My west coast brother informed me earlier today that it is "What if Cats and Dogs had Opposable Thumbs Day/" While my wonder spouse and I have had pets in the past, we don't now, but we do get plenty of entertainment value from the squirrels who frequent our bird feeders.
After witnessing one remarkable (and fairly chubby) squirrel perched on a feeder that we thought was completely out of reach, because it had a large squirrel guard protecting it, and was far away from every tree and bush, we began to wonder if squirrels have opposable thumbs. It could explain some of their amazing gymnastics. So of course I did a little research.
It turns out they do, kind of. Squirrels have four long fingers and claws on each paw plus a small stiff digit - a vestigal or pseudo-opposable 'thumb.' It's actually called a pollex.
I wonder??? Could it be that our squirrels are a little more evolved than most? If we could trap one (just catch and release for observation purposes of course, not for stew) I bet we would see that they have nice long pollexes. It would explain so much.
No comments:
Post a Comment