6 ms·
A lot of smelling requires your nose to actually be next to the floor. We don't exactly do that anymore.
by ReflectedImage 4y ago
A lot of smelling requires your nose to actually be next to the floor. We don't exactly do that anymore.
- hackernewds 4y agoSeems like an advantage to be able to smell prey and predator. Why didn't we evolve (ie naturally select) humans with stronger noses.
- maximus-decimus 4y agoWhy did dogs not evolve better eyes?
- hackernewds 4y agoBecause they did not start off on their hind legs, and lose vision benefits by getting closer to the ground
- unlikelymordant 4y agoDoesnt that answer your question? If humans vision benefits are so good, and being close to the ground is bad, then the need for a strong sense of smell is greatly reduced.
- mannyv 4y agoI've had dogs for a while, and at least for my dogs they use their eyes and ears more than their noses. I've tested this a few times with steak, and using their nose is a last resort tactic.
- illiarian 4y agoIt's likely an optimization: if you see your prey/steak, you don't need smell to follow it. Brains (not just dogs') are full of such optimizations.
- jaggederest 4y agoAlso, some breeds of dog are more behaviorally driven by scent or vision, and the morphology of their nose and face matter too. Some dogs are "sighthounds", the greyhound being the classic example, which primarily orient on vision and use speed to hunt, some are "scent hounds" the bloodhound being sort of the canonical example, which use scent tracking and endurance rather than speed.
- rolenthedeep 4y agoI've been doing nose training with my dog. She's got the idea of the game and she's definitely quicker to use scent, but still prefers to just look. She acts like it's a lot more effort to sniff something out. Maybe in a home environment there's too many other scents and she has to be right on top of the treat to find it? Who knows.
- bonzini 4y agoBecause they're carnivores. Mammals evolved in the Jurassic as nighttime creatures, because warm blood gave them an advantage over reptiles, and they lost color vision in exchange for better nighttime vision. Once dinosaurs disappeared mammals no longer had to restrict themselves and could occupy new niches. That's when primates got color vision back, to be able to distinguish ripe fruits.
- zeristor 4y agoCue to post a link to the Quanta magazine article on how Chickens have dinosaur eyes, and didn’t have to evolve to night time use and back like mammals: https://www.quantamagazine.org/hyperuniformity-found-in-birds-math-and-physics-20160712/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/hyperuniformity-found-in-bird... Now if the genetics could be transferred back to mammals things might look different, assuming the brain and optic nerve are still up to it.
- goodpoint 4y agoBecause humans are social animals (with a powerful visual cortex and able to walk a lot). Nothing to do with the "lone wolf" prey/predator idea.