812
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2023
812 points (98.7% liked)
Today I Learned
17733 readers
125 users here now
What did you learn today? Share it with us!
We learn something new every day. This is a community dedicated to informing each other and helping to spread knowledge.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules (interactive)
Rule 1- All posts must begin with TIL. Linking to a source of info is optional, but highly recommended as it helps to spark discussion.
** Posts must be about an actual fact that you have learned, but it doesn't matter if you learned it today. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.**
Rule 2- Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.
Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.
Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.
Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.
Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.
That's it.
Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.
Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.
Rule 6- Regarding non-TIL posts.
Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-TIL posts using the [META] tag on your post title.
Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.
If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.
For further explanation, clarification and feedback about this rule, you may follow this link.
Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.
Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.
Let everyone have their own content.
Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.
Unless included in our Whitelist for Bots, your bot will not be allowed to participate in this community. To have your bot whitelisted, please contact the moderators for a short review.
Partnered Communities
You can view our partnered communities list by following this link. To partner with our community and be included, you are free to message the moderators or comment on a pinned post.
Community Moderation
For inquiry on becoming a moderator of this community, you may comment on the pinned post of the time, or simply shoot a message to the current moderators.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
I'd like to subscribe to horse facts, please.
Thank you for subscribing to horse facts! 𐂃
Horses produce roughly 10 gallons of saliva per day!
That, I didn't want to know.
There's a fungus that grows on clover, that if eaten makes horses salivate more.
"Slobbers" normally isn't anything but annoying, but it actually can cause dehydration if the horse doesn't have access to water
Son, I'm disappointed in you
We should use horse saliva as a humane milk replacement.
Thank you for subscribing to horse facts! 𐂃
Unlike humans, horses aren’t able to vomit!
Keep them coming!
Thank you for subscribing to horse facts! 𐂃
A horse’s heart typically weighs 4–4.5kg (around 2lbs) and is about the size of a basketball!
Next fact about horse semen!
Thank you for subscribing to horse facts! 𐂃
Thoroughbred horse semen is the most expensive liquid in the world!
But my friends don’t appreciate it when I order shots of it instead of tequila.
Username checks out
Unsubscribe
Thank you for subscribing to horse facts! 𐂃
If you see a horse with a red ribbon tied to its tail, stay back – it’s a kicker!
Who had the balls to tie the ribbon on the tail of a kicker lol
Horses have bones in their legs called splint bones. They are vestigial metacarpals from back when they had 3 toes. As of yet we can't find any role they perform. If damaged or removed it can lead to chronic lameness a condition in horses that will often lead to death.
That seems to imply they perform a structural role, unless I’m oversimplifying it?
I’m a bit of an anthropology geek, and am super interested in vestigial traits. I have one: the ‘elf ear’, or Darwin’s Tubercal. Mine turns down, not out, so I’m not genetically lucky enough to cosplay as an elf. I kinda feel ripped off.
e: ha, I’m a better example than the wiki picture. Anyone can feel free to use my picture, it’s a pretty good example.
As far as we can tell they perform no role at all. They are only about the size of a finger, have no major tendon or ligament attachments and do not connect to another bone. There may have been new research in the last few years that I am unaware of that sheads some new light. They are considered a bit of a mystery.
What about half elf. You know left and right half
I could go half elf. :)
I’m very interested in learning how damage to vestigial anatomy can cause lameness. That’s fascinating and makes a lot of sense.
You’ve sent me down a rabbit hole of horse anatomy, and I appreciate that.
Trust me you are not the only one who is interested in why this happens. There have been a few papers written on it. But I think the reality is the funding doesn't exist to explore it. There are a lot more important and money making things to research about horses.
Sounds like a role to me.
Role playing vestigial traits is my new band name.
e: In all seriousness, it does sound like a role, even if we can’t figure it out. Turns out the appendix and tonsils have a role, though we didn’t know what until recently.
It doesn’t seem lameness should result from damage to a purely vestigial trait, but I’m no expert.
The one horse fact I know is that violin bows (and presumably all viol* and string bass bows) use tail hair from male horses, never female, to avoid using pee-drenched hairs.