I would ask you to take a closer look at the paired grouping of cells and
the tactile hairs emanating from these two cell groups, one above each eye
of the household, domestic ferret.
 
The current conjecture by some is that in the early evolution of the
ferret, when the ferret was a subteranean dweller and a night hunter
moreso than a day hunter and was not a pet of humanoids, that its eyes
were rudimentary and not very effective, compared to their development
and use in today's ferret.
 
As in the pit viper which detects prey by the prey's emanation of heat,
odor and infra-red radiation, it is thought that the ferret also initially
detected its underground prey by the detection of the prey's infra-red
radiation and the positioning of the paired infra-red sensors above the
rudimentary eyes of the ferret enabled the hunting ferret to gauge the
distance of its prey ahead of it in the total darkness of the underground
tunnels.
 
As the ferret evolved and spent more time above ground and hunted not only
in total darkness but also hunted at dawn and at twilight, it relied more
on its eyesight than ever before.  Did this then lead to the degeneration
of its paired infra-red sensors and the improvement of its vision?  Even
today most ferreters realize that the ferret's vision is not its keenest
sense, this perhaps an indication that the ferret is still evolving and
nowhere near "domesticated," in the normal sense of that currently misused
word.
 
Would emphasis placed on skull studies of the earliest recovered skulls of
ancient ferrets reveal the presence of tiny orifices in the skull through
which nerves would have passed to the brain from these infra-red sensors
above the eyes?  The orifices conducting the optic nerves to the brain
would of course be located in the recesses of the eye sockets of the skull
and it would seem unlikely that both nerves from the IR sensors and the
eyes would combine before transiting through the eye socket orifices.
 
I would invite commentary on this theoretical conjecture by interested
parties.  Any takers out there?
 
Edward Lipinski, whose occipital foramen produces noise as his cervical
vertebrae scape its edges as his skull, when held rearwards and
up-pointing, is rotated. How's yours?  Does it make crackling noises too?
[Posted in FML issue 2698]