This week we’re taking a look at King Kong (2005), Peter Jackson’s epic three-hour remake of the 1933 classic. We talk about the biology and evolution of island ecosystems, but we should have had a physicist guest host this episode because this movie can’t seem to help breaking the laws of physics!
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In this episode:
Apes are monkeys – deal with it: https://paoloviscardi.com/2011/04/21/apes-are-monkeys-deal-with-it/
Monkeys travelled to South America by raft: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/monkeys-raft-across-atlantic-twice-180974637/
Insular Dwarfism – the “Island Rule”: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/219453/islands-give-rise-evolutionary-giants-dwarfs/
Human “hobbit” species, Homo floresiensis and Homo luzonensis: https://www.livescience.com/mysterious-hobbits-human-lineage-identity.html
The North American House Hippo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TijcoS8qHIE
Gigantopithecus, the largest ape that ever lived: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/160106-science-evolution-apes-giant
How big can mammals get? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHe1wmEaYWo
King Kong defies physics: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-king-kong-should-have-been-blue-whale-180962603/
The Square-Cube Law: https://sketchplanations.com/the-square-cube-law
American missionary killed by indigenous people of the Andaman Islands: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-46313965
Giant Wētā, the largest living insect: https://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/native-animals/invertebrates/weta/
Why aren’t there giant insects today? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l79FuGuk1qE
