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National Geographic The Body Changers
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In the beginning, |
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Its form couldn't be simpler. |
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But this will change. |
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It's a piece of work to craft |
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By the time it enters the world, |
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every living thing has experienced |
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Change doesn't stop |
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Growing up is also |
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A newborn kangaroo can grow |
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Some creatures do far more than |
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They reinvent themselves. |
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A fish can start life as a female |
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A bird can grow or shrink a brain area |
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Polliwogs become frogs. |
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Caterpillars turn into butterflies. |
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We learn few more curious facts |
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But it's easy to lose sight of just |
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And even weirder transformers |
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Turn and face the strange. |
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Meet the body changers. |
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"Hey, Emma, come here!" |
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Compared to the epic alteration |
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our own changes may seem subtle. |
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But there's no denying that |
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as they turn into grown-ups. |
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The brain kicks off our own |
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Girls tend to get curvier |
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A child's body, |
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changes shape when it reaches |
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These alterations prepare us |
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to have babies, |
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Boys change in their own way. |
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They add muscle. |
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Shoulders become broader. |
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The body gets hairier. |
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Vocal cords lengthen as does the jaw. |
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A child's journey to adulthood |
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A grown-up is not just |
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but one rebuilt from head to toe. |
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Look back at |
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and we see that |
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starting in infancy with small chins, |
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We are all body changers |
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when it comes to growing up |
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It may be no accident that |
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many baby animals have different |
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Adults find baby features irresistible, |
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a hard-wired system |
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Silvered leaf monkeys |
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No one knows why, |
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to rough-and-tumble mothers |
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The young and old of many animals |
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sometimes to conceal newborns |
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A young, sexually mature male orangutan |
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But in middle age, |
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His new jowly look |
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Changes in our own faces |
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A face that forms symmetrically |
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and stays that way through adulthood |
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can be a mark of good nutrition |
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Is it any wonder we are highly attuned |
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Old age brings new changes |
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keeping a faithful record |
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As we change ourselves in the |
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we're surrounded by creatures |
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Around us are animals |
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that live out the youthful fantasy of |
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But we also share the world |
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whose stories of change |
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Hercules' enemy, |
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sprouted two new heads |
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Nature nearly matches legend. |
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The salamander has powers of |
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It will need these talents, |
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but rather in a world of real dangers. |
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A red-eared slider enters the stream. |
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The salamander picks |
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It's a vulnerable creature, |
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The turtle has nipped off |
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Over three months, the creature |
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back to an earlier stage of life. |
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The genes that grew the leg |
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The new leg will be indistinguishable |
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Unique among animals with backbones, |
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the salamander can regrow |
