14 Comments
Mar 28·edited Mar 28Liked by Heather Heying

Heather, Well this was off-the-wall but fascinating. Never even thought to think about this. Many thanks for broadening my horizons in unexpected directions this morning.

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Fascinating article, making your work well worth the price of admission. A question for you, is there a plan to go back even further to elaborate on a pre oxygen planet and what the transition from carbon dioxide would have looked like? I’d be particularly interested in knowing what degree of mobility a co2 life form could be capable of.

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Mar 28Liked by Heather Heying

Oh I love this article and your writing always blows my mind. It's just so full of flavor, rich and delicious flavor. And I always hear your lovely voice when I'm reading your essays. It's fun timing because I just listened to an revolutionary podcast on sleep last night....whilst falling asleep...:) Thank you!

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Seals having two different modes of sleep depending on where they are sleeping is fascinating. That's almost like having two sets of eyes, one set optimized for daylight and the other set optimized for the dark. I have been a "water baby" all my life so the idea of a species returning to the water makes perfect sense to me. In fact I am a firm believer in the Aquatic Ape hypothesis. Wading seems like an awfully good incentive to bipedalism.

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cute discussion I spent some time thinking about "befriending" a pinniped. in the wild, without treats.... that's a tough one. The general rule is make it comfortable for the subject to do what you want, and uncomfortable for them to exhibit unwanted behavior. I'm guessing you'll have difficulty with seal in natural habitat making it uncomfortable.

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Ooooo! Now do horses.

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As to otters sleeping on land, I would like to say they also sleep in unattended boats and with their propensity of combining bedroom and bathroom, leave quite a mess.

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