Hey there, curious minds! Joe here. Last year, I had the incredible opportunity to explore the Amazon rainforest, a place full of surprises and wonders. It’s one of the few spots on Earth where you might stumble upon something completely new, and that’s exactly what happened to us in Peru. While filming a different video, our guide Pedro pointed out something fascinating on the ground.
We saw a caterpillar, but it wasn’t moving like any caterpillar I’d seen before. Instead of using its legs, this little creature was climbing with its mouth! Why? Because it was carrying a rolled-up leaf, like a tiny house. When I picked it up, it tucked itself back into the leaf, like a knight hiding in armor. We nicknamed it “Sir Caterpillar, Knight of the Rainforest.”
This caterpillar’s camouflage is impressive. Imagine being a predator in the rainforest, surrounded by dead leaves. You’d probably walk right past this little guy without noticing. Even Pedro, who has spent most of his life in the rainforest, had never seen anything like it. We decided to take a couple of these caterpillars back to camp to show our biologist friends, Aaron and Daniel.
We started calling it the “Winnebago Caterpillar” because it reminded us of a hermit crab. But unlike hermit crabs, which move into homes built by others, this caterpillar builds its own by cutting and pasting leaves into a tube. It’s a clever strategy, and none of the butterfly and moth experts I’ve contacted have seen anything like it before. It might even be a new species!
Identifying a new species is more complicated than you might think. The study of classifying organisms is called taxonomy. It’s like a language that helps us organize living things based on their relationships and evolution. But defining what a species is can be tricky.
One common definition is that a species is a group of organisms that can breed and produce fertile offspring. But this isn’t always clear-cut. For example, Eastern and Western Meadowlarks look similar but usually don’t interbreed because they sing different songs. So, are they the same species or not?
Another way to define species is by looking at DNA. By comparing DNA sequences, scientists can determine how closely related two organisms are. However, there’s no strict rule about how much DNA difference makes a new species, so even genetics can’t solve the species puzzle entirely.
We’re currently analyzing the DNA of our caterpillar-turned-moth to see if it’s truly a new species. But with over a dozen ways to define a species, the answer might not be straightforward. Naming a new species is like making a hypothesis about its relationship to others, and it’s something scientists continue to explore.
In the vast Amazon rainforest, finding another caterpillar like ours might be a challenge. But that’s what makes it special—it doesn’t want to be found. So, stay curious and keep exploring the wonders of nature!
Thanks for joining me on this adventure. If you love creating and exploring, I’ve got something exciting for you. I’m curating a Maker Box from Quarterly, filled with amazing items to inspire your curiosity. Science is more fun when you can get hands-on, so don’t miss out. Follow me on social media for more updates and stay curious!
Imagine you’re a caterpillar in the rainforest. Design a camouflage strategy using art supplies like paper, markers, and leaves. Think about how you would blend into your surroundings to avoid predators. Present your creation to the class and explain your strategy.
Split into groups and research different definitions of a species. Each group will present their definition and argue why it is the most effective way to classify organisms. Engage in a class debate to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each approach.
Using materials like clay, leaves, and toothpicks, construct a model of the “Winnebago Caterpillar.” Focus on how it uses leaves to create its protective tube. Share your model with the class and discuss the caterpillar’s unique survival strategy.
Participate in a simulation where you compare DNA sequences of different organisms. Use colored beads to represent DNA bases and determine how closely related the organisms are. Discuss how DNA analysis helps in identifying new species.
Write a journal entry as if you are an explorer in the Amazon rainforest. Describe your discoveries, including any unique creatures or plants you encounter. Illustrate your journal with drawings and share your adventure with the class.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
—
[MUSIC] Hey smart people, Joe here. When I went to the Amazon rainforest last year, I knew I would see things I’d never seen before, and boy did I. [MUSIC] But it’s also one of the few places on Earth where you can see something no one has seen before. And that’s exactly what happened to us in Peru. We were walking through the rainforest shooting a completely different video when Pedro, our guide, suddenly pointed down at the ground, and this is what we saw.
“It’s a caterpillar.”
“But it’s moving with its own house.”
“This caterpillar is taking its house with it.”
