this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 148 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (5 children)

Wait what's the deal with the horses? I want to feel good about myself today.

Edit: Wow, those bastards have it rough.

[–] [email protected] 193 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Their genetics have sacrificed nearly every aspect of basic resiliency for maximum speed on the plains. Most of the work caring for horses is keeping them from accidentally killing themselves. Full disclosure: I worked as a stable hand as a child in exchange for riding lessons. Will never ever own a horse.

[–] [email protected] 69 points 1 month ago (7 children)

What preditor was so fast horses had to evolve to that extent??

[–] [email protected] 78 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Big cat. You're aware of the cheetah? Just picture that but not in Africa

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 month ago (15 children)

You know what really caught me up: where are horses native to?

[–] [email protected] 66 points 1 month ago (1 children)

There are wild horses on the Mongolian steppes.

All other horses are domesticated. Even the free horses in USA and Australia are descendants of domesticated horses.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

You're right! But also, horses were native to North America but they went extinct 10,000 years ago and weren't introduced until much more recently.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 month ago (1 children)

PBS Eons has a couple good videos on both horse evolution and domestication.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Us. They basically tried to beat pursuit predation by outrunning the distance humans will be willing to track over.

It did not work, they went extinct in North America because of how much it did not work.

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[–] [email protected] 63 points 1 month ago

Same for rabbits. The are basically as much lean muscle that can fit on the lighest possible skeleton.

If you pick up a rabbit wrong, they can snap their own back with the momentum from kicking their back legs.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I did this too and will also never own a horse lmao. This is why horse people are weird.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Basically a 900LB Cocker Spaniel that's afraid of it's own farts and will eventually kill every single tree within reach. I also will never own horses.

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[–] [email protected] 93 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Sometimes they will die because they can’t puke. Also broken legs are usually fatal even with vet care.

[–] [email protected] 113 points 1 month ago (7 children)

To add on why broken legs are fatal: its because horses are so big, that even with a sling, they cannot support themselves well on 3 legs. And lying down is also not an option as their own weight will crush their internal organs if they stay down for too long.

[–] [email protected] 60 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Oh, wow, I had always thought that shooting a horse with a broken leg was an act of brutal expedience, not mercy.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 month ago

Also, don't they need to run to move food through their digestive tract? Or to force themselves to cough if they have something stuck in their lungs? I think there is some sort of dependency of basic functions that relies on the movement of their lungs/stomach going back and forth while running that they can't easily do if they just stand in one place all day

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[–] [email protected] 76 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The term healthy as a horse is mostly survivorship bias

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 month ago (1 children)

From what i read here there's no unhealthy horse, it's either healthy or dead.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 month ago (9 children)

They only have 4 toes total.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 month ago (1 children)

And they run around at 60mph on the tips of their toenails.

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[–] [email protected] 80 points 1 month ago (16 children)

Tbf, our teeth aren't bad. They just didn't evolve to consume so much sugar.

[–] [email protected] 75 points 1 month ago (2 children)

From an evolutionary standpoint we just have to survive long enough to reproduce, if we can't eat past age of reproduction there's no evolutionary pressure to change that.

Thank goodness for modern dentistry.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (11 children)

That’s completely untrue.

Evolution applies to the entire lifespan — if we could “reproduce” but died in childbirth every time, our species would have gone extinct long ago.

Parents and grandparents also contribute greatly to the success of a child long long after they’re born, helping to ensure it also survives to reproductive age.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Generally sure. We've certainly evolved to want to be around for a while after reproduction though, for example human infants are completely worthless. That doesn't mean we need to be top notch, but we do need to exist sufficiently to get children to even the most brutal, basic independence.

Compare that to something that hatches then is already just adulting, like many reptiles.

I think the keyword is precocial vs altricial

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 month ago (16 children)

They just didn’t evolve to consume so much sugar.

Bro, eating oranges puts our tooth enamel in a weakened state. If we were designed, it was by an idiot.

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Its only a valve. Topologically speaking, the passage from the mouth to the anus only constitutes one hole.

The passage of air into the lungs is not a hole however, that is a cavity. Same difference with the vagina, that's not a hole, that's a cavity.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 month ago (18 children)

No, since you have a nose. Topologically, people have 3 holes.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago (3 children)

7, if the cut-off is 60 microns (tear ducts). Smaller than that, we're essentially Swiss cheese.

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

tbf horses have big dicks, it could have been worse for them

[–] [email protected] 53 points 1 month ago (2 children)

You stand on your toenails

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Both valid points. I will still need some time to take this all into consideration.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Consider this: horses can't puke and just die if they eat something bad

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 month ago

Dolphins probably lament not being able to make milk come out of their buddy's nose by making them laugh while drinking.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 month ago

A horse is just an intense desire to die on four legs.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 month ago (21 children)

The teeth thing is just because of our high sugar, high grain diet

The first* people with bad dental health were Egyptians as they lived on bread (which packs your teeth and feeds the bacteria that ferment it and make acid) before that, and until the invention spread, people died of old age with all their teeth intact

I eat very low carb - almost entirely meat due to allergies, and haven't had a cavity since I started doing that, despite me nearly never brushing or flossing my teeth

*There were also people who lived in the tropics and ate a lot of fruit, and those with sugar cane.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 month ago

You never brush your teeth? It's not only good for health dude

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

THE APPENDIX HAS ENTERED THE CHAT.

Being able to make our own Vitamin C aside, the fact that a vestigial organ can randomly decide to fucking kill you is asinine from a design perspective. Its the equivalent to building a pool in the sims and removing the ladder for the first person who wanders inside.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 month ago (3 children)

It's not totally vestigial, it helps regulate colon bacteria. People without their appendix take longer to recover from diarrhea, which is important when bad water and spoiled food are a more regular part of your life.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 month ago (11 children)

I am 99% sure humans are supposed to have tails

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago (11 children)

Look up the recurrent laryngeal nerve.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Could be worse:

We don't have cloacas.

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