WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.980 Imagine trying to protect, well, a massive towering 00:00:03.980 --> 00:00:06.839 skyscraper from collapsing, right? But you don't 00:00:06.839 --> 00:00:08.980 even have a name for the specific bolts that 00:00:08.980 --> 00:00:11.080 are holding the entire structure together. Which 00:00:11.080 --> 00:00:13.900 sounds completely absurd, but ecologically speaking, 00:00:14.099 --> 00:00:16.179 that happens a lot. It really does. And today 00:00:16.179 --> 00:00:18.539 we're looking at a creature that scientists realized 00:00:18.539 --> 00:00:21.500 was holding together an entire aquatic universe 00:00:21.500 --> 00:00:25.300 and was actually in imminent danger of vanishing 00:00:25.300 --> 00:00:27.300 years before they even figured out what to call 00:00:27.300 --> 00:00:30.769 it. Welcome to the Deep Dive. We're thrilled 00:00:30.769 --> 00:00:32.490 you're joining us today because this journey 00:00:32.490 --> 00:00:35.689 is just a perfect example of how the absolute 00:00:35.689 --> 00:00:38.909 most fascinating stories often come in the smallest, 00:00:39.149 --> 00:00:41.509 like most unassuming packages. It really does 00:00:41.509 --> 00:00:43.729 completely flip our understanding of what a, 00:00:43.729 --> 00:00:45.710 you know, a vital species actually looks like. 00:00:45.789 --> 00:00:47.789 I mean, we usually think of towering redwoods 00:00:47.789 --> 00:00:50.409 or massive apex predators. Not something you 00:00:50.409 --> 00:00:52.149 could easily lose in a swimming pool. Right, 00:00:52.170 --> 00:00:55.039 exactly. So our mission today is to explore a 00:00:55.039 --> 00:00:56.960 creature you have almost certainly never heard 00:00:56.960 --> 00:00:59.600 of. We've got a stack of sources in front of 00:00:59.600 --> 00:01:01.840 us that essentially revolves around a single 00:01:01.840 --> 00:01:05.379 very succinct Wikipedia article, a stub as they 00:01:05.379 --> 00:01:07.439 call it in the editing world. Yeah, just a few 00:01:07.439 --> 00:01:09.849 lines of text really. Right. But we also pulled 00:01:09.849 --> 00:01:12.829 its underlying scientific citations. So we're 00:01:12.829 --> 00:01:15.870 looking at data from the IUCN Red List of Threatened 00:01:15.870 --> 00:01:19.750 Species, the fish -based database, and a 2013 00:01:19.750 --> 00:01:22.489 scientific paper from the journal Zoukis. And 00:01:22.489 --> 00:01:24.670 all of those documents, you know, from the broad 00:01:24.670 --> 00:01:27.530 conservation databases to the highly specific 00:01:27.530 --> 00:01:31.209 taxonomic paper, they all point us toward a tiny, 00:01:31.670 --> 00:01:34.359 highly specialized fish. called haplochromous 00:01:34.359 --> 00:01:37.439 argens. Haplichromous argens. I love how grand 00:01:37.439 --> 00:01:40.280 that sounds. There's some sort of mythical silver 00:01:40.280 --> 00:01:42.920 leviathan ruling the deep. It really does sound 00:01:42.920 --> 00:01:45.180 dramatic. But then you look at the actual stats 00:01:45.180 --> 00:01:47.280 in the fish -based data, and it paints a very 00:01:47.280 --> 00:01:49.620 different picture. OK, let's unpack this. What 00:01:49.620 --> 00:01:51.500 are we actually dealing with here physically? 00:01:51.939 --> 00:01:54.620 Well, we are looking at an animal that at its 00:01:54.620 --> 00:01:57.900 absolute maximum, reaches a length of 7 .6 centimeters. 00:01:58.040 --> 00:02:00.500 Which is exactly 3 .0 inches. Barely anything. 00:02:00.659 --> 00:02:02.239 Yeah. I mean, you could hold it in the palm of 00:02:02.239 --> 00:02:03.799 your hand and still have plenty of room left 00:02:03.799 --> 00:02:06.519 over. Yet, as our sources indicate, this 3 -inch 00:02:06.519 --> 00:02:09.180 fish carries the weight of a complex aquatic 00:02:09.180 --> 00:02:11.900 food web entirely on its tiny shoulders. Right. 