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What if dragons were real?

In this minisode of Wildly Curious, Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole explore one of the strangest reptiles on Earth: the Armadillo Girdled Lizard (Ouroborus cataphractus), a tiny armored lizard from South Africa that looks like it crawled straight out of a fantasy novel.

Covered in spiky scales and equipped with one of the most unusual defense strategies in the animal kingdom, this reptile doesn't run from danger. Instead, it grabs its own tail and curls into a living ball of armor.

In this episode:

🐉 Why this lizard is often called a real-life dragon
🦎 The bizarre defense strategy that inspired its scientific name
🌍 Where Armadillo Girdled Lizards live in South Africa
🛡️ How armor, behavior, and social living help them survive predators
👶 Why these reptiles give birth to live young instead of laying eggs
🏜️ How evolution shaped one of the world's most unique lizards

If you love reptiles, wildlife, weird animal adaptations, dragons, natural history, or bizarre creatures from around the world, this episode is for you.

🎧 Part of our ongoing Animals You've Probably Never Heard Of minisode series.

Support the show

🎉 Support us on Patreon to keep the episodes coming! 🪼🦤🧠 For more laughs, catch us on YouTube!

Track a real wild animal. Support conservation. Feel slightly cooler than you did five seconds ago. Visit the Fahlo tracking bracelets website to get 20% off tracking bracelets with code WildlyKaty.

Send us Fan Mail

Subscribe and unleash your inner science goblin. We see you. We respect it.

What happens when your DNA makes a typo?

In this episode of Wildly Curious, Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole dive into the strange, fascinating world of genetic mutations—the tiny changes in DNA that can shape evolution, alter proteins, create disease, or sometimes do absolutely nothing at all.

From harmless genetic quirks to serious inherited disorders, this episode breaks down some of the most important mutation types in a way that actually makes sense.

🧬 What mutations really are—and why they happen constantly
🔠 How DNA “letters” form the instructions for building proteins
⚠️ What happens during frameshift, substitution, insertion, deletion, duplication, and inversion mutations
🩸 Why mutations can influence things like blood type, lactose tolerance, HIV resistance, and sickle cell anemia
🧠 The genetics behind disorders like Tay-Sachs disease, Fragile X syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, and hemophilia A
✂️ How scientists are using CRISPR and gene editing technology to potentially correct harmful mutations

Along the way, Katy and Laura explore how mutations drive evolution, why most genetic changes are harmless, and why it’s honestly kind of incredible that our bodies function at all considering DNA is constantly being copied trillions of times.

Whether you’re into genetics, biology, evolution, medicine, or weird science, this episode is a deep dive into the microscopic changes that shape life itself.

🎧 Season 14 continues with one of the biggest science topics we’ve ever tackled.

Support the show

🎉 Support us on Patreon to keep the episodes coming! 🪼🦤🧠 For more laughs, catch us on YouTube!

Track a real wild animal. Support conservation. Feel slightly cooler than you did five seconds ago. Visit the Fahlo tracking bracelets website to get 20% off tracking bracelets with code WildlyKaty.

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Most birds are harmless.

This one is poisonous.

In this minisode of Wildly Curious, Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole dive into one of the strangest birds on Earth: the pitohui, a brightly colored songbird from New Guinea that carries powerful neurotoxins in its skin and feathers. 

The toxin is chemically similar to the same compounds found in some poison dart frogs, making the pitohui one of the very few known poisonous birds in the world. But how does a bird become poisonous in the first place?

🐦 What a pitohui actually looks like

☠️ How this bird stores toxins in its feathers and skin

🪲 The beetles responsible for its poison

🧠 Why scientists think the toxins may help defend against parasites

🤧 Why handling one can cause numbness, sneezing, burning skin, and watery eyes

🌴 Why indigenous communities call them “rubbish birds”

Along the way, the episode explores toxic animals, warning coloration, bird evolution, and the bizarre ecosystems of New Guinea—home to some of the weirdest wildlife on Earth.

If you love birding, ornithology, toxic animals, weird nature facts, or evolutionary biology, this is one bird you’ll never forget.

🎧 Part of our “Animals You’ve Probably Never Heard Of” minisode series.

Support the show

🎉 Support us on Patreon to keep the episodes coming! 🪼🦤🧠 For more laughs, catch us on YouTube!

Track a real wild animal. Support conservation. Feel slightly cooler than you did five seconds ago. Visit the Fahlo tracking bracelets website to get 20% off tracking bracelets with code WildlyKaty.