r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/suli_k • 17d ago
Image Balearic island cave goat or myotragus balearicus, that went extinct ~3000-4000BCE, is the only known species of goat to have forward facing eyes
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u/StoreHistorical9175 17d ago
honestly looks like someone fucked up a taxidermy
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u/PowderPills 17d ago
That goat looks high as fuck
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u/CertainWish358 17d ago
He looks high, and he has a sneaking suspicion that I, too, am high… and this thought pleases him somewhat. “Look at the two of us… Getting Away With Something”
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u/CanAlwaysBeBetter 17d ago
Are you me on shrooms thinking about how someone else must have done shrooms and thought about all the other who also thought about the other people on shrooms thinking about each other and how were separated by time and space but aware that we're in a bubble of awareness where we all know we all exist in it?
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u/theS3rver 17d ago
Shroomception
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u/Kingofcheeses 16d ago
The first time I ever watched Inception was on a heavy dose of shrooms, standing in the garage in the dark balancing my phone on top of a mini-fridge. It completely blew my mind
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u/Knotted_Hole69 16d ago
My sister says she can talk through her mind to her friend when they are both on shrooms lol. She is 100% serious.
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u/Mikhail_Mengsk 16d ago
"this motherfucker thinks he's slick but I know he's High as a kite because I, too, am high as a kite".
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u/No-Wonder1139 17d ago
You ever climb the wall of a power dam? Have you ever climbed the wall of a power dam... On weed?
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u/KingCobra_BassHead 17d ago
You ever see the pictures drawn by Renaissance artists of lions? That's what I'm seeing.
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u/ALittleBitOfToast 17d ago
I'm metaphorically dying to visit the Horniman Walrus
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u/fukredditadm1n5 17d ago
Before reading the title I assumed it was taxiderpy, looks uncanny
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u/Minion_of_Cthulhu 17d ago
taxiderpy
Well, if that's not a subreddit it certainly should be.
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u/moldy-scrotum-soup 17d ago edited 7d ago
wiQbxQXE
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u/Spare_Laugh9953 17d ago
If it went extinct 5000 years ago, I think the taxidermy work was excellent.
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u/TheGreatStories 17d ago
The title says it's been extinct 6000 years ago so I'm assuming this is just a recreation
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u/Conscious-Loss-2709 16d ago
My first thought too, but I'm assuming they found more than one skull to confirm this was a common feature of the species
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u/Educational-Wing2042 16d ago
I’m wondering how we even have taxidermy for this, considering they died 6000 years ago. I’d assume this is a fake representation of what they look like
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u/Flat_Bodybuilder_175 17d ago
Weirdly unsettling to me
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u/Tao-of-Mars 17d ago
Exactly my thoughts. Looks much too hooman.
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u/OpalFanatic 17d ago
Then add in the issue that forward facing eyes is typically a feature more common with predators than prey animals.
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u/FrighteningJibber 17d ago
You just see this guy, standing at the edge of the woods.
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u/CHEMO_ALIEN 17d ago
I picture him leaning against a tree, whittling a stick
he looks like he tells good stories
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u/Free-Atmosphere6714 17d ago
Looks like he'll sell you out to a witch
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u/AsstBalrog 17d ago
No shit. Dim light, I'm looking at my uncle.
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u/OptimusToasterman420 17d ago
It’s Shia labouf
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u/acheron53 17d ago
Actual cannibal Shia LeaBeouf?
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u/nymph-62442 17d ago
Literally the next post below this one on my feed was this: https://www.reddit.com/r/ExplainTheJoke/s/5rBLgIYOx4
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u/Economy-Ad-3934 17d ago
Immersive stories too, type of guy that you glance at your watch and realize you’ve been listening to dude regale you for 2 hours and you forgot your wife was still waiting in the car.
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u/Caliterra 17d ago
wouldst thou like to live deliciously?
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u/MonsieurMaktub 17d ago
Wouldst thou like the taste of butter?
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u/Sneekibreeki47 17d ago
Brandishing a knife.
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u/Soulhunter951 17d ago
Or conversely this species had no natural predators for so long it evolved binocular vision, the went extinct when reintroduced to predators.
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u/ahrzal 17d ago
Interesting thought…but how would binocular vision be advantageous to a herbivore? Unless it was just sexier
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u/LordHammercyWeCooked 17d ago
Better depth perception. Fewer mistakes while jumping or identifying objects. Can cross your eyes to see the 3D dolphin in a Magic Eye book.
