Woodpeckers don't have built-in shock absorbers to protect their brain(newscientist.com) |
Woodpeckers don't have built-in shock absorbers to protect their brain(newscientist.com) |
So part of the misconception can be blamed on a connotation of a metaphor that doesn't apply. Very common in physics!
Turns out that woodpeckers don’t need extra shock-absorbers. They are small enough that the normal fluid around their brain provides the protection it needs.
Our brains are too large and fragile and our fluid space is much thinner relative to our brains.
There was one that would come knock my neighbors metal chimney years ago right at the crack of dawn. Poor guy could not sleep in. And the woodpecker kept coming back and doing it, presumably just to make a loud racket because there were no bugs obviously.
Another guy I know who was quite wealthy had a carved wooden lintel made for the top of his door. It was made in Mexico and quite intricate (and expensive). He proudly showed it to me over the door. A week later woodpeckers had ruined it.
They are still cool birds though.
The tongue may still have an effect, but a different study methodology would be needed in order to test that theory.
[0] https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/07/pistol-shrimp-sport-...
What a coincidence, just finished reading Walter Isaacson's biography of Da Vinci yesterday
Now I'm wondering how that's gonna work. De-tongue some woodpeckers and see if they get concussed? There's not any imaging that would work for this is there, where we could paint or inject their tongue with some dye and watch it flex inside their skull? that'd be a lovely video if it could be made.