Real Life Giants! | SciShow Kids Compilation

[Music] WAOW that guy is huge isy squeaks oh hi there squeaks ier just reading a book about Giants this book is fiction but did you know that Giants exist in nature too really there are giant plants and animals that make other living things look tiny do you remember when we learned about the biggest flower in the world you're right it wouldn't fit in a flower base but it's pretty amazing just the same let's take a trip back to Indonesia to see how big these giant flowers can get yeah you're right oh hi there squeaks and I are deciding what flowers to plant in our garden next we're thinking of planting some daisies maybe some sunflowers lots of big beautiful blooms squeaks wants really big flowers the biggest in the whole world but I'm afraid the biggest flower in the world would be really unusual to have in our garden squeaks because unlike other flowering plants it lives inside another plant this is the biggest flower in the world raia arnaldi it lives in Indonesia and its flowers are almost a meter across that means you'd struggle to fit one through your front door they're also very heavy for flowers they can weigh up to about 7 kg roughly the weight of a bowling ball that's a big flower well hold on squeaks before you make any decisions you should know they're also very smelly some people even call them corpse flowers because they smell like rotting meat meat that's a great question squeaks why does this flow stink so much when most flowers smell nice well let's think about it for a moment how might smelling good help the flower right smelling good attracts pollinators pollinators are animals like bees that help flowering plants make seeds by moving their pollen from one flower to another many pollinators are attracted to Sweet smells because they eat sweet things like the nectar flowers make well this flow is also trying to draw in pollinators but it's not after bees its powerful stinky smell attracts flies flies like to eat dead animals so they go into the flower thinking that stinky smell is some yummy old meat and while they're inside investigating the stench they get the flowers pollen on them they carry this pollen with them when they leave and that means when they check out another flower they leave some of it behind so the smell is the plant's way of getting the Flies to move their pollen around oh what do the leaves look like well that's the weird thing this flower actually doesn't have any leaves or roots or even a stem that we can see that's a really good question all plants need Water and Light to grow Most flowers use their roots to suck up water from the soil and their leaves to collect light from the Sun so they can make food for themselves but this flower doesn't have any of those parts so how does it live and eat well it's what scientists call a parasite a living thing that steals from other living things to survive like you might be familiar with fleas they're parasites that feed on the blood of animals including people their bites often leave itchy red bumps on your skin which are really annoying in the case of raia it's steals the water and food it needs from another plant and it does this by growing inside it raia seeds are really tiny so they can get into small scratches on the roots or stems of the vines they live inside and once there it steals what it needs to grow it takes food the vine made from sunlight using its leaves and water the vine sucked up from the soil using its roots so the raia doesn't need leaves or roots of its own and that means it can put all its efforts into making massive flowers when the flower buds are ready they burst out of the vine to bloom the flowers do hurt the vine kind of like how flea bites don't feel awesome but they don't kill it parasites need the living things they steal from so they usually don't kill them so what do you do you think squeaks do you still want to grow the biggest flowers in the world here oh that's true the vine and the Ria arnaldi both grow really far away in a very different habitat than what we have here at the Fort maybe we can grow something else that would remind us of this awesome and smelly plant that's a great idea we can research and find out if are any plants that are parasites living near the fort and maybe try growing some of those plants have so many amazing ways to get what they need some grow in the ground while some grow out of other plants and some smell sweet While others put up a big stink wow that flower was enormous some plants get so much bigger than others that's right squeaks I forgot about the world's tallest tree there's a redwood tree in California called the Hyperion that's even larger than the giant redwoods around it should we hike back to the forest to learn more meet Hyperion this impressive looking plant currently holds the title of world's tallest tree its name Hyperion means the high one and that's no joke hyperion's top branches Tower over all of the trees around it it's very tippy top is 115 m above the ground that's taller than an American football field is long about twice as tall as the Statue of Liberty in New York City and about 15 M taller than the clock tower in London that houses Big Ben and it's taken a long time for hyperion to get so big scientists think that it's between 700 and 800 years old Hyperion belongs to a group of trees called redwoods redwoods are pretty picky about where they live they only grow in a few places around the world hyperion's home is somewhere in Northern California in the Redwood National and state parks and I say somewhere because except for a few people no one knows exactly where Hyperion is hyperion was discovered by two people hiking through the park after some scientists measured the tree and