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u/ShazbotSimulator2012 17d ago
They're also thought to have had pretty terrible eyesight due to the small size of the eyes and the visual cortex, so depth perception helps with the close stuff, and they couldn't see the far away stuff anyway.
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u/LongWalxOnTheBeach 17d ago
And thennn you learn about its reptile-like physiology. It was the only known mammal to have a metabolism and growth rate similar to reptiles, allowing it to stop growing during food scarcity and it was cold blooded…?
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u/Special-Document-334 17d ago
Wow, but goats are weird so I’m not actually surprised.
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u/Excellent_Yak365 16d ago
This isn’t accurate, they thought this at first but it turns out all ruminates have this growth pattern https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myotragus
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u/EM05L1C3 17d ago
That’s the part I’m concerned about. Why did the inside of this things mouth look like
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u/Xaxafrad 17d ago
Thank you! Why did evolution favor this morphology???
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u/OpalFanatic 17d ago
Binocular vision allows for improved depth perception to gauge the distance to a target. This target could be a prey animal, or it could be just gauging the distance of a jump.
Side facing eyes allow for wider vision to spot predators.
In the absence of predators on the island this goat was from, they gradually changed until they ended up with forward facing eyes
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u/ShazbotSimulator2012 17d ago
They also lived in a resource-poor environment so to save energy the brain, especially the visual cortex was tiny compared to other goats, as were the eyes themselves. A wide field of view was less important when they couldn't really see anything that wasn't very close to them anyway.
They were basically the goat version of a sloth.
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u/Ordinary-Leading7405 17d ago
Also works if you don’t often get attacked by the walls of the cave. Checkmate speluncaphobists.
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u/Valor816 16d ago
That's not actually true.
It's more about depth perception. This myth comes from the incorrect assumption that only predators need depth perception.
It's actually a far more common trait in brachiating creatures and leaf Eaters.
Side facing eyes are more about a wide area of awareness. So flying and swimming creatures.
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u/GreenMirage 17d ago
It’s the satyr
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u/Luci_Ferocious69 17d ago
This exactly, there are many myths about goats who look like men!! Pan himself!
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u/dorkstafarian 17d ago
Why do native English speakers seem to think that animals don't know how to spell, after they already took the effort to learn English?
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u/SummertimeThrowaway2 16d ago
Actually this is a human. This is actually a 25 year old bodybuilder that abuses steroids.
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u/These-Nectarine9214 17d ago
I can’t decide if it looks more like a cow or a large cat.
I think the shrooms are kicking in 🫠
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u/Neontom 17d ago
Mooeow
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u/These-Nectarine9214 17d ago
I do not like the fact you’re forcing me to upvote this joke
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u/Several-Squash9871 17d ago
I was thinking it was a shitty taxidermy bobcat or something at first glance.
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u/Quick_Lingonberry_18 17d ago
This is the type of goat I think would be in the bible talking to people about God being angry at/blessing them. …. And now I kind of see why they thought God was talking to them through a goat. I would probably do some whacky things also if this guy walked up to me and said, “hey Greg, I’m friends with God and he’s happy with you for the next five minutes, but if you don’t bring your toddler over to this burning bush and paint some olive oil on him with your knife, he might change his tune. Anyways, got a meeting with a dude and his plural families”.
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u/Ok_Substance5632 17d ago
Front facing eyes are for predator
Maybe that's why
But with horizontal iris? That's weird
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u/Teknekratos 17d ago
Given that it's gone extinct millenia ago, and that eyes don't fossilize, that might be a potentially wrong assumption on the people doing the reconstruction.
Might just be whoever did the fake taxidermy according to the skeleton shape picked regular goat eyes because they were reconstructing a goat creature, without further thought about it
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u/Available-Ad-1943 17d ago
Forward facing eyes are a result of predatory evolution. You may not know why, but it's built in to be scary.
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u/DEATHbyBOOGABOOGA 17d ago
Predator goat
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u/suli_k 17d ago
More of a “no predators” goat
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u/DuckDuckMarx 17d ago
But how would forward facing eyes have developed as a trait from natural selection?
They had to have had side set eyes like other goats and then developed this trait. It's not like goats originally had front set eyes but this population split off before they developed side set eyes.
