Spyke
protistreply
mander.xyz

I'm going to guess as an island species, it had no natural predators, and therefore the evolutionary pressure for it to have a wide field of view did not exist

77
feddit.nl

Probably, although there would still need to be some evolutionary pressure for forward facing eyes... I wonder what it is.

23
lemm.ee

Depth perception is advantageous. It is even beneficial for island goat activities.

With the absence of natural predators, the disadvantages of the narrow field of view are mostly outweighed by the advantages of depth perception .

73

beneficial for island goat activities

lmao, "island goat activities" is the best 3 word combination. Here are thoughts what island goat activities are:

  1. Scavenging for food
  2. estimating mountain height for rock climbing
  3. chasing away competitors
2
lemm.ee

Not necessarily, with “genetic drift” random phenotypic changes can happen that have a neutral effect on fitness. So if they don’t need side-facing eyes, then this can just happen randomly. Especially if the sideways eyes are in some way “costly” to maintain

32
kurwareply
lemmy.world

If sideways eyes are "costly" compared to forward facing eyes, then that would technically be a push for forward facing.

12
Bear_pilereply
lemm.ee

There was an interesting study done with zebra finches. In it they glued fake mohawkes on males and found that females selected them over unaltered males, even though it didn't naturally occur in the species. So there is some precedence for the possibility that the forward facing eyes were simply "sexier".

5

I mean you can do a smoldering sexy look at someone if your eyes face sideways. Makes total sense.

4

I'm not sure for that specific case, but in the general case there doesn't need to be evolutionary pressure for change. If there is no pressure one way or the other random mutations can (and will over time) cause change without environmental reason (genetic drift).

6

Curious to consider that by being an apex consumer, it is a predator by default, even if its prey is flora.

11

I mean, it it has pupils like that, it has a wide field of vision. That's the whole point of rectangular pupils. I would assume that having front-facing eyes would also give it depth perception, but maybe it needed that for making difficult jumps or something?

5
Tipponreply
lemmy.dbzer0.com

'There's something out there waiting for us, and it ain't no man'

9
jwt
programming.dev

Suddenly those creepy Renaissance paintings of animals make a lot more sense.

95
lemmy.world

Despite my love for Jim Henson, I still can’t get over the movie adaptation turning Falkor into a fucking dog-worm.

10
TerHureply

yes and my copy has the text in red and green ink depending on whether it’s describing reality of the fantasy world. it’s an awesome book!

8
lemm.ee

I've always wanted to look a goat directly in the eyes. It's a dream of mine.

79
lemm.ee

Nah, even Satan is uncomfortable looking at that one. Sacrifice not accepted. In fact, resurrected.

12

This sounds like a CK2 event for the satanic secret society.

"On their journeys some of your brothers and sisters under Satan stumbled upon a goat with strange forward facing eyes. As the blade pierced the animals heart it is consumed by a sulphurous fire."

"Why did I hear screaming?"

"A few minutes into cleaning the ritual room a vibrant rainbow of fires and smells burst forth upon the ritual dias taking several of your brothers. As the fire clears you see the goat has returned with small yellow squares of paper attached via adhesive to the goat. They are all signed by different gods and demons."

"This raises many questions." (+3 diplomacy)

3

Because forward facing eyes is usually a trait associated with predators.

21
lemm.ee

It looks like it was drawn by a furry artist who specializes in particularly perverted characters. I love it!

16

Pervgoat is in the prowl for more pussy after being released for his third public indecency offense.

2

Oh, that's good to know! I wondered how a cold-blooded mammal could be a thing.

7
HellsBellereply
sh.itjust.works

TIL there was a 5M year old cold-blooded mammal that humans killed off (but ofc).

Today I was reminded that science grows as new discoveries are made.

But we still killed the little beasties off. Nothing has changed there.

7
samus12345reply
lemm.ee

I actually missed the part that we killed them off. "Heh heh, look at the funny-faced little goats. Let's kill 'em!" Jerks.

9
lemmy.ml

It went extinct 5000y ago.. so it has to be a reconstitution based on fossils..?

13
Arkthosreply
pawb.social

I did not expect a NoP reference here, but nevertheless it was what I immediately thought about seeing this image lmao.

Imagine a poor venlil born with this defect.

3

Not having access to NoP anymore was the worse part of being permabanned from reddit. I love it.

1

He looks like he knows what's in that embarrassing picture of SpongeBob at the Christmas party.

3