crowned it as the world's tallest everyone who knew where Hyperion was decided to keep it location a secret they knew that a lot of people would want to see the world's tallest tree I mean who wouldn't but they also knew that too many people walking around the tree might damage its roots or trunk so they decided that the only way to make sure the tree stayed safe was to let it stay hidden fortunately there are lots of other redwoods to see all around it as well as lots of other really big trees that are related to the Redwood another kind of humongous tree is the Giant Sequoia both the Giant seoa and the Redwood live for a long time grow to be very tall and in some cases get to be very wide so there must be something special about these trees why are they able to grow so large and so tall and the answer is kind of another secret because no one knows for sure scientists have some pretty good guesses though the first is that these trees are really good at staying healthy all kinds of trees can get diseases that make them sick just like you and I can catch a cold or the flu or something else redwoods make a chemical that helps protect them from diseases this chemical also tastes really bad to animals like insects so bugs that might normally like to snack on wood or leaves are likely to stay away from Redwood Trees the outer covering of the tree called The Bark is also very thick in Redwoods in some cases up to 30 cm thick that's about the length of a ruler that you might have in school or at home and the bark is really stringy and tough so tough in fact that it doesn't burn very easily so forest fires that damage other kinds of trees probably won't hurt these kinds of trees as much another reason that scientists think that redwoods grow so tall is because of where they live redwoods need water lots of water so they grow where it's cool and very wet when it's not raining or snowing where redwoods live it's usually Misty or foggy if you've ever been outside on a foggy day you know that the air can feel kind of wet that's because fog is made of lots of tiny drops of water now redwoods have special leaves called needles and Redwood needles can do something really cool they can actually take water right out of the fog so the tree doesn't have to get all of its water from its roots this way the tree has two ways to get water through its needles and its roots instead of just one and there's more to growing tall than just getting lots of water trees also need food and they get some of the food they need to grow from the soil just like healthy foods like fruits and vegetables give us what we need to grow the soil in Northern California California is kind of like those healthy foods full of the things that trees need to grow but here's something strange about the world's tallest tree even though Hyperion has lots of water thick bark and can get good things from the soil it isn't growing any taller scientists think that the tree stopped growing because some woodpeckers damaged the top of it so who knows maybe someday there will be another tree that takes over the title as world's tallest and maybe you'll be the one to find it I'd say that tree definitely qualifies as a giant it looks like something that would have lived long ago when a lot of things were bigger exactly like those Ice Age animals we learned about some of the creatures that lived thousands of years ago looked like their relatives today only larger should we put on our coats and take a trip back in time to see the Ice Age Giants squeaks and I love it when the weather gets warm we get to have picnics go to the beach and spend all day exploring but you know the Earth didn't always get this warm every year it goes through some warmer periods and some colder ones a very long time ago the world went through what's called an Ice Age it was so cold that a lot of the Earth's water stayed frozen as ice for most of the year most of that ice went away about 12,000 years ago way before your parents or Grandparents were born but before that when so much of the world was covered in ice life looked a little different a lot of the same kinds of animals we have on our planet today were around then too yes including rat squeaks but there were also some animals back then that have since died out animals that were much bigger than we're used to if you were to take an Ice Age tour around the world you'd meet some pretty wacky characters imagine meeting a glyptodon a relative of the armadillo that's right we've learned learned about armadillos before they're covered in armor to keep them safe from other animals the glyptodon looked a lot like an armadillo and it also had armor but it was the size of a car some glyptodon even had sharp spikes on their tails there were also giant beavers which could grow to 2 and 1/2 M long and weigh 100 kg imagine a cute little Beaver but grown to the size of a bear and there were mastadons and mammoths both relatives of today elephants they're all part of the group of animals that have a trunk for a nose mastadons and mammoths had a lot in common they were both enormous had long shaggy hair that kept them warm and had trunks to help them scrape snow and ice off the plants they wanted to eat but there were also some differences between them for example mastodons had long pointed tusks whereas mammoths had curvy ones and mastadons had cone-shaped teeth to crush the plants they ate but Mammoth teeth looked more like crinkly potato chips with ridges to help them grind up grass but you don't have to worry about running into any of these animals on your way to school by about 10,000 years ago they had all gone extinct meaning they weren't around anymore and even if you did run into a mastedon or glip iton you wouldn't have to worry everyone we