• KluEvo@wirebase.org
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    1 year ago

    No seriously, evolution fucked up it’s cable management. iirc, there’s a nerve (essentially the biological equivalent of a data cable) that has an extreme detour, going from the upper neck, looping under the aorta (more or less the largest blood vessel), and then back up all the way to the throat. In giraffes, it’s 4+ meters going down the neck and then back up. That is horrible cable management and can actually cause health risks/complications for certain surgeries

    • User@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      The nerve is called recurrent laryngeal nerve if anyone wants to read up on it

    • Johandea@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Well, to be fair to evolution, surgeries weren’t really on its list of considerations. With no surgeries to the neck/chest it won’t be a problem at all. Most of us, including giraffes, have no problem with it and it works flawlessly. Is it a detour? Yes. But it works, and that’s the only thing that matters in evolution.

    • T156@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      At least we don’t have it quite as bad as octopuses, who have a have a risk of dying after eating too much because their brain wraps around their stomach.