And now folks, realize that this is true of every single thing that humans think about.
You put a duck and a sparrow side by side and maybe it seems obvious that, while not the same, these two things have something deeply in common. But most people have never considered them in one thought. When you get into abstract ideas like “freedom” or “socialism” is it any surprise that most people can’t even recognize them, let alone agree on any commonalities?
You spend all day arranging dogs next to bears going “do you see how these are both canine-form mammals?” and the public is watching a tiktok while dismissing you going “Uh bears aren’t pets, what a dumbass!”
Honestly it’s more relevant to classify them by beak shape. Birds are 100% based on their beak shape, because that determines what they can and can’t eat.
This generally works for teeth as well, the shape of teeth shows what kind of food an animal eats.
Carnivores have sharp pointy teeth and generally big canines, herbivores have big flat molars and flat incisors, and where something falls between these extremes indicates what their diet probably is.
For example bears and humans are both omnivores, but bears have muuuuch larger canines while ours are… maybe useful for gnawing off a small tendon i guess?
And lo and behold bears are carnivores that eat a lot of non-meat things, while humans are primarily foragers who’ll eat meat when we make prosthetic canines to hold in our hands :^)
And now folks, realize that this is true of every single thing that humans think about.
You put a duck and a sparrow side by side and maybe it seems obvious that, while not the same, these two things have something deeply in common. But most people have never considered them in one thought. When you get into abstract ideas like “freedom” or “socialism” is it any surprise that most people can’t even recognize them, let alone agree on any commonalities?
You spend all day arranging dogs next to bears going “do you see how these are both canine-form mammals?” and the public is watching a tiktok while dismissing you going “Uh bears aren’t pets, what a dumbass!”
Honestly it’s more relevant to classify them by beak shape. Birds are 100% based on their beak shape, because that determines what they can and can’t eat.
This generally works for teeth as well, the shape of teeth shows what kind of food an animal eats. Carnivores have sharp pointy teeth and generally big canines, herbivores have big flat molars and flat incisors, and where something falls between these extremes indicates what their diet probably is.
For example bears and humans are both omnivores, but bears have muuuuch larger canines while ours are… maybe useful for gnawing off a small tendon i guess?
And lo and behold bears are carnivores that eat a lot of non-meat things, while humans are primarily foragers who’ll eat meat when we make prosthetic canines to hold in our hands :^)
There was a study that found that chewing tough raw meat with human teeth is very ineffective. Fire makes eating meat much easier.
https://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-raw-meat-stone-tools-evolution-20160309-story.html