00:00:21.396 --> 00:00:23.773
The Galápagos Islands,

00:00:24.983 --> 00:00:28.987
home to some of the most iconic biodiversity
on the planet.

00:00:29.154 --> 00:00:32.198
Charismatic species like tropical penguins,

00:00:32.198 --> 00:00:36.036
giant tortoises, and the blue footed booby.

00:00:37.203 --> 00:00:40.415
Soaring volcanoes and sandy beaches.

00:00:40.415 --> 00:00:45.795
The birthplace of Darwin's earth shattering
theories of evolution and natural selection.

00:00:46.671 --> 00:00:50.675
And on the right day, Tick Tock influencers.

00:00:53.136 --> 00:00:57.182
It is a remnant of the prehistoric world,
where new species evolved

00:00:57.182 --> 00:01:01.186
in hospitable conditions,
without mammalian predators...

00:01:01.227 --> 00:01:03.605
or influencers.

00:01:05.273 --> 00:01:08.693
It is also one of the most studied
ecosystems on the planet,

00:01:08.693 --> 00:01:12.697
and perhaps the last place
you would think find something new.

00:01:13.281 --> 00:01:18.536
But for the right scientists
who know just where to look, and what to look for,

00:01:19.120 --> 00:01:21.748
anything is possible.

00:01:24.459 --> 00:01:28.963
I've always been interested
in things that people don't care

00:01:28.963 --> 00:01:30.590
so much about,

00:01:30.590 --> 00:01:33.343
but have definitely something interesting to them.

00:01:37.847 --> 00:01:41.226
Any organism has some story to tell,

00:01:41.226 --> 00:01:43.812
that is totally worth our time.

00:01:44.020 --> 00:01:48.858
I like looking at the other parts of biodiversity
that people aren't paying as much attention to.

00:01:49.317 --> 00:01:52.821
Parts of the tree of life
that people don't know that much about.

00:01:53.822 --> 00:01:57.325
All the other flora and fauna
that we might interact with

00:01:57.325 --> 00:02:02.080
and how many things they have to reveal to us
if we would just take a closer look.

00:02:13.424 --> 00:02:16.302
Well, at some level,
we can't take ourselves seriously...

00:02:16.302 --> 00:02:17.679
We're snail hunters.

00:02:28.982 --> 00:02:32.026
La mayoría vienen aquí a aprender de las tortugas.

00:02:32.026 --> 00:02:36.406
Pero nadie,
de hecho me preguntaba acerca de los caracoles.

00:02:37.574 --> 00:02:40.869
The team is the three snail hunters.

00:02:41.744 --> 00:02:43.788
The three of us have a really good dynamic.

00:02:43.788 --> 00:02:45.874
Ah yeah, so we are over that way.

00:02:45.874 --> 00:02:47.709
Christine's kind of OG snail hunter

00:02:47.709 --> 00:02:49.919
and mentored me in the craft.

00:02:49.919 --> 00:02:52.255
Here is specimen number one for the day.

00:02:52.255 --> 00:02:52.630
Woo!

00:02:52.630 --> 00:02:53.339
This guy.

00:02:53.339 --> 00:02:55.383
So like I’m the snail dork

00:02:55.383 --> 00:02:58.219
looking for a snails for 25 years now,

00:02:58.219 --> 00:02:59.387
trying to understand evolution

00:02:59.387 --> 00:03:01.097
through that lens.

00:03:01.472 --> 00:03:08.146
Stick your head down there where they live
and try to understand how they experience the world.

00:03:08.438 --> 00:03:10.190
It's really kind of profound.

00:03:10.481 --> 00:03:13.109
There's this real visceral sense of discovery.

00:03:17.113 --> 00:03:20.533
We have an objective to answer bigger questions

00:03:20.533 --> 00:03:22.577
around science, around evolution.

00:03:22.577 --> 00:03:25.038
Trying to figure out the problem of coexistence.

00:03:25.079 --> 00:03:28.333
How we all are related on this tree of life.

00:03:28.333 --> 00:03:31.211
And the champions of coexistence are the snails.

00:04:08.539 --> 00:04:11.417
I was born in Trois-Rivieres

00:04:11.417 --> 00:04:13.878
in the province of Quebec, in Canada.

00:04:16.047 --> 00:04:19.759
It was kind of a mix of French and German at home.

00:04:22.428 --> 00:04:25.682
Learned English when I started undergrad.

00:04:27.225 --> 00:04:30.228
Did my undergrad at McGill University
in Montreal.

00:04:30.436 --> 00:04:33.856
Masters at Carleton University in Ottawa,

00:04:33.856 --> 00:04:37.360
and then the PhD at Simon Fraser
University in Vancouver.

00:04:37.568 --> 00:04:40.780
Post-Doc at the University of Texas
in Austin.

00:04:41.114 --> 00:04:43.950
Researcher position,
University of California at Berkeley.

00:04:43.950 --> 00:04:47.745
And then eventually landed
this dream position here

00:04:47.745 --> 00:04:50.248
at the University of Idaho.

00:05:01.551 --> 00:05:03.720
So I'm really interested in speciation

00:05:03.720 --> 00:05:08.933
and adaptation of species
and how species come together to form communities.

00:05:08.933 --> 00:05:13.229
Then I started learning about the land snails
I study now, and I was like, Oh my God,

00:05:13.229 --> 00:05:15.273
this is what I want to do.

00:05:15.982 --> 00:05:18.693
This is where we do all the molecular work,

00:05:18.693 --> 00:05:21.237
like the DNA extraction, amplification.

00:05:21.237 --> 00:05:24.032
We also keep our collection here.

00:05:24.032 --> 00:05:28.077
The largest Gálapagos
snail collection in the world.

00:05:28.453 --> 00:05:32.081
Hundreds of thousands of snails.

00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:35.668
Yeah.

00:05:37.420 --> 00:05:41.215
I could have studied anything:
plants, beetles or whatever it is.

00:05:41.215 --> 00:05:45.053
The important thing
is to answer these bigger questions:

00:05:45.053 --> 00:05:49.057
how do these species coexist with one another?

00:05:49.057 --> 00:05:53.061
We can find up to five species of snails together
in the same habitat.

00:05:53.227 --> 00:05:54.854
Like why?

00:05:54.854 --> 00:05:59.609
How do they avoid competing to the point
that one will go extinct?

00:06:00.735 --> 00:06:04.739
And so that coexistence is still really puzzling.

00:06:05.573 --> 00:06:07.658
And so I'm like, look at that.

00:06:07.658 --> 00:06:09.202
There's something interesting here.

00:06:12.455 --> 00:06:13.623
For their size,

00:06:13.623 --> 00:06:16.918
snails command an unlikely fascination
from humans,

00:06:17.251 --> 00:06:21.255
from the studies of Christine
and her cohort, to popular culture.

00:06:24.258 --> 00:06:25.802
And even beauty products.

00:06:25.802 --> 00:06:29.764
This is snail cream, made with real snail juice.

00:06:31.224 --> 00:06:33.601
They provoke a certain reaction.

00:06:36.938 --> 00:06:39.440
There's just something about these little gastropods

00:06:39.440 --> 00:06:41.692
that captures the heart and imagination.

00:06:43.653 --> 00:06:47.657
With their expressive upper and lower tentacles
that provide sensory input

00:06:48.241 --> 00:06:51.702
and their slow pace of life,
which inspires metaphors

00:06:51.702 --> 00:06:55.206
and maxims about the snail's pace.

00:06:55.832 --> 00:06:58.876
Enjoyed for centuries as a culinary delicacy,

00:06:58.876 --> 00:07:03.297
they're known colloquially as escargot
by the French, and consumed in

00:07:03.297 --> 00:07:07.301
excess of 4,000 tons a year by the Portuguese.

00:07:07.969 --> 00:07:11.431
Their beautiful shells are reminiscent
of the Fibonacci spiral,

00:07:11.431 --> 00:07:15.768
the cosmic shape of our galaxy,
used as spiritual talismans,

00:07:15.977 --> 00:07:19.981
jewelry, and even currency for centuries.

00:07:20.356 --> 00:07:23.109
Most importantly for Christine, they are tailor

00:07:23.109 --> 00:07:25.778
made for evolutionary study.

00:07:25.778 --> 00:07:27.363
Slow and terrestrial,

00:07:27.363 --> 00:07:30.867
they are easy to collect.
Abundant around the world,

00:07:30.867 --> 00:07:34.203
they are easy to find. Slimy and overlooked,

00:07:34.203 --> 00:07:38.749
they are a novel subject. So the mystery remains:

00:07:38.916 --> 00:07:42.837
What makes snails good at coexistence?

00:07:42.837 --> 00:07:48.426
And what can they teach us about survival
in this delicate, fascinating world?