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but the lens of the eye |
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This beast can survive |
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The Hydra lives. |
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The power to change shape or color |
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Some creatures change |
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Others transform |
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Still other animals change |
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for the chance to fly or leap |
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This lake is home to two body changers |
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A dragonfly nymph spends the first |
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Everything about this creature |
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It is tapered for speed. |
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Its head has powerful jaws and huge |
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It breathes through an anal gill, |
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It's hard to believe |
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sleek as a torpedo, accurate and deadly, |
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Wings are already forming. |
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An amazing makeover is beginning. |
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But the dragonfly will not be able to |
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complete its body change |
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Sharing the pond are |
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You can't get any fishier than this |
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A tadpole breathes through |
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Its long flat tail propels it |
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Inside, powerful front legs have formed |
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But not every ungainly swimmer will |
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With a secret weapon |
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the dragonfly nymph |
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Folded up under the nymph's head |
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This tadpole's dreams of frogdom |
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But in these death throes, |
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which fellow tadpoles |
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In two weeks, tadpoles in the area |
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Their tails turn a shade of red. |
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The colored tail may protect tadpoles |
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like a neon sign flashing "Don't Eat." |
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Why this works, no one is sure, |
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but there's no need to turn tail |
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The pond is abuzz with |
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Not only are tadpoles about to |
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they've already changed colors. |
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At the age of five weeks, tadpoles, |
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shed their underwater ways. |
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Rear legs emerge slowly. |
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Front legs pop out of gill slits. |
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The tail is absorbed. |
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This frog may not have turned into |
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but the tadpole's transformation |
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An air-breathing, bug-eating, |
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has emerged from a silent |
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Now is the dragonfly nymph's time |
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It's been lurking in the shallows |
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waiting for just the right moment |
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Tonight is perfectly calm, |
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since rain or wind could dislodge |
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The nymph has crawled out of the water |
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It is now committed to the air. |
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A brand new creature |
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The husk of the nymph splits open. |
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In a single magical hour, |
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At first, its goggle eyes look like |
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But soon they are pumped up |
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some of the keenest eyes |
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In the remaining hours before dawn, |
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the dragonfly pumps blood |
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doubling their length. |
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The dragonfly has changed from |
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armed with a hydraulic spear |
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to a peerless aerialist |
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About two hours after emerging, |
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Once master of the pond bottom, |
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the dragonfly now controls |
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No other insect devotes as big |
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to flight muscles as the dragonfly. |
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Scuba certification has been traded |
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As larvae, |
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Adult frogs sometimes have the chance |
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A dragonfly is a curve ball |
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There's nothing wrong with |
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if now and then you connect with |
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Just as body changes can take place |
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so they can occur across generations. |
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That's evolution. |
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Natural selection is the long process |