“It won’t leave this leaf behind it.”
Wait a second. Did you see how that thing was moving? Most caterpillars move and climb using their legs, either the six front “true legs” or a number of “prolegs” that eventually disappear when it matures into an adult. This caterpillar does something totally different.
“It’s climbing with its mouth!”
“That’s the first time I’ve seen this, actually.”
That’s really unusual. This caterpillar has to climb with its mouth because it’s dragging around a rolled-up leaf. And when I went to pick one up, I immediately figured out why.
“See? And it like tucks itself back in, it’s like a little shield.”
“You’re like a little knight. It’s like your suit of armor. I’ll call you Sir Caterpillar, Knight of the Rainforest.”
That’s some impressive camouflage. I mean, imagine you’re a predator. The rainforest floor is covered in dead leaves. If we hadn’t seen a few of these moving, I bet we would have walked right by them. Now, our guide Pedro has been in the rainforest most of his life and had never seen one of these, but we decided to take a couple back to camp just to see what our rainforest biologist friends Aaron and Daniel thought.
“Alright, look in the end there, what do you see?”
“Whoa. What is in there? Is that?”
“It’s a caterpillar!”
“No.”
“It’s like a little camper house, like a trailer.”
“Wooooooa!”
We were calling it the Winnebago Caterpillar. “It’s like a hermit crab.” “Yeah, yeah.” We found a caterpillar that thinks it’s a hermit crab. Except a hermit crab moves into a home that another animal already built. This caterpillar builds its own by cutting and pasting leaves into a caterpillar-sized tube.
“This is a cool strategy of wrapping a leaf around yourself and just crawling around like a hermit crab.”
“I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
For the past few months, I’ve been emailing the world’s most knowledgeable butterfly and moth experts, and I don’t think anyone’s seen anything like this before. The leaf camouflage and way of moving is a totally new behavior, and this is potentially a totally new species. We could call it the Winnebago moth, the Pedropillar, Sir Leafsalot, I don’t know, Mon Mothma!… but we’re getting ahead of ourselves. And that’s what I want to talk about today. How do we figure out if a species is new? Answering this is a lot harder than you think, and it touches at the very core of how we organize nature. Even the question of what a species even is.
The study of how we classify organisms is called taxonomy. Like any language, biology needs a standard set of names to call living things, so we know what you call a chinchilla is the same thing I call a chinchilla. That category is put into another, and that into another, and so on. This builds a system that lets us organize living things based on how closely related they are and to study how they’ve evolved. But it still doesn’t tell us what a species is.
The obvious way to tell two organisms apart is how they differ in size, anatomy, and other physical characteristics. Lions and cheetahs? Obviously different species. But what about these two? On looks alone, we’d say the Eastern and Western Meadowlark are the same species. But scientists noticed Eastern birds bred with Eastern birds, and Western birds with Western birds, so they were classified as two different species. This is probably the definition you learned in school: A species is “a group of organisms that can breed with one another and produce fertile offspring.” This “biological species concept” makes sense based on our daily experience. Dogs make dogs, cats make cats, and so on. Based on that definition, Eastern and Western Meadowlarks are two different species. Except: later, when scientists looked closer at some places where their populations overlap, it turns out meadowlarks actually can interbreed and make at least some fertile offspring, just most of the time they just choose not to. Why? Because they sing different songs, a mate recognition species concept. So are they the same species? Or aren’t they?
This is a picture of the moth our caterpillar turned into. I sent this picture to an entomologist who’s probably the world expert in one special family of moths. He immediately knew that ours was part of that family. He was even able to narrow it down to this genus thanks to the shape and pattern of the moth. Unfortunately, tropical moth research doesn’t attract as much funding as other areas, so that’s about all he could tell me. These moths just haven’t really been studied enough to tell us more. You probably don’t know this, but moths have pretty special anatomy. Male and female insect parts have very specific shapes, like a lock and key.
