sloth can survive the evolution of species, it must be because it is not tasty.
For an incomprehensible species like sloths, there is no reason why it was extinct. Some netizens probably ridiculed that way.
Anyone who knows a little about this animal knows that slowness is its biggest feature.
And because of its slowness, in the woods where the weak and the strong eat, the sloth does not have the best attack or protection skills, and it does not have the escape speed that many small animals rely on to survive, so it is not tasty. , The predator looks down upon it, and it really can’t think of any other unexpected survival skills.
In fact, the reason why sloths are not extinct has nothing to do with whether they are delicious or not.
Sloths spend most of their time, it can even be said that many sloths spend their entire lives on eucalyptus , because they hardly drink water, except for some food. , Except occasionally sitting in a daze on a tree or doing some breeding work, the rest of the time is almost used by them to sleep.
Staying in a tree for a lifetime, it’s easy to think that this is because predators can’t climb trees and there is no threat to them, but the fact is that sloths live in places where there is no threat from predators. In other words, there are no natural enemies where there are sloths.
They live in a state similar to many animals in zoos, they don’t worry about eating or being eaten.
But sloths are different from many small animals in that they are more like silly robots. Although they look cute, they lack the spirituality that ordinary animals should have.
Many animal brains usually have some obvious grooves on the surface of the brain, and the purpose of these grooves is to increase the surface area of the brain. The basic understanding is that animals can have more neural brain circuits.Be smarter.
But the sloth’s is different. Its brain is very smooth, with almost no obvious grooves. That is to say, compared to other slightly spiritual animals, the specific surface area of the sloth’s brain Very small, which means that there are not too many neurons in their cerebral cortex, and there is no way to form more brain circuits.
This is the root cause that makes it look stupid, but in fact, its stupidity is not reflected in its dislike to move or slow movement, but many of its daily actions are almost like letting go. It doesn’t have a little bit of free decision-making that can influence them to make some behaviors like other animals do, but sloths have almost no.
To put it simply, in fact, a sloth is just like a machine set up with two simple programs of eating and sleeping, because its brain structure is just like that, so no matter how you domesticate it, it’s still good. Eat what you need to eat, and sleep what you need to sleep.
This way of life, even the most powerful human being, has no natural enemies, but dare not live this way. Why can sloths be so leisurely?
I don’t know if you have noticed what I said earlier, "There are many sloths who spend their lives on eucalyptus trees." In fact, the basic meaning is that sloths live in eucalyptus forests, and eucalyptus itself Other trees are not the same. Its leaves contain some toxins. Many animals can't eat them, and they don't even like to be close.
Therefore, the eucalyptus forest lacks some small animals, which is almost the same as the food chain is cut off by the toxin of the eucalyptus, and there is no way to form a more complex ecosystem.
In a monotonous ecosystem, predators may starve to death every minute, so sloths that specialize in eating eucalyptus leaves naturally have no natural enemies.
Other animals cannot eat eucalyptus leaves, but sloths can. This should be the main reason why it has not been extinct. It can be said that the existence of sloths almost depends on the umbrella of eucalyptus.
So why can sloths eat these toxin-containing eucalyptus leaves ? Eucalyptus leaves contain relatively high concentrations of cyanogenic glycoside compounds,The cyanide released by this compound can kill cells, so eucalyptus leaves are toxic to most mammals.
But sloths have the habit of eating feces since they were young, and some microorganisms that can decompose cyanogenic glycoside compounds naturally breed in the feces, so when these microorganisms are parasitic in their intestines, in addition to their own evolution, they can also decompose. In addition to the capabilities of some cyanogenic glycoside compounds, those microorganisms can also help them decompose another part.
And another very important reason is that the nutrient content of eucalyptus itself is very low, and other animals that like to scurry around may not be able to maintain their daily activities if they eat it, so for sloths, they are simple He’s brain is not born to worry about eating and drinking, avoiding predators, plus he’s usually asleep, life activities don’t need much energy support at all, so this species that we seem to think weird, in fact It is the standard equipment that has been run in for a long time with the eucalyptus forest.
If understood from the perspective of evolution, eucalyptus has a stronger survival advantage because of its special natural properties. Compared with other plants, they can easily occupy more living space, thus forming A piece of eucalyptus forest, and eucalyptus forest itself belongs to a kind of environment, it can choose the species suitable for living in this environment.
This choice, the first is the toxin of eucalyptus leaves, relatively large mammals want to survive in this eucalyptus forest, first must have the ability to decompose cyanogenic glycoside compounds.
The second reason is that the nutrition of eucalyptus leaves is too low. If you want to survive there, you must not be too smart. After all, an active brain consumes a lot of power, and of course you should not be too active, because the heat provided by eucalyptus leaves can't support those who love to live. The physical output of the jumping critters.
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