just met was an herbivore which means they ate plants not other animals but some giant animals from the ice age did eat other animals smile at was a big cat that lived in North and South America people sometimes call it a saber-tooth tiger even though it isn't really a close relative of tigers but I bet you can guess where the name Sabertooth comes from Smilodon has two giant teeth that were long and curved almost like a type of sword called a saber and smilodons were predators which means they hunted and ate other animals they probably used their giant saber teeth to hug the other huge animals that lived around the the same time like macadons and mammoths then after hunting down their lunch they had to eat it to bite around those giant saber teeth they were able to open their mouths really wide smilodons also had a tongue bone a lot like today's lion which probably meant they could roar like one just like the animals it ate the Smilodon is extinct all these huge Ice Age animals stopped existing by around 10,000 years ago and scientists are still trying to figure out why some scientists think that humans could have hunted them to Extinction especially mammoths and mastodons that could be part of why but there are probably other reasons too some other scientists think that when the earth warmed up again and there was less cold ice and more wet Forest it was harder for these gigantic animals to find enough of the food they usually ate it could also have been a combination of both ice AG animals might have already been having trouble by the time humans started hunting them more even if a Mastadon was able to find a new place to go after all its favorite plants were gone once it had to worry about human Hunters too it might not have been able to survive so these giant animals are gone now but we can learn all about them by studying the bones they left behind and imagining what it was like to live in a world with car-sized armadillos huge hairy mastadons and giant toothed smilodons I wouldn't want to run into one of those mastadons they looked kind of scary squeaks think all giant things are scary but remember how much you liked learning about those huge insects let's see if we can help squeaks conquer his fear by having a look at some really big bugs what kind of animal has six legs three body parts and is found pretty much everywhere on Earth you're right squeaks insects one of the coolest things about insects is that there are so many different kinds think about some of the insects you already know like butterflies bees and ants they look really different from each other they're all different shapes colors and sizes Greeks and I like to go outside and learn more about the insects we find by watching how they move around and what they eat sometimes we find some pretty big ones but they're not even close to the biggest insects in the world like this one this is a Titan beetle the name Titan actually means big or gigantic which makes sense because they're huge these beetles can get to be over 16 cm long longer than a dollar bill just like other beetles you might know like ladybugs and fireflies titan beetles have four wings a Beetle's front wings are hard and act as a kind of protective case for the back wings but it's the other ways that titan beetles protect themselves that make them look so Fierce they have sharp spines on their body and their jaws are super strong a Titan beetle can bite down hard enough with its jaws to snap a pencil in half there's no reason to be scared of them though squeaks even though they're super strong scientists who study titan beetles have found out that they aren't aggressive that means they don't attack people or any other animal unless they're scared but there's a lot we still don't know about them scientists aren't sure what adult titan beetles eat if they eat anything at all titan beetles live in the warm wet rainforest and scientists think baby titan beetles live underground and eat old and rotting wood so not only is a Titan beetle big it's also a pretty big mystery another huge insect is the giant WETA the name that scientists use for the giant WETA means monster like grasshopper and it definitely lives up to its name giant wetta live in only one place in the world in the island country of New Zealand it has some relatives that might be around where you live though it's related to the little crickets you can hear chirping outside in the evening the giant WETA grows to be about 10 cm long which is very long long but still shorter than the Titan beetle but the giant WETA is a champion if we measure it in another way that's because the giant WETA is one of the heaviest insects in the world some giant weas can weigh about 70 G as much as about 25 pennies giant wetta are heavier than most mice and even some small birds they're too heavy to fly and most giant wetta don't even jump so we've met a long insect and a heavy insect next let's meet a one insect the Atlas Moth it's pretty easy to see why this insect is so big yes squeaks it's wings Atlas Moss have some of the biggest wings of any insect on Earth they can get to be over 30 cm wide that's about the size of a ruler like other moths and butterflies Atlas moths start out as a caterpillar and these caterpillars are very hungry they eat a lot of leaves and they grow to be very fat then they spin a silk cocoon around themselves and change into a moth while they're inside it once these moths come out of their cocoons though they don't eat at all they only live for about 5 to 7 days and that whole time they get all their energy from the leaves they ate as caterpillars the name that people from China used for this moth means snake's head and if you look at the tops of an atlas moth's wings you can see a pattern that looks