00:07:49.469 --> 00:07:53.473
Thus begins Christine's quest for understanding.

00:07:56.601 --> 00:07:58.769
Getting ready to a DNA extraction.

00:07:59.770 --> 00:08:04.775
This is a very tedious part of the process,
thousands of samples.

00:08:04.775 --> 00:08:07.487
That's why I have a lab manager.

00:08:08.362 --> 00:08:10.031
Oh, oh, oh!

00:08:11.407 --> 00:08:12.200
Are you okay?

00:08:12.200 --> 00:08:14.911
Yeah, just smells pretty bad.

00:08:18.915 --> 00:08:20.875
Snails are a huge underdog.

00:08:20.875 --> 00:08:22.418
They go really unnoticed.

00:08:22.418 --> 00:08:26.422
And when people think about them,
they think of them as being, like these icky,

00:08:26.464 --> 00:08:32.011
slimy creatures that carry all these parasites,
which is true, but they're also, like,

00:08:32.011 --> 00:08:33.596
really great for the ecosystem.

00:08:33.596 --> 00:08:36.474
They're detritivores.
They're helping break things down.

00:08:36.474 --> 00:08:40.645
And they're super cool
because they've been around for, I mean, millions

00:08:40.645 --> 00:08:42.522
and millions of years.

00:08:46.442 --> 00:08:49.362
Because of my work, I travel a lot.

00:08:49.362 --> 00:08:53.032
Looking for a snails in Chile, Colombia, Peru...

00:08:53.032 --> 00:08:55.660
And mostly in Galápagos.

00:09:18.641 --> 00:09:20.935
I started doing work in Galápagos

00:09:20.935 --> 00:09:22.603
20 years ago.

00:09:22.603 --> 00:09:25.273
This is like a faculty olympiad.

00:09:28.067 --> 00:09:30.987
Became, like, a home away from home.

00:09:33.573 --> 00:09:35.283
When I first visited the islands,

00:09:35.283 --> 00:09:38.452
nobody had really done much work on snails.

00:09:39.036 --> 00:09:44.250
And the conclusion, right, at that time
was that the snails were extinct or almost,

00:09:44.292 --> 00:09:45.376
you know, extinct

00:09:45.376 --> 00:09:46.752
in Galápagos.

00:09:50.172 --> 00:09:53.634
But then I started finding live populations
and I really got excited,

00:09:53.634 --> 00:09:55.928
and I never really stopped.

00:09:58.055 --> 00:10:00.933
I just went full on boots in the mud.

00:10:05.021 --> 00:10:08.107
It used to be where I could go in the field
on my own

00:10:08.107 --> 00:10:11.068
and look for snails, and it's miserable.

00:10:13.279 --> 00:10:16.449
Having a team is what makes it really fun.

00:10:19.869 --> 00:10:20.661
Are we collecting here?

00:10:20.661 --> 00:10:24.206
I'm a professor of science education
at the University of Idaho.

00:10:24.206 --> 00:10:26.250
I teach future teachers.

00:10:26.250 --> 00:10:28.753
In the field, Brant is always on it.

00:10:28.753 --> 00:10:33.424
Preparing food, setting up
camp. He's strong, he's tall,

00:10:33.424 --> 00:10:36.427
Turns out, I'm not too bad at finding snails.

00:10:36.427 --> 00:10:38.179
Brant gave it his own spin.

00:10:38.179 --> 00:10:39.513
As a science educator,

00:10:39.513 --> 00:10:42.016
I come at this differently than Luke and Christine,

00:10:42.016 --> 00:10:46.771
to hopefully inspire a student or a teacher
to get involved in the scientific enterprise.

00:10:47.063 --> 00:10:50.399
And at a very base level,
it's like high adventure.

00:10:50.399 --> 00:10:51.484
And I love that.

00:10:56.530 --> 00:10:58.866
Born in Rapid City, South Dakota.

00:11:00.409 --> 00:11:02.828
Played basketball in high school and college,

00:11:02.828 --> 00:11:04.538
made it to the national tournament.

00:11:09.085 --> 00:11:12.463
I learned so much as a person playing sports.

00:11:12.463 --> 00:11:13.589
How to be on a team,

00:11:13.589 --> 00:11:14.715
and dig deep.

00:11:16.509 --> 00:11:17.927
When it comes to snail hunting,

00:11:17.927 --> 00:11:21.555
I want to make sure that I'm not limited
by my physical ability,

00:11:21.555 --> 00:11:26.560
to bring these ways
of looking at a landscape back to humanity.

00:11:39.490 --> 00:11:43.494
So, um, I really didn't know anything about snails

00:11:44.036 --> 00:11:46.997
before getting involved in Christine's research.

00:11:51.377 --> 00:11:53.045
I've known Luke for a while.

00:11:53.045 --> 00:11:55.673
He's the smartest guy I know.

00:11:55.673 --> 00:11:57.717
My expertise is in macro evolution.

00:11:57.717 --> 00:12:00.511
That's like evolution over a very long time scales.

00:12:00.511 --> 00:12:02.555
Okay.
So let me tell you a little bit more about that.

00:12:02.555 --> 00:12:06.350
I grew up in Iowa.
And like, I was like an honest to God dork.

00:12:06.350 --> 00:12:09.770
I went to math competitions
and did reasonably well.

00:12:10.563 --> 00:12:11.981
College at Iowa State.

00:12:11.981 --> 00:12:16.068
The lab was trying to make bacon taste
better using their DNA sequences.

00:12:17.361 --> 00:12:21.449
The professor was like if you like math,
there's a lot of math in evolutionary biology.

00:12:21.782 --> 00:12:23.159
Does this make sense to everybody?

00:12:23.159 --> 00:12:29.081
Luke is this incredible mind that is thinking
about deep time concepts around evolution.

00:12:29.498 --> 00:12:32.918
Kind of existential questions,
like why are we here?

00:12:32.918 --> 00:12:34.378
Where do we come from?

00:12:34.378 --> 00:12:36.756
Why is there all this stuff around us?

00:12:38.841 --> 00:12:42.762
I have this way of trying to teach them that’s more,
they're moving around, they're doing things.

00:12:42.762 --> 00:12:45.431
They're talking to each other.
Maybe it’ll stick around longer in their brains.

00:12:45.431 --> 00:12:46.557
That’s the idea.

00:12:46.557 --> 00:12:46.974
Well thanks.

00:12:46.974 --> 00:12:52.146
And then next week we'll be, uh, I'll be lecturing
on Monday about kidneys and how they work.

00:12:53.147 --> 00:12:54.064
Thanks everybody.

00:12:54.064 --> 00:12:56.609
So the three of us, it's a good team.

00:12:56.609 --> 00:13:01.071
From an academic professional standpoint,
the three of us are complementary.

00:13:01.655 --> 00:13:06.118
These other two are high adventure people
that climb mountains for fun.

00:13:06.994 --> 00:13:10.623
Drop them off on an island with a bag of oatmeal
and come back in a week

00:13:10.623 --> 00:13:12.792
and they've collected a whole bunch of stuff.

00:13:14.210 --> 00:13:15.377
This is not me, like,

00:13:15.377 --> 00:13:18.047
I like to go bowling and play mini golf.

00:13:18.047 --> 00:13:19.340
Yeah, this is it.

00:13:21.300 --> 00:13:22.927
He's a bit clumsy,

00:13:22.927 --> 00:13:25.095
which is kind of funny.

00:13:25.095 --> 00:13:27.932
Ah! I’m stuck in a hole.

00:13:28.682 --> 00:13:29.558
I always get up.

00:13:29.558 --> 00:13:31.393
Yeah, I bounce.

00:13:31.393 --> 00:13:34.814
He leaves this trail of dust everywhere he goes.

00:13:36.690 --> 00:13:38.400
And he just keeps going.

00:13:38.400 --> 00:13:40.945
He's very enthusiastic about fieldwork.

00:13:41.654 --> 00:13:45.157
What I really think about a lot
is how those tiny processes

00:13:45.157 --> 00:13:47.827
scale out to explain life on earth.

00:13:47.827 --> 00:13:52.790
And so to me, this is one of the best
glimpses I've ever had

00:13:53.165 --> 00:13:58.337
at the beginning stages of this process
that happens all across the tree of life

00:13:58.546 --> 00:14:01.257
and that results
in all of the biodiversity around us.

00:14:11.308 --> 00:14:15.312
So Christine went to Galápagos and was like,
“why do species coexist?”

00:14:15.813 --> 00:14:20.860
Somehow they manage to form a community of snails.
This is the field of research

00:14:20.860 --> 00:14:22.862
that I'm mostly interested in.

