Undertoad • Oct 27, 2006 11:11 am
xoB sends along this WaPo image to continue the pumpkin theme on Friday. We've had a lot of these beasts on IotD, but this one is still mind-boggling, to see "Cuddles" (her actual name), 43 years old at the San Francisco Zoo, opening that massive maw and chomping down on an entire large-size pumpkin. Imagine what damage she could do.
I was recently reminded of the much-hated Jar Jar Binks character, and I was thinking, what sort of animal would evolve to have eyes protruding out like that? It's not a good placement, if you don't want to go blind the first time you accidentally trip. It would have to be a predatory beast that spent most of its time partly submerged, so the eyes could spot things above water while the body stayed below for cover. Jar Jar's race is supposed to have evolved under water, so perhaps some thought has been put into his design beyond childish comic relief.