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Just watched the movie "Concussion" with Will Smith.

Sort of amazing the sort of punishment football players heads withstand... but they DO die much earlier in life with lots of complications.

"The woodpecker's tongue extends through the back of the mouth out of the nostril, encircling the entire cranium. It is the anatomical equivalent of a safety belt for its brain. Human beings? Not a single piece of our anatomy protects us from those types of collisions. A human being will get concussed at sixty G's."

also:

  "The Cape gannet.

  A diving bird capable of generating speeds
  of up to 75 miles per hour,

  turning itself into a missile
  as it collides with the face of the sea.

  The red-head woodpecker
  can absorb a G-force of 1,000,
  pecking a tree 12,000 times per day,
  85 million times over its lifetime.

  Bighorn sheep can generate..."

  "Bennet."

  "Okay, okay."



I thought concussion was from the brain sloshing around inside the skull. How does a tongue "set-belt" around the skull help with that?


> The woodpecker's tongue extends through the back of the mouth out of the nostril, encircling the entire cranium.

Don't think this protects the brain. This allows it to hold tension like a spring so it can hammer (think about those springed door stops you flicked as a kid and the sound it makes). https://cdn.aws.toolstation.com/images/141020-UK/800/22940.j...




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