00:02:12.099 --> 00:02:15.120 It is acting as a biological linchpin. And to 00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:17.680 understand why this tiny fish matters so much 00:02:17.680 --> 00:02:20.240 to that universe, we first need to understand 00:02:20.240 --> 00:02:23.520 its incredibly specific home address. because 00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:25.819 it doesn't just swim wherever it pleases. No, 00:02:25.919 --> 00:02:28.479 it doesn't. We've established its family tree 00:02:28.479 --> 00:02:31.439 from the text. It belongs to the kingdom enamelia 00:02:31.439 --> 00:02:34.759 phylum cordata class actinoptery G. Yep, the 00:02:34.759 --> 00:02:37.960 rayfin fishes. Right. And then... order cichliformes 00:02:37.960 --> 00:02:41.060 and family cichlidae. Specifically, the text 00:02:41.060 --> 00:02:44.139 says it's a haplochromine cichlid in the genus 00:02:44.139 --> 00:02:46.719 haplochromus. So it's part of this massive family 00:02:46.719 --> 00:02:49.860 of fishes known for rapid evolution. But the 00:02:49.860 --> 00:02:52.960 geographic data in this fish base entry is what 00:02:52.960 --> 00:02:55.400 genuinely stopped me in my tracks. Oh, the location 00:02:55.400 --> 00:02:58.819 data is wild. It really is. The text says this 00:02:58.819 --> 00:03:01.400 fish is endemic to Lake Victoria. Now, for anyone 00:03:01.400 --> 00:03:03.400 listening who isn't, you know, up on their African 00:03:03.400 --> 00:03:06.639 Great Lakes, Lake Victoria is a behi - It's basically 00:03:06.639 --> 00:03:08.560 an inland sea. It's roughly the size of Ireland. 00:03:08.960 --> 00:03:10.560 Exactly. But the text gets even more specific. 00:03:10.699 --> 00:03:12.960 It says this fish is only known from the Tanzanian 00:03:12.960 --> 00:03:15.560 portion of the lake. Which creates a fascinating 00:03:15.560 --> 00:03:17.620 biological mystery. Right. You don't usually 00:03:17.620 --> 00:03:20.319 see strict geographical borders underwater like 00:03:20.319 --> 00:03:22.479 that. Right. And that is exactly where my brain 00:03:22.479 --> 00:03:24.939 gets stuck. Wait. So it's endemic to just one 00:03:24.939 --> 00:03:28.060 specific part of the lake. Is this like finding 00:03:28.060 --> 00:03:31.280 a species of bird that refuses to leave one single 00:03:31.280 --> 00:03:34.240 zip code of a massive city? That's actually a 00:03:34.240 --> 00:03:36.080 great way to think about it. But I have to push 00:03:36.080 --> 00:03:39.039 back a bit on the idea of a purely political 00:03:39.039 --> 00:03:41.659 boundary determining an animal's range, right? 00:03:42.060 --> 00:03:44.400 It's not like there's a massive net or a passport 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:47.219 checkpoint at the Tanzanian border. The water 00:03:47.219 --> 00:03:50.840 moves. The currents flow. How does a fish know 00:03:50.840 --> 00:03:53.780 where Tanzania ends and Uganda begins? What's 00:03:53.780 --> 00:03:55.979 fascinating here is that the fish, obviously, 00:03:56.560 --> 00:03:58.699 isn't observing international law. Right. Obviously. 00:03:58.969 --> 00:04:01.389 But the fact that its range nearly overlaps with 00:04:01.389 --> 00:04:03.870 the Tanzanian waters tells us that what looks 00:04:03.870 --> 00:04:06.830 like a uniform giant bathtub to us is actually 00:04:06.830 --> 00:04:09.289 a highly fragmented world to them. Even though 00:04:09.289 --> 00:04:11.250 the text doesn't spell out the exact barrier, 00:04:11.889 --> 00:04:14.189 a strict geographical confinement like this usually 00:04:14.189 --> 00:04:17.170 points to an invisible wall in the water itself. 