If you've never experienced the wonders of Jim Trainor's animation, then you're in for a treat. I love a great convergence of art and science and that's just what you get in thees short films. Trainor anthropomorphizes his subjects just enough to engage our human minds, but retains the basic instincts that define the actual animals -- be it the urge to eat, the urge to mate or... well that's mostly it for animals, isn't it? You'll find no cartoon mice piloting steam boats here.

One of my favorite lines from his short "The Bats" goes as follows...

"One morning I echoed an enormous worm. I cried because I could not eat him all at once. God appeared to me and she said, 'sometimes you have to kill more than you can eat."

These films are haunting, soothing and beautiful. There's nothing else like it.

If you want to learn more about this Chicago-native and his work, check out this excellent Chicago Art Magazine article from earlier this year. But on to the shorts! Be advised that they deal in places with animal reproduction. It's done tastefully and artfully, but I'd hate for anyone to be shocked by a sudden dinosaur cloaca.

There you have it! You can find the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast on iTunes, Zune and the RSS feed. And don't forget the free HowStuffWorks App!

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About the Author: Robert Lamb spent his childhood reading books and staring into the woods — first in Newfoundland, Canada and then in rural Tennessee. There was also a long stretch in which he was terrified of alien abduction. He earned a degree in creative writing. He taught high school and then attended journalism school. He wrote for the smallest of small-town newspapers before finally becoming a full-time science writer and podcaster. He’s currently a senior writer at HowStuffWorks and has co-hosted the science podcast Stuff to Blow Your Mind since its inception in 2010. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling with his wife Bonnie, discussing dinosaurs with his son Bastian and crafting the occasional work of fiction.