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among organisms that differ slightly |
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Without body-changing over generations, |
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As it is, change adds to change |
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Life may have begun with a blob |
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When alterations were successful, |
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the transformer thrived |
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One of natural selection's |
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is the trick of morphing |
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Plankton is a potpourri of larvae, |
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body changers of many species |
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Creatures like this have an edge: |
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each stage can be honed |
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Now they are shaped for spreading |
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Soon these beasts will be changed |
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into new forms tailored |
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One member of the plankton, |
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starts life with scant |
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It shares the ocean with |
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This relative of the snail |
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hatches wearing a transparent shell, |
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Seaslug and crab, similar as larvae, |
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may confront each other as adults, |
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Having shed its shell, |
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the seaslug eventually becomes |
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It now has a new organ, |
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The billowy hood caresses eel grass |
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Like a submarine Venus fly trap, |
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trapping prey like skeleton shrimp |
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Growing on the seaslug's back |
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fleshy paddles |
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As the seaslug feeds, |
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it is being watched |
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The crab has changed into |
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with molar-like grinders on its claws. |
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Blind except perhaps to light and dark, |
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The crab pinches at the seaslug, |
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Finally the crab gets purchase. |
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But it gets only |
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whose paddles pop off by design. |
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The seaslug swims away |
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Only a stump remains |
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The missing organ |
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Once a tiny drifter, this body changer |
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Up the water column without a paddle, |
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its fellow transformer, |
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Transformation is not |
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The morphing of clouds may offer |
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The morphing of bodies serves |
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In the Arizona desert, |
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After eight crispy months, |
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The monsoon has arrived. |
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The pounding of the rain has stirred |
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In this small, evaporating pond, |
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animals race against the clock |
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Tadpoles of the spadefoot toad |
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grow lungs, sprout legs. |
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They must transform from |
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with gills to hopping air-breathers. |
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If changing from tadpole to toad |
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tadpoles of this species have two ways |
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the nice way and the not so nice. |
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In this hot summer, |
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It could become a death-trap, |
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As the water level drops, |
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time is running out |
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Meanwhile, another creature |
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Fairy shrimp may have lain dormant |
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waiting for just the right conditions |
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As the pool dries up, |
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Tadpoles bump into more and more of |
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Advantage: tadpole. |
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If they end up snacking on |
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the tadpoles sense that their pond |
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There's something about fairy shrimp |
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that throws a chemical switch |
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And these gentle browsers now |
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that will stop at nothing |
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Some of the tadpoles are |
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This is body-changing with attitude. |
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The cannibals are lighter |
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A huge muscle forms in the jaw, |
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We're no longer on golden pond. |
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The cannibals grow at breakneck speed |
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On the fast track, they will need only |