00:04:17.389 --> 00:04:20.439 Like a sudden drop in temperature. Exactly. Or 00:04:20.439 --> 00:04:23.079 drastic change in water chemistry. Or maybe a 00:04:23.079 --> 00:04:25.720 sudden shift in the depth profile of the lake 00:04:25.720 --> 00:04:27.879 bed right around that territory. I mean, the 00:04:27.879 --> 00:04:30.220 lake bed isn't flat. It has distinct trenches, 00:04:30.579 --> 00:04:32.720 reefs, and variations in light penetration. So 00:04:32.720 --> 00:04:35.420 it's a very specific environment. Very specific. 00:04:35.740 --> 00:04:38.579 If Haplochromus argens crosses whatever invisible 00:04:38.579 --> 00:04:41.279 line exists at the edge of its Tanzanian zone, 00:04:41.819 --> 00:04:44.709 it physically cannot thrive. It tells us this 00:04:44.709 --> 00:04:49.129 fish is deeply, inextricably tied to a very particular 00:04:49.129 --> 00:04:51.829 microenvironment within the larger lake. It knows 00:04:51.829 --> 00:04:53.910 what it likes, and it is physically incapable 00:04:53.910 --> 00:04:56.870 of leaving, which naturally forces us to look 00:04:56.870 --> 00:04:59.290 at the mechanics of its survival. I mean, if 00:04:59.290 --> 00:05:02.129 it's trapped on the Tanzanian side by some invisible 00:05:02.129 --> 00:05:05.199 chemical or thermal fence, What is it finding 00:05:05.199 --> 00:05:07.120 in that specific water that keeps it anchored 00:05:07.120 --> 00:05:09.579 there? It has to be a highly localized food source. 00:05:09.759 --> 00:05:12.160 It is. The sources reveal that haplochromosargens 00:05:12.160 --> 00:05:15.420 is a zooplanktivore. Meaning it feeds exclusively 00:05:15.420 --> 00:05:18.600 on zooplankton. Exactly. And the text goes even 00:05:18.600 --> 00:05:21.459 deeper into the weeds, stating it preys primarily 00:05:21.459 --> 00:05:24.170 on copepods and cladocerans. Okay, I actually 00:05:24.170 --> 00:05:26.149 looked up those intimidating scientific terms 00:05:26.149 --> 00:05:27.949 before we started recording because they sound 00:05:27.949 --> 00:05:31.529 like alien biology to me, but coke pods and cladocerones 00:05:31.529 --> 00:05:35.389 are essentially microscopic aquatic crustaceans, 00:05:35.430 --> 00:05:37.889 aren't they? Yep, they are. Like tiny water fleas 00:05:37.889 --> 00:05:39.670 floating in the water column. Right, they're 00:05:39.670 --> 00:05:42.230 these microscopic free -floating crustaceans 00:05:42.230 --> 00:05:45.170 that form a massive part of the lake's microscopic 00:05:45.170 --> 00:05:48.209 ecosystem. So if I'm understanding the mechanical 00:05:48.209 --> 00:05:51.310 reality of this dietary restriction... instead 00:05:51.310 --> 00:05:53.970 of just saying this fish, you know, eats seafood, 00:05:54.149 --> 00:05:56.670 saying it eats coat pods and cladocerones, is 00:05:56.670 --> 00:05:59.790 like saying a person strictly survives on a diet 00:05:59.790 --> 00:06:03.389 of two very specific shapes of pasta, like only 00:06:03.389 --> 00:06:06.290 penne and rigatoni. Yeah, that pasta analogy 00:06:06.290 --> 00:06:08.250 works beautifully, provided we take it a step 00:06:08.250 --> 00:06:10.470 further into evolutionary mechanics. Okay, how 00:06:10.470 --> 00:06:12.750 so? Well, it's not just about a behavioral preference. 