Little Giants

What if I told you there is a secret world

Of tiny creatures with incredible powers

Beyond the realm of human imagination?

When you realize the phenomenal abilities

Of these tiny, little animals

And what they're truly capable of,

In comparison, we are just big, clumsy giants.

I've devoted my life to unlocking the secrets

Of these miraculous mini monsters.

I'm teaming up with a scientist friend,

And we're going to the very edge of the world to find them.

Which way? He's in the bush! I got one!

Behind you, behind you. Did you get it?

He's got me. Looks like a dinosaur,

Straight up from the dawn of time.

That's the perfect killing machine right there.

I'll show you, pound for pound,

They stack up against any creature

That ever roamed the earth.

Bite back. Oh! Oh!

He destroyed my sensor.

This is in the realm of superheroes.

Size does not matter,

Especially when you're a little giant.

Captions paid for by discovery communications

The thing I love every time we go looking for a lizard is,

It's kind of like hunting dinosaurs.

Well, especially this guy.

In fact, if you had a horned lizard skull

And you just made it bigger,

It would look just like a dinosaur.

And you can see that direct connection

To these extraordinary beasts lost in time.

We are beginning our global expedition

In chupaderos, in western mexico,

And we're in search of an animal

That almost doesn't feel like it belongs on this earth...

The giant horned lizard.

Despite its size, this lizard has thrived

For millions of years in this harsh environment,

Thanks mainly to three remarkable attributes

That help it not only fend off far larger predators...

Coyotes, hawks, and rattlesnakes...

But also help it to devour its prey in massive quantities.

First, it has a huge, thick, and hellishly fast tongue

That it uses to smash through hundreds of ants and termites

In a single day.

Secondly, that quadruple set of horns...

They are big, and they are sharp,

And they know how to use them.

And finally, it has one superpower

That no other animal in the world has.

When the giant horned lizard is under attack,

It defends itself by blasting toxic blood

Straight out of its eyes into the face of its predator.

When we find this little giant,

We'll bring it back to our mobile field lab,

Where we can test its extraordinary abilities

Once and for all.

Here we go. That's perfect.

See this kind of flat stuff here?

Mm-hmm.

See? It is too hot.

I'm telling you, that's platinum.

Feels like lizard country.

Yeah, but it's not good lizard-hunting country.

It's just so thick.

There's wall-to-wall yucca.

This is also serious snake country.

Yeah? You see that false crest,

Flat out, a little bit more open,

And a little bit softer?

Chasing a lizard is like chasing a chicken in leather pants.

There's no dignity in it.

Well, I have a lot of experience

In tracking animals into their habitats.

I will help us find these animals,

And billy, my great expedition companion for 10 years,

He will use technology to test them

And present information that no one has ever found before.

We're literally on a dragon quest right now.

I like that.

As someone who's looking to tie biology to technology,

I'm really eager to test these little giants

So we can collect data on their incredible biomechanics

And unique behaviors.

And our hope is to shine a spotlight

On their often overlooked abilities

So, that way, people will realize

That these creatures might be pint-sized,

But they're as extraordinary and powerful

As any animal on the planet.

They're key to their ecosystems

And should be the focus of conservation efforts worldwide.

Whew! I'm baking. I feel like burnt pizza.

The only way to...

whoa. You hear that?

Back up, man. Oh, yeah.

We got company. Look at that.

Oh, that is a mature western diamondback rattlesnake.

The way these things move is deceptively quick.

It's just sidewinding any direction.

He's not playing around. Look at his rattler.

Yeah. You do not want to get bitten by one of these boys.

This has a ton of venom.

Oh! Back up, man.

Yeah, I think we need to leave him in peace.

This is his mountain. Let's move on, eh?

Let's start sweeping through here.

Looking for ant nests, termites, lizard scat, prints.

Bradley! Ants!

Yes! Nice, nice!

Check this out.

Yeah, we definitely got some harvester ants.

This is exactly what giant horned lizards eat,

And it's the toxins from these poisonous ants

That make the giant horned lizard's blood also toxic.

So this is a good spot, right? This is good for us?

Oh, this is just a honey hole.

This is the center of our search circle.

Check every shadow under every shrub.

Hello, hello.

Come here, my pretty.

Billy! Black gold.

Yeah? Some lizard poo.

That's a sight for sore eyes.

I don't how many thousand ants and termites died

In order to create this fecal masterpiece,

But wherever there is poop, there is a pooper,

And that's what we got to keep looking for.

Bradley! Bradley!

I got one!

I got it!

It's gone past you, mate.

There it is. There it is.

There he is.

Got it! Whoo!

There he is, in my hat.

Got a lizard in a hat.

Look at those horns.

That's why he's the king of the horned lizard.

Oh, yeah.

This is the dragon king right here.

I am completely unashamed to say that I was slightly freaked out

By this giant horned lizard being so close to my face.

This thing is an unholy plated mean machine.

I mean, these horns are the real deal.

They look like they could just tear through anything.

Basically, this is a monster.

He's remarkable. I mean, I didn't realize

He had such a great pattern, simple camouflage.

He's literally invisible.

But look how dignified he looks. What savage beauty.

We got to get him back to the tent.

Yeah, I've gotta test thing.

Now, we're about to do something truly precedent-setting.

We'll bring this little guy to our mobile field lab,

And, with specially rigged-up scientific equipment

That can function in some of the harshest environments in the world,

We're going to test its superpowers,

Its extraordinary abilities once and for all.

Its tongue-strike speed is hellishly fast.

Oh!

That's more than twice as fast as a rattlesnake.

Our giant horned lizard has a superpower

Unlike any other creature on the planet.

Ready? Yep.

Oh, it did it! Oh!

Oh!

Oh!

Look at that little monster.

He is trying to look as big and mean as possible.

And you know what? He's succeeding.

Yeah.

Finding this lizard was an incredible challenge,

But now, we're about to do something

Truly precedent-setting.

We're going to test its super powers,

Its extraordinary abilities once and for all...

The gore force of its eight mighty horns,

The power of its incredibly fast tongue,

And the range of its toxic blood spurt.

Of course, we have to run these tests really fast

Because we want to return this little guy

To his natural habitat as soon as possible.

Let's get this guy's weight. Got you.

We already know the box weighs 11 ounces.

Mm-hmm.

So he weighs 3.2 ounces.

Man, that's less than a cellphone.

We always want to get a measurement of the weight

And the length of these creatures

So that we have a baseline.

From that baseline, we can then project

How great these abilities actually are.

If we were able to scale up this lizard to a larger animal

Or even a machine that has similar abilities,

We'd be able to get a pound-for-pound comparison.

Seven and three-quarters of an inch.

I'm going to hold him as gentle as I can.