00:14:23.279 --> 00:14:26.407
The class that we teach togther, I like to follow

00:14:26.407 --> 00:14:27.575
Luke’s lead.

00:14:27.575 --> 00:14:30.786
But now we're right in the middle
of like a global crisis.

00:14:30.786 --> 00:14:33.831
And the reason is because humans are homogenizing
the planet.

00:14:33.831 --> 00:14:37.835
We're destroying habitats,
showering the Earth with invasive species.

00:14:37.960 --> 00:14:41.964
And at the very center of that crisis is:
why do species coexist?

00:14:46.886 --> 00:14:48.637
Luke, he was a colleague.

00:14:49.471 --> 00:14:53.475
Now he's a colleague and my boyfriend as well.

00:15:00.900 --> 00:15:02.818
She was doing snails, I was doing lizards.

00:15:02.818 --> 00:15:04.194
She was in Galápagos.

00:15:04.194 --> 00:15:07.197
I was working in the Indian Ocean
at the time on geckos.

00:15:07.197 --> 00:15:10.743
So we knew each other, but didn't know
the potential that our relationship had

00:15:10.743 --> 00:15:13.287
until way more recently.

00:15:18.167 --> 00:15:21.003
I think they're super cute together.

00:15:21.003 --> 00:15:23.213
And like, they balance each other out well.

00:15:23.756 --> 00:15:26.133
They hosted karaoke recently .

00:15:26.675 --> 00:15:27.718
Luke sang a bunch.

00:15:28.093 --> 00:15:31.096
Christine, not so much. She doesn't sing karaoke.

00:15:31.931 --> 00:15:36.518
This is my first car that I bought,
when I was 17 years old.

00:15:36.852 --> 00:15:38.270
Luke, what do you think about this rig?

00:15:38.270 --> 00:15:40.064
This thing’s amazing. Yeah.

00:15:40.064 --> 00:15:44.068
It does prefer it when I drive.
Obviously, yeah.

00:15:45.277 --> 00:15:48.739
What do we think about the fact
that it resembles a snail?

00:15:48.739 --> 00:15:49.990
Well, it’s...

00:15:49.990 --> 00:15:51.825
There's a holistic theme here with this woman.

00:15:54.536 --> 00:15:56.538
The first time I met him, I was like, oh, my God.

00:15:56.538 --> 00:15:59.416
Like, this guy is a genius.

00:16:00.292 --> 00:16:02.336
She's just a badass.

00:16:11.261 --> 00:16:13.847
There is almost nothing

00:16:13.847 --> 00:16:17.935
that makes her as happy
as finding a new snail in a new place.

00:16:19.353 --> 00:16:22.523
This is Wolfi one, two, three and four.

00:16:22.523 --> 00:16:24.316
I think there's four of them.

00:16:24.316 --> 00:16:27.027
And the snails are great for me
because there's so many of them

00:16:27.027 --> 00:16:29.321
and they leave their shells
behind to study.

00:16:29.321 --> 00:16:31.615
So snails means data.

00:16:31.615 --> 00:16:32.783
That's super exciting to me,

00:16:32.783 --> 00:16:34.576
as like a data person.

00:16:35.077 --> 00:16:38.914
But then when I found our first live
Galápagos snail,

00:16:39.665 --> 00:16:44.211
I was like, yeah, there's something more
to these things than just data.

00:16:44.837 --> 00:16:46.839
They're cool.

00:16:49.216 --> 00:16:52.052
Snails survive through a keen resilience,

00:16:52.052 --> 00:16:56.682
carrying a weather tight home on their backs
that they can retreat into at any time.

00:16:57.182 --> 00:17:02.938
Once there, they can estivate for years,
waiting for favorable conditions to reemerge.

00:17:04.023 --> 00:17:05.858
Composed of calcium carbonate.,

00:17:05.858 --> 00:17:10.320
Their shells
leave behind a convenient fossil record scientists,

00:17:10.529 --> 00:17:14.491
and later
compress on the ocean floor to form limestone.

00:17:15.659 --> 00:17:18.370
Functionally deaf and blind, they navigate

00:17:18.370 --> 00:17:23.250
through scent and touch, communicating
through the chemical makeup of their mucous.

00:17:23.584 --> 00:17:27.588
find food, water, and sex.

00:17:29.506 --> 00:17:32.843
Most fascinating are their mating habits.

00:17:32.843 --> 00:17:37.014
These promiscuous gastropods
mate with multiple partners,

00:17:37.181 --> 00:17:41.185
following their proverbial snail trails
from one to the next.

00:17:41.977 --> 00:17:45.564
After hours of foreplay, the snail’s penis,

00:17:45.564 --> 00:17:50.819
sometimes larger than the snail itself, emerges
from its face.

00:17:51.111 --> 00:17:53.155
From both face is actually,

00:17:53.155 --> 00:17:58.827
as snails are hermaphrodites, possessing
both male and female sex organs.

00:18:00.162 --> 00:18:03.999
In a dance of dominance, each
snail competes to be the male

00:18:03.999 --> 00:18:08.003
and escape the responsibility
of bearing the offspring.

00:18:08.670 --> 00:18:12.508
A hidden bone emerges
from the flesh of each snail.

00:18:12.508 --> 00:18:17.513
A hormone tipped love dart
with which they repeatedly stab one another

00:18:17.513 --> 00:18:20.307
until one of them acquiesces.

00:18:21.600 --> 00:18:23.602
With that delightful imagery,

00:18:23.602 --> 00:18:26.480
let's return to Christine and her snail hunters.

00:18:33.570 --> 00:18:37.157
If we want to understand life on Earth,
we have to go visit the parts of the tree of life

00:18:37.157 --> 00:18:39.034
that are neglected and understudied,

00:18:39.034 --> 00:18:42.830
and to get an unbiased picture of the world,
you have to study the snails.

00:18:42.830 --> 00:18:44.331
You can't just study humans.

00:18:44.331 --> 00:18:47.126
That's totally like just looking in the mirror.

00:18:53.215 --> 00:18:53.674
Ah!

00:18:53.674 --> 00:18:55.884
What in the world was she thinking?

00:19:00.097 --> 00:19:02.182
So the definition of evolution,

00:19:02.182 --> 00:19:07.229
is a change in gene frequencies
from one generation to the next.

00:19:09.940 --> 00:19:14.111
Organisms become more complicated, but sometimes
they simplify, they become bigger, but sometimes

00:19:14.111 --> 00:19:18.115
they become smaller.
They become smarter, sometimes they become stupider.

00:19:21.201 --> 00:19:23.537
And humans suffer from this illness.

00:19:23.537 --> 00:19:27.207
All humans have it—the equivalent
of being narcissist.

00:19:28.750 --> 00:19:32.713
Taxonomic narcissism,
but at the scale of the tree of life.

00:19:32.713 --> 00:19:35.257
Which has all kind of consequences
for the choices that we make.

00:19:51.190 --> 00:19:55.068
As a species,
as humanity, we have a lot of work to do

00:19:55.068 --> 00:19:59.072
to coexist in a more thriving manner.

00:20:00.490 --> 00:20:03.869
Our species has this kind of long
and violent past.

00:20:03.869 --> 00:20:07.873
People find coexistence
among even different human cultures difficult.

00:20:08.790 --> 00:20:12.669
And so humans need to evolve and make progress

00:20:12.669 --> 00:20:17.132
as a society
to save the earth from that biodiversity crisis.

00:20:21.803 --> 00:20:24.139
And so if you want to learn about this process

00:20:24.139 --> 00:20:29.144
of coexistence and what it is that allows
coexistence to happen sometimes and not others,

00:20:29.228 --> 00:20:31.647
you want to go to someplace like Galápagos
that's really young,

00:20:31.647 --> 00:20:35.734
where communities are actually assembling
right now, and you want to compare species

00:20:35.734 --> 00:20:39.738
that are able to do that
and the species that are not.

00:20:41.448 --> 00:20:45.035
And so snails are really a good window
into coexistence because of that.

00:20:46.495 --> 00:20:49.748
These biological principles apply to everything.

00:20:50.290 --> 00:20:53.585
Take some of that and then try to apply it to us.

00:20:55.087 --> 00:20:58.382
Biological principles, which, understood,

00:20:58.382 --> 00:21:02.386
could save us all from the fate of the dodo.

00:21:11.186 --> 00:21:13.272
Galápagos is an archipeligo,

00:21:13.272 --> 00:21:16.191
so a set of islands, right on the equator.

00:21:16.733 --> 00:21:20.737
700 miles off the coast of Ecuador.

00:21:21.238 --> 00:21:24.908
The Galápagos islands are kind of
like the equivalent of test tubes

00:21:24.908 --> 00:21:29.663
for evolutionary biologists, in that we can have some idea
of replication and repetition

00:21:29.663 --> 00:21:31.373
of evolutionary patterns.

