this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] joao@aussie.zone 40 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Big bird has forward facing eyes, which is usually the mark of a predator.

[–] hsdkfr734r@feddit.nl 31 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

Elefants have them too!

I'm sure there is an exception for creatures made from fabric and foam, somewhere.

[–] odium@programming.dev 25 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Makes sense. Evolution gives prey animals eyes with as wide a field of vision as possible, so they can detect predators better. Elephants are too large for predators to mess with and so is big bird.

[–] manucode@infosec.pub 11 points 4 months ago (2 children)

The elephant in the picture though is smaller than a mouse

[–] ThrowawaySobriquet@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The reference mouse is oversized

[–] zaphod@sopuli.xyz 6 points 4 months ago

But the elephant is also roughly the size of a duck.

[–] blindsight@beehaw.org 2 points 4 months ago

Can confirm. I measured on my screen, estimating the trunk length extended, and it's about 6 cm trunk to tail (or 2⅜" in the US).

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 14 points 4 months ago

I had to go look it up. Not sure that picture is accurate, mind, it’s the only one I could find. (Though lots of comments about herds being led by a blind elephant…. I’m sure there’s a joke in there.)

[–] flora_explora@beehaw.org 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Maybe it evolved from a predatory ancestor and didn't get selected for different position of the eyes?

[–] PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee 3 points 4 months ago

We know from Big Bird's extended family that his species has a wide spread of individual variation, and given that none of them reside in the wild none of them are likely to suffer predation due to what would otherwise be a mal-adaptation, providing a springboard for even more genetic variation from generation to generation.

Just look at how wildly different looking specific humans can be from one another, even within a single community.

[–] PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

And dragons have wide-set eyes in pretty much every depiction. So that brings up the question: What was hunting all the dragons?