a lot like a snake's head scientists think that the pattern might scare away birds or other animals that might want to eat the moth since the pattern looks like a snake that could eat them between the Titan beetle the Giant wetta and the Atlas Moth there are some pretty big insects out there did those cool insects make you feel any better about giant squeaks oh good then maybe you're ready to talk about the ultimate giant the biggest animal that ever lived well it's not a dinosaur or some creature that lived long ago it's actually alive today swimming around in the ocean that's right squeaks the blue whale hey there squeaks was just showing off his imaginary sea monster that he drew based on some sea monsters of the past I think it's great I see that it has sharp teeth big flippers and an armored head like the animals we learned about before and I see you drew yourself swimming next to your monster your sea monster is huge but even your imaginary sea monster doesn't look as big as the biggest biggest animal that's ever actually lived do you know what animal that is squeaks it's a kind of whale called the blue whale and they're still around today blue whales can get to be over 30 m long about as long as three school buses in a row and a blue whale's tongue can weigh as much as an elephant and just it's heart can be as heavy as a car so what do you think these great big blue whales eat fish that's a great guess and some whales like beluga whales do eat fish they have sharp teeth that they use to catch and eat their prey but some whales like blue whales don't have teeth at all weird right these whales have something called baline instead of teeth baline is a bristly plate that's stuck to the roof of the whale's mouth it looks like a big bristly broom inside their mouth oo that's a great question how does it help them eat well if you've ever seen someone cook pasta they might have dumped it out of the pot and into a strainer when the pasta was done cooking water pours out of the strainer but the food stays inside baline Works kind of the same way when a whale that has baline takes a gulp of water and food they use their tongues to push all the water out through the gaps but keep the tasty food inside but if they aren't eating fish what are they eating blue whales eat tiny animals called Krill Krill are so small that we need a microscope to see them clearly that's right squeaks something as big as a blue whale does need to eat a lot of krill and they do adult blue whales can eat 16 tons of krill each day that's as heavy as four elephants isn't it amazing that such a huge animal eats things that are so small that we can't even see them Navy whales are called Cales just like baby cows and also like cows whale calves drink the milk that their mothers make inside their bodies until they're old enough to start eating Krill that's because all whales including blue whales are mammals mammals are animals like horses cows dogs and humans and all mammals feed their newborn babies milk that's one of the special things that makes an animal a mammal yeah they do look more like a fish than like the other mammals but fish don't feed their babies with milk which helps us know that whales and fish are different and there's another important feature that tells us that whales are mammals and definitely not fish whales don't have gills to breathe in water like fish do they have lungs just like us so even though some whales can hold their breath for over an hour they they have to come up to the surface of the ocean to breathe every now and then when we breathe air goes through our nose or mouth and into our lungs whales breathe using their lungs too but they do it in a very special way they breathe in and out through a hole on the top of their head called a blow hole when a whale is ready to take a breath it comes up to the top of the water opens its blo hole and breathes out this is called SP bouting that air shoots up into the sky sometimes about 12 M High that's about as tall as six grown-ups if they stood on each other's shoulders then the whale breathes fresh air in through its blo hole and goes back underwater when a whale is underwater they can pinch their blo hole closed from the inside and seal it shut so no water gets in but my favorite thing about blue whales are the amazing sounds they make blue whales as well as lots of other whale spe species can talk to each other from really far away sound travels really well in water so one whale can hear another whale making noises even if they're thousands of miles apart whales make lots of sounds including squeaks whistles and long low booming sounds that scientists call songs here's what a blue whales song sounds like I think whale songs sound beautiful too squeaks oh yeah squeaks says he still thinks his imaginary sea monster is pretty cool but it's even cooler that there are giant blue whales out in the ocean right now singing to each other eating microscopic Krill and taking care of their babies blue whales are so long I hope to get to see one someday oh that's a great idea squeaks as soon as we finish our book about Giants we can read one on blue whales if you like learning about enormous creatures like these be sure to subscribe to saow kids so you don't miss something big and we'll see you next time here at the [Music] fort

Channel: SciShow Kids

Views: 1,289,930

Keywords: scishow, scishowkids, Jessi Knudsen, Jessi Knudsen Castaneda, Squeaks, science, kids, children, learning, education, school, sci, show, hank, green, home, curriculum, kindergarten, activities, Real Life Giants, biggest flower, tallest tree, hyperion, ice age, mastodon, insects, blue whale

Id: QOFtz6oKPaE

Length: 25min 54sec (1554 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 26 2024