Previous: The Two-Faced Calf, Part I
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Last sync:2018-05-05 00:40
Come for the 4 eyes, stay for the beetle time lapse.

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The Brain Scoop is written and hosted by:
Emily Graslie

Created By:
Hank Green

Directed, Edited, Animated, and Scored by:
Michael Aranda

Huge thanks to Anna Goldman for her help in this episode and for giving me the craziest opportunity of my life.

Production Assistant:
Katie Kirby

Filmed on Location and Supported by:
The Field Museum in Chicago, IL

Our two-faced calf heart goes out to Caitrin McCullough for transcribing this episode and Tony Chu, Barbara Velázquez, Seth Bergenholtz, and Martina Šafusová for translating it.


Anna: So, I'm opening up the trachea. I want to see how it joins up into the mouth which looks like-

Emily: Two mouths, woah.

A: Well it's- It looks like one- it's like one mou-oh

E: Oh. It connects together.

A: Yea.

E: This beautiful, like, little trachea windpipe

A: Yea, and I wonder if it has two hyoids or-

E: Oh yea. You definitely nicked a major artery up there, it's-

A: Oh.

E: That's what happens when your heart pumps. [imitating heart] Boom boom. Boom boom. [Odd noises] I need to talk to an adult! I have weird feelings right now. 

A: Look at- You're sprinklink- you're just like "woo! saw dust!"

E: I have to do something with my hands. This is too weird! [odd noises]

A: The noises that are coming out of your mouth right now- [imitates Emily].

E: [Laughs] I don't know how to deal with stress!

A: Stress? Excitement!

E: Like, I'm anxious. Look at that! What's going on?

Both: [Gasp]

E: What?

A: Hold on, hold on, i've got to-

E: What?

A: I want to surprise you, hold on!

E: I can't wait! [Gasps] What?!

A: Shh

E: What are you doing?

A: Hold on!

E: I'm- I can't!

A: Don't- Just wait!

E: Hold on to what?!

A: Just wait!

E: No!

A: Yea!

E: No!

A: Yep! Hold on.

E: You guys, I don't know if you know what she's doing right now but she's taking out the tongues... that are attached!

A: Okay...Almost...Almost!

E: That is insane!

A: So, it's got one throat, one hyoid, one trachea, but two tongues that split right in the middle!

E: Yep! There's just the back of the tongue where it's articulating with the hyoid.

A: And, didn't slice this at all, so this- this is natural. [Gasps] Look it's not-

E: [Gasps]

A: Oh my god! That's so cool!

E: He's got a cleft palate?!

A: [Laughs] And not the one with the non-fused jaw, it's the opposite one.

E: The one that we thought was more-

A: More developed.

E: Yea.

A: God, how do you find your words?

E: [odd noises] It's too exciting!

A: Wow, that's so cool!

E: This is outrageous!

A: So this is his sinus, all the way up in here.

E: No way!

A: Yea. So, like, you know how you can feel your snot running down the back of your throat when you're sick? This guy would just,like, be able to breathe into his mouth from his nose.

E: You have that really distinct washboard texture on the rood of your mouth, and you can see it over here where it's not connected.

A: But, like, just, like, pushed off to the side.

E: Yea.

A: Like, there's no teeth over here. Oh my god, that's so cool. You can also- you can see the- the opening to the trachea and the esophagus.

E: Oh, right there. Bloop! Bloop!

A: Yea. So when you swallow down the wrong pipe it's when one of those two doesn't close.

E: This is amazing. I'm learning so much today.

A: So I'm in the esophagus and then the trachea- ooh, that's a- that's a cool switch.

E: Is it?

A: Yea, play around in there. 

E: Just have at it! Oh, oh, woah.

A: It's hard to find- there we go.

E: Trying to cut around the giant occipital.

A: Or whatever it is I'm cutting!

E: Yea, who even knows?! Hey, I've never really gotten used to- like skinning is fine, gutting is fine, but when you're removing the animal's head I always still get a bit, like, eugh.