00:06:12.829 --> 00:06:15.620 It's about physical adaptation. If you evolve 00:06:15.620 --> 00:06:17.819 your mouth, your gills, and your hunting instincts 00:06:17.819 --> 00:06:20.879 to perfectly vacuum up microscopic penne, you 00:06:20.879 --> 00:06:23.360 physically cannot eat a steak. Wow. So you've 00:06:23.360 --> 00:06:25.620 gambled your entire biological structure on the 00:06:25.620 --> 00:06:28.860 penne being there. Yes. You have zero backup 00:06:28.860 --> 00:06:32.579 plan. A three -inch fish dedicating its entire 00:06:32.579 --> 00:06:35.819 existence to tracking down and consuming microscopic 00:06:35.819 --> 00:06:39.480 pasta shapes in the water column shows a remarkable 00:06:39.480 --> 00:06:42.509 evolutionary niche. It really does. It has traded 00:06:42.509 --> 00:06:45.509 versatility for absolute mastery of one tiny 00:06:45.509 --> 00:06:48.970 domain. It has doubled down on this one highly 00:06:48.970 --> 00:06:52.209 specific food source in this one highly specific 00:06:52.209 --> 00:06:54.370 area of the lake. But see, eating microscopic 00:06:54.370 --> 00:06:56.670 crustaceans might sound completely insignificant. 00:06:56.750 --> 00:06:58.610 I mean, what does it matter if one tiny fish 00:06:58.610 --> 00:07:01.569 eats one tiny bug, right? Right. But here's where 00:07:01.569 --> 00:07:03.410 it gets really interesting for you listening. 00:07:03.850 --> 00:07:07.329 This exact dietary quark, this mechanical obsession 00:07:07.329 --> 00:07:10.709 with the penne and rigatoni of the lake. is the 00:07:10.709 --> 00:07:13.490 exact causal link to the fish's immense ecological 00:07:13.490 --> 00:07:16.329 importance. Oh, absolutely. The source text explicitly 00:07:16.329 --> 00:07:19.189 states that by preying on these planktonic crustaceans, 00:07:19.449 --> 00:07:22.110 haplochermis argens plays a key role in maintaining 00:07:22.110 --> 00:07:24.649 the zooplankton population balance within the 00:07:24.649 --> 00:07:26.829 lake's ecosystem. And balance is the operative 00:07:26.829 --> 00:07:29.269 concept there. It's so easy to read maintaining 00:07:29.269 --> 00:07:31.470 population balance and just brush it off as a 00:07:31.470 --> 00:07:33.769 generic platitude about the circle of life. Yeah, 00:07:33.769 --> 00:07:35.610 but I want to break down the actual mechanism 00:07:35.610 --> 00:07:38.189 of that balance, because the scale of the responsibility 00:07:38.189 --> 00:07:41.930 is staggering. We are talking about a three -inch 00:07:41.930 --> 00:07:44.490 creature acting as the ecological thermostat 00:07:44.490 --> 00:07:47.290 for a massive body of water. Exactly. If these 00:07:47.290 --> 00:07:50.250 tiny zooplankton, the copepods and cladocerans, 00:07:50.589 --> 00:07:52.410 are left unchecked because our three -inch fish 00:07:52.410 --> 00:07:55.089 disappears, what actually happens to the lake? 00:07:55.449 --> 00:07:57.269 Well, if you connect this to the bigger picture, 00:07:57.910 --> 00:08:00.689 the entire chemistry of the lake begins to unravel. 00:08:01.860 --> 00:08:04.459 Zooplankton graze on phytoplankton, which are 00:08:04.459 --> 00:08:07.040 the microscopic plants performing photosynthesis 00:08:07.040 --> 00:08:09.519 and producing a massive amount of the lake's 00:08:09.519 --> 00:08:12.279 oxygen. Right. If the cladocerans overpopulate, 00:08:12.759 --> 00:08:14.660 they strip the water of that phytoplankton. So 00:08:14.660 --> 00:08:17.819 they essentially eat all the plants. They devour 00:08:17.819 --> 00:08:20.819 the foundational producer of the ecosystem. And 00:08:20.819 --> 00:08:23.600 when the phytoplankton density crashes, the oxygen 00:08:23.600 --> 00:08:26.079 levels in the water plummet. Suddenly the lake 00:08:26.079 --> 00:08:28.920 begins to suffocate. The water becomes murky, 00:08:29.300 --> 00:08:31.779 toxic algae blooms can take over, and larger 00:08:31.779 --> 00:08:34.360 fish begin dying off, not from predation, but 00:08:34.360 --> 00:08:36.440 from a lack of breathable oxygen and collapsing 00:08:36.440 --> 00:08:38.759 food chains. The bottom drops out completely. 