this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2023
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Asklemmy
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But cats have even faster sight. I think the avg reflex time for a cat is around 70-80ms while humans are over twice that. So it seems like their vision is entirely better. Why didnโt our eyes evolve to be like theirs?
Feline vision has drawbacks, and some adaptations we don't.
For one, cats have reflective eyes, rather than absorb light, that misses any cones/rods, cats reflect it back out, passing the light that comes into their eyes through their retinas twice. This improves how much of the light actually hits the light sensitive cones and rods in their eyes.
Second, cats have slitted pupils, this means they have a MASSIVELY larger range of light they can adjust to let into their eyes. Slitted pupils are able to close much tighter, and open much wider, than circular ones. If you've ever seen a cats eye in the dark, you know their pupils get HUGE. Several times that of humans.
As for a drawback, cat eyes suck at focusing. All cats are far-sighted. At less than about 20 cm, cats cannot see. All they get is a blurry mess. Ever wondered why your cat seems completely clueless when you set down a treat right in front of it? That's why.
This is why cats have whiskers. Close up, they go 100% by smell, hearing and feel!
Woa... you just made me wee bit smarter with this
Are vampires just big kitties?
Why is your account marked as a bot?
... dunno?
It's a checkbox you set in your user settings. Is it checked?
it was. I'm not the smartest person alive so it checks out
Ur still marked as a bot. Did you hit save after unchecking it?
yep, it's deselected now
Ah, checked your profile from your instance, not a bot anymore, looks like it's just slow to update on mine.
Because evolution settles for the good enough (to let you survive and have children that survive) rather than the best.
*cries in intelligent design*
Because our sight was never enotofna disadvantage that the humans with bad vision got killed off fast enough and the ones with better vision got to procreate more. Simple as that.
Well yeah, every animal has different features which make assist it to exploit whichever evolutionary niche it inhabits.
Maybe maintaining such fast reaction times just isn't possible with larger brains, or higher executive functions.