#mammals

Dolphins are social mammals, capable of enjoying their lives. They form close bonds with other members of their group. ↗

— Peter Singer

#capable #close #dolphins #enjoying #form

There's no particular evidence that any of the lower mammals or any of the other animals have any interest in aesthetics at all. But Homo sapiens does, always has and always will. ↗

— Jock Sturges

#any #does #evidence #homo #homo sapiens

However, further research has shown that it is the normal condition for humans and for most other mammals. It seems pretty clear why this is the case for most mammals and for most human beings. ↗

— Marvin Harris

#case #clear #condition #further #however

Faith is the surrender of the mind, it's the surrender of reason, it's the surrender of the only thing that makes us different from other animals. It's our need to believe and to surrender our skepticism and our reason, our yearning to discard that and put all our trust or faith in someone or something, that is the sinister thing to me. ... Out of all the virtues, all the supposed virtues, faith must be the most overrated ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#atheism #faith #mammals #religion #virtue

Mammals of every species indulge in play. Games are Nature's way of preparing us to face difficult realities. ↗

— Daniel Suarez

#human #mammals #nature #play #nature

The difference between humans and other mammals is that we know how to accessorize. ↗

— Madeleine Albright

#difference #how #humans #know #mammals

It's very likely that most mammals have consciousness, and probably birds, too. ↗

— Richard Dawkins

#consciousness #likely #mammals #most #probably

We already live a very long time for mammals, getting three times as many heartbeats as a mouse or elephant. It never seems enough though, does it? ↗

— David Brin

#does #elephant #enough #getting #heartbeats

These Cro-Magnon people were identical to us: they had the same physique, the same brain, the same looks. And, unlike all previous hominids who roamed the earth, they could choke on food. That may seem a trifling point, but the slight evolutionary change that pushed man's larynx deeper into his throat, and thus made choking a possibility, also brought with it the possibility of sophisticated, well articulated speech. Other mammals have no contact between their air passages and oesophagi. They can breathe and swallow at the same time, and there is no possibility of food going down the wrong way. But with Homo sapiens food and drink must pass over the larynx on the way to the gullet and thus there is a constant risk that some will be inadvertently inhaled. In modern humans, the lowered larynx isn't in position from birth. It descends sometime between the ages of three and five months - curiously, the precise period when babies are likely to suffer from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. At all events, the descended larynx explains why you can speak and your dog cannot. ↗

— Bill Bryson

#bill-bryson #cro-magnon #language #mammals #mother-tongue

Dogs are the only mammals that will actually stare and look into a human's eyes. ↗

— Jerry O'Connell

#dogs #eyes #human #into #look