00:08:38.960 --> 00:08:41.700 It completely changes how we view ecology, you 00:08:41.700 --> 00:08:44.240 know? When we watch nature documentaries, the 00:08:44.240 --> 00:08:46.820 camera is always focused on the apex predators. 00:08:47.320 --> 00:08:50.059 The massive Nile perch, the crocodiles, the eagles 00:08:50.059 --> 00:08:52.799 swooping down to grab a meal. We tend to view 00:08:52.799 --> 00:08:55.440 the ecosystem top down like the Those big predators 00:08:55.440 --> 00:08:57.960 are the rulers holding everything together. But 00:08:57.960 --> 00:09:01.320 the reality is entirely bottom -up. And why should 00:09:01.320 --> 00:09:03.899 you, as the listener, care about a three -inch 00:09:03.899 --> 00:09:06.960 zooplanktivore? Because it proves that the concept 00:09:06.960 --> 00:09:09.279 of a complex food web isn't just about those 00:09:09.279 --> 00:09:12.360 apex predators. It relies overwhelmingly on the 00:09:12.360 --> 00:09:14.639 tiny invisible mechanics running in the background. 00:09:15.159 --> 00:09:17.419 Right. The apex predators we love to watch would 00:09:17.419 --> 00:09:20.000 starve. The entire biological architecture of 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:22.480 Lake Victoria would shudder because this one 00:09:22.480 --> 00:09:24.779 tiny fish wasn't there to vacuum up the water 00:09:24.779 --> 00:09:27.379 fleas. It is the biological equivalent of that 00:09:27.379 --> 00:09:30.179 hidden load -bearing bolt inside the skyscraper 00:09:30.179 --> 00:09:32.080 walls we talked about earlier. Yes, exactly. 00:09:32.320 --> 00:09:34.500 Which makes the next part of our source material 00:09:34.500 --> 00:09:37.659 incredibly dramatic. Knowing how vital this fish 00:09:37.659 --> 00:09:40.799 is to the entire lake's food web makes its precarious 00:09:40.799 --> 00:09:43.519 conservation status and the completely bizarre 00:09:43.519 --> 00:09:46.539 timeline of its scientific discovery feel like 00:09:46.539 --> 00:09:49.450 a literal race against time. Let's look at the 00:09:49.450 --> 00:09:51.190 dates in the citations, because this is where 00:09:51.190 --> 00:09:53.169 the detective work comes in. Yeah, the timeline 00:09:53.169 --> 00:09:55.330 detailed in the sources definitely defies how 00:09:55.330 --> 00:09:57.450 we assume the scientific method usually works. 00:09:57.750 --> 00:09:59.990 Right. So according to the text, the species 00:09:59.990 --> 00:10:02.870 was officially given its binomial name, Haplochromis 00:10:02.870 --> 00:10:06.370 argens, and formally described in a 2013 paper 00:10:06.370 --> 00:10:09.230 in the journal Zookeys. Right. And that was authored 00:10:09.230 --> 00:10:12.730 by scientists Dizou, Westbrook, and F. Witt, 00:10:13.049 --> 00:10:16.110 alongside Van Oysen. So 2013 is the official 00:10:16.110 --> 00:10:18.529 birthdate of its scientific identity. That is 00:10:18.529 --> 00:10:20.610 when it was formally entered into the taxonomic 00:10:20.610 --> 00:10:23.250 record with all the necessary morphological descriptions. 00:10:23.370 --> 00:10:25.289 But then you look at the other citation, the 00:10:25.289 --> 00:10:28.470 IUCN red list of threatened species, they assess 00:10:28.470 --> 00:10:30.830 this fish as vulnerable. And that assessment 00:10:30.830 --> 00:10:34.190 was published in 2010 by Witt, Dizou, and Brooks. 00:10:34.490 --> 00:10:37.090 So what does this all mean? How could this fish 00:10:37.090 --> 00:10:39.889 be assessed as a vulnerable species by the IUCN 00:10:39.889 --> 00:10:42.950 in 2010, three years before the scientific paper 00:10:42.950 --> 00:10:45.259 officially named and describing it was even published. 