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The Zooarchaeology of Star Wars - Ep 57
1.2k Plays1 year ago
Episode II: Attack of the Alex
This episode, Alex and Simona dive back into the Star Wars universe and discuss the skeletal anatomy of a variety of creatures from both the canon lore and legends. Tune in to learn more about the possible ecology and anatomy of creatures such as the Krayt Dragon, the Kaadu and the Kowakian Monkey-Lizard and why nerf welfare is no laughing matter.
Transcripts
For rough transcripts of this episode go to https://www.archpodnet.com/animals/57
Links and Sources
- Ashby, J. (2018). Specimen of the Week 338: a tour of the Platypus Skeleton. UCL Culture Blog.
- Eisenstadt, A. (2021). The True Story Behind How Pearls Are Made. Smithsonian Magazine.
- Glykou, A. (2014). Late Mesolithic-Early Neolithic Sealers: a case study on the exploitation of marine resources during the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in the south-western Baltic Sea. 'Human Exploitation of Aquatic Landscapes' special issue (ed. Ricardo Fernandes and John Meadows), Internet Archaeology 37.
- Saladié, P., Huguet, R., Díez, C., Rodríguez‐Hidalgo, A., & Carbonell, E. (2013). Taphonomic modifications produced by modern brown bears (Ursus arctos). International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 23(1), 13-33.
- Sansweet, S.J. and Hidalgo, P. (2008). The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia. New York: Del Ray.
- Stokstradm E. (2004). A Whiff of Things to Come. Science.
- Wild E. R. (1997). Description of the adult skeleton and developmental osteology of the hyperossified horned frog, Ceratophrys cornuta (Anura:Leptodactylidae). Journal of morphology, 232(2), 169–206.
Woo, M. (2018). BRIEF: Ancient Lizards Also Ran on Two Legs. Inside Science.
Contact
- Alex FitzpatrickTwitter: @archaeologyfitz
- Simona FalangaTwitter: @CrazyBoneLady
- Alex’s Blog: Animal Archaeology
- Music "Coconut - (dyalla remix)" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2UiKoouqaY
Affiliates
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Episode 57
00:00:00
Speaker
You're listening to the Archaeology Podcast Network.
Meet the Hosts: Alex and Simona
00:00:14
Speaker
Hello everyone, welcome to episode 57, the zoo archaeology of Star Wars. Episode 2, Attack of the Aleks. This is Archaeo Animals, the podcast all about zoo archaeology.
00:00:29
Speaker
from Star Wars, apparently. Yeah. And I'm your host, Alex Patrick.
Star Wars Memories and Anecdotes
00:00:34
Speaker
And with me for a very interesting experience about Star Wars is Simona Falanga. So this first part, we can't really do this on a podcast medium, but for the listeners at home, please imagine the crawl
00:00:53
Speaker
you know, from like the films. The yellow text, it's the yellow text, it's the moving yellow text that everybody talks about. The kind of yellow text that my grandfather used to say, quickly, quick, check behind the TV, see if you can see it. Stupid me being quite young. That's a really good bit, actually. I know. I fell for it quite a lot. Yeah, I did. I could never catch it. Oh, you weren't fast enough.
00:01:20
Speaker
And I've really tried, but he said to me, look, do or do not, there is no try.
Star Wars Quotes and Jedi Focus
00:01:26
Speaker
All right, we got another couple of minutes of quotes you want to get out of life. We're probably going to keep going with the episode or what? Anakin, your focus determines your reality. So in that sense, as long as we maintain focus on the episode, it should get done. Well, we'll see.
00:01:46
Speaker
Anyway, so imagine the crawl, right? It's going, it's going up into space. It's yellow text. And so here's the recap of the last episode, because this is a sequel to our first Star Wars episode.
Recap of Previous Episode
00:01:59
Speaker
So at that time, Simona was gone, lost somewhere outside the auto room. Alex had, okay, I'm gonna try to do this with my COVID voice.
00:02:09
Speaker
ultimate power and decided to do a Star Wars episode because my brain was broken a very long time ago when my father showed me those VHS tapes. So we ended up not really talking about this archaeology of Star Wars, but we did talk about the importance of archaeology and cultural personal heritage and why it's so important in the Star Wars mythos and a lot about the expanding universe, I feel like. I mean, that's good stuff to talk about, you know,
00:02:39
Speaker
Yeah, it's what I care about. And that's what's more important. It's what I want to talk about. Anyway, so for today's episode, we will actually, this time, I promise, talk about the creatures of Star Wars and explore their potential osteology into archaeology. So like the last episode, we will cover creatures in the
00:03:00
Speaker
current canon, a.k.a. the things that have been solidified as conical lore by Disney, as well as what they refer to as legends, a.k.a. what Disney does not consider canon anymore, also referred to as the expanded universe, which I like to see myself as a bit of a scholar of, as a very lonely nerd child who read like all the books.
Focus on Star Wars Creatures
00:03:21
Speaker
Very, very sad, very lonely. Once you start down the dark path forever, will it dominate your destiny?
00:03:32
Speaker
It's so easy. There are so many of them. There are so many over the top quotes from Star Wars. It's almost like there's so it's almost like it's a huge franchise that has been in all sorts of media. Yes, but I've just managed to quote just from the through the four
Simona's Star Wars Experience
00:03:49
Speaker
or five and six. So like, more importantly, because
00:03:57
Speaker
What was that for? What was that sarcasm? No. Me. Who? Sarcastic. No. Speaking of Simona, Simona hasn't said a word really in this episode, and I think we should explore why that may be. Simona, what is your experience? What's Star Wars?
00:04:18
Speaker
I have watched the first two films, not one and two, I'm told, the first films as they came out in chronological order, which I'm told are New Hope and Return of the Jedi.
00:04:34
Speaker
No. It's episode four, A New Hope, and episode five, The Empire Strikes Back, is what you watched. I think I may have watched it during the Jedi. I don't know. Have you seen the little Ewoks, the little adorable bear creatures?
Comparing Star Wars Creatures to Animals
00:04:50
Speaker
I don't like them. You have seen. I don't like them. I like them. I liked R2D2.
