This is more of an evolutionary biology question but I thought I’d ask bc I couldn’t fibd anything on it
Specifically what I’m wondering is why the majority of animals seem to have their brain or central nervous system located at a specific end of their body rather than near the center of mass where you think it’d be safest? I thought of this as I watched a centipede have its tail end attacked and noticed that its head and tail end look quite similar, assumedly for the purpose of fooling would be predators, and wondered why it didn’t just put its brain in the middle so it wouldn’t be vulnerable at the ends.
Moreover, why do we even need heads? Why did almost every animal evolve to have all their sensory organs in one spot instead of spreading them out. Why is my face where my face is basically. Are our bodies really built to be the most durable and efficient for the terrain they evolved in and why are they all so similar?
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Most animals are insects, and their ‘brains’ are actually distributed across their bodies, although with the largest cluster in the head. Sponges, jellyfish and worms also have a decentralised ‘brain’ - if you can even call it that. Many other animals - octopi and starfish, for example, have a relatively ‘central’ brain. Vertebraetes do have their brains in their head, possibly because having it close to the main sense organs can allow for faster reactions.
I totally forgot I posted this and smoked a little before bed. Absolutely fascinating, I’m glad they exist.
What I remember from biology classes was that evolution tends to develop the systems equivalentto brains as close to the primary senses as possible. So brains developed in the head because that is also where visual and olfactory and other primary senses developed at the front of the organism.
It dudn’r deift away because it was alrady successful, but animals with skeletons developed skulls and other thicker bones around the brain to protect it. Same with the rib cafe protecting most of the organs, except the stomach and intestines which need room to expand when eating. This is a balance of not changing what is successful and being even more successful with some extra protection.
There are also other factors like balancing heat that lead to certain organs being in different places as well.
That makes a lot of sense actually, damn
Cephalization is the term you are looking for. It’s been a long time since high school bio but I remember being fascinated by evolution.
Thank you :D
(Didn’t see what community this is. I’m not a biologist, but I am reading a book on human anatomy at the moment)
For animals that stand, having the optical and auditory sensors up high (and relatively near the motor portion of the brain) would be advantageous for spotting predators and being able to send out commands to the muscles to escape quickly.
I don’t know much about centipedes specifically, but it makes sense that the sensory organs and motor portion of the brain would be in a place that allows them to efficiently see what’s in front of them, and decide which way to go.