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The slower, mild-mannered tadpoles |
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The extra time helps them become |
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But often in the desert, |
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And the race goes to |
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It was a remarkable turning point |
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when a fish transformed |
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gulp air and drag itself around. |
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But what took eons in evolution is an |
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To reach adulthood, spadefoot toads |
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then dig down into cool damp soil |
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For others in the desert, |
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On an acacia blossom, an egg barely |
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A bristled beast emerges. |
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This caterpillar has a problem. |
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If it's ever going to become |
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it must first survive its life |
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The desert is alive with predators |
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This caterpillar has |
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It will soon enlist one of its enemies, |
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but only after it transforms to develop |
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At the base of the acacia tree, |
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Most ants like nothing better than |
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But these ants love them, intact. |
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They will protect the caterpillar. |
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That's because the ants march to |
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The caterpillar has become |
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This is the sound |
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with body vibrations |
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But ants feel the beat through twigs |
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A strange rendezvous of |
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is about to take place. |
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The caterpillar has, in effect, |
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"Come and get it!" |
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It's not a ploy. |
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The caterpillar doles out sugary |
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For the price of a few servings |
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the caterpillar is surrounded by |
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Not a bad thing to have |
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toughs at your beck and call |
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when you have a soft body |
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This remarkable relationship will last |
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The caterpillar now transforms |
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Tentacles have appeared, |
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that seem to rile up the ants. |
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The caterpillar needs the ants |
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Another kind of ant lives nearby, |
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An enemy ant has grabbed |
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The friendly ants rally |
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Not all battles can be won. |
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But without the aid of bodyguard ants, |
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not as many caterpillars would live |
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About ten days after hatching, |
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It's hard to believe this creature |
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sprout wings and head for the heavens. |
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But that is the miracle |
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Down in the enclave of the ant nest, |
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Hunkered inside what looks like |
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the pupa is a creature in the midst |
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Nerves are being rewired. |
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Old organs are dissolving; |
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The ants tend this defenseless animal |
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even though it will no longer |
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After ten days, |
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one of the most radical redesigns |
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The pupa has become an adult, |
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This creature's long relationship |
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The butterfly struggles to emerge. |
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It must move quickly. |
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In fact, if the butterfly isn't |
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it will be devoured by the same ants |
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that protected it for almost |
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As larvae, these creatures were |
| 00:33:47 |
hauled around on caterpillar treads. |
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As adults, they are flying machines |
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If we couldn't witness a caterpillar |
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we'd never believe |
| 00:34:59 |
It's as astounding as a Cuisin art |
| 00:35:21 |
Some animals undergo one |
| 00:35:25 |
Others change fashions |
| 00:35:29 |
Dogs may wear heavy coats in winter. |
| 00:35:31 |
But lengthening days will cause |
| 00:35:36 |
Soon, this dog will be cooler |
| 00:35:41 |
Some animals change |
| 00:35:46 |
The arctic fox wears white |
| 00:35:50 |
By summer, the coat is less than |
| 00:35:55 |
Arctic birds like the ptarmigan |
| 00:35:58 |
In summer, they're as mottled as |
| 00:36:05 |
By winter, the ptarmigan is a bird |
| 00:36:13 |
Other prey species |
| 00:36:15 |
must track the seasons |
| 00:36:18 |
Understatement is de rigueur. |
| 00:36:23 |
If some animals change |
