Tag Archives: animals

our distant ancestors had a third eye

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IMPORTANT PUBLIC SAFETY UPDATE: In my original post below, I suggest you stay at least 30 feet away from an American alligator on land. Experts actually recommend staying 60 feet away. Experts (and I) also recommend taking advice from reputable sources, not random blogs!

Sometimes science is bizarrely interesting. For example:

Deep inside the human brain, a small gland in the middle of the forehead helps keep time. As darkness arrives, the pineal gland helps set the body’s nightly rhythm. But some creatures use the pineal gland as a sort of “third eye”, helping them detect light and shadow, though the organ doesn’t form pictures. Our human lineage lost this ancestral ability millions of years ago.

But a new evolutionary hypothesis suggests that this unassuming organ is the surviving central remnant of the eye from which our two image-forming eyes ultimately arose.

In a review published in Current Biology, researchers from Lund University and the University of Sussex argue that the lineage leading to vertebrates passed through a cyclops-like stage roughly 560 million years ago. The animal was not a one-eyed giant, but probably a tiny, wormlike marine filter feeder with a light-sensitive organ on top of its head. As its descendants returned to active swimming, parts of that central organ expanded sideways and were repurposed into paired retinas.

From my somewhat morbid dissecting experiences in high school, I always found it fascinating that an animal like a frog has basically the same organs I have, and even a worm has many of them. But animal eyes might be the most fascinating of all. I’ve spent plenty of time staring into animals’ eyes – my pet fish for example (is he awake or asleep? hard to tell), the squirrels and birds in front of my house. All these animals are looking me right back in the eyes. The connection between our eyes and insect eyes is even weirder to think about. I’ve looked into crocodile and snake eyes too, at the zoo with a nice thick piece of glass between them and me. I suppose I’ve looked into alligator eyes without that glass, from a safe distance. I’m not sure what the minimum safe distance is to keep from an alligator, and this is not a safe experiment to run. But I would say an alligator 30 feet or so away is not going to bother chasing you down on land, and if it does try you can run faster than it and it will tire quickly. If you are staring an alligator in the face in the water, that is probably the last thing you are going to see.

August 2022 in Review

Most frightening and/or depressing story: The fossil fuel industry intentionally used immoral, evil propaganda techniques for decades to cast doubt on climate science and make short-term profits, probably dooming us, our children, and our children’s children. Also, and because that is apparently not enough, nuclear proliferation.

Most hopeful story: “Effective altruism” may give us some new metrics to benchmark the performance of non-profit organizations and give us some insights on dealing with existential risks (like the ones I mention above).

Most interesting story, that was not particularly frightening or hopeful, or perhaps was a mixture of both: Japanese raccoon dogs are cute despite their unusually large scrota, which are traditionally thought to bring good luck.

raccoon dogs, and mouth watering donkey balls

I was reading about raccoon dogs in the context of wildlife farming and zoonotic diseases in China. Heavy stuff. On the lighter side, they are cute little guys and popular in Japanese folklore such as Super Mario Brothers. Raccoon dogs are more like dogs than raccoons. (Raccoons are not rodents and not like anything else, they are just kind of their own thing.) Also, they are quite literally ballsy:

For centuries, Japanese people have associated tanukis with magical folklore and luck. Referred to as “bake-danuk,” these mythical tanukis are mischievous shapeshifters. One exaggerated feature is the tanuki’s giant scrotum, which represents good luck with money. In cartoons, paintings, and commercials, this part of the animal’s anatomy is often illustrated as a pair of “money bags.” The enlarged testes represent good luck with money, more so than anything sexual. Tanuki totems are placed inside businesses to bring money.

Mental Floss

Come to think of it, I guess I have heard of animal scrota being used as money purses before. I guess they can be tanned into leather, and are already sort of the right shape.

On a closely related note, here is a recipe for mouth watering donkey balls:

I love these little balls of meat heaven! Aside from the delicious taste, what also got me to try this dish, was the number of ingredients. I mean, with just 5 ingredients that I am sure you have at your home right now, you can make this perfect meal! I usually eat them as is but just the other day, I added them on my spaghetti. It was Spaghetti and meatballs! It was awesome! You also don’t need any type of sauce to enjoy these balls. The flavor will make your mouth water and the smell, the smell is perfect! Make sure to contain the smell for that meaty-heaven aroma! Enjoy!

Cook it Once