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Thursday, May 12, 2011

"Don't bear (with) me - I'm not a true bear!" It has a strangely reduced brain, like your least favorite politicians, maybe...The Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus). Maximum Card from Down Under / Australia


"The Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia, and the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae."
"Although the koala is not a bear, English-speaking settlers from the late 18th century first called it koala bear due to its similarity in appearance to bears
Although taxonomically incorrect, the name koala bear is still in use today outside Australia[5] — its use is discouraged because of the inaccuracy in the name.[6][7][8][9][10] 
Other descriptive English names based on "bear" have included monkey bearnative bear, and tree-bear.[3]"

Koala doesn't follow the Rule of Thumb.
It has 2 opposable thumbs on each hand!!!
"The koala's five fingers include two opposable thumbs, providing better gripping ability. The first two fingers are positioned in apposition on the front paws, and the first three fingers for the hind paws.[11]"

By the way: DID YOU KNOW what The Rule of Thumb means (allegedly)?
"In the United States, legal decisions in Mississippi (1824) and North Carolina (1868 and 1874) make reference to—and reject—an unnamed "old doctrine" or "ancient law" by which a man was allowed to beat his wife with a stick no wider than his thumb.[2] 
For example, the 1874 case State v. Oliver (North Carolina Reports, Vol. 70, Sec. 60, p. 44) states: "We assume that the old doctrine that a husband had the right to whip his wife, provided that he used a switch no larger than his thumb, is not the law in North Carolina.""

Back to Koala.
ATTENTION, POLICE OFFICERS:
"The koala is one of the few mammals (other than primates) that has fingerprints
Koala fingerprints are similar to human fingerprints; even with an electron microscope, it can be quite difficult to distinguish between the two.[12]"

Like SOME politicians...
"The brain in the ancestors of the modern koala once filled the whole cranial cavity, but has become drastically reduced in the present species, a degeneration scientists suspect is an adaptation to a diet low in energy.[14] 
One of the smallest in marsupials with no more than 0.2% of its body weight,[15] about 40% of the cranial cavity is filled with cerebrospinal fluid, while the brain's two cerebral hemispheres are like "a pair of shrivelled walnut halves on top of the brain stem, in contact neither with each other nor the bones of the skull
It is the only animal on Earth with such a strangely reduced brain."[16]

Do you see a heart shape in the above maximum card?
Keyword: headstart...

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1 comment:

  1. I love the connection between the politician and the incredible shrinking brain ... so appropriate!

    Now for the heart ... I notice that the koala-not-a-bear has a heart shaped head!!! Is this the one you see? :=}

    ReplyDelete

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