00:04:57
Speaker
When I was a kid, I loved Wicket. I thought he was so cool. When I was born, I guess my parents were planning on having a child for a couple of years. So I had the biggest collection of Return of the Jedi merchandise and I wasn't born until a couple of years after that phone came out. So I had lots, I had a Wicket plushie, all this stuff. So I think that's why I tend to really like it.
00:05:24
Speaker
Now, I've watched them as an adult, but again, only those two, potentially three films, I've spent a few years, I can't remember. So, as you may have gathered, I'm not as into the Star Wars lore as in, which is a good way of saying I'm not into Star Wars lore at all. Well, we've done for this because we're going to be covering several creatures. Alex has kindly sent me a variety of images of the creatures that we're going to cover.
00:05:49
Speaker
And I have purposely decided not to look at them. So we can do a little bit of Simona reacts as strange creatures from Star Wars. Yes, this will be very similar to I think the Pokemon episode in some respects. I erased that from my brain. I do remember you absolutely having your brain melted on the concept of Pokemon being born from eggs and some Pokemon being ghosts.
00:06:14
Speaker
Oh yes, the first ghost. Yes, you kind of absolutely lost
Nerfs and Banthas: Real-world Inspirations
00:06:19
Speaker
it. No wonder why you blocked that out. It was a bit traumatic for you, I think. What did you, where did you go? Because it's fun, Simona. It's fun for me as someone who doesn't know much about zoo archaeology, yet hosts a podcast about it, but I know a lot about pop culture. So isn't my time to shine finally.
00:06:40
Speaker
But yeah, so we will start off our episode talking about the nerf. Yes, from the iconic line, you scruffy looking nerf herder from episode five, The Empire Strikes Back. Oh, what's that one?
00:06:54
Speaker
Yeah, so I don't know if you remember, it's something Leia says to Han, or Han, when they, so it's after Luke Skywalker gets smacked in the face with a wampa, gets rescued, is on the half base, he's in the medical bay, it's right before that very awkward kiss between Leia and Luke, which in retrospect is very strange. And yeah, she says that to Han. And you know, I think there's a lot of people who are fans of Star Wars who probably don't even,
00:07:23
Speaker
really know what a nerf looks like. Look at the photo. Okay, what are them? Yeah, so it's, I mean, this is something we'll see a lot in this episode. There are a lot of yak like creatures in Star Wars. I've got a strange tail this one though. Let me get thrown a little bit of flavor when you're designing creatures. Yeah, because like it kind of looks like a yak that's got multiple horns.
00:07:51
Speaker
Also a very common theme in Star Wars. It's got sort of this almost like the same horn pattern as like sort of the Manx Lauten sheep, but then it's very yak-like, but then it's got like a reptilian armadillo type tale. Also a very common theme we'll be seeing in this episode.
Cultural Lore of Nerfs
00:08:11
Speaker
which we've actually talked about in the past of how, you know, because this is even though this is only our second Star Wars episode, it's our five billionth whatever episode looking at kind of fictional creatures. And I think we've talked about this before about, you know, it seems to be the way to go is to throw in a little bit of reptilian characteristics into creatures.
00:08:34
Speaker
That makes sense. I guess it makes it easy, so to speak. Yeah. Anyway, so the Nerf is a herbivore that is kept primarily for its milk, but is sometimes used for its meat and fur as well. So some morphological details include very blunt teeth, as well as obviously having these very
00:08:56
Speaker
unique three current horns. Now, I also want to note, and you can see this in your next photo of Simona, this is not to be confused with banthas, which are also similarly yak-like, but much bigger and mainly located on Tatooine, and they are mainly herded by the Tusken Raiders and use pack animals by them, although sometimes they're also hunted for food and wool.
00:09:23
Speaker
Did they just like stuck wool on an elephant or something? I mean, yeah, probably. Okay, it's very... I love Bantha. Absolutely cool. It kind of reminds me of like the creatures. I don't know if you've ever seen the film Quest for Fire.
00:09:41
Speaker
Oh my gosh. I haven't thought about that. That's so funny. Okay, so like the horns. Okay, they are not that similar. I mean, they're like both like, sort of fairly large herbivores. But looking at it for the first time, the band does morphologically does look quite different because the
Nerfs: Domestication and Parallels
00:09:59
Speaker
shape of the horns is quite a bit different. It's only got the two is very ram like they're a lot larger in relation to head size compared to the nerf. The mouth what's going on with the mouth?
00:10:11
Speaker
It's got lips. I mean, well, yeah, it's a, it's a bantha. Of course it's got lips and it got a little beard. Why do you think that's weird? It's got like this skin, sort of almost like human-like lips. Yeah. And? Banthas, I guess.
00:10:30
Speaker
It should also just to note that Bantha's pre-date nerfs and I don't actually know and Tristan you can correct me if I'm wrong. I don't think nerfs have actually materialized really in definitely not in live action form but I don't even know if they've really appeared in like the animated stuff. The only image I could find of them was like a drawing.
00:10:52
Speaker
I've not seen enough of the animated stuff to confirm or deny this. I know it's definitely not in any of the live action. Well, sorry, the main films. So yeah, I'm really surprised that's what a nerf looks like. Yeah. I mean, I can't believe that, you know, they make weapons out of those creatures as well. You know, absolutely ridiculous. And I think that's the practice I think I would ban is the removal of nerf from nerf guns.
Cultural Implications of 'Nerf Herder'
00:11:23
Speaker
Thank you for putting your politics into this podcast.
00:11:30
Speaker
Tristan has now been suspended. So yeah, you know, it's interesting to also see that, so technically the bantas did actually predate nerfs in that obviously bantas were used in the first, well, chronologically, the first film that was made, but the fourth film in the franchise, A New Hope. And they were basically elephants. And it makes sense. It's a cool look. Not necessarily that difficult to probably get. They filmed this in Tunisia.
00:12:00
Speaker
So yeah, it's just been a practical sense that kind of makes sense. But to go back to kind of the actual in lore kind of stuff, you know, like I said, they're mostly known from that one throwaway line in Empire Strikes Back. Not really a throwaway line, it's a pretty famous line.
