why is it that so many animals have their brains in their head, rather than anywhere else in their body?
In: Biology
Eyes probably evolved before the brain – after all you don’t need much brain power if you can’t see. The brain then evolved alongside eyes to process all that visual information.
The retina is effectively an extension of the brain, they both develop from the same tissue. It would be quite an evolutionary step for the brain to move elsewhere.
Simply, the speed of transmitting information from the senses to the brain and back encourages a central nervous system that is focused on the primary sense gathering organs. Eyes, Ears, Nose.
From there it’s an evolutionary advantage having those in an optimal position to gather data, or a head. Different species have different locations of not only their heads, but also their sense organs. Fish and horses for example have eyes on the sides of their heads, while most mammals have forward facing eyes. That’s a bit of an aside, but it does go to show that their are evolutionary advantages to different configurations.
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