Why the hell is the roof of our mouths so think?
2026-07-03 04:01 UTC
Replies (11)
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@Bluegrass_Addict@lemmy.ca 2026-07-03 04:20
I’m sure the hippo wouldn’t eat burning hot watermelons.
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@drq@mastodon.ml 2026-07-03 04:32
@doomsdayrs@lemmy.ml probably, to regulate brain trmperature. There is a theory on yawning that it's purpose may be brain cooling. So, roof is basically a thermal interface.
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@DataCrime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2026-07-03 05:01
When we stopped eating twigs in favor of nuts and berries. Note: this is an entirely made up fact.
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@Azzu@leminal.space 2026-07-03 09:52
Which animal ever eats something too hot that burns their mouth? How do you know they don’t burn their mouths in the same way?
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@Soot@hexbear.net 2026-07-03 10:08
The answer is almost certainly because of how much brain we’re trying to fit in our heads. Evolution has already given us hugely weakened jaws, painful birth, years of helpless infancy and chronic sinus problems, all in the singular pursuit of brainroom. I’d say those are higher up on the priority list that thicker mouth skin.
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@deranger@sh.itjust.works 2026-07-03 04:19
It’s probably an advantage. You want your mouth to hurt so you stop there rather than damaging something more internal like your throat or stomach.
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@Paper_Phrog@lemmy.world 2026-07-03 12:14
Your body telling you something dumdum. ;)
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@HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 2026-07-03 20:28
What other animal eats hot food? Has it ever been something to select for?
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@isleepinahammock@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2026-07-03 20:56
Has your ability to procreate or the survival of your offspring ever been threatened by burning the roof of your mouth? There is your answer.
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@bradboimler@lemmy.world 2026-07-03 20:58
Does the thinness of the roof of one’s mouth keep them from propagating their thin roof genes?
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@Thisiswritteningerman@midwest.social 2026-07-03 21:23
Does the thickness skin impact it’s ability to feel pain? It doesn’t. Burn a slip of paper with a lighter. Now burn an orange. Notice how the the outer layer reacts to the fire? Your nerve endings also exist in the outer most layer (your mouth vs your deeper flesh) Are you a mammal? Congratulations, you have TRPV1 receptors in your mucus membranes (avian supremacy ftw). They exist to keep potato brain mammals from eating hot things. These will fuck up your insides. Apparently enough of a problem that mammals needed them. Fun fact: this is enough of a problem that ancestral peppers evolved a means to exploit it and exclude mammals. But off topic. There’s no quantity of flesh that will make your mouth heat proof. Turns out first degree burns still hurt like fuck.