00:12:19
Speaker
But the implications of that and what's just been kind of carried on into the expanding universe stuff is that nerfs were just apparently really disgusting and smelly. That's why Nerf Herder is an insult, as obviously if you work with nerfs, you're probably just as smelly and disgusting as they are. And they seem to be found on most temperate planets. I mean, no wonder they're a bit smelly. Their fur looks very matted. They should brush them once in a while. Always brush your nerf.
00:12:49
Speaker
Yeah, always brush a nerf. Thank you for speaking truth to power with that. Do you need to use a comb or do you need to use like a slicker brush for that kind of fur? I'll probably use like a dematting brush. Right, right. Yeah, I'm making a note of this. Thank you for your nerf. You've now subscribed to the Nerf Facts podcast. If you want to hear more episodes about this, Simona will be doing a number of how to groom your nerf for the next couple of episodes.
00:13:19
Speaker
Welcome to our new podcast, Nerds on Nerfs. I'm very passionate about Nerf welfare. I think we've just nerfed this podcast. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
00:13:44
Speaker
I'm bringing it back, baby. We're bringing it back, okay? Back to an actual podcast about zoarchaeology. So, zoarchaeological considerations for the nerve that have nothing to do with, you know, maintaining their looks.
Archaeological Evidence for Nerfs?
00:14:02
Speaker
I mean, they seem more or less, it's hard to say what their domestication status is because it's not a real animal. But the fact that they refer to them as herds and nerf herders, maybe we can apply that they are more of a managed herded animal like the reindeer, which we talk about a lot in this podcast, rather than something a bit more domesticated like cattle. It's the yuck fully domesticated.
00:14:32
Speaker
I don't actually know. I feel like we might have talked about this in the previous episode, but I've already... No, no, but Yak, no, it is classed as a domesticated cattle. Oh, okay. Yeah. So, okay. So I guess something akin to something that looks like a yak, but it's heard like reindeer does.
00:14:47
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, obviously, you know, speaking realistically, domestication isn't necessarily a black and white thing. There are shades domestication and, you know, who knows as well how anything works in the Star Wars universe. It's a bit. Cattle and ball like, but I mean, I feel like you can probably make a case that they might be a bit more of a herded species, not necessarily bread.
00:15:15
Speaker
And again, I mean, the difficulty, I guess, is that we really haven't seen them in any of the kind of bigger iterations of Star Wars, which seems surprising. They can get their own spin-off, everyone does. Yeah, true. An in-law documentary on the nerf. But I'm guessing probably, yes, semi-domesticated, because while they are herded by the Tusken Raiders, others... No, those are Banthas.
00:15:45
Speaker
Those are panthers. Nerfs are herded by nerf herders. They're easy to remember.
00:15:55
Speaker
But that might not be what they call themselves. That's just what other people refer to them as. That is true. We may be using a derogatory term this whole time. If it's used as a derogatory term for someone who smells, then surely the population that in law hurts the nerves probably doesn't like to be called that and call themselves something entirely different. This is true. In my defense, I have no idea. I'm sorry for my ignorance, but maybe Star Wars should actually cover that so that I don't sound ignorant when I talk about this.
00:16:24
Speaker
But I guess assuming that they are semi-domesticated, I guess there would probably be some similarities maybe with the way that we would find their remains as far as kind of, you know, there's a very specific way we see domesticated species, right, in the archaeological record.
Nerfs, Yaks, and Banthas: Cultural Significance
00:16:41
Speaker
There's probably going to be a correlation between like, you know,
00:16:47
Speaker
proximity to a kind of site, domestication site, or something like that. And probably related fines to like the secondary products and things like that, you know? Yes, I guess, I don't know, like presuming, you know, if they get herded across like a distance, you might make the assumption that the herd is a semi-nomadic at least. So maybe like in sort of summer camps or winter camps, you might find evidence or sort of butchery
00:17:13
Speaker
of the animals and preservation for the winter. There might be some working off the bones or picking the horn specifically turn into objects utilitarian or otherwise that preserve that'd be nice. But while the horn cores will be there in this. Yeah, for sure. And I think the fact that they are found mostly on temperate planets probably also supports that idea that, you know, we're potentially looking at kind of seasonal sites of occupation.
00:17:44
Speaker
and in relation to nurse. So the bad guys instead, they're herded by Tuscan rangers, but they also get hunted from other people for food and wool. So much like yaks and nerfs and cattle.
Banthas and the Tusken Raiders
00:18:04
Speaker
Yeah, like I said, there's a fair amount of yak-like creatures in Star Wars, which again kind of makes sense from a very practical standpoint in that you can basically throw a bunch of fur on a real animal and say that's some kind of creature, right?
00:18:23
Speaker
Yeah, you know, it's fine. It's fine. Actually, bantas are kind of interesting as well. There's a lot of cultural stuff with bantas and the Tusken Raiders. I believe in some of the expanding universe stuff. I don't know. I can't remember if it's been added to the canon lore because there's been a lot of stuff related to the Tusken Raiders in the television shows like in Boba Fett and the Mandalorian. But there's the bantas are really important.
00:18:52
Speaker
species to the Tusken Raiders. And they, you know, they grow up together. There's a whole thing with, you know, Bantha being born around the same time as a child in the Tusken Raiders group. And, you know, they create kind of like a multi-species community, which is really interesting. And it's also just an elephant with some fur glued on it. So science fiction is magical, folks.
Introduction to the Kadu
00:19:22
Speaker
And as we think about that, we will take a break and we will get back to some non-Yak-like creatures.
00:19:30
Speaker
Come back to episode 57 of Archaeo-Animals. We are talking about this archaeology of Star Wars once again, and we are at some non-Yak creatures for once. So I'm going to talk about, and this may be shocking because I think a lot of people want to pretend that this film doesn't exist, but I do want to talk about the Kadu from episode 1 of Phantom Menace. Photo? Nope.
00:20:01
Speaker
He just got stuck with a yacht. Okay. It's a strange tall duck with no wings. So yeah, they are mainly robed by the Gungans of Naboo and they are apparently what is referred to as a reptavian. So in other words, it's a reptilian creature with avian-like characteristics. Yeah.
