I was reading up on sinuses in order to distract myself from the Agonies of the Head Cold, and I discovered that actually we have no idea what these head holes are even for other than being incredibly uncomfortable when you have a cold. There are some theories, that range from your embryonic contractors going “bone is expensive, just put air in there, no one will notice,” to ideas about them being architecturally useful for distributing face stress, or good for sound, but it honestly seems like we just don’t really know.
Anyway, the rabbithole then led me to discover that while carnivorans in general have frontal sinuses, pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, etc.) don’t, on account of how diving to eldritch McCrush-depth with giant air pockets in your face is probably not the best idea, and I’d just like to say that it feels extremely unfair that an animal that looks like THIS will never experience nasal congestion.
(Northern Elephant Seal, My original photo, taken in San Simeon, CA)
au contraire, op
life finds a way
Ah, eel-snorting Hawaiian monk seal, why must you pursue the Forbidden Sensation