00:21:34.042 --> 00:21:36.420
These islands are volcanic in origin,

00:21:36.420 --> 00:21:39.923
which means that you have this hotspot
right under the crust.

00:21:39.923 --> 00:21:45.887
And then as the plate is moving over it,
you have the formation of volcanoes in series.

00:21:47.431 --> 00:21:52.102
So you have this perfect range of age
in the island formation.

00:21:53.603 --> 00:21:57.858
And so you have a series of natural experiments
that have all started at different times.

00:21:58.191 --> 00:22:01.778
And we can just go in and see the results
of those experiments now.

00:22:01.778 --> 00:22:07.951
It’s basically the equivalent of a time machine: on the very young
island, you can observe who are the first colonizers?

00:22:08.035 --> 00:22:09.161
What's the diversity?

00:22:09.161 --> 00:22:12.539
And then you just hop next to it,
and you can keep going like this.

00:22:14.791 --> 00:22:16.126
And Galápagos is good like that

00:22:16.126 --> 00:22:19.963
for other sets of organisms too,
like the tortoises or the finches,

00:22:20.547 --> 00:22:22.174
but actually
none of those are as good as the snails

00:22:22.174 --> 00:22:25.135
because there's way more species of snails,
more replication.

00:22:28.764 --> 00:22:33.602
The one that we should really target is the volcano Ecuador,
there is no record of snails there.

00:22:34.144 --> 00:22:37.356
But it's big enough, like there could be snails
there.

00:22:41.109 --> 00:22:43.653
This is where we plan on going.

00:22:43.653 --> 00:22:48.617
Pretty much all arid conditions,
which is not favorable for snails but,

00:22:48.617 --> 00:22:51.244
you know, like, who knows what we would find.

00:22:51.244 --> 00:22:52.621
You've done that before.

00:22:52.913 --> 00:22:55.457
Volcano Ecuador is a really special place.

00:22:59.378 --> 00:23:02.172
It's one of the younger
volcanoes across the Galápagos.

00:23:04.007 --> 00:23:05.884
And then it's really pristine.

00:23:05.884 --> 00:23:10.597
There's almost no invasive species
and it's just like a natural ecosystem.

00:23:12.974 --> 00:23:14.768
A particularly compelling place

00:23:14.768 --> 00:23:20.107
for evolutionary biologists to study
because by going to the youngest parts

00:23:20.107 --> 00:23:24.111
of the Earth, we can learn something
about these early stages of evolution.

00:23:24.694 --> 00:23:28.698
It's like a little microcosm
of how evolution works at a broad scale.

00:23:31.535 --> 00:23:34.621
I don't think anyone has looked for anything here.

00:23:34.621 --> 00:23:36.581
There's a little bit of mystery there

00:24:02.023 --> 00:24:03.525
There's this one side of Christine

00:24:03.525 --> 00:24:06.570
that you can really only see in Galápagos.

00:24:09.489 --> 00:24:11.032
Yeah, let’s go.

00:24:11.032 --> 00:24:13.702
We’ll go to the park office first?

00:24:13.702 --> 00:24:14.953
Yeah, I’m ready.

00:24:14.953 --> 00:24:18.165
The local people in the Galápagos
refer to Christine as the “caracolera”

00:24:18.165 --> 00:24:20.208
or the snail hunter.

00:24:24.171 --> 00:24:26.173
I hate the logistics from a distance.

00:24:26.173 --> 00:24:29.134
Talking on the phone, I hate like, sending emails.

00:24:29.885 --> 00:24:30.927
But when I'm here

00:24:31.303 --> 00:24:32.345
I just love this part.

00:24:38.226 --> 00:24:40.729
Most of
the islands here, there's no fresh water at all.

00:24:40.729 --> 00:24:42.230
No stream, nothing.

00:24:42.230 --> 00:24:46.359
And so we rely on this,
like, we're going to need this to survive

00:24:46.485 --> 00:24:48.278
for the seven days. Yeah.

00:24:53.742 --> 00:24:55.911
If you are to just land on one of these islands

00:24:55.911 --> 00:24:59.915
where there is no human population
and you had to survive and you had nothing,

00:24:59.956 --> 00:25:03.919
good luck, like, you'll have like a couple of days
and then you're gone.

00:25:06.963 --> 00:25:11.343
Wilson Cabrera is our park ranger
who's coming on our team.

00:25:11.384 --> 00:25:14.721
He's been working with me
since about like, yeah, 20 years.

00:25:14.721 --> 00:25:15.597
This is everything, yeah?

00:25:15.597 --> 00:25:16.598
Yeah, we’re ready.

00:25:16.598 --> 00:25:17.474
Let’s go to your house.

00:25:17.474 --> 00:25:18.225
Let’s go!

00:25:18.225 --> 00:25:19.726
And he's really good at finding snails.

00:25:19.726 --> 00:25:22.103
Like, very good.

00:25:28.318 --> 00:25:31.029
We're less than 24 hours from departure

00:25:31.029 --> 00:25:33.698
and we still don't know
exactly where we're going to land.

00:25:33.698 --> 00:25:35.659
Imagine that you are the snail hunter.

00:25:35.659 --> 00:25:38.370
You have five days, what would be your strategy?

00:25:38.537 --> 00:25:40.247
And then also the route

00:25:40.247 --> 00:25:44.251
up on the top of the volcano,
where is hopefully we're going to find all these snails.

00:25:50.006 --> 00:25:51.174
The second option

00:25:51.174 --> 00:25:55.637
would be to land on this little beach right here.

00:25:55.887 --> 00:25:57.347
This is actually pretty steep.

00:25:57.347 --> 00:25:59.849
A couple hundred feet drop.

00:25:59.849 --> 00:26:01.560
Make our way through some lava,

00:26:01.685 --> 00:26:06.773
probably three hours, up to there,
in the inside of this collapsed crater.

00:26:07.107 --> 00:26:07.482
Yeah.

00:26:07.482 --> 00:26:11.361
I have not been in terrain like this before, so,

00:26:11.361 --> 00:26:14.739
this is going to be a challenge for me.

00:26:14.739 --> 00:26:15.615
I'm super excited.

00:26:15.615 --> 00:26:18.743
Yeah, I'm really excited too. Yeah, yeah.

00:26:18.743 --> 00:26:21.496
Frightening, but in a good way.

00:26:37.304 --> 00:26:38.471
This is it.

00:26:39.556 --> 00:26:40.307
It’s the stage,

00:26:40.307 --> 00:26:43.852
like, if we left anything, it's
because we don't need it.

00:26:44.561 --> 00:26:47.772
Getting shot in the space, basically.

00:26:55.071 --> 00:26:59.117
Charles Darwin is one of the
two people who figured out

00:26:59.117 --> 00:27:03.121
the mechanism by which evolution works,
which is by natural selection.

00:27:03.830 --> 00:27:08.043
And one critical part
of that origin of natural selection was a trip

00:27:08.043 --> 00:27:09.753
he took on the Beagle all around the world,

00:27:09.753 --> 00:27:13.757
stopping at various locations
and maybe most famously here in the Galápagos.

00:27:14.424 --> 00:27:15.175
In the Galápagos,

00:27:15.175 --> 00:27:19.179
Darwin did a lot of collecting,
comparing species across the archipelago,

00:27:19.304 --> 00:27:24.601
and some of the patterns that he saw made him start
to wonder about where these species all came from.

00:27:25.060 --> 00:27:28.229
And then he went home
and then many years later published his book

00:27:30.774 --> 00:27:35.070
Darwin knew that he was saying
something that was groundbreaking

00:27:35.070 --> 00:27:39.866
and that shook the foundations of the way
that people were thinking about the world.

00:27:42.369 --> 00:27:45.705
But we don't even know how many species
there actually are on the planet.

00:27:45.705 --> 00:27:48.958
We've only named
like 10% of the species on the earth.

00:27:48.958 --> 00:27:51.753
And so we can't really have
a complete picture of evolution

00:27:51.753 --> 00:27:55.757
with such a fragmentary
understanding of the tree of life

00:27:56.299 --> 00:27:59.302
I think there are lots of things
that are still missing.

00:28:06.226 --> 00:28:08.645
Picking up where Darwin left off,

00:28:08.645 --> 00:28:15.276
scientists have tried for nearly 200 years
to understand how all the world's biodiversity

00:28:15.402 --> 00:28:17.987
can coexist with such harmony.

00:28:20.699 --> 00:28:23.535
Finally arriving to Volcano Ecuador,

00:28:23.535 --> 00:28:26.746
Christine is poised to find out.

00:28:49.686 --> 00:28:52.188
We’re here! I am so happy to be here.