00:20:25
Speaker
And I think you can argue that they're probably more amphibious rather than reptilian in some respects. They're able to live on lands and in the water, and they also lay eggs, also kind of like a duck. And they do kind of look like a duck, actually. I think when I was a kid, I thought they were ducks. Well, like a crocodile. Well, no, they don't look like a crocodile, but a crocodile is able to live on land and in the water.
00:20:53
Speaker
Yeah, I guess it's the bill part that really throws you off. So okay, full disclosure. The reason why I wanted to bring these creatures up is when I was a kid, I had an action figure on
Kadu's Biology and Lifestyle
00:21:02
Speaker
one. And I was just I don't know what it was. I was obsessed with it. It was like my favorite Star Wars creature action figure. I use it all the time. I think I don't know what it was. There's just something very captivating about a weird, like, duck, reptile creature.
00:21:20
Speaker
It's just cool looking. I don't know. It almost looks like a dinosaur that will strive to turn into a duck and then halfway through the transformation just went, yeah, nah. I'm done. I do think it is something about the bills. And maybe scholarly, I want to just pitch this out there. I wonder if they're more like platypuses. So like a reptaviamalian?
00:21:50
Speaker
So, like, like, I don't know, I feel like they do look duck like, but I've always felt like they look more like a platypus than a duck. He's built wise. So, like, maybe their skulls have that sort of weird like pincer thing that's platypuses have that, like, it's so you've never seen a platypus skull. First of all, pause the episode, Google it. They got this weird, like pincer looking thing out of their skull.
00:22:18
Speaker
And they that's what supports the rest of the bill, which is kind of more of a leathery type of skin. So I don't know, that's just my, that's my idea. See, there'll be a lot like a platypus bill, although like the nasal cavity, they're a lot closer to the edge of the mouth and the platypus. Well, it's more avian in the cabo, where it's sort of a bit further up the bill, sort of not unlike a duck or just generic waterfowl.
00:22:45
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I don't know. It's a bit of a mess when it comes to biology, to
Kadu's Bipedal Nature
00:22:52
Speaker
be honest. But I feel like the other thing that I want to kind of bring up is that they are bipedal creatures, which I think maybe that's the other thing that I was really obsessed with for some reason, just the fact that they were, you know, they ran on two legs. So I always thought that was really cool.
00:23:09
Speaker
So if we assume they're reptilian, reptavian, maybe we can say that they're kind of not too far off from modern real world lizards in that, you know, at least 50 species of them can actually run on two legs when necessary, which I don't know if you've seen is kind of funny. No, not say I have.
00:23:36
Speaker
Like I said, at least 50 species of them can, if it's real bad, they really need to get out there. They can just haul on two legs. And apparently there's been some paleontological work may suggest that older species such as Sorepis hadongensis. Apologies. You've done the Latin name for a change.
00:24:04
Speaker
Well, you know, I'm really the powerhouse of this episode, so. But yeah, so it seems like this is something that ancestor species of modern-day lizards may have also been able to do as part of an evolutionary survival. Yeah, because I guess she has like first impression, like I would say that very much it looks like a dinosaur that was on its way to becoming an avian creature.
00:24:31
Speaker
Yeah, you know, now that you see that, it kind of looks like, you know, when they do those morphs animations to show like evolution of, you know, like you say, a dinosaur too.
00:24:42
Speaker
a bird, it's like they just pushed paws halfway through. We're like, that's it. Yeah, very much like a dinosaur. So like essentially a reptilian. And again, like the avian also makes sense even in sort of a real world comparison. But the bill which I guess the most avian looking part of the creature is sort of like something that evolved, they evolved like as an adaptation by like, you know, being a very water loving creature,
00:25:09
Speaker
they got a bill or a muzzle that was best suited to the environment they mostly thrive in. But what's with the lack of arms? Because it's got no, it's got no arms. It's got no wings. Same thing anyway. It's just gone without. No, just run. You just run. It just run. Because if you don't need them, you don't need them. No, no, they just run.
00:25:37
Speaker
Anyway, to a creature that's maybe a bit less confusing, and again, this is just what I want to talk about, because I think I talked about Knights of the Old Republic a lot in the last episode, but I do want to talk about the Gizka.
Gizka: Pest Status and Culinary Uses
00:25:54
Speaker
It's loading? Okay. It's just a frog. It's basically just a frog. It's a skull frog, though.
00:26:02
Speaker
That's what I wanted to talk about. So to explain what this is, they are basically exclusive to Bioware's Night's New Republic, the first game in the series. And basically in the game, they randomly get put on your ship and can either be tilled off, which is the dark side option, or kept as pets, the light side option.
00:26:23
Speaker
But they're mainly seen as pests, to be honest, and apparently are famous for eating through wiring on spaceships. So most people want to get rid of them. Kind of like the space hamster. I mean, yeah, I guess basically the early space hamster, given that this predates.
00:26:42
Speaker
Mass Effect? Yeah, that's your Republic of Grenades Mass Effect, yeah. Ellie's first one, yeah. So even though they are pests, they are also seen as delicacies, as stakes. And I think there's like a throwaway line in the game where you get, you know, the NPC dialogue, where one alien kind of says that they're just space chickens, like everything.
00:27:05
Speaker
taste like them. So I think that most will be on the play off of people just say when they try like a frog or just insert animal here but oh it tastes like chicken. It tastes like giska. So yeah I mean I think you kind of pointed this out so what I want to talk about is their skulls and their weird like horn like things. Well because also like depending on which sort of representation of them
00:27:30
Speaker
you look it just seems like well i called it a skull frog because it seemed to have this keratinous belt like well essentially like this skull outside of their skull does that make any sense no i mean well to be fair let's be real none of these creatures really makes sense they're just there for aesthetic and vibes but i mean what i thought of the first time i saw them was that they were like horn frogs so there's like the serenem horn frog
00:28:00
Speaker
Which is, uh, I mean, like, should I try the Latin? Oh, that's a your power house and all that by all means. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yeah. Apologies in advance. They're toffress cornuta. I don't know. I basically almost failed Latin folks. I took it for like two years. Horrible time.
