bill at nsma.arizona.edu (Bill Skaggs) writes:
>Yes, this is known as the "radiator hypothesis". It was presented in
>a Behavioral and Brain Sciences article a little while back, together
>with assorted critical review.
>As for my own opinion, it seems to me that Mother Nature could have
>worked out a better way of cooling off the brain, something that
>wouldn't turn animals into inert blobs and leave them at the mercy of
>any predator that happens to wander along.
If you fell asleep at the water hole you probably wouldn't pass on your
genes. If you hid and built a nest, maybe you would. I haven't heard many
really appealing theories of sleep, but it seems to be metabolically
efficient -- shutting down arousal/activity for hours a day can reduce
energy demands, hence the number of hours necessarily spent
foraging/hunting. Probably also reduce water demands. If this time was
spent in a nest, hole, quietly perched on a twig, or standing up in the
middle of a herd, it might also *reduce* predation risk, no?
JM2CW,
Doug
