Amber and I embarked on watching the latest Indiana Jones movie last night, Legend of the Crystal Skull. Let me first start off by saying....whacko movie. I mean it was weird. But at least we did learn some things, or at least some things piqued our interest and prompted me to do some internet research this morning in between planning my summer camps! **Note, if you have not seen the movie and do not want to read some details that don't really give away anything about the movie, you may want to stop here - this is for you Jes, don't want to spoil your Indy movie!
Lesson # 1 - Smaller scorpions have stronger venom and therefore you should watch out for them more than big scorpions!
Research says - Very small scorpions such as the bark scorpion found in Southern Florida can sting and the sting is painful -- but, like a bee sting, goes away with little more than localized swelling. The issue with very small scorpions is they literally cannot inject enough venom to affect a large human. Think of dropping a single drop of red food dye into a big bucket. There's so much water you won't even see the color.
On the flip side, very big scorpions tend to rely on their pincers more than their venom to neutralize prey as pincers are not as costly as venom and don't require them to constantly replace them. Therefore, their venom is weaker and not nearly as potent.
So, sounds like there might be some truth to this but also that the smaller ones can't produce enough venom to really hurt a human so really not what the movie says.
Lesson # 2 - Mummifying someone can preserve them for thousands of years in the same state as the day they died. And then the moment you open the mummy and expose it to air, they disintegrate.
Research says - Still not quite clear on this one, but it looks like mummification does preserve them in their current state and exposed to the air, the body will disintegrate but just not to the magnitude shown in the movie.
Lesson # 3 - Big ants can eat you alive.
Research says - There are giant Peruvian ants (where the movie takes place) called Dinosaur Ants, but they are only 3 cm long, much smaller than in the movie. And while they do eat mammals including mice, and other animals such as birds, amphibians, and fish, I doubt there is truth in this part of the movie. Although it was gross and Amber and I had to turn away during that part.
Interestingly, Blondie has a song called "Attack of the Giant Ants" and the lyrics are kinda crazy. "They eat your face, never leave a trace."
At least I can say that we finally finished that movie. It's been sitting on our tv since November 14, 2008. Two months later, it's finally going back to Netflix!
2 comments:
hahahahahaha awesome that you did all that research i emailed myself and still forgot to look it up! and yeah seriously one of the weirdest movies ever, NOT what i was expecting from indiana jones at all.
hahahahahaha one of your funnier posts. no sources for your research or were they multiple sources? the ants are kinda crazy. i guess like other bugs that are only about that size eating dead things because that's too small to injest something like a mouse. i think i'll leave that near the middle/bottom of my netflix queue.
Post a Comment