00:28:21
Speaker
But yeah, so the surname Horned Frog basically has what looks like horns, hence the name, obviously. They're basically just dermal elements that are ossified into the skull. They're also referred to as casks.
00:28:37
Speaker
which are just kind of a broad term that relates to any kind of strange helmet sort of protrusions you see on animals such as birds and other reptiles like chameleons. So maybe something like that.
Gizka's Unique Skull
00:28:53
Speaker
I guess like the description sort of fits here like dermal elements are ossified under the skull because that's a better way of describing this gisker to me looking like it's got an outer skull outside of the skull.
00:29:05
Speaker
Because school sounds cool. It's that sort of ossified thing. Again, not so I was wise, but that I know that sort of reminds me of the Turians in mass effect. That sort of thing. Yeah, yeah. I think I mean, obviously, the Turians, I believe are kind of based on those.
00:29:23
Speaker
reptiles, aren't they, that have those, that cask effect. So that does make sense. Although I was also thinking of, you know, if they were skull frogs, are they like the xenomorphs in our episode from a couple of episodes ago when we did xenomorph zoo archaeology? And we found out that they have two skeletons. Oh, science fiction, zoo archaeology is so much fun. Just bring the yaks back.
00:29:52
Speaker
No, we're not bringing the axe back. We're going to the Krait Dragon. Alright. Okay, that's cool. Oh, he's angry. He's a dragon. Obviously he's angry. How many legs does he have? Yeah, okay, so we'll get into it. There's a...
00:30:09
Speaker
I didn't realize how much lore is in The Crate Dragon. So it's technically been part of the franchise since A New Hope. When you first come on to Tatooine in that film, you see its skeleton as part of the broader landscape. So in the sands, a huge skeleton is a crate dragon.
00:30:29
Speaker
and the Krait Dragons are actually a native inhabitant of the planet. And the weird thing, when I looked up on Wikipedia, because obviously that's where you go to for your Star Wars information, the skeleton that's on Tatooine that you see in the film is referred to as a juvenile, and I have no idea where that comes from. Like, maybe it's a guesstimate based on its size, but like I was looking, I couldn't find the actual citation as to where that's from.
00:30:58
Speaker
got to be size. But now the Pentagon is it is it so it's a reptilian species? Yes. There's something about the mouth of the teeth is very fish.
00:31:08
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that's kind of the stealth and always remind me of
The Krait Dragon: Tatooine's Native Species
00:31:12
Speaker
a big fish. Like some of the angles, because I'm looking at more photos now when it's got its mouth open, depending on the angle, it just really reminds me of a great white shark. Yeah, yeah, I get that. It's obviously, you know, it's a mix of things, isn't it? Like in actuality. I mean, the teeth are creepy enough to be fish.
00:31:29
Speaker
So what makes it a bit more confusing is that, and I'm not sure if this is like canon lore now, but it seems to be like different subspecies. And I think realistically speaking, this is them trying to get around the fact that it's been
00:31:45
Speaker
Shown in various ways in various medium, which makes sense I mean, that's a great way to kind of include all the depictions of it as cannon So there seems to be two subspecies that are mainly seen so you have the canyon crate dragon Which is somewhat smaller and runs on four legs now this is the version you would see in a in some of the video games like my silver public and
00:32:08
Speaker
and that's what I usually think of when I think of crate dragons. And then you have this greater crate dragon, which is much larger, much more dragon-like, and this is what the skeleton from A New Hope is from. Now, the weirder thing that really complicates this is that there was a crate dragon that finally made its live-action debut in the Mandalorian TV series, and this one had 16 limbs, could spit acid, so it's not even one of those subspecies. Speciation.
00:32:38
Speaker
Where did the 16 limbs come from, though? To walk really, really, really fast. How does that work? How do they work, though? I'm thinking about it morphologically. How does that work? Because they're not very well spaced out, so they must be bumping into each other all the time. Because I was like, oh, so in my brain, I was trying to work this out. I was thinking of like centipedes. But even then, there's a very specific type of movement that centipedes and millipedes have, right, with all those limbs.
00:33:06
Speaker
So maybe it's a similar, do they borrow? Yes. So the one that has 16 limbs does borrow in the TV series.
Krait Dragon's Pearl-Producing Ability
00:33:16
Speaker
So I guess that explains it, maybe. Yeah, you'll make sense here, the sort of centipede like, but it's got with like tiny little hands.
00:33:25
Speaker
tiny baby hands. So they're obviously extremely dangerous. As such, they are highly prized as hunting trophies. So I guess you would assume a lot of the kind of material culture and archaeological record of the species is probably going to be hunting trophies. But the other thing that I want to talk about is that they do have a secondary product, they actually produce pearls. So
00:33:50
Speaker
in the lore basically they swallow boulders and stones to kind of keep in their digestive tract and it helps break up the food that they have in their stomachs and you know it's kind of inspired by the actual pearl making processes of mollusks
00:34:08
Speaker
this would eventually become a pearl, except obviously in real life, mollusks basically do this when debris gets stuck in their soft tissue and they create the pearl exterior as a protective mechanism. It sounds like they've mixed two things, because you mentioned the pearl making process, but the sort of keeping stones in the jest of track reminds me of chickens instead that will have grit. Oh yeah, of course, I had to think about that, but
00:34:35
Speaker
Yeah, that is interesting that they've kind of, I mean, again, we've talked about this, this is the kind of theme of this episode is how do we mix as many things together to make it weird and fantastical and fictional. But yeah, I didn't even think about the chicken thing. And that makes a bit more, not that it makes a bit more sense, but it's you're right, it's definitely combining those two.
00:34:57
Speaker
to create that lore. It's just for great dragons, this was less of a protective mechanism and more of a consequence of boulders being rolled around their guts for so long. And these were obviously very valuable and even Jedi would sometimes take the pearls and put them in their lightsabers.
00:35:15
Speaker
So I guess also in a way finding the actual pearl that would be absolutely have to be a byproduct of hunting. So the way I understand that these pearls do not get expelled to the digestive system, they just remain in there and sort of roll around.