00:28:52.188 --> 00:28:53.565
Yeah, I’m all suited up.

00:29:33.146 --> 00:29:34.230
We landed here,

00:29:34.230 --> 00:29:37.525
and in my mind,
I was like we might not find anything.

00:29:39.569 --> 00:29:41.654
Just barren lava.

00:29:46.201 --> 00:29:48.328
We found a pretty large camp.

00:29:48.870 --> 00:29:49.913
To the right?

00:29:49.913 --> 00:29:50.747
Yes.

00:29:51.206 --> 00:29:54.209
And I'm like, this is going to be hot.

00:29:54.209 --> 00:29:57.003
Straddling the equator with the campsite.

00:29:58.671 --> 00:30:00.298
Middle of the earth.

00:30:02.675 --> 00:30:04.594
I’m scared Frodo.

00:30:47.554 --> 00:30:51.266
You look out on the lava field,
you have endless shades of brown.

00:30:51.266 --> 00:30:53.935
It's like the pictures
that the Mars rover sends back.

00:30:57.397 --> 00:30:58.815
It was really hot.

00:30:58.815 --> 00:31:02.527
Sunny all the time. Exposed all the time.

00:31:02.527 --> 00:31:03.987
It's a harsh landscape,

00:31:19.627 --> 00:31:23.089
It’s like a steam room.

00:31:24.340 --> 00:31:25.925
In a sauna.

00:31:26.926 --> 00:31:29.470
It's like, wow, this is treacherous.

00:31:41.774 --> 00:31:45.486
Christine always warned me
that this was going to be difficult,

00:31:45.486 --> 00:31:46.571
but nothing like this.

00:31:46.571 --> 00:31:50.033
This is like incredibly hard conditions.

00:31:50.867 --> 00:31:52.994
Yeah, this is hardcore.

00:32:03.922 --> 00:32:05.465
So Christine's my girlfriend.

00:32:05.465 --> 00:32:07.258
I've known her for a really long time.

00:32:07.967 --> 00:32:11.888
But when she's in Galápagos,
she goes into hardcore

00:32:11.888 --> 00:32:14.223
snail hunter mode.

00:32:17.018 --> 00:32:19.771
Dr. Parent sees only the snails.

00:32:19.771 --> 00:32:21.773
She does not see the lava.

00:32:21.773 --> 00:32:23.566
She does not see the stones.

00:32:23.566 --> 00:32:24.776
Only the snails.

00:32:24.776 --> 00:32:25.652
Oh, wow!

00:32:25.652 --> 00:32:29.364
She always wants more snails, at a higher location.

00:32:29.781 --> 00:32:32.325
I want them all.

00:32:32.325 --> 00:32:34.535
I really admire that in her as a scientist.

00:32:34.535 --> 00:32:36.079
Like, okay. Let’s go.

00:32:36.079 --> 00:32:37.038
Let's go up now.

00:32:37.747 --> 00:32:38.706
Where are we going?

00:32:38.706 --> 00:32:39.707
Up!

00:32:39.707 --> 00:32:41.626
Not all scientists,

00:32:41.626 --> 00:32:43.378
and I work with many,

00:32:43.378 --> 00:32:45.171
when things get hard,

00:32:45.171 --> 00:32:47.382
some say, “oh no more, let’s wait a little while.”

00:32:47.382 --> 00:32:48.508
I think it’s too hard.

00:32:48.508 --> 00:32:49.926
Let’s go find another way.

00:32:49.926 --> 00:32:52.011
She says, let’s go do it.

00:32:52.011 --> 00:32:53.554
Let’s do it, I have a plan.

00:32:54.013 --> 00:32:55.890
Christine is more adventurous.

00:32:55.890 --> 00:32:57.350
She’s a strong woman.

00:33:04.315 --> 00:33:05.108
Once you get

00:33:05.108 --> 00:33:10.279
to an aspect where you can kind of see zones
that we think might be fruitful for snailing,

00:33:10.363 --> 00:33:14.367
then in real time,
we're kind of making those adjustments,

00:33:14.534 --> 00:33:17.370
all those calculations are happening
throughout any given day.

00:33:17.370 --> 00:33:20.790
Taking your time, letting it kind of come to you.

00:33:28.715 --> 00:33:29.882
And then slowly,

00:33:29.882 --> 00:33:35.221
you find dead ones
and then you find fresh dead ones.

00:33:35.221 --> 00:33:39.434
And that kind of narrows it down until, like,
you find live ones.

00:33:42.645 --> 00:33:47.567
The live ones give us that possibility to actually
do genetic work with them. That's going to help

00:33:47.567 --> 00:33:53.823
us figure out where they fit into this
part of the tree of life of snails in Galápagos.

00:33:55.324 --> 00:33:57.952
But you can also get practically nothing.

00:33:57.952 --> 00:34:00.288
That's also totally possible.

00:34:06.335 --> 00:34:11.299
We’re in the middle of a volcano, in the
middle of nowhere, looking for snails.

00:34:13.801 --> 00:34:16.763
Everyone has a slightly different style
of snailing.

00:34:16.763 --> 00:34:21.059
Wilson, who is the “caracolero supremo,”

00:34:21.350 --> 00:34:25.354
he goes full body in,

00:34:25.396 --> 00:34:28.858
arms, legs, everything and goes on the ground.

00:34:28.858 --> 00:34:30.777
And he's really good at finding stuff.

00:34:32.487 --> 00:34:34.155
I can find snails.

00:34:34.155 --> 00:34:39.494
I can. But maybe I find fewer
snails than other snail hunter-ey kind of people.

00:34:39.952 --> 00:34:41.370
I'm trying to just be a snail.

00:34:52.548 --> 00:34:54.383
Volcano Ecuador is

00:34:54.383 --> 00:34:56.135
much more difficult to access

00:34:56.135 --> 00:34:57.887
because it is much steeper,

00:34:57.887 --> 00:34:59.388
it has many more ravines,

00:34:59.388 --> 00:35:01.432
and very few ways to go up.

00:35:02.100 --> 00:35:03.392
The side with more vegatation

00:35:03.392 --> 00:35:05.394
is on the more broken side,

00:35:05.394 --> 00:35:06.979
which is more difficult to access.

00:35:09.357 --> 00:35:12.026
Half of its caldera is missing.

00:35:13.820 --> 00:35:16.656
Just to get to the part of the island

00:35:16.656 --> 00:35:20.660
that has plants on
it is more than an hour hike over the lava.

00:35:20.743 --> 00:35:25.164
And then once you get to the forest, it's
basically impassable until Novalino

00:35:25.164 --> 00:35:28.543
and other people on our trip
have like chopped through it with the machetes.

00:35:30.586 --> 00:35:32.171
Nice and sharp.

00:35:35.925 --> 00:35:40.471
What we do
is really supported by the work of a local people.

00:35:42.348 --> 00:35:43.224
She told me

00:35:43.224 --> 00:35:45.268
they live under the rocks...

00:35:46.769 --> 00:35:49.230
where it is more humid.

00:35:49.230 --> 00:35:50.356
Yes.

00:35:51.399 --> 00:35:52.525
It is humid.

00:35:53.985 --> 00:35:58.573
Novalino is the master of the machete.
He's kind of like a trailblazer.

00:35:59.198 --> 00:36:02.368
Amazing spatial memory

00:36:02.368 --> 00:36:04.537
and so good at navigating the landscape.

00:36:06.706 --> 00:36:08.499
I really like to work with her because

00:36:08.499 --> 00:36:10.042
she’s very strong

00:36:10.042 --> 00:36:11.878
walking on the lava

00:36:11.878 --> 00:36:13.129
and fast.

00:36:13.129 --> 00:36:15.047
She’s very strong.

00:36:15.047 --> 00:36:20.595
This work allows me to explore the wonders
of the islands that are close to us.

00:36:21.053 --> 00:36:23.848
And that’s important, because
not many people get to do that.

00:36:23.848 --> 00:36:25.516
So, apart from the work, it’s very nice that

00:36:25.516 --> 00:36:26.976
we get to experience the beauty,

00:36:26.976 --> 00:36:33.983
and each time, every place we has its charm.

00:36:43.576 --> 00:36:47.413
You're one of the few that gets to do this,

00:36:47.413 --> 00:36:54.795
and go to these places where it's really pristine,
untouched, and you're discovering new things.

00:36:54.879 --> 00:36:57.006
It's a great feeling.

00:37:16.317 --> 00:37:19.779
We're going to try to explore
the outside of this crater.

00:37:19.779 --> 00:37:23.199
And from there, we're going to try to climb up.

00:37:23.199 --> 00:37:25.701
To get inside of the volcano.

