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Snakes Credited For Our Keen Vision
UPI Correspondent Davis CA (UPI) Aug 30, 2006 A University of California anthropologist says humans need to thank the snake for helping them develop their vision to see inches away. Lynne Isbell at the UC-Davis campus says the ability of humans to have such sharp eyesight resulted from a "biological arms race" millions of years ago between primates and snakes, especially the poisonous kind, reports ABC News. The primates eventually won the battle and their revulsion against the reptiles continues among their human descendants. Isbell's study appears in the Journal of Human Evolution. Scientists believe primates developed near-vision to capture bugs or pluck a fruit. Isbell says monkeys and apes of Africa needed to improve their vision to protect themselves from being consumed by snakes lurking nearby as the latter are harmless from a distance. Isbell says African primates, who have had to battle snakes the longest, have the keenest vision. At the other end, the Lemurs of Madagascar, who have never been preyed on by venomous snakes, have the poorest vision. "Primates have the best vision of all mammals," she says. "And we have the best vision of all primates."
Source: United Press International Related Links University of California - Davis
Ancient Raptors Likely Feasted On Early Man
Columbus OH (SPX) Aug 31, 2006A new study suggests that prehistoric birds of prey made meals out of some of our earliest human ancestors. Researchers drew this conclusion after studying more than 600 bones from modern-day monkeys. They had collected the bones from beneath the nests of African crowned eagles in the Ivory Coast's Tai rainforest. |
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