The Ronto and Its Design Influences
00:35:29
Speaker
Yeah, so it's basically would be a byproduct of hunting, if not scavenging for some reason, but probably hunting. Well, you'd have to expel them at some point. Otherwise, the whole stomach would just fill with pearls and they'll just die.
00:35:42
Speaker
I mean, I can't really profess the saying that I know all of how the digestive tract of a crate driver works. Don't you? Their welfare is important. I know. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so, so behind in my, you know, biological welfare information. I don't know.
00:36:03
Speaker
So real quick, before we wrap up and go to our next segment, I do want to really quickly talk about the Ronto. So not a yak, but another Tatooine inhabitants. Sorry, folks, but let's be real. A lot of Star Wars properties take place in Tatooine. So there's a lot of creatures that are from Tatooine. They are used as a mounts by the Jawas.
00:36:22
Speaker
They're also reptilian. They're very tall, very long necks, and kind of as a little behind the scenes tidbit that maybe explains a bit of how they work. Their design was a combination of an elephant, a rhino, and a dinosaur.
00:36:38
Speaker
The latter specifically comes from the fact that the special effects team, Industrial Light and Magic, literally just use their brachiosaurus model from Jurassic Park to create the Toronto model when they inserted a CGI model of it in the 1997 special edition of A New Hope, which is hilarious. And I mainly just, yeah, well.
00:37:05
Speaker
I just wanted to bring them up because technically I have eaten Ronto. Well, you know, Ronto wraps. So I have unsurprisingly gone on the nerd pilgrimage to the Galaxy's Edge, which is the Star Wars theme park at Disney
Ronto Wraps Experience
00:37:20
Speaker
World. And they do serve Ronto wraps.
00:37:23
Speaker
which are basically just a bunch of really nice pork and sausage in a really peppery sauce with coleslaw and pita bread. So I'm going to just assume that rondel just tastes like that. It's really nice. Highly recommend. But yeah. So another example of reptile characteristics being thrown onto a creature to make it science fiction.
00:37:45
Speaker
Simona that's all the ones are gonna say got spoiled already because I was gonna say it kind of looks like a dinosaur with like elephants and like a rhino book not beak but you know and yeah that's exactly what it is so yeah
00:38:00
Speaker
I just think it's funny. I had no idea that little tidbit that it was literally just a reused model from Jurassic Park, which explains a lot. But yeah, I guess while we think about how everything really just looks like a dinosaur in the Star Wars universe, we will take a break and we will come back with our final segment of non-tattooine creatures, I promise.
00:38:21
Speaker
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to episode 57 of Archaeo-Animals for talking about this archaeology of Star Wars. And I promise, I swear, this segment, we will at least not really talk about Tatooine creatures. But I mean, come on, honestly, so much of Star Wars takes place on Tatooine, it's really hard to not talk about them.
Wampas: Hoth's Main Predator
00:38:43
Speaker
So we are finally off of Tatooine now. And you might recognize this one, Simona the Wampa.
00:38:52
Speaker
It's Bigfoot. I mean, yeah, I guess. Snow Bigfoot. Well, I mean, that is a folklore creature, yes. Well, yeah. He's not really. Yeah. Or the Adominable Snowman, you know, one of those. So what was potentially the main predator species on the ice planet of Hoth? I mean, realistically, we don't really see a lot of creatures on the Hoth. It doesn't look very nice there.
00:39:21
Speaker
No, not really. So they're most notably seen in Empire Strikes Back. They attack Luke at the very beginning of the film, then kind of the first like enemy film.
00:39:33
Speaker
So, yeah, so as Simona has already said, they're basically like the Domino Snowmen or Yetis. They're big white furry creatures with those rounded ram-like horns that apparently just are on every creature in Star Wars.
Archaeological Signatures of Wampas
00:39:52
Speaker
Why not?
00:39:52
Speaker
I mean, yeah, they do, they do make things look interesting, I guess. So they inhabit the frost caves of Hoth, but will occasionally venture out looking for prey before dragging it back into its den to be consumed. So in that sense, I feel like we can make a bit of a real world connection to bears, at least in, you know, that kind of scavenging mentality.
00:40:21
Speaker
It's a bit of a stretch, I know. Yeah, they'll be like a polar bear, but polar bears, they will scavenge, they'll hunt, they're just angry. Yeah, I mean, and rightfully so, they have many reasons to be angry, but yes, they are angry. Yeah, so like, yeah, polar bears, they think they're like the first kind of point of call, as far as kind of trying to compare it to real world species. Obviously, they're both in very similarly cold environments, but also
00:40:48
Speaker
They seem to be exclusive carnivores, like polar bears, although other bear species like brown bears can occasionally scavenge. So I think in that case, maybe we can shift the conversation a bit. And instead of talking about the remains, we can potentially talk about the taphonomic signatures.
00:41:09
Speaker
and how the Wampa probably have a very unique or at least identifiable taphonomic signature, kind of like bears. So bears,
Tauntauns: Mounts and Biological Adaptations
00:41:20
Speaker
when they scavenge and they chew on bone, and we find that archaeologically, you find that the main kind of characteristics are
00:41:30
Speaker
like really fragmented bone, particularly long bone, and has evidence of furrowing and scooping, so kind of long entrenched indentations, pitting that kind of bumpy bits and pieces here and there, and really smooth, like surface suits at the kind of fractured edges of bone. At least that's my guess.
00:41:56
Speaker
Yeah, I think they would have a very distinct sort of signature as well on the bones, the wampus, because I'm looking at a close up of one with its mouth open and oh, oh, oh, boy, danger dentist. What's going on there? Because they seemed all the teeth seem to be pointed. So they have a succession of canines in a variety of size, almost fish like again,
00:42:16
Speaker
But sort of all of varying sizes, there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or rhythm, except for maybe on the lower jaw, there's almost like two sets, so like a four total of lower canines that are much bigger than all the other teeth, but all the incisors look equally sort of pointy, but they're more slender in the maxilla than they are in the jaw.
00:42:36
Speaker
Yeah, so I wonder if for Wampos we maybe see more pitting in that case. Definitely like probably a lot of like sharp fragmented bone. Although obviously in the film when you do see them and they're munching on bone, it's just that kind of cartoon like femur, big femur bone gnawing on a turkey leg type thing.