00:10:45.860 --> 00:10:47.559 You can't declare something endangered before 00:10:47.559 --> 00:10:50.240 it officially exists. This raises an important 00:10:50.240 --> 00:10:52.720 question about how science actually operates 00:10:52.720 --> 00:10:55.320 in the mud and the water versus how we think 00:10:55.320 --> 00:10:57.559 it operates in pristine laboratories. I mean 00:10:57.559 --> 00:11:01.120 we tend to imagine a neat linear sequence, right? 00:11:01.259 --> 00:11:03.399 A scientist discovers a fish, names it, studies 00:11:03.399 --> 00:11:05.980 it for a few years, and then eventually evaluates 00:11:05.980 --> 00:11:08.720 if it's in danger. Yeah, a very orderly bureaucratic 00:11:08.720 --> 00:11:11.120 progression. But the reality at fieldwork is 00:11:11.120 --> 00:11:14.220 much messier and much more urgent. Notice the 00:11:14.220 --> 00:11:17.519 names on those citations. FWIT and DZU are on 00:11:17.519 --> 00:11:21.240 both the 2010 IUCN assessment and the 2013 Zuki's 00:11:21.240 --> 00:11:24.700 paper. What we are seeing in these dry citations 00:11:24.700 --> 00:11:27.320 is a snapshot of scientists working against the 00:11:27.320 --> 00:11:29.919 clock. They are out there on Lake Victoria. They 00:11:29.919 --> 00:11:32.279 find this distinct population of fish doing this 00:11:32.279 --> 00:11:34.639 vital job of eating the zooplankton. They know 00:11:34.639 --> 00:11:36.960 it's a unique species, and they can clearly see 00:11:36.960 --> 00:11:39.080 its population is dropping due to threats in 00:11:39.080 --> 00:11:41.620 that specific Tanzanian zone. So they know the 00:11:41.620 --> 00:11:43.879 load -bearing bolt is rusting away long before 00:11:43.879 --> 00:11:46.120 they have the paperwork finished to patent the 00:11:46.120 --> 00:11:49.559 bolt. Exactly. Formally describing a new species 00:11:49.559 --> 00:11:53.220 for a journal like Zuki's is This is an arduous, 00:11:53.340 --> 00:11:56.899 highly rigorous process. You have to take microscopic 00:11:56.899 --> 00:11:59.679 measurements of bone structures, compare it to 00:11:59.679 --> 00:12:02.299 every other known species in the massive Cichlid 00:12:02.299 --> 00:12:05.200 family to prove it's distinct, and go through 00:12:05.200 --> 00:12:07.620 intense peer review. That sounds exhausting. 00:12:07.840 --> 00:12:10.639 It is, and that process takes years. But conservation 00:12:10.639 --> 00:12:12.940 cannot wait for the peer review to finish. If 00:12:12.940 --> 00:12:15.059 a leak is suffocating, it doesn't care about 00:12:15.059 --> 00:12:17.440 publishing schedules. It highlights this massive 00:12:17.440 --> 00:12:20.440 lag between urgent ecological realities and academic 00:12:20.440 --> 00:12:23.519 bureaucracy. They had to raise the alarm in 2010. 00:12:24.059 --> 00:12:26.279 They essentially had to tell the global conservation 00:12:26.279 --> 00:12:28.720 community, hey, this crucial zooplanktivore is 00:12:28.720 --> 00:12:31.399 vulnerable. We need to protect it. even as they 00:12:31.399 --> 00:12:33.460 were still finalizing the formal documentation 00:12:33.460 --> 00:12:37.259 to name it ARGONS in 2013. The citations alone 00:12:37.259 --> 00:12:39.320 tell a story of scientists racing to protect 00:12:39.320 --> 00:12:41.759 something while simultaneously racing to prove 00:12:41.759 --> 00:12:44.779 what it is. It is an incredibly stressful position 00:12:44.779 --> 00:12:47.279 to be in as a researcher. You are watching the 00:12:47.279 --> 00:12:50.299 foundational pillar of an ecosystem tremble and 00:12:50.299 --> 00:12:52.639 you're fighting to get the world to recognize 00:12:52.639 --> 00:12:55.940 it before