccoon pelts were really sought after for hats as well as ah, kind of a lighter version of a fur coat. Obviously this was part of the kind of trade with the newly instated colonies in the united. Dates. 18:04.93 Cpt Granarius In Raccoon Pelt as well were often used in scottish menswear in the highlands. It's just the sporen or the bit of the killed sort of with them the fluffy bit. Um, which is was often used as a substitute for seal skin. As it is the case for some caps worn in the british military. 18:22.60 Alex And we have to mention before we end this episode the other very important thing about raccoons and that is the baculum is often used. 18:33.78 Cpt Granarius Um, just keep it gros. 18:37.56 Alex It's often used as a toothpick in parts of so the Southern United States often referred to as a Texas toothpick indigenous people have used them in the past to pack pipes and ah moonshiners still use the baculum particularly the raccoon baculum. Ah, to distill their moonshine if you go to a roadside attractction in a lot of parts of the south of the United States you can actually buy raccoon bacuum because they're seen as a good luck charm now what our baculum you may be thinking we have talked about in this of past but it is. It's. Ah, penis phone. So. 19:22.84 Cpt Granarius He said still balancing that out you know with ah the cute and gross gross and cute. 19:24.16 Alex Yes, yes, and that's a good way to end the episode I think now just a reminder if you haven't caught our last episode for some reason we have announced that the show is ending. This is our second to last episode and what a great second to last episode to have. Ah, but our last episode is coming up so stay tuned for that and in the meantime you can still listen to our entire archive on the archeology podcast network wherever you get your podcasts It's always nice to still you know, give us a nice review for for all time's sake and then start anything else. Simona. Ah, you'd like to say. 20:05.93 Cpt Granarius Ah, as usual, any hate mail can go to Tristan i. 20:07.80 Alex Yeah, even long after we're gone just keep sending the hate mail to Tristan I think it keeps him alive I think it's really important for him to to get that. 20:18.38 archpodnet You great! Thanks! thanks both for you all I get is fan mail you know saying Tristan why why do we do more impressions tritan why don't you contribute more. You know be part of this podcast. 20:20.69 Alex Yeah. 20:34.69 Alex Tristan your jokes are so funny. 20:39.40 archpodnet Ah, okay, okay, turn the knife a little bit more. 20:42.50 Cpt Granarius Like buck can we just get a bonus episode of Tris doing puns. 20:46.92 archpodnet Oh I don't know if it doesn't really wait like my humor works or I'm like a parasite you know my own humor only works eating off other people but we should mention that the final episode that we're doing. 20:48.36 Alex I mean. 20:54.83 Alex You could just stop right? there. 21:03.58 Cpt Granarius Face eventual tweet for everybody. Yeah. 21:04.12 archpodnet We'll have a special treat for everybody. We are going to be working on a bingo card aren't we yeah so in anticipation of the final episode. Um, yeah, just. 21:11.78 Alex Yes, and Tristan's gonna make that Tristan's gonna make it. 21:16.50 Cpt Granarius Tristan is yeah. 21:23.75 archpodnet Think about the kind of things that you're used to hearing on here and let's see if we can play Bingo apart from that. 21:30.94 Alex Otherwise we'll so yeah, we'll see you on our final episode folks goodbye. 21:37.24 Cpt Granarius Faith.