00:42:58
Speaker
Yeah, because also, I can't really see what the molars are like. But of course, you know, a lot of the bone crushing would be done with the molars. But then if they just have like endless rows of canines, I mean, they'll be fine for sort of tearing flesh, but in terms of crushing bone, maybe not actually.
00:43:15
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, obviously, I like crocodiles do that just fine. Oh, true. Yeah. And we have actually in like a few episodes ago, I believe we have talked about crocodilian taphonomy, which I believe is also kind of, you know, very fragmented bone, splintered bone. So I guess that would be more of the taphonomic signature than perhaps what we actually see in the film.
Tauntauns and Archaeological Evidence?
00:43:41
Speaker
Yeah, because I think it'd probably be very distinct because it's, yeah, it's just like all these sort of teeth when they know much of a rhyme or rhythm, because there's some like, you know, you'd expect some sort of conformity in the size of the teeth. Well, you're incisive, you're canine, it's pretty molar, but it just seems to be sort of very all over the place. Yeah. But hey, it's science fiction, baby. There are no rules, really.
00:44:08
Speaker
Anyway, kind of related to the Wampas, I feel like we should talk about their main prey and really the only other creature you see on Hoth, which is the Toan Toan. And that's me getting my actual Long Island accent really comes out when I say that. I apologize. I try so hard. It's another yak thing. Well, not quite yak, sort of yak thing. I mean,
00:44:32
Speaker
I mean, yeah, so I lied. There was at least one other yak creature on this list. It looks like the yak snow version of that other dinosaur one with the Platypus bill. Yes, the Kadoo. So like the Kadoo, the Tontons are bipedal mounts. Although, in contrast to the Kadoo, they do have arms. They're little T-Rex kind of arms, which are fun.
00:45:01
Speaker
Yeah, because I guess, yeah, they're sort of like a kadoo, but they're like, more like a kadoo and the what was the yak again, the first one, the nurse. Yes, a kadoo and a nerve and a baby in the snow. And it was this.
00:45:18
Speaker
Yeah, I guess so. So for those who don't know, for some reason, they're furry creatures with curved horns. Again, those horns making a comeback and big claws, which some kind of in lore text suggests that's why they're really well suited for Traverse's Hoth.
Kawakian Monkey Lizard: Name and Appearance
00:45:37
Speaker
the claws allow them to get a nice grip on the really icy and snowing landscapes on the planet. And the thing I want to point out that is really unique about the Toan Toans is that they have four nostrils. Oh, I've noticed that. Yeah, no, it's something that I think when I was a kid, I really didn't notice. And then as I got older, I was like, do they have four nostrils? Because it's such a very strange disease.
00:46:04
Speaker
you know usually you'd say like oh they have extra arms, they have extra eyes, they have extra legs. I've never really seen a scientific creature that was like we'll have extra nostrils. Yeah because almost like the top nostrils almost look like will be the start of an elephantine sort of tusk and not tusk.
00:46:21
Speaker
Oh, what do elephants have? The nose. Trunk. The trunk, that's the one. Kind of look like an elephant trunk. Yeah. And then sort of like the maxilla kind of looks like a cabbles. I do like the tauntons. I think they're one of the more innovative kind of creature designs in that it simultaneously looks very familiar, but not familiar at all.
00:46:48
Speaker
Exactly. Yeah, the face is quite mammalian. But then again, the teeth. Again, you've got that more they make more sense in the torn torn, but it's sort of these sort of basically k nines all across the board, like we're just pointy teeth throughout. And but then they also got that those are ossified sort of dermal plates that you see in some of the reptilian creatures. So like I say from the horn skull, those other bits sticking out.
00:47:14
Speaker
the ossified thermal plate. I don't really have in lore explanations for that.
Unique Traits of Kawakian Monkey Lizard
00:47:25
Speaker
I do have an in
00:47:27
Speaker
universe lore kind of explanation for the nostrils. So apparently the larger set of nostrils would be used only really for intensive activities that require a lot of oxygen intake. And then the smaller set was used for when tontons were less active, as it also kept out still and things like that. So
00:47:47
Speaker
Weirdly enough, they're not that entirely dissimilar from real life creatures that also have four nostrils, which are mostly fish.
00:47:57
Speaker
and fish actually. So the fish have multiple pairs of nostrils on each side of their face. One nostril allows water in and the other one lets water out of their nasal cavity. So kind of similar in that sense. It's one of those things that like makes sense on a very base science fiction level for sure.
00:48:18
Speaker
And as you mentioned, Simona, they do have a bit of a reptilian look to them. And in some texts that I found, they are referred to as reptomamalian. So underneath all those layers of fur is actually a layer of scaly skin. And then following that is blubber, which is why in Empire Strikes Back,
00:48:39
Speaker
when Han has to keep Luke Skywalker somewhere warm and safe overnight. He slices open a tauntaun and puts Luke inside. It's not nice. And then he obviously says one of his famous lines, I thought they smelled bad on the outside. And that's obviously because Blubber has an extremely strong odor, but also provides insulation. So that's why
00:49:07
Speaker
It was useful as a living sleeping blanket, basically. So I guess, too, archaeologically, we could maybe say, hey, there could be evidence for tauntaun butchery for blubber. Maybe we don't really know if Hoffs had, like,
00:49:26
Speaker
actual humanoid or relatively sentient inhabitants. I don't know if there was ever a culture for Tauntaun Blubber, but I guess you could maybe make a case for that potentially being something to look for. We see it in early prehistoric archaeological sites with regards to the use of blubber from marine mammals such as seals.
00:49:50
Speaker
butchery marks on bone that represent dismemberment and skinning, of course, but also associated artifacts with residual evidence of blubber that could be identified using lipid analysis and isotope analysis.
The Tuka Cat: Domestication Potential?
00:50:03
Speaker
So maybe, I don't know.
