Why rats can't vomit, and why humans do | Hacker News Reader

Why rats can't vomit, and why humans do

ratbehavior.org

52 pointsmarketer20 comments

My sister has pet rats, and I had to babysit them for a while. They're actually really cool, smart and interesting. I recently finished the book "The Omnivore's Dilemma" which draws a lot of parallels between rats and humans (basically we have a lot of the same adaptations around eating). I'd recommend the book and the pet.

Out of all the submissions on the site, this is my favorite.

Did anyone else feel a little tiny bit like vomiting while reading this?

It's fascinating.

The most fascinating thing to me is that people have actually devoted studies to finding out whether or not a large swath of animals can vomit.

People have devoted careers to finding out which animals can vomit. A fellow named Borison has numerous entries on the final table -- assuming it's the same person, this bright spark hit the scene in 1953 with the finding that crab-eating macaques and rhesus monkeys can spew; and decades later, in 1981, he followed up with the surprising finding that while most rodents can't upchuck, the woodchuck could.

My God. You're right. I don't really know what to think here.

I'm thinking we need to register vomitr.com and crowdsource this. A community of people answering the question: Is your favorite pet species vomiting right now?

Unfortunately, yes. I just spent the last few evenings steam cleaning my carpets because my dog has a very sensitive digestive system...

Imagine our fortune if we were to engineer a non-vomiting dog! Also, cats. No more hair balls. Growing up around no less than 2 dogs and a cat throughout my entire adolescence gives me a desire for this tech. It would also make a good Founder story!

I found it mildly amusing that dogs are the only entry in the table besides humans that "responds to all known emetics".

While I don't own a dog, from what I've read of Dave Barry, dogs excel at locating and responding to all unknown emetics, too.

I don't know why, but that is very interesting indeed, as is the article.

Sadly, not enough research has been done:

"A broad, comprehensive survey of many different species is needed before the evolution of vomiting is fully understood."

_Needed_.

(Interesting read though)

I have no idea how this is hacker news, put I found it pretty interesting nonetheless. :)

It might not be technology or computer-related, but it raises some interesting questions. For instance, are humans more susceptible to toxins than rats? Also, if being able to expunge toxins increases survivability, then why wouldn't rats have it?

Articles like this may not be "on topic", but they're unlikely to devolve into flame wars, and attract people interested in flame wars, as would an article about politics or (often) economics.

It is, however, horker news.

The table under Evolution of vomiting is especially interesting. Never saw vommiting pigeon!

I don't know if it counts as "vomiting" but it's how they feed the chicks, they regurgitate partially digested food.

Before you get disgusted: some humans will chew food in the month to feed to a baby. And pigeons can't chew.

The article explains the difference between vomiting and regurgitation. In general, vomiting is active and requires coordination of many muscles. Regurgitation is passive.

Pigeon regurgitation is active though. They do it on purpose to feed a chick.

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