Meet the Beetles!

About this episode

Beetles make up a quarter of all known animal life on Earth. A QUARTER! Beetles are everywhere, doing almost everything. From eating flesh off skeletons to making poop disappear, these little buggers make the world a lot less gross for the rest of us… and look cool doing it. With a little help from the Smithsonian’s beetle experts, we’ll discover why these tiny powerhouses are so wildly diverse, why Ancient Egyptians considered them sacred, and what makes a dung beetle beautiful. (Yes, really.) Get ready to see beetles in a whole new light. Just watch where you step.  Guests: Inger Toraason, osteological specimen preparator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of National History's Osteo Prep Lab Floyd Shockley, entomologist and collections manager for the Department of Entomology at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History  Frank Krell, coleopterist and curator of beetles at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History