00:37:25.993 --> 00:37:29.997
It does make me nervous,
but I think it's good to face your fears.

00:37:30.665 --> 00:37:32.541
I mean, I still have fresh underwear.

00:37:32.541 --> 00:37:33.876
I do too, actually.

00:37:33.876 --> 00:37:36.128
But, pants and shits, no way.

00:37:38.589 --> 00:37:42.593
There were
no snails ever reported for this volcano.

00:37:44.428 --> 00:37:47.640
Oh my God,
what if we don't actually find anything?

00:37:49.058 --> 00:37:53.062
Coming back with nothing,
that would have been a bit difficult.

00:37:59.110 --> 00:38:01.612
To reach the top of the volcano,

00:38:01.612 --> 00:38:07.535
we had hours to walk through very difficult lava fields.

00:38:08.202 --> 00:38:10.037
Sharp like glass.

00:38:10.079 --> 00:38:13.874
As stout as anything I had experienced
here in the Galápagos.

00:38:15.042 --> 00:38:19.046
You can see the heat steaming from the rocks.

00:38:19.630 --> 00:38:20.339
Just gnarly.

00:38:20.339 --> 00:38:24.427
And then like, the distances
all of a sudden seem to stretch forever.

00:38:34.478 --> 00:38:35.896
I think we're going to just capture

00:38:35.896 --> 00:38:38.733
this little point, and then work our way to the top.

00:38:44.947 --> 00:38:46.574
We were making good progress,

00:38:46.574 --> 00:38:51.454
but then we reached this crater.
And well,

00:38:51.454 --> 00:38:55.166
there was not an easy way to kind of go around.

00:38:56.292 --> 00:38:59.628
When you go up, you go up really quick and steep.

00:39:00.129 --> 00:39:02.340
There was this cliff that was blocking the way.

00:39:04.258 --> 00:39:05.926
This way?

00:39:06.594 --> 00:39:07.345
Wait...

00:39:10.389 --> 00:39:15.770
We’re going to try and reach this one reach,
that connects with another ridge,

00:39:15.770 --> 00:39:22.902
that goes to the summit.
But, you know, we’ll see I guess.

00:39:22.902 --> 00:39:24.779
The summit, yes.

00:39:34.580 --> 00:39:35.831
Watch out!

00:39:40.503 --> 00:39:41.212
You got this?

00:39:41.212 --> 00:39:42.380
Yeah.

00:39:42.546 --> 00:39:43.714
I got this.

00:39:43.798 --> 00:39:44.840
Yeah I’m okay.

00:39:44.840 --> 00:39:45.299
Okay.

00:39:45.299 --> 00:39:46.675
Let’s just finish this.

00:39:51.597 --> 00:39:53.516
To reach the summit crater

00:39:53.516 --> 00:39:58.604
miles above the inhospitable lava fields,
the approach is steep.

00:39:59.230 --> 00:40:00.564
So this way, Luke.

00:40:00.564 --> 00:40:01.399
Like that?!

00:40:01.399 --> 00:40:02.441
Yeah.

00:40:02.441 --> 00:40:04.193
Ooph...

00:40:08.114 --> 00:40:10.783
But Christine believes the snails are there,

00:40:10.783 --> 00:40:12.701
high on the volcano.

00:40:18.290 --> 00:40:20.751
Living in the cool, damp earth

00:40:20.751 --> 00:40:23.337
like an island oasis.

00:40:26.215 --> 00:40:28.426
We captured the ridge

00:40:28.426 --> 00:40:32.430
kind of on the north west side
of Volcano Ecuador.

00:40:42.523 --> 00:40:46.527
But in Galápagos, it is never that simple.

00:40:46.735 --> 00:40:50.739
Maximum effort, to get up to the top side.

00:40:51.574 --> 00:40:55.035
I think it's starting to wear folks down.

00:40:58.456 --> 00:40:59.707
How are you feeling?

00:40:59.707 --> 00:41:02.918
Not good. Just running on fumes.

00:41:02.918 --> 00:41:04.462
This is tough.

00:41:04.462 --> 00:41:07.006
I just feel pukey.

00:41:08.507 --> 00:41:09.842
I was worried about Christine,

00:41:09.842 --> 00:41:14.013
the first time that I’ve seen her feel so bad.

00:41:14.013 --> 00:41:16.640
I have never seen this situation happen.

00:41:18.934 --> 00:41:21.604
What do you like about this work?

00:41:21.604 --> 00:41:25.608
I really don't know where this comes
from, honestly.

00:41:28.277 --> 00:41:30.654
If this motivates one girl somewhere,

00:41:30.654 --> 00:41:34.658
to be like, “Oh,
I want to do this,” totally worth it.

00:41:35.659 --> 00:41:39.663
I am drawn to experiences
that are difficult in the moment.

00:41:40.706 --> 00:41:46.504
Being at a place where you can call on your body
to do more than what you might think it can do.

00:41:47.796 --> 00:41:54.011
That's part of the satisfaction to have something
be very difficult and then still push through it.

00:41:55.763 --> 00:41:57.056
It isn’t always perfect.

00:41:57.056 --> 00:41:58.849
Sometimes it is hard.

00:41:58.849 --> 00:42:02.061
But if we don’t try, we’ll never know.

00:42:02.228 --> 00:42:04.522
If we don’t make it, we’ll never know

00:42:04.522 --> 00:42:08.526
if they’re there or not, of if they ever were.

00:42:08.526 --> 00:42:10.903
It’s an adventure. That is the adventure.

00:42:12.988 --> 00:42:14.448
Christine pushed herself to

00:42:14.448 --> 00:42:18.994
the absolute limit.
Her body was like almost at a breaking point,

00:42:19.745 --> 00:42:24.250
and then she rests a little,
just to get back on her feet again.

00:42:24.458 --> 00:42:26.710
You want another drink before you go?

00:42:26.710 --> 00:42:30.714
And then she's like,
okay, let's, now we're going to do our big push.

00:42:52.152 --> 00:42:55.823
Thwarted by the precipitous crater at the summit.

00:42:55.823 --> 00:42:59.868
Exhausted from days of fruitless snail hunting.

00:43:00.244 --> 00:43:02.788
Scorched by the equatorial sun.

00:43:02.788 --> 00:43:06.792
Things are not looking good for our snail hunters.

00:43:10.212 --> 00:43:11.797
But sometimes

00:43:11.797 --> 00:43:15.884
life's biggest rewards can be found
in the smallest places

00:43:16.510 --> 00:43:20.514
where you would least expect to find life.

00:43:23.601 --> 00:43:26.854
For now, it is only an empty shell.

00:43:29.231 --> 00:43:31.150
But fortune favors the bold.

00:43:33.777 --> 00:43:35.988
Starting to see some shells.

00:43:35.988 --> 00:43:38.699
Yes, old shells, but very small.

00:43:38.699 --> 00:43:40.242
These little animals are incredible,

00:43:40.242 --> 00:43:41.994
how do they survive?

00:43:41.994 --> 00:43:43.537
Adapted to the environment.

00:43:43.537 --> 00:43:45.956
This hot ecosystem.

00:43:52.421 --> 00:43:54.923
And then, a stroke of luck.

00:43:54.923 --> 00:43:56.050
On their way down,

00:43:56.050 --> 00:44:00.054
the team ventures deeper into the dense,
gnarly foliage

00:44:00.262 --> 00:44:03.015
within the volcano's flanks.

00:44:04.975 --> 00:44:08.979
Instead of trying to go around the hole,
we went into the hole

00:44:08.979 --> 00:44:10.648
and it was super green in there.

00:44:10.648 --> 00:44:12.775
And this is perfect for snails.

00:44:13.400 --> 00:44:16.612
Really like an enchanted forest for these guys.

00:44:19.448 --> 00:44:20.616
And the first clue is shells.

00:44:20.616 --> 00:44:23.243
So we found a couple,
and now we're finding more.

00:44:23.243 --> 00:44:27.247
And kind of trending in the right direction
we're going to find live ones.

00:44:31.794 --> 00:44:34.505
So then I'm like, okay, there has been snails here,

00:44:34.505 --> 00:44:36.924
but let's see if we're going to find live ones.

00:44:36.924 --> 00:44:39.968
There’s all these dead ones everywhere.

00:44:41.095 --> 00:44:42.846
This one is very, very dead.

00:44:43.472 --> 00:44:44.264
It has happened

00:44:44.264 --> 00:44:48.644
on other expeditions where we find barely
anything, it's just shells, dry.

00:44:49.144 --> 00:44:50.354
Dead.

00:44:52.189 --> 00:44:53.440
Maybe...

00:44:54.024 --> 00:44:54.900
...no.

00:44:55.776 --> 00:44:57.236
It is dead.

