There's a sci-fi (from the 1800s, so it's quaint in how inaccurate it is) that literally has humans are actually Neotonous Apes and just never encountered the right trigger to end the neotony and change form
i'm curious, and the wikipedia articles for domestic pigs or feral pigs don't seem to make any reference to this. if this is actually real, what's the mechanism for this change? the only thing i can think of that would make sense would be that it's dietary, but the pigs at the farm up the hill from me spend most of their time foraging around their very large enclosure, and they still seem pretty tusk-less and stereotypically pink as any domestic pig.
it seems pretty far-fetched to me, i'd bet the reality is that it only takes one or two generations for them to effectively become wild again, and that got fed through a game of telephone.
I wonder if there is a measurable correlation between things like 'amount of time spent outdoors' and 'amount of body hair'... Could such an effect actually happen in humans as well?
To actually measure causation rather than correlation, though, you'd need a much more intensive experiment tracking a large number of individuals both before and after changing their lifestyle to either be less outdoors or more outdoors.
the thing about us is that our species basically developed because we domesticated ourselves, it's like trying to rewild naked mole rats, being naked and social is their wild state.
18 Comments
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 21 pts · 1d
Technically that last part is true. Patterson didn't actually film a real bigfoot.
raman_klogius@ani.social · 14 pts · 1d
That's the actual lore behind orangutans. (Orang utan means forest people)
ouRKaoS@lemmy.today · 13 pts · 1d
1 - Read Industrial Society and Its Future
2 - Become Bigfoot
3 - ???
4 - Enjoy life. (Profit is for capitalist pigs)
gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 9 pts · 1d
There's a sci-fi (from the 1800s, so it's quaint in how inaccurate it is) that literally has humans are actually Neotonous Apes and just never encountered the right trigger to end the neotony and change form
gaiussabinus@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1d
We are a 500 million year old string of neotony. When will mature and settle down like a grown up sponge.
raman_klogius@ani.social · 3 pts · 23h
Basically we are to apes what axolotls are to salamanders.
gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 23h
That was fully the inspiration for the short story, reportedly
DaPorkchop_@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 1d
i'm curious, and the wikipedia articles for domestic pigs or feral pigs don't seem to make any reference to this. if this is actually real, what's the mechanism for this change? the only thing i can think of that would make sense would be that it's dietary, but the pigs at the farm up the hill from me spend most of their time foraging around their very large enclosure, and they still seem pretty tusk-less and stereotypically pink as any domestic pig.
Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de · 7 pts · 1d
it seems pretty far-fetched to me, i'd bet the reality is that it only takes one or two generations for them to effectively become wild again, and that got fed through a game of telephone.
OwOarchist@pawb.social · 5 pts · 1d
I wonder if there is a measurable correlation between things like 'amount of time spent outdoors' and 'amount of body hair'... Could such an effect actually happen in humans as well?
To actually measure causation rather than correlation, though, you'd need a much more intensive experiment tracking a large number of individuals both before and after changing their lifestyle to either be less outdoors or more outdoors.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1d
It ain't made me more hairy
Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de · 3 pts · 1d
the thing about us is that our species basically developed because we domesticated ourselves, it's like trying to rewild naked mole rats, being naked and social is their wild state.
csolisr@hub.azkware.net · 4 pts · 1d
I mean, if we analyze it a bit, Bigfoot is just a very self-sufficient dude
BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1d
Is there a sign-up, or a pamphlet or something?
Hupf@feddit.org · 2 pts · 23h
https://discworld.fandom.com/wiki/Visit-The-Infidel-With-Explanatory-Pamphlets
glimse@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1d
Grasshoppers become locusts in a matter of hours under the right conditions (overcrowding)
ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1d
It's absurd that in 2026 people still believe in Bigfoot ... when it's obviously just a Yeti in a gorilla suit.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
His name is Darryl and he cannot carry a tune in a five gallon bucket