daannii1d ago

I think it's weird that we have pink rings around our mouth holes and I think it's weird we never talk about how weird that is.

https://lemmy.world/post/44965646

I think it's weird that we have pink rings around our mouth holes and I think it's weird we never talk about how weird that is. - Lemmy.World

Pretty sure we are the only animals with pink rings around our mouth. It’s flipping weird. It probably helps with verbal language understanding as humans often use mouth movements to interpret words (see McGurk effect). But I still think it’s weird. Big pink rings.

Show threadJohnnyEnzyme

Mandrills, geladas, Rhesus macaques for a few.

Look at most Carnivorans (dogs, cats, etc) and they tend to have black lips. Is that less weird or more weird?

The human mouth is also the most sensitive area of the body (even moreso than lower areas), so that’s almost certainly related. More blood flow and a specialised cell-type…

Mar 31 at 2:27amWeb
Show threaddaannii1d ago
They don’t really have plump ring lips like us.
Show threadParagone1d ago
SOME orangutans do: duckduckgo.com/?q=orangutan&iar=images&t=fpas
Show threaddaannii20h ago
Ah so they do. How bout that. Yeah I would agree those are pretty close to human lips.
Show threadJohnnyEnzyme1d ago

They don’t really have plump ring lips like us.

Okay, but I was replying to the OP. What you’re doing here is bringing in a new dimension, i.e. “plump.”

Regardless, I think I already kind of answered that when I talked about kissing. Very few animals I know of do prolonged kissing. Humans do. That, and our sexual attraction cycle is more or less endless, whereas with most animals, it only happens during select times of the year.

As for “why” to both things? I think it’s because humans are vastly more helpless at birth compared to most other animals. We need lots of care, and for a prolonged period. So evolution has drastically increased the mechanisms of sustained attraction between the parents via things like prolonged sensual kissing and a near-endless sexual attraction.

Show threadBarneyPiccolo19h ago
You’re just getting too used to seeing those phony fat-lipped MAGA concubines. They’re normalizing that expensive carved up face image.