this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2026
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Right, why do we have that redundant swallowing mechanism? ~~Did enough people choke while eating upside down to make a difference? Wait, this is from our ape-y ancestry?~~
Most water back in the day was at ground level, so if we could only rely on gravity we'd have had a hell of a time bending down to slurp it up.
Oh, right, that's a thing. Also, eating on four legs, head down.
My guess it's even older than that. My bullshitspiration is that peristalsis enabled more complex digestion when our quadruped ancestors needed more nutrition options.
How about the fact that being a qaudruped is basically the body plan for mammals. Humans are the weird ones for standing upright and having our mouths be directly above our stomachs. Every other mammal has their stomach mostly parallel with the mouth while standing. In order for food to get to the stomach, you’d need some force moving the food sideways towards the stomach.
Probably also helps with eating while lying down.