We’re filing away some very personal pictures so one day, when scientists have looked at a whole bunch of other moth anatomy, we can see how ours matches up. It’s kind of like the world’s weirdest fingerprint. Who gets that job? The best tool taxonomists have today is genetics. We can determine how closely two organisms are related by comparing how the letters of their DNA match up, the genotypic species concept. But to do this you’ve got to find some piece of DNA shared by organisms as distant as elephants and oysters. Luckily, all animals have mitochondria, which have their own DNA, and that DNA holds a gene that all animals share. If we look at my mitochondria… are we gonna do that every time? The sequence of my COI gene will be closer to, say, a chimpanzee’s, than a starfish’s. But there’s no rule about how big a DNA difference suddenly means you’re looking at a new species, so even modern genetics can’t totally solve our problem. We’re analyzing this moth’s DNA now, and we’ll definitely share what we find. Or what we don’t find.
All in all, there’s more than a dozen ways of defining a species, by some counts as many as 26. This is “the species problem.” Here’s what you should know: Saying something is its own species isn’t like giving it a unique ID code, like something you buy at the store. It’s a hypothesis, a prediction about how we think that organism is related to others. And then we can test that prediction. We’ll probably never settle on one definition of a species because different situations make us ask different questions. And that’s the funny thing about species: Sometimes, the closer we look, the harder they are to see. Basically we don’t know if our hermit crab caterpillar is new, which is a bummer since “Cicinnus curiosus” sure has a nice ring to it. We don’t even know if someone else will ever find them again because it’s hard to find one small caterpillar in the big Amazon rainforest, especially when what makes it special is that it doesn’t want to be found. Stay curious. [MUSIC]
What’s up guys? Joe here. Thanks for watching this week’s video. I hope that you enjoyed it; I know we had a ton of fun making this one. And speaking of making, if you know anything about me, you know I love to create things. That’s why I have a tiny Lego version of myself. That’s why I’m so excited to tell you about a new partner we’re going to be working with here on It’s Okay To Be Smart: I am curating the next Maker Box from Quarterly. This is a subscription service where I’ll be picking amazing things that I think are going to inspire your curiosity. Not just by looking at them or reading about them, but by getting your hands on them. We all know science is more fun when you get to engage with it. Past Maker Boxes have been curated by people like Bill Nye, so I am really looking forward to sharing my picks with you guys. We’ll have lots more hints and information in the next few weeks, just follow me here on the channel, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, all those places. But if you’re watching this video the day it comes out, we have a special deal for you. If you head on over and order your Maker Box and use the code SMART, you get 10% off for the next 24 hours. If you miss the deal, it’s still going to be awesome and you’re going to love it, but get it while the getting is good! Alright, thanks for watching, stay curious, and we’ll see you next week.
—
Let me know if you need any further modifications!
Caterpillar – The larval stage of a butterfly or moth, which is a worm-like creature that eventually transforms into an adult insect. – The caterpillar munched on the leaves, preparing for its transformation into a beautiful butterfly.
Rainforest – A dense, tropical forest with a high amount of annual rainfall, known for its rich biodiversity. – The Amazon rainforest is home to thousands of species of plants and animals, many of which are not found anywhere else in the world.
Species – A group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding. – The giant panda is a species that is native to China and is known for its distinctive black and white fur.
Taxonomy – The science of classifying organisms into groups based on similarities and differences. – In biology class, we learned about taxonomy and how scientists classify living things into kingdoms, phyla, and other categories.
Camouflage – An adaptation that allows organisms to blend in with their surroundings to avoid detection by predators. – The chameleon’s ability to change its color is a form of camouflage that helps it hide from predators.
DNA – Deoxyribonucleic acid, the molecule that carries the genetic instructions used in the growth, development, functioning, and reproduction of all known living organisms. – Scientists study DNA to understand the genetic makeup of different organisms and how traits are inherited.
Organisms – Any individual living thing, from the smallest bacteria to the largest animal. – All organisms, whether they are plants, animals, or microorganisms, play a role in their ecosystems.
Evolution – The process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history of the earth. – Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution explains how species adapt to their environments over time.
Habitat – The natural environment in which an organism lives, which provides the food, water, shelter, and space it needs to survive. – The coral reef is a habitat that supports a wide variety of marine life.
Biodiversity – The variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem, often measured by the number of species present. – Conservation efforts aim to protect biodiversity by preserving habitats and preventing species extinction.