00:50:06
Speaker
also I guess you could get it even though there's no necessarily any humanoid populations on the planet you might get the odd sort of say like a shipwreck site people have to fend off for themselves while help arrived and then they would have to well hunt the local fauna so there might be some evidence of exploitation but not necessarily by a culture per se but just people that happen to be on that planet for a reason or another
00:50:31
Speaker
Yeah, and obviously we know from the film that the rebels have kind of created a base there, so it could be that they have to actually scavenge Tontons for blubber, for, you know, fuel or something. Again, just two archaeologists making up stuff as we go along.
00:50:51
Speaker
Anyway, real quick, I want to go to our next one, the Kawakian Monkey Lizard, which is most known for their appearance in the form of Salacious Crumb, Jabba the Hutt's weird little pet guy from Return of the Jedi. Oh.
00:51:06
Speaker
Exactly. That's why I want to talk about them. They are various colors, brown, red, blue. They're basically treated as the space version of a parrot. And I want to talk about the fact that they should not be called monkey lizards. I don't get it. I get the monkey part.
00:51:23
Speaker
They're bipedal creatures with tails. They have similar motions. They are found on trees. And I can kind of get the reptilian part because they have tufts of fur, but they also have this kind of scaly looking hide. But if we're trying to sort out
00:51:42
Speaker
what reptile they're closest to, I wouldn't necessarily say a lizard, I would probably argue for something like a turtle because of their weird beaks. And if anything, looking at them again, like I've never seen this before in my life, what came to my mind first was an aye aye. Yeah, yeah. Over a monkey.
00:52:05
Speaker
That makes sense, like the tufts of fur, the look like they've just had it. Except for the beak, obviously. So I was saying reptilian, but also in a way, you know what that beak also reminds me, which again, is not reptilian at all. What? The mouth of an octopus. Oh, yeah. I see that. So for me, I always thought turtle.
00:52:32
Speaker
So like turtles, the beak is called the Ramfotheca, which is a bit of keratin sheaf over the mandible maxilla. And the shape always kind of reminded me of like a little turtle beak. And obviously birds also have this, which make up their beak as we see them. But I also, I get what you mean by the octopus as well.
00:52:53
Speaker
I don't see lizard, right? Like, at the very least, I don't see lizard. No, because also like the rest like beak aside, the rest of the math, the animal and maxilla kind of reminds me more of a frog.
00:53:05
Speaker
Yes, which is also like it's got like a frog, John Magsilla with the head of a little owl sat on top of it, at least from the photo that I'm looking at, you just see like, it's almost like two distinct things and you have the two little yellow eyes. But no, tangent aside, I would have thought yes, something akin to either like a turtle, or like a keratin. She's much like in an octopus beak, but essentially an AI.
00:53:35
Speaker
So yeah, clearly, Disney, you should hire as an archaeologist to do your creature development. These should be called a kawakian, aye-aye-turtle frog. Well, I'll just find another frog, that's terrifying. Oh no, I don't like this. Is it the picture of the puppet? Yeah, I think, is it in the Mandalorian?
00:53:58
Speaker
I think there might be one. I will say I am the owner of two of them. I have two puppets of them in my house right now. Thank you, Disney. Oh. Oh, OK, so we will go away from that. We will we will cleanse ourselves of that image because they are a bit freaky and talk about our final. Very strange creature from Star Wars, and that is the Tuka Cat.
00:54:29
Speaker
Oh, yes, they're just cats. They're just cats. I just wanted to talk about cats at the very end of the episode. It's a nice cleanser after the quacky and monkey turtle lizard. I think they're just they're just cats. They just look like cats.
00:54:45
Speaker
They come in various breeds, most famously the loft cats from the planet Lothal, which is seen in the TV series Rebels and also as an animatronic in the Disney theme parks. And they're very cute and I love them so much. They are literally just cats, except they also have like bird-like talons and like really big frog faces. And they're just, they're just so cute. Swooshy tail and talons.
00:55:13
Speaker
You just want to squish their faces. I love them. They got just big, big, big frog like faces. I love that. And I don't I couldn't tell you really what the evolutionary advantage of Talon would provide a cat. Hold the bird down. I guess. I don't understand why the frog face other than maximum cuteness.
00:55:40
Speaker
Because that can be to bribe human cultures in the vicinities into giving them food. They don't have to hunt. And then the talons, I mean, provided that much like cats, well, cats are not arboreal, but have the ability to climb on trees. If they're hunting strategies to pounce on their prey from the tree, then the talons, much like a bird of prey, would help them sort of hold them down.
00:56:03
Speaker
Yeah, and they seem to be in the way that they are portrayed in kind of Star Wars. They seem to be in the process of being domesticated as pets. They're mainly seen as like pest hunters, and they do seem mostly tamed. But yeah, I mean, to be fair, Star Wars technically does take place in a long time ago and against the front of our way. So, you know, they may not be up to the same level of domestication that we are in the real world.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:56:33
Speaker
But yeah, that is a whirlwind journey through the Zoo Archaeology of Star Wars. Simona, how do you feel? I'll tell you next episode. Yeah. I need to process some of this.
00:56:49
Speaker
Yeah, so I guess while you process that, if folks listening want to make sure that they subscribe to our podcast, wherever you get your podcasts, and tell your friends to subscribe as well. Like us and leave reviews. That's always really helpful and nice. You can find us on Twitter at archaeoanimals.
00:57:09
Speaker
Let us know if you want another Star Wars episode, because Lord knows there are so many creatures and Simona's sanity still seems to be intact. We could probably break that down a little bit further by doing another episode. But yeah, otherwise, it's been Alex and Patrick. What's your mother, Kalanga? Hire us, Disney. We will make Star Wars good.
00:57:38
Speaker
Thank you for listening to RQ Animals. Please subscribe and rate the podcast wherever you get your podcasts from. You can find us on Twitter at RQAnimals. Also, the views expressed on the podcast are those of ourselves, the hosts and guests, and do not necessarily represent those of our institution, employers and the RQLG Podcast Network. Thanks for listening.
00:58:03
Speaker
This episode was produced by Chris Webster from his RV traveling the United States, Tristan Boyle in Scotland, DigTech LLC, Culturo Media, and the Archaeology Podcast Network, and was edited by Laura Johnson. This has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other podcasts at www.archpodnet.com. Contact us at chris at archaeologypodcastnetwork.com.