Snake cognitive ability and affection.

[JoshSloane]

[QUOTE=nightrainfalls;2360758]What are they teaching Phd's these days? Certainly not the meaning of the word vestigial. Snake brains are in no way vestigial. Vestigial organs are organs reduced to being useless by evolution. For example the eyes in a blind salamander. The salamander no longer needs to see, since it lives in a dark cave, as a result the eyes are much reduced and no longer function as eyes. In contrast the snakes brain is a highly derived organ, with many specific and important functions. Furthermore the phrase "... as those are the usual functionalities that we ascribe to the different parts of the brain that they do retain (medulla oblongata, amygdala)." Suggests that reptiles somehow lost other portions of a brain they once had. This is simply not true. Snakes never had mammalian brains to begin with. Snake brains are not atrophied or degenerate. They have not lost functionality.

If we were engaging in comparative neuro-anatomy a few decades ago, we might refer to the snake brain as primitive or basal. Of course as the animal kingdom has been explored, it has been found that many animals with brains that are significantly different from humans are still capable of remarkably complex behaviors. Birds who's brains are look very similar to snake brains with swollen frontal cortexes, are capable of complex migrations, 3 dimensional navigation, developing family structure, building complex nests, parental care, learning, teaching, and planning out task in multiple steps. The do all of this without the sophisticated neo-cortex of mammals. Snakes birds, and mammals all have a forebrain, they all have a cerebellum, and they all have a medulla oblongota. See the image here http://www.daviddarling.info/images/reptilian_brain.jpg . We notice that the reptile brain has all the parts of a brain, but those parts are developed differently. The parts of the brain that are found in mammals all developed from or are expansions of parts of the reptilian brain.

If the kinds of behaviors we frequently identify as mammalian are observed in birds and fish, and even many reptiles then it suggests that like the brains of these animals, the basis of these behaviors is found deep in evolutionary history of vertebrates. In short, all of the behaviors and emotions we view as distinctly mammalian, likely come from a brain very similar to a snakes brain. The snake brain very likely contains the seeds of all of these behaviors and emotions. Snake brains are not degenerate, useless, brains that retain the bare minimum of parts of more advanced brains. They are actually highly evolved versions of the basal brains that would become avian and mammalian brains after many millions of years of evolution.




You vastly missed the point I was trying to make, and the insults implied are not appreciated. If I had the time to sit here and hold your hand while trying to help you understand my passage, I would, but I can't.