00:45:00.572 --> 00:45:02.533
I think this might be a live micro.

00:45:03.033 --> 00:45:04.493
No.

00:45:04.493 --> 00:45:07.496
Is your snail sense tingling.

00:45:12.418 --> 00:45:15.421
Oh, I got one that’s super fresh here.

00:45:16.964 --> 00:45:19.299
Yep. A baby.

00:45:20.134 --> 00:45:21.844
We’re gonna find live ones here.

00:45:25.848 --> 00:45:27.558
So fresh!

00:45:40.696 --> 00:45:43.282
There's so many shells.

00:45:58.130 --> 00:45:59.256
Got one!

00:45:59.256 --> 00:46:01.633
You got one?! Yes!

00:46:03.927 --> 00:46:05.679
Let’s see it.

00:46:08.474 --> 00:46:10.058
Yes!

00:46:13.270 --> 00:46:15.814
There we go! Nice!

00:46:18.400 --> 00:46:20.527
Aw, look at this guy!

00:46:20.527 --> 00:46:22.654
Beautiful.

00:46:26.116 --> 00:46:27.451
Popped it up.

00:46:27.451 --> 00:46:28.494
And it was right there.

00:46:28.494 --> 00:46:29.161
Yep.

00:46:29.870 --> 00:46:31.163
This is amazing.

00:46:32.498 --> 00:46:34.875
And so this is a live one.

00:46:35.250 --> 00:46:36.919
He’s really cute!

00:46:37.336 --> 00:46:39.004
Look at him!

00:46:46.094 --> 00:46:48.347
Yeah I guess I’m going to have to find more.

00:46:49.556 --> 00:46:53.602
Oh! This guy is alive.

00:46:53.602 --> 00:46:54.853
Just found a second.

00:46:54.853 --> 00:46:56.396
Here’s a live one.

00:46:56.396 --> 00:46:57.481
Another one?!

00:46:57.481 --> 00:46:58.232
Yeah, this one is

00:46:58.232 --> 00:46:59.817
That’s another species.

00:46:59.817 --> 00:47:00.901
Boom!

00:47:01.235 --> 00:47:02.319
Look at that!

00:47:03.570 --> 00:47:04.655
Yes.

00:47:07.783 --> 00:47:10.369
Well, I was looking, took out a stone,

00:47:10.369 --> 00:47:12.204
turned it around,

00:47:12.204 --> 00:47:14.790
and I found one snail

00:47:14.790 --> 00:47:16.458
that is alive.

00:47:16.458 --> 00:47:20.462
It is my first live snail of the day,

00:47:20.462 --> 00:47:22.339
and of the trip,

00:47:22.339 --> 00:47:24.132
But I hope to find more,

00:47:24.132 --> 00:47:26.051
very soon.

00:47:26.051 --> 00:47:29.179
It was like a snail hunting competition,

00:47:29.179 --> 00:47:30.222
I beat you, I found one!

00:47:30.222 --> 00:47:31.932
No, I got two! I got three!

00:47:31.932 --> 00:47:33.225
How many did you find?!

00:47:33.225 --> 00:47:34.393
Two.

00:47:34.393 --> 00:47:35.394
Very good.

00:47:35.394 --> 00:47:36.770
Yes, look!

00:47:36.770 --> 00:47:38.313
Another live one.

00:47:38.313 --> 00:47:39.606
How are you feeling.

00:47:39.606 --> 00:47:42.109
Really good. Yeah.

00:47:42.109 --> 00:47:44.111
This is great. Great stuff.

00:47:44.111 --> 00:47:45.612
Snails one after the other.

00:47:45.612 --> 00:47:48.323
We found like two dozen or so live ones.

00:47:48.323 --> 00:47:49.157
So this is,

00:47:49.157 --> 00:47:52.202
yeah, it's super fun,
especially when everyone gets into it.

00:47:52.202 --> 00:47:53.412
Like, I really like that.

00:47:53.954 --> 00:47:55.205
Another live one.

00:47:56.623 --> 00:47:58.917
Two species.

00:47:59.835 --> 00:48:01.003
Small ones.

00:48:01.461 --> 00:48:03.213
And large ones.

00:48:03.338 --> 00:48:06.925
Finding lots of shells, but I’m still,
I want my live snail.

00:48:10.554 --> 00:48:11.847
Yes!

00:48:12.764 --> 00:48:14.057
These two guys here.

00:48:15.100 --> 00:48:18.687
Yeah, you can see the little snail-ey parts.

00:48:18.687 --> 00:48:21.023
Here’s a live one on a dead one.

00:48:22.733 --> 00:48:25.903
You can see it, like, tasting my arm.

00:48:26.904 --> 00:48:28.071
Another one.

00:48:28.071 --> 00:48:29.990
It’s right there.

00:48:29.990 --> 00:48:32.034
That’s our forth species.

00:48:54.848 --> 00:48:57.726
Brant’s snail-dar is just off the chart this morning.

00:48:57.726 --> 00:49:00.020
Look at him, like, he has it in him.

00:49:00.020 --> 00:49:04.149
This guy is finding so many snails,
I’m just pushing him a bit more here.

00:49:04.942 --> 00:49:07.277
I was made for this moment, right now.

00:49:14.034 --> 00:49:15.869
We found a lot of snails down here.

00:49:15.869 --> 00:49:17.245
This is significant.

00:49:17.245 --> 00:49:18.497
All good!

00:49:22.334 --> 00:49:24.294
I love being out in these, these landscapes.

00:49:24.294 --> 00:49:28.924
It's like, you have moments
where you just catch yourself, like, taking it all in,

00:49:28.924 --> 00:49:33.679
and just how spectacular it is
and how incredible to be able to do this.

00:49:34.554 --> 00:49:36.723
Yeah, so I'm grateful for it.

00:49:40.102 --> 00:49:42.854
At the end of the day, you look at what you saw

00:49:42.854 --> 00:49:47.401
and what we collected
in terms of information, and it is just great.

00:49:49.861 --> 00:49:51.405
Look how pointy they are.

00:49:51.405 --> 00:49:53.240
Yeah, they're super pointy.

00:49:53.240 --> 00:49:54.700
Here's a micro snail. Oh yeah.

00:49:57.744 --> 00:49:58.704
It's a new species.

00:49:58.704 --> 00:49:59.788
Yeah, look at it.

00:49:59.788 --> 00:50:02.332
And you've never heard of anyone
collecting a live snail?

00:50:02.332 --> 00:50:05.460
No, these are all first records.

00:50:05.460 --> 00:50:06.962
All of them.

00:50:06.962 --> 00:50:07.963
So satisfying.

00:50:07.963 --> 00:50:11.967
This is like if the Sasquatch people, like,
found a Sasquatch. That’s the equivalent of this.

00:50:13.260 --> 00:50:17.264
All of these are new to science.

00:50:37.743 --> 00:50:40.287
There may be a “9” container that has
some space.

00:50:40.287 --> 00:50:41.246
Which one is that?

00:50:41.246 --> 00:50:42.664
That’s one in here.
Okay.

00:50:43.540 --> 00:50:45.208
Look at those guys!

00:50:46.209 --> 00:50:47.794
Last day and last day.

00:50:47.794 --> 00:50:50.172
It's going home day.

00:50:50.172 --> 00:50:50.505
Yeah.

00:50:50.505 --> 00:50:53.884
This was a great five days here in the field.

00:50:53.884 --> 00:50:55.427
It did push me outside of my comfort zone,

00:50:55.427 --> 00:50:59.723
but it's fun to see all these snails
crawling around on the very last day.

00:51:00.390 --> 00:51:03.435
Reminds you of what we're trying to figure out.

00:51:10.358 --> 00:51:12.694
We found six different species.

00:51:12.694 --> 00:51:17.074
And they now coexist
on this slope of this volcano.

00:51:17.699 --> 00:51:21.828
And then the question that is more interesting
now is like, how do they do that?

00:51:22.204 --> 00:51:24.623
In this very challenging habitat.

00:51:26.708 --> 00:51:28.085
This is where Luke's work

00:51:28.085 --> 00:51:32.089
comes into play elucidating how that works.

00:51:32.464 --> 00:51:38.136
What starts under a log with a single snail
surviving or dying cascades out over

00:51:38.136 --> 00:51:43.225
millions of years to explain patterns on islands
or archipelagos or continents or planets.

00:51:45.185 --> 00:51:49.189
Never expected
that snails would provide these kinds of insights.

00:51:49.981 --> 00:51:51.274
Awesome. Thanks, guys.

00:51:51.274 --> 00:51:52.400
Yeah.

00:51:52.400 --> 00:51:53.360
That is awesome.

00:51:53.360 --> 00:51:56.988
Yeah, right? Yeah.

