So I built a stegosaurus model kit, which included some factoids in the instructions. One of these factoids was that stegosaurs are not believed to have had a secondary brain in the hips to help them control their rear half after all. That was wild to me, since the whole stegosaurs and sauropods with their tiny heads needing a secondary brain for their huge bodies was commonly accepted back when I was a kid. So I looked it up, and indeed, the current hypothesis is that the cavity that the second brain was thought to occupy is used for a thing called a glycogen body. But what exactly does a glycogen body do? We’ll get back to you on that, apparently.
If be interested to know where and when that was considered a fact, because I’m 45 and never heard that before.
I’m 40 and remember being told that the Brontosaurus had multiple smaller brains down it’s spine so that it could react to stimuli without having to wait for the signal to get all the way to its head and back.
I also rember hearing at some point more recently that the Brontosaurus probably didn’t exist. 🤷
tbf that’s sorta true, they didn’t have “mini-brains” but stuff like severe pain signals get processed in the spine, since every millisecond matters when you’re absentmindedly stepping onto smouldering coal. That’s why reflexes are reflexive, the brain isn’t even involved at all.
That’s true of all vertebrates, including you!
It does make you wonder how many things we’ve all been carrying around in our heads since childhood, that were just passed down through generations without any amount of checking.
Chances are she was taught it when she was at school, by somebody else who was taught it when they were at school. Before the internet it was kind of hard to look shit like that up, and encyclopaedias might not have covered it either. UNless you spent your life delving into a specific area, the edges of knowledge were (and still are) kind of fuzzy.
“Going out with wet hair gives you a cold” No, viruses from shit indoor air quality and smoke from indoor fires inflaming your mucous membranes gives you a cold.
I’d heard of it.
I’ve heard of it.