There are Possums and Opossums

Possums! What's not to love?

Their eyes look like shoe buttons and their ears look like burnt potato chips!

Possums are awesome!!!

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Just curious - what was the possum doing that made it a nuisance? All our possums ever do is eat birdseed and look adorable. Our possums are simply too dumb to ever get into any real trouble. I serenade possums with a special song whenever I see one in the backyard. Possums are great!

I was going to ask that, too. How does a possum become a nuisance?

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~Sue~

There are Possums and Opossums

Here we go again.

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~Sue~

The opossoms I see are big and look a little incongruous hanging in trees.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

Just curious - what was the possum doing that made it a nuisance? All our possums ever do is eat birdseed and look adorable. Our possums are simply too dumb to ever get into any real trouble. I serenade possums with a special song whenever I see one in the backyard. Possums are great!

It was trying to set up house under my house.

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Just curious - what was the possum doing that made it a nuisance? All our possums ever do is eat birdseed and look adorable. Our possums are simply too dumb to ever get into any real trouble. I serenade possums with a special song whenever I see one in the backyard. Possums are great!

It was trying to set up house under my house.

It wasn't the first one there!

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There are Possums and Opossums

Here we go again.

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~Sue~

There are Possums and Opossums

Here we go again.

Lol ;~)

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

Weather is quite active. It is playing "The Thunder Boomer" symphony. Complete with about a dozen power bumps so far.

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Weather is quite active. It is playing "The Thunder Boomer" symphony. Complete with about a dozen power bumps so far.

Yes, it's been thundering here, too. My mother says they're just showing off.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

Another goat showing off. Any relation to Linda Blair.

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*rotate eyes*

can't sleep :/

Why goat's have such amazing eyes

Horizontal pupils help here, the team found, because their shape creates a sharp panoramic view that’s wider and shorter than what you’d get with a round or vertical pupil and lets the animal see nearly all around itself. A long horizontal pupil also enhances the image quality of objects ahead of and behind the animal, and helps the eye capture more light along the ground and less dazzling overhead light.

Of course, those benefits don’t apply if the pupil stays oriented the same way and becomes vertically aligned when the animal tilts its head to graze. After watching grazing animals at the zoo, though, the researchers found that their eyes rotate to stay horizontally aligned with the ground whether their heads are upright or face down in the grass.

That's just so cool! :)

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oh...and did we say we like humans too? Well we do :)

That's just so cool! :)

That's just so logical, from an evolutionary stand point.

Goats are herbivores. Their ancestors were probably a prime food source for some perpetually hungry carnivores. Visual adaptations that let goats see all around them make perfect sense.

Goat ancestors who were LESS able than their goat peers to see well all around them were MORE likely to become some hungry carnivore's dinner.

Goat ancestors with more narrow fields of vision were less likely to have lots of goat babies survive to reproduce themselves. Goat ancestors with a slightly wider field of view were more likely to have their goat babies survive to reproduce themselves.

Over time, lots and lots of time, a wider visual field was favored and became part of the standard operating package for goat ancestors.

No surprise that the goats we've domesticated retain the traits of their ancestors. It is harder to lose an adaptation than one would think. Evolutionary pressures would have to disfavor an adaptation to eliminate it. Neutral evolutionary pressures have little to no impact on a trait. So while domesticated goats are currently protected from predators by their human goatherds, it is not surprising that goats still retain the wide visual fields of their ancestors.

It makes me sooooooooooooooooo crazy when I read about small conclaves of small-minded people who do not want evolution taught in our public schools. Evolution is an excellent template for understanding how the world works, from giraffes with their long and graceful necks down to modern day bacteria that have become resistant to the antibiotics we attempt to use to eradicate them.

Mother Nature, with all of her complicated evolutionary pressures, is pretty darn frickin awesome!!!

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Mother Nature, with all of her complicated evolutionary pressures, is pretty darn frickin awesome!!!

Soooooooooo true!

At a gathering at my sister's house a couple of year's ago, and with a daddy long legs cupped in my hands on its way to being released, I uttered the words "just as well they haven't evolved teeth yet, because they'd have a very poisonous bite if they had"

It was as if I'd let rip with a string of four letter words :/

edit: They only have religious friends (of the very very variety). It means they don't have their beliefs challenged, even gently - till I show up anyway :)

It means they don't have their beliefs challenged, even gently - till I show up anyway :)

May you always show up and may you always be welcome.

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It means they don't have their beliefs challenged, even gently - till I show up anyway :)

May you always show up and may you always be welcome.

+1

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So all this evolutionary stuff means that my Dad
really was almost as good looking as I am? So like
that guy I see in the mirror in the morning these
days really could be what my Dad looked like in life?



edit:
Heck LSM's ancestors must have been the best looking people in Italy.....

re-edit:
May you always show up and may you always be welcome.
Ditto!

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:)) Thank you. I do intend to yes... :)

Before they were born some pictures

:)

http://comicbook.com/marvel/2016/07/23/guardians-of-the-galaxys-rocket-raccoon-and-groot-featured-on-na/

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I keep meaning to post this here.

Twice a week I give IT lessons at my local 60+ Club. The club has a lounge with several chairs.

A few weeks back I had the distinct feeling I was being watched.



Those Raccoons get everywhere!!

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