00:51:56.988 --> 00:51:58.615
It's really well said.

00:51:58.615 --> 00:52:01.201
Aw thanks. We’re complimentary in that way.

00:52:01.201 --> 00:52:01.701
Yeah.

00:52:01.701 --> 00:52:03.370
Yeah.

00:52:10.961 --> 00:52:14.214
The really remarkable thing
about all life on Earth

00:52:14.214 --> 00:52:18.844
is that as far as we can tell,
it all goes back to a single common ancestor.

00:52:20.220 --> 00:52:25.183
What we've learned using mathematics, what we find,
and I think snails are a great example of this,

00:52:25.600 --> 00:52:29.646
is that you can see that evolution is really,
really rapid.

00:52:29.646 --> 00:52:32.607
The potential of evolution is extremely high.

00:52:38.113 --> 00:52:42.117
This all relates to the human experience
in a few ways.

00:52:42.450 --> 00:52:46.872
It's good for people to have an understanding
of how evolution works

00:52:46.872 --> 00:52:49.624
and how the tree of life is shaped
and that we're a part of it.

00:52:49.624 --> 00:52:52.544
It's important to feel that unity.

00:52:52.544 --> 00:52:54.671
That's the first layer.

00:52:54.671 --> 00:52:59.593
The second is that, our part of the Tree of Life
has the same kind of dynamics as other parts.

00:53:00.093 --> 00:53:04.472
So people think of humans as completely unique
and separate from all other life on earth.

00:53:04.848 --> 00:53:07.517
Oh, evolution led up to humans
and we were destined to be here.

00:53:07.517 --> 00:53:09.394
It wasn't like that at all.

00:53:09.936 --> 00:53:14.149
The Tree of Life is this huge
branching structure common of common ancestry,

00:53:14.149 --> 00:53:18.612
and we're like one leaf in that tree.
And we're connected to all the other leaves.

00:53:19.029 --> 00:53:23.033
And so if you're exploiting a species
in the natural world,

00:53:23.116 --> 00:53:26.119
you're exploiting another leaf
on that tree that you're connected to.

00:53:27.704 --> 00:53:31.291
But if we do things that break
that balance by, for example,

00:53:31.291 --> 00:53:33.835
raising the level of extinction
by a factor of a ten

00:53:33.835 --> 00:53:38.006
or 100 or a thousand, which is what
people are doing now, then the results

00:53:38.006 --> 00:53:40.467
could be catastrophic for biodiversity.

00:53:43.929 --> 00:53:45.096
This is it.

00:53:45.096 --> 00:53:49.184
This planet is the only planet with life,
and we're the only species that

00:53:49.184 --> 00:53:53.855
has the capacity to understand the connections
that all of these living things have.

00:53:53.855 --> 00:53:57.525
So that's a really, really privileged position
that we're in.

00:53:57.525 --> 00:54:01.112
So what needs to evolve, I think, are our ideas.

00:54:01.112 --> 00:54:05.116
We need the good ideas to spread
and the bad ideas to die out.

00:54:48.034 --> 00:54:49.035
What do we have here?

00:54:49.035 --> 00:54:52.414
We have several of our Volcano Ecuador snails.

00:54:52.414 --> 00:54:54.499
We'll start with these.
Yes.

00:54:54.499 --> 00:54:56.793
So this one's really nice.

00:54:56.793 --> 00:54:58.211
The sacrificial snail.

00:54:58.211 --> 00:55:01.464
Hopefully amplify and sequence
it later and see what's going on.

00:55:01.464 --> 00:55:01.923
Exciting.

00:55:06.803 --> 00:55:09.973
And this is like the step when the snails become
data, really.

00:55:09.973 --> 00:55:10.890
Yeah.

00:55:10.890 --> 00:55:14.894
Information that we can use
to test hypotheses and stuff like that.

00:55:21.651 --> 00:55:24.237
And so, you might be wondering,

00:55:24.237 --> 00:55:29.576
what do these data reveal
about how these charming little snot wads coexist

00:55:29.868 --> 00:55:35.498
so successfully in the wilds of Galápagos
and the rest of our complicated planet?

00:55:37.083 --> 00:55:41.087
Well, it is relatively simple.

00:55:41.171 --> 00:55:47.177
Unlike some other species which constantly
fight for food or sex or resources.

00:55:47.677 --> 00:55:50.347
Snails do not.

00:55:50.347 --> 00:55:55.226
They maintain homeostasis
free of ego, or selfish competition.

00:55:56.269 --> 00:56:00.523
They are patient, moving less than 0.03 miles per hour.

00:56:01.107 --> 00:56:04.319
They're smart, capable of navigating mazes.

00:56:04.319 --> 00:56:05.320
They are resilient.

00:56:05.320 --> 00:56:07.989
Surviving in their self-made homes.

00:56:07.989 --> 00:56:12.077
And they are remarkably successful,
proliferating all over the planet

00:56:12.202 --> 00:56:15.497
for 520 million years.

00:56:19.125 --> 00:56:21.419
Not only that, they give back,

00:56:21.419 --> 00:56:25.715
performing vital ecological processes,
recycling nutrients

00:56:25.715 --> 00:56:30.762
that create the rich, fertile environments
in which life flourishes across the globe.

00:56:31.763 --> 00:56:33.098
Setting an example

00:56:33.098 --> 00:56:37.102
from which humans could all stand to benefit.

00:56:43.108 --> 00:56:43.817
If you get curious

00:56:43.817 --> 00:56:47.987
about snails, then you might get curious
about the habitat that snails are living in.

00:56:48.238 --> 00:56:51.282
To me, this is the most exciting part of the work.

00:56:51.616 --> 00:56:55.245
The thing that distinguishes
scientists who get remembered from scientists

00:56:55.245 --> 00:56:59.249
who fade out into obscurity is storytelling.

00:56:59.541 --> 00:57:02.377
Translating these experiences
we're having in the field into the classroom.

00:57:02.377 --> 00:57:07.882
Around 20 new species that we've discovered over time.
Connected to this whole network

00:57:07.882 --> 00:57:12.470
of ancestry and descent that's been happening
on this planet for the past 4.5 billion years.

00:57:12.470 --> 00:57:16.766
And it might change the decisions that we make
as people to know that we're connected,

00:57:16.766 --> 00:57:18.768
to these other things.

00:57:21.062 --> 00:57:23.231
I feel like I have the best job in the world,

00:57:23.231 --> 00:57:28.903
fostering curiosity in ways
that connect to a person's lived experience

00:57:28.903 --> 00:57:31.072
and the realities of this

00:57:31.072 --> 00:57:33.575
incredible way to make sense of the world.

00:57:40.623 --> 00:57:43.626
Evolution has no beginning or end.

00:57:43.626 --> 00:57:47.005
It's happening at all times. All around us.

00:57:47.005 --> 00:57:49.507
Even right now.

00:57:49.507 --> 00:57:53.511
And like evolution, the scientific process
never ends.

00:57:54.053 --> 00:57:57.348
It is a constant journey towards understanding,

00:57:57.348 --> 00:58:03.146
leaving room for improvement or deviation
by the next generation to pick up the torch.

00:58:05.231 --> 00:58:07.066
Oh. Got it.

00:58:08.067 --> 00:58:09.569
Oh, there's another one here.

00:58:10.487 --> 00:58:13.364
I’m energized now, so like, don’t talk to me anybody,

00:58:13.364 --> 00:58:14.866
because I’m going to find snails.

00:58:14.866 --> 00:58:16.242
You're like, actually, this is kind of fun.

00:58:16.242 --> 00:58:19.370
And then like 15 minutes later you're like,
I actually really love this.

00:58:19.370 --> 00:58:21.331
And then like half an hour later you're like,

00:58:21.331 --> 00:58:23.458
I think I want to study snails.
Exactly.

00:58:24.626 --> 00:58:28.588
The first step towards seeing the tree of life
is just to look at another leaf.

00:58:28.588 --> 00:58:34.427
This connects you with the diversity of what's out
there in a different scale, in a different way.

00:58:35.553 --> 00:58:38.181
It's just not about us. There's way more.

00:58:39.849 --> 00:58:41.935
And I think that is coexistence.

00:58:47.565 --> 00:58:52.445
It really comes out when a student comes
and knocks on my door and is like, I really love snails.

00:58:52.445 --> 00:58:55.657
Can I work in your lab?
Then, like, it's on.

00:58:55.657 --> 00:59:02.330
That transformation of, like, seeing someone
becoming like a snail hunter is just great.

00:59:03.164 --> 00:59:04.916
Okay.

00:59:04.916 --> 00:59:06.209
Let's go.

00:59:06.209 --> 00:59:08.962
Haha. Oh, snails.