4 ms·
Why rats can't vomit, and why humans do
- prospero 18y agoOut of all the submissions on the site, this is my favorite.
- PieSquared 18y agoI have no idea how this is hacker news, put I found it pretty interesting nonetheless. :)
- marketer 18y agoIt might not be technology or computer-related, but it raises some interesting questions. For instance, are humans more susceptible to toxins than rats? Also, if being able to expunge toxins increases survivability, then why wouldn't rats have it?
- davidw 18y agoArticles like this may not be "on topic", but they're unlikely to devolve into flame wars, and attract people interested in flame wars, as would an article about politics or (often) economics.
- jcl 18y agoIt is, however, horker news.
- maurycy 18y agoThe table under Evolution of vomiting is especially interesting. Never saw vommiting pigeon!
- ars 18y agoI don't know if it counts as "vomiting" but it's how they feed the chicks, they regurgitate partially digested food. Before you get disgusted: some humans will chew food in the month to feed to a baby. And pigeons can't chew.
- dcurtis 18y agoDid anyone else feel a little tiny bit like vomiting while reading this? It's fascinating.
- tdavis 18y agoThe most fascinating thing to me is that people have actually devoted studies to finding out whether or not a large swath of animals can vomit.
- etal 18y agoPeople have devoted careers to finding out which animals can vomit. A fellow named Borison has numerous entries on the final table -- assuming it's the same person, this bright spark hit the scene in 1953 with the finding that crab-eating macaques and rhesus monkeys can spew; and decades later, in 1981, he followed up with the surprising finding that while most rodents can't upchuck, the woodchuck could.
- tdavis 18y agoMy God. You're right. I don't really know what to think here.
- shimon 18y agoI'm thinking we need to register vomitr.com and crowdsource this. A community of people answering the question: Is your favorite pet species vomiting right now?
- LogicHoleFlaw 18y agoUnfortunately, yes. I just spent the last few evenings steam cleaning my carpets because my dog has a very sensitive digestive system...
- tdavis 18y ago
- ojbyrne 18y agoMy sister has pet rats, and I had to babysit them for a while. They're actually really cool, smart and interesting. I recently finished the book "The Omnivore's Dilemma" which draws a lot of parallels between rats and humans (basically we have a lot of the same adaptations around eating). I'd recommend the book and the pet.