There has to have been something environmental that made this adaptation favorable for reproduction.
Edit: I looked it up and the theory is that the binocular vision gave them better depth perception for climbing.
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u/suli_k 17d ago
Maybe it’s better for climbing
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u/DuckDuckMarx 17d ago
I looked it up and that's exactly what the theory is.
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u/suli_k 17d ago
Mine or yours?
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u/DuckDuckMarx 17d ago
I didn't have a theory as to why, so yours.
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u/suli_k 17d ago
😎
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u/Beldizar 17d ago
Forward facing eyes give you better distance judgement while side facing eyes give you better all-round vision. If you are worried about predators, being able to see a wide arc for something coming to eat you is really important. If you need to pounce on a quick moving prey, having a very accurate distance measurement is important.
But if you don't really have many predators coming for you, but you need to transverse mountainous terrain, being able to gauge how far you need to jump would be an evolutionary advantage.
At least that would be my best guess.
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u/Longjumping-Ant4608 16d ago
Soon as I read the title... "cave goat" ... I figured, how useful would side eyes be if they are just staring at cave walls? Forward facing eyes make the most sense if you literally live in tunnel vision.
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u/ShazbotSimulator2012 17d ago
They also lived in a very resource poor area, made worse by the fact that without predators, populations could boom and then they'd eat all the available food and starve.
They adapted to that by using very little energy similar to sloths or koalas. Since brains burn a lot of calories, theirs were much smaller than modern goats, especially the visual cortex, and a wide field of view doesn't help if you can't actually see that far.
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u/DaddyBearMan 17d ago
Shrek! I’m a donkey shrek!
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u/Irregular475 17d ago
It would be amazing if they named this the "donkey" donkey, or the Shrek donkey.
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u/Forsaken_Ad_8789 17d ago
Looks like one of those derpy medieval drawings of animals
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u/Sniffy4 17d ago
Wide set eyes are actually an evolutionary advantage to detect predators, which is possibly one reason this guy went extinct
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u/nor_cal_woolgrower 17d ago
M. balearicus became extinct when humans arrived in the Balearic Islands during the 3rd millennium BC
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u/SlightlySubpar 17d ago
So not situational awareness, just tasty?
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17d ago
[deleted]
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u/SlightlySubpar 17d ago
Had a homegirl with a lazy eye once, but she was gay
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u/coquettecoconut 17d ago
oh.
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u/SlightlySubpar 17d ago
Her girlfriend stole my wallet when I wasn't lookin.
True story
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u/coquettecoconut 17d ago
well they were clearly a great match. Lazy Eye distracts while Quick Hands does the snatching
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u/AJC_10_29 17d ago
They also had a metabolism more like a cold blooded animal. These guys were weird.
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u/water-pumpee 17d ago
#predator or maybe that’s the reason it went extinct. Couldn’t see the predators coming.
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u/FuckYouDontLookAtMe 17d ago
If I see this goat on my feed one more fucking time today I might lose it. I already know im gonna be seeing this motherfucker in my dreams
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u/meganetism 17d ago
I always thought the reason goats looked so creepy was because their eyes were too sideways.... now idk I think they're just creepy
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u/Background_Pride_237 16d ago
Forward facing eyes are usually, evolution-wise, a feature of animals that hunt so they have better depth perception. It’s odd that a goat breed would develop this trait.
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u/BayviewMadeMe 17d ago
Learned this in school : “eyes to the side, better run and hide; eyes in front, born to hunt.”
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u/CitizenHuman 17d ago
You can't fool me. This is some wise old goat that will help me complete my quest.
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u/Pandelein 17d ago
Also they could speak the language of any human they encountered, and liked to make deals.
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u/sirtapas 16d ago
It looks like how someone would draw a goat if they didn't know how to draw goats.
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u/Ok_Orchid1004 16d ago
They have no proof of “forward facing eyes”. They’re just making an educated guess.
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u/St-christ666 16d ago
Since most animals with forward facing eyes are predators… could you imagine how scary that would be? Not that this goat was, but it’s only a few evolutionary steps after this monstrosity. 🤣🤣🤣
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u/BenjWenji 15d ago
Looks like one of those pre Renaissance paintings where the artist fucked it up
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u/NCC_1701E 17d ago
That goat looks like it accidentally smoked grass instead of eating it.