| 00:36:27 |
others are transforming |
| 00:36:32 |
All over North America, |
| 00:36:34 |
redwing blackbirds prepare for spring |
| 00:36:39 |
Males arrive from winter havens |
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No one gets a home |
| 00:36:47 |
But this male is out of practice. |
| 00:36:50 |
He hasn't sung much at all |
| 00:36:54 |
But he's been quietly transforming. |
| 00:36:57 |
It's now opening day |
| 00:37:07 |
The transformation was |
| 00:37:14 |
The blackbird is a brain changer. |
| 00:37:17 |
Over the past months, one tiny area |
| 00:37:22 |
has more than doubled in volume. |
| 00:37:37 |
With his new swelled head, |
| 00:37:54 |
When a female becomes all a-flutter, |
| 00:37:59 |
The happy new couple flies off |
| 00:38:03 |
It's time for a little |
| 00:38:11 |
The burgeoning brain of the male may |
| 00:38:15 |
Transformation promoted communication |
| 00:38:37 |
Late in the summer, blackbirds glean |
| 00:38:42 |
Males will transform once again. |
| 00:38:45 |
The brain's song area dwindles, |
| 00:38:56 |
Birds are in good company when |
| 00:39:02 |
For most of its life, |
| 00:39:03 |
a flowering plant makes stems and |
| 00:39:10 |
But when the right conditions arrive, |
| 00:39:14 |
a plant will suddenly transform, |
| 00:39:18 |
producing a brilliant package of |
| 00:39:25 |
As one poet put it, |
| 00:40:14 |
Deer browse among blossoms, |
| 00:40:20 |
A once flowering feast is |
| 00:40:30 |
In the leftovers of a deer's meal, |
| 00:40:33 |
two organisms will each |
| 00:40:38 |
A fungus begins to grow threads |
| 00:40:42 |
The fungus is transforming |
| 00:40:46 |
It shoots up stalks as tall as |
| 00:40:51 |
Each stem lifts ripening spores |
| 00:41:01 |
Meanwhile, tiny larvae are growing. |
| 00:41:05 |
The deer was infected |
| 00:41:08 |
To survive, these wriggling parasites |
| 00:41:11 |
must leave their dump |
| 00:41:24 |
So the worm climbs a fungus stalk. |
| 00:41:27 |
Just below a black beret |
| 00:41:31 |
water pressure builds. |
| 00:41:34 |
When the cap bursts, spores can be |
| 00:41:39 |
And worms will fly. |
| 00:42:26 |
One of the parasites |
| 00:42:30 |
A passing deer eats it, |
| 00:42:34 |
The roundworm has found a host, |
| 00:42:36 |
and millions of scattered spores |
| 00:42:43 |
Wintertime. |
| 00:42:44 |
And the living's hard |
| 00:42:47 |
At least for a relative of |
| 00:42:55 |
The landscape is littered |
| 00:42:59 |
Antlers. |
| 00:43:01 |
Up to 20 pounds of bone, |
| 00:43:25 |
Males start to grow antlers |
| 00:43:28 |
a transformation |
| 00:43:34 |
Antlers are living tissue crisscrossed |
| 00:43:39 |
The sensitive fuzzy skin |
| 00:43:43 |
Each caribou has a signature pattern |
| 00:43:49 |
It would be no less wondrous |
| 00:43:51 |
if we were to sprout a fresh arm, |
| 00:44:07 |
When antlers stop growing |
| 00:44:10 |
another transformation takes place. |
| 00:44:23 |
The tender velvet dies and is scraped |
| 00:44:29 |
Each male is now crowned with |
| 00:44:34 |
Fighting is one reason for |
| 00:44:38 |
And this helps solve the mystery of |
| 00:44:42 |
You can't fight a battle if your sword |
| 00:44:46 |
and is sensitive to the touch. |
| 00:44:50 |
Some creatures grow head weaponry |
| 00:44:53 |
Others, only a single time. |
| 00:44:56 |
Altogether, male caribou |
| 00:45:00 |
when it comes to transformations |
| 00:45:33 |
If some animals transform |
| 00:45:36 |
others change what's in it. |
| 00:45:43 |
This male's appearance |
| 00:45:46 |
will transform with his fortunes. |
| 00:45:48 |
Meet a member of the cichlid family. |
| 00:45:51 |
He's something of |
| 00:45:56 |
"Oh behave, baby!" |
| 00:45:58 |
He's the proud owner of |
| 00:46:01 |
about one square foot of lake bottom. |
| 00:46:05 |
He's dressed for success, |
| 00:46:10 |
His dark stripes and sharp colors are |
| 00:46:16 |
Nearby lurks a male with |
| 00:46:20 |
In fact, he looks just like a female. |
| 00:46:22 |
If fish experience envy, |
| 00:46:30 |
The flashy bachelor invites |
| 00:46:34 |
This counts as fine dining |
| 00:46:38 |
After dinner, the couple retires |
| 00:46:45 |
There's only so much a guy can take. |
| 00:46:53 |
The wannabe has switched |
| 00:46:55 |
a kind of warpaint, |
| 00:47:00 |
The wannabe wins. |
| 00:47:02 |
And he is transformed by victory. |
| 00:47:04 |
He retains his bright colors. |
| 00:47:07 |
His grievances are redressed |
| 00:47:09 |
as much as he himself has been |
| 00:47:14 |
A more profound transformation will |
| 00:47:19 |
In a week his gonads will plump up |
| 00:47:22 |
and a brain area dedicated to sex |
| 00:47:29 |
At last the new bachelor is ready to |
| 00:47:35 |
Guided by his bigger brain area |
| 00:47:37 |
he courts a female with macho motions |
| 00:47:43 |
But no male holds a long-term lease |
| 00:47:49 |
The new owner soon discovers the |
| 00:47:54 |
Neighboring bachelors are |
| 00:48:00 |
A neighbor attacks. |
| 00:48:40 |
The new territory holder is defeated. |
| 00:48:43 |
He switches off his fancy colors. |
| 00:48:45 |
His gonads and brain region for sex |
| 00:48:49 |
He rejoins the ranks of the wannabes. |
| 00:48:54 |
Some body changers |
| 00:48:56 |
save their most dramatic |
| 00:49:01 |
Sockeye salmon are beckoned |
| 00:49:04 |
back to the Alaskan streams |
| 00:49:08 |
Some must travel hundreds of miles |
| 00:49:15 |
Along the way, |
| 00:49:16 |
salmon will undergo one of the most |
| 00:49:21 |
Head shape starts to change. |
| 00:49:26 |
Every salmon will die |
| 00:49:30 |
The only question is |
| 00:49:31 |
whether they will get the chance |
| 00:49:37 |
Many will be stopped here by |
| 00:49:54 |
On this journey of the condemned, |
| 00:49:56 |
the salmon throw themselves |
| 00:50:51 |
The salmon that escape, |
| 00:50:54 |
will now carry on |
| 00:51:00 |
The head turns green and body red |
| 00:51:04 |
as the fish prepare to die, |
| 00:51:10 |
Few have made it this far. |
| 00:51:13 |
Fewer yet will |
| 00:51:16 |
Approaching the spawning grounds, |
| 00:51:24 |
A sleek silvery male, |
| 00:51:27 |
transforms into a gaudy hunchback |
| 00:51:34 |
The skin turns smooth and unfishlike |
| 00:51:53 |
In tatters after their journey, |
| 00:51:56 |
salmon arrive in the shallows |
| 00:51:59 |
They've lost up |
| 00:52:02 |
Not to mention their looks. |
| 00:52:05 |
Only one in a thousand has completed |
| 00:52:12 |
With her own changed body, |
| 00:52:14 |
a female sweeps out a gravel nest |
| 00:52:27 |
A male offers his swirl of milt. |
| 00:52:41 |
This grotesque body change |
| 00:52:46 |
Does the male's hooked face help in |
| 00:52:53 |
Does the female choose a male |
| 00:52:56 |
a sexy but reckless display |
| 00:53:02 |
All that's certain is that this change |
| 00:53:06 |
And perhaps in death, |
| 00:53:10 |
the parents offer their decaying |
| 00:53:14 |
where the next generation will grow. |
| 00:53:21 |
The life of every creature |
| 00:53:27 |
So too is the path of all life |
| 00:53:42 |
Though we may resist change, |
| 00:53:45 |
or wish to turn back the clock, |
| 00:53:51 |
We are all transformers, |
| 00:53:54 |
for the story of life |
