Mammal

[I'm exhausted, so here's a post from my draft files.]

I've loved They Might Be Giants from the moment a college friend and I went to a concert of theirs and got to stand in the front row about 6' away from the band. Thus I was happy to find that they have a song all about mammals (titled, appropriately enough, "Mammal"):

Glass of milk
Standing in between extinction in the cold
and explosive radiating growth
So the warm blood flows
Through the large four-chambered heart
Maintaining the very high metabolism rate they have

Mammal, mammal
Their names are called
They raise a paw
The bat, the cat
Dolphin and dog
Koala bear and hog

One of us might lose his hair
But you're reminded that it once was there
From the embryonic whale to the monkey with no tail
So the warm blood flows
With the red blood cells lacking nuclei
Through the large four-chambered heart
Maintaining the very high metabolism rate they have

Mammal, mammal
Their names are called
They raise a paw
The bat, the cat
Dolphin and dog
Koala bear and hog

Placental the sister of her brother Marsupial
Their cousin called Monotreme
Dead uncle Allotheria

Mammal, mammal
Their names are called
They raise a paw
The bat, the cat
Dolphin and dog
Koala bear and hog
The fox, the ox
Giraffe and shrew
Echidna, caribou

Even if you haven't gotten to go to one of their concerts, how could you not love a band that sings about the high metabolic rates of endotherms?

Categories:

• biology
• music