Did Snakes Help Build the Primate Brain?

Posted by Unknown on Monday October 28, 2013 @09:06PM from the snakes-on-a-brain dept.

sciencehabit writes "A new study of the monkey brain suggests that primates are uniquely adapted to recognize the features of snakes and react in a flash. What's more, by selecting for traits that helped animals avoid them, the reptiles ultimately endowed us with forward-facing eyes, for example, and enlarged visual centers deep in our brains that are specialized for picking out specific features in the world around us, such as the general shape of a snake's body camouflaged among leaves.The results lend support to a controversial hypothesis: that primates as we know them would never have evolved without snakes."

1 of 202 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Re:Feline brains too by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-28 22:02 · Score: 0, Flamebait

They're not afraid of the sound of the motor you giant jackass. You move the hose with the motor off they're afraid of that. You can turn on the vacuum with no hose and they're more or less calm you unbelievable fuckwit. You colossal, lackluster utter failure.