A: That's the brain stem. In everything- I mean that looks fairly normal.

E: It looks a little bit wide, but I don't have anything to compare it to to know whether or not it's exaggerated.

A: This is just beautiful.

E: I wonder if she would've had the strength to, like, lift her own head. I can see that being, like, a major issue. Because the head is going to weigh twice as much, and you don't have twice as many neck muscles.

A: Yea, and it's hard enough for them to pick their head up without there being-

E: Another face there.

A: Yea.

E: Taking the eyeballs out?

A: I'd like to, but I don't know if it's going to be very hard. Four eyeballs.

E: I always do this.

A: These are all, uh, they're very firm. They're almost, like, elongated, like, uh, like tasted buds. And it goes in the inside of a cheek like this and it's all guides backwards towards the throat, and that helps them swallow, it helps them chew, helps keep the food in their teeth because they're constantly chewing. And they get really big, and like larger cows, uh, water bucks, uh, deer, they all have these, like, really large, crazy things and they feel so cool on your fingertips. Oh.

E: There's fluid.

A: Uh oh.

E: Fluid alert!

A: What are we going to do with that? I think that this is just gonna- there it goes, there it goes.

E: That's insane! I've never seen intestines that aren't filled with anything! Look at this! You can see the texture on the outside of the sack. Look at that! It has, like, oh, woah!

A: Well, so, like, I've never opened up the gut of something that was-

E: That was like, foetal?

A: Foetal, or with so many stomachs. Oh! That's the umbilical chord!

E: There it is! So where does it feed into?

A: It feed directly-

E: Oh, what?

A: Okay, so that's the liver.

E: That's a good looking liver.

A: And then- this has to be- so that's the stomach, is that another stomach? And that's another stomach! This is like opening up an alien.

E: Yea! What is this? Is that a poop? Or is that- that's an intestine. That's the small intestine.

A: But look at all this! It's got to be the large intestine, because all this small gooey stuff here...

E: That's the small intestine?

A: Which is, like, surrounding the large intestine which is super strange. Oh, I just- I just don't even know what's in here! Look how pretty the diaphragm is!

E: It's gorgeous! It never- it never breathed!

A: It never bothered.

E: It's brand new! Never been used!

A: So I'm now slicing the diaphragm so I can grab a hold of the heart and the lungs so I can gut it.

E: Woah.

A: Pull it out of there.

E: You want me to hold it? You got it? Woah! What are these things?

A: That's the kidney.

E: What?!

A: Weird.

E: That is so weird. That's amazing.

A: So this is the heart.

E: [Gasp]

A: Which is in the heart sack. There's the lungs. Look at how beautiful these lungs are.

E: Never smoked a cigarette.

A: The diaphragm, which is still kinda sliced up around here. The liver, and then this is where it gets confusing. So cows have four stomachs?

E: Yeah.

A: And so there's a stomach, there's a stomach, there's a stomach, and there's a stomach.

E: So I've got a stomach in my hand?

A: Yeah.

E: Ooh! [gasp] what's in there? 

A: Um, tissue seems to separate them.

E: [Gasp] What in the world!

A: There's texture on the inside of the stomach and this is to help, like, grind up all that, uh, the grain, the grass, all that stuff that they eat, that they're constantly regurgitating and swallowing again.

E: That's amazing. Woah. They all have different textures. One was honeycomb, that one looks more web like.

A: So this stomach is much, like, thicker.

E: That's awesome. I'm just trying to imagine what it must feel like to have four stomachs. This is crazy. Oh it's so tiny! Woah! [imitating heart] Boom boom, boom boom. For you! Look at that!

A: It's beautiful.

E: You have two over here, two valves, two ventricles.

A: One side, your left side, is going to be much thicker than the other side, and that's because it's actually pumping blood all the way to your toes.

E: Alright! So we did it! We took the guts out of a two faced calf, and we took the head off, and we took out all four eyeballs.

A: And now we're gonna take it up into the beetles.


E: It still has brains on it.