An Alligator's Sixth Sense

Devil's BSD writes "NPR has this article about how alligators sense their prey. Apparently, those black dots on a alligator are really "dome pressure receptors", which alligators use to detect changes in water pressure caused by ripples in the water. The alligator then does some fancy triangulation, and can then detect precisely where its prey is."

Comments

Boggled alligators

[guacamolefoo]

My one question about this whole theory is what do the alligators do when it rains (other than get wet)? I imagine there must be some sort of way to cut down on the feedback/nerve responses. Also, when they swim, it seems that the pressure receptors would boggle the alligator.

Not Hogwash

[crow]

It's not hogwash at all. Sure, reptile brains may be simple in many ways, but that's not relevant. You don't have to be able to perform advanced trigonometry and calculus to figure out the trajectory of a thrown ball so that you can catch it. Instead, you get a sense for where the ball is going based on having seen balls thrown before.

Likewise, the alligator simply notices that certain patterns of pressure changes indicate that there is something in the water in a given direction.

Sure, you can describe what is going on with advanced mathematics, but the actual application is done with simple pattern matching.