analogous structures like these helped me break down the false barrier in my mind about men and women being fundamentally different as if the two reproductive castes are monoliths. they aren’t. they are staggeringly similar. Especially mind-blowing was learning that the default structure is what we classify as “female”.
Every mammalian fetus starts development along the female bodyplan, and unless acted upon by the external impulses of a y-chromosome, the mammal’s bodyplan will continue to develop in a way that appears entirely female, EVEN IF the y-chromosome is actually present.
Such as: If it’s there but it doesn’t work (if it’s malformed or partially missing), or if it’s there AND it works but the REST of the cells aren’t responding to the androgens. Turns out the X “set” contains all the instructions needed to make a sentient being, even if it’s very likely that this being will not be capable of reproduction through traditional means.
The point is, everything you can point to on the male anatomy, all those tissues exist in the female anatomy, they’re just distributed differently. And that’s freaking cool.
Bears who are heel strikers like humans, unlike cats, dogs and many others animals, have eerily familiar looking back leg structure
humans aren’t really heel strikers, go run barefoot and you’ll realize why.
turns out slamming your heel into the ground hurts, what we use the heel for is standing on it.
Walking humans and bears definitely heel strike. I’m not talking about running.
even then we don’t put our weight on the heel first (unless we’re wearing terrible modern shoes that force us to do so), we put weight on the heel and forefoot approximately at the same time.
Meanwhile, about half of a cat’s hind leg is what in humans would be the foot.
Very cool, but it’s annoying the horse’s hoof is covered over, and this isn’t really linguistics.
Bognate
