Random Thoughts 9: Attack of the Vapid Posts

[Takhisis]

Mmm Nope. No internet therapy from me.

Is this the point where I finally have a chance to bribe you with Gal Gadot avatars?

 

[choxorn]

Evolution isn't really that good at what it does anyways. Human babies have to be born premature because our waists/hips are too small to push them out if they have more time to develop. And our bipedalness leads to all sorts of back problems.

Bipedalism definitely causes us some problems, it's just that the overwhelming advantages granted from specializing our hands and arms for tool use and throwing projectiles rather than walking and climbing were enough to make up for the problems caused by it.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

If I had to control four legs instead of just two I might not be able to walk and chew gum at the same time.

 

[Takhisis]

…what if you're all out of gum?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

…what if you're all out of gum?

Then I get more, if I want gum. I don't actually chew gum, really.

 

[Morty]

We're a work in progress. We haven't been around very long, compared with some other species

It's also worth remembering that we've not been designed from scratch (sorry creationists!) and are derived from other animals/species/things, so a lot of our parts are adaptions on what these other animals already had.

 

[MaryKB]

Rant: Delta processed two different flights for me tomorrow. When I got my check-in email this morning, I got two of them for two different flights, one I bought ($1200) and one I didn't ($2200)

Rave: A Delta representative very quickly helped me get the wrong one canceled and fully refunded, reducing my stress and boosting my confidence with the company.

 

[cardgame]

It's also worth remembering that we've not been designed from scratch (sorry creationists!) and are derived from other animals/species/things, so a lot of our parts are adaptions on what these other animals already had.

Never thought about it before, but isn't it strange that we don't have a tail? All sorts of four legged animals have tails - for balance! yet balancing on two legs is even harder, and no tail.

 

[Morty]

well, we do have a tailbone - and yes, it's a leftover from descendants who did indeed have a tail.

Very much a link aimed at kids (teenagers?) but explains it all very nicely - https://askdruniverse.wsu.edu/2019/10/03/why-do-we-have-a-tailbone/

 

[cardgame]

I knew about that actually. I just think it's funny that balance is the reasoning given for most quadrupeds, that I'm aware of, and the more unstable bipeds don't have it.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Never thought about it before, but isn't it strange that we don't have a tail? All sorts of four legged animals have tails - for balance! yet balancing on two legs is even harder, and no tail.

Yeah I don't know why we lost it since it was gone from our lineage before we walked upright all the time.

I don't think 4 legs are worse for balance than 2 legs in normal use though. Goats don't really have much of a tail do they? Neither do horses. I think the tail helps if you are a really fast runner and also agile at the same time? Not sure. Goats are agile but I don't think super fast. Horses are super fast but not agile like goats. Cheetahs, Wolves, and a lot of other things with long tails are both.

Also tails may also be used as much for sex selection/signaling as balance and the sapiens lineage doesn't have use for that maybe because of our pretty faces and very loud mouths.

Edit: I have no idea what I'm talking about lmao, I'm just spitballing

 

[Morty]

I thought (wrongly or rightly) that our tailbone comes from our monkey/ape lineage, who would have used a tail for balance and climbing in the trees.

To follow the spitballing idea, perhaps four legged animals such horses, wolves, etc have a tail for a different purpose - and it's nothing to do with balance??

EDIT: the bastion of knowledge that is Wiki sort of agrees with this

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tail

Animal tails are used in a variety of ways. They provide a source of locomotion for fish and some other forms of marine life.[1] Many land animals use their tails to brush away flies and other biting insects.[2] Some species, including cats and kangaroos, use their tails for balance;[3][4] and some, such as New World monkeys and opossums, have what are known as prehensile tails, which are adapted to allow them to grasp tree branches

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I think apes lost the tail when they split from monkeys so yeah that's where we got the tail bone. Thing is that many of our ape cousins are still adept climbers but they also lost their tails so if it helped with balance, it must not have helped that much.

I wonder if tails become less effective with higher body mass, unless you go all in-on absolutely massive tails like dinos. Like, there's no way to put a tail on a chimp that's big enough to affect its balance much unless it was the size of a third leg. (maybe, that's a guess) The big dinos had tails that were easily as massive (if not more so) than their other limbs, which is not typical of mammals.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

http://drabblematic.com/

This is simultaneously the best and worst thing to ever occur

 

[Snerk]

So I went to the dentist and it turns out my aches are probably not wisdom teeth related after all. It's probably more due to jaw clenching. So I guess I'll have to sort that out.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I think people might be taking "balance" the wrong way. There's "balance" as in "don't tip over" and there is "balance" as in I carry a couple bags of gravel in the bed of my truck to balance the loading. With the head and a lot of the heavy musculature in the chest out in front of the front legs the back legs don't get much traction. The tail is like my bags of gravel.

 

[Gori the Grey]

I've never felt unbalanced in a way where I thought having a tail would make me feel more balanced.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I thought (wrongly or rightly) that our tailbone comes from our monkey/ape lineage, who would have used a tail for balance and climbing in the trees.

To follow the spitballing idea, perhaps four legged animals such horses, wolves, etc have a tail for a different purpose - and it's nothing to do with balance??

EDIT: the bastion of knowledge that is Wiki sought of agrees with this

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tail

Monkeys use tails both for grasping and to help with locomotion. It's not just about balance. Our ancestors lost that when we traded in the trees for the savannah.

And yeah, balance as in "balance the load." The last time I was at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology (Drumheller, Alberta; it's a world-class working museum where you can see paleontologists conducting research on fossils), I tried out the "design your own dinosaur" activity.

The computer lets you know if your original creation could actually have lived and been successful. Too much or too little of some crucial element, and it wouldn't work.

http://drabblematic.com/

This is simultaneously the best and worst thing to ever occur

Even my worst is better than what came out of that!

 

[Takhisis]

Never thought about it before, but isn't it strange that we don't have a tail?

You're not descended from Saiyan stock.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Also tails may also be used as much for sex selection/signaling as balance and the sapiens lineage doesn't have use for that maybe because of our pretty faces and very loud mouths.

Has anyone else listened to a bunch of kids playing with their eyes closed and imagine little monkeys running around a forest? It's freaky how similar kids sound to monkeys sometimes imo