it disappears. It completely recontextualizes 00:12:55.940 --> 00:12:59.240 this entire Wikipedia stub for me. What looks 00:12:59.240 --> 00:13:02.340 like a few dry sentences about fish biology is 00:13:02.340 --> 00:13:05.139 actually a snapshot of a high -stakes ecological 00:13:05.139 --> 00:13:07.960 balancing act. It really is. So for you listening, 00:13:08.080 --> 00:13:10.100 let's just recap the incredible journey we've 00:13:10.100 --> 00:13:12.799 been on today. We started with a few brief sources, 00:13:13.120 --> 00:13:15.779 a Wikipedia article, an IUCN Red List entry, 00:13:16.100 --> 00:13:19.419 a fish -based page, and a Zuki's paper. And we 00:13:19.419 --> 00:13:22.659 uncovered a giant story. We met haplochromis 00:13:22.659 --> 00:13:25.419 argens, a tiny three -inch situlid that is physically 00:13:25.419 --> 00:13:28.059 trapped by invisible environmental borders, confining 00:13:28.059 --> 00:13:30.480 itself entirely to the Tanzanian side of Lake 00:13:30.480 --> 00:13:32.879 Victoria. A fish that has evolved its entire 00:13:32.879 --> 00:13:35.159 physical being to survive on a hyperspecific 00:13:35.159 --> 00:13:38.100 diet of microscopic crustaceans, acting as a 00:13:38.100 --> 00:13:40.629 biological vacuum cleaner. And by eating the 00:13:40.629 --> 00:13:43.750 penne and rigatoni of the lake, it acts as the 00:13:43.750 --> 00:13:47.309 vital ecological thermostat, preventing the zooplankton 00:13:47.309 --> 00:13:49.809 from stripping the water of its oxygen -producing 00:13:49.809 --> 00:13:52.610 phytoplankton. It is the balancing weight for 00:13:52.610 --> 00:13:56.330 a massive aquatic food web. And perhaps most 00:13:56.330 --> 00:13:58.970 poignantly, it's a creature so critical that 00:13:58.970 --> 00:14:01.149 scientists had to declare it vulnerable to the 00:14:01.149 --> 00:14:03.409 world before they even had a formal scientific 00:14:03.409 --> 00:14:06.129 name to call it by. It forces us to look at the 00:14:06.129 --> 00:14:08.149 natural world with a lot more humility, I think. 00:14:08.809 --> 00:14:10.990 much time looking at the big dramatic elements 00:14:10.990 --> 00:14:13.190 of our world. We look up at the skyscraper, but 00:14:13.190 --> 00:14:15.590 what about the bolts? It leaves me with a thought 00:14:15.590 --> 00:14:17.750 that goes beyond just this one Wikipedia page. 00:14:18.169 --> 00:14:20.470 We just spent this time exploring how crucial 00:14:20.470 --> 00:14:23.690 a single recently described three -inch fish 00:14:23.690 --> 00:14:27.470 is to the stability of a massive ecosystem. It 00:14:27.470 --> 00:14:30.039 makes you wonder... If this tiny fish was balancing 00:14:30.039 --> 00:14:32.139 the lake long before we formally named it in 00:14:32.139 --> 00:14:35.299 2013, how many other countless unnamed creatures 00:14:35.299 --> 00:14:36.919 are out there right now? That's a great point. 00:14:37.200 --> 00:14:40.539 How many other invisible load bearing bolts are 00:14:40.539 --> 00:14:42.759 holding together the architecture of our forests, 00:14:42.899 --> 00:14:45.500 our oceans and our soils, quietly doing their 00:14:45.500 --> 00:14:48.179 jobs, potentially slipping away before we ever 00:14:48.179 --> 00:14:49.879 get the chance to formally write down their name? 00:14:50.539 --> 00:14:52.840 Yeah. Next time you look at a massive structure, 00:14:52.899 --> 00:14:55.919 whether it's a towering skyscraper or a sprawling 00:14:55.919 --> 00:14:58.879 ancient lake, maybe spare thought for the tiny 00:14:58.879 --> 00:15:01.240 unnamed bolts hiding in the walls. Thanks for 00:15:01.240 --> 00:15:03.159 joining us on this deep dive. We'll see you next 00:15:03.159 --> 00:15:03.379 time.