Talk:Vibrissa
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I moved the page vibrissa to vibrissae because it is rare that people would talk about one whisker and rarer still that someone would search on the term vibrissa. Most mammal articles talk about vibrissae so this makes logical sense for people to find. Pschemp 04:10, 20 Oct 2004 (UTC)
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[edit] Wow
Knowing that cutting off the left side of my cat's whiskers makes it walk lop-sidded and possibly run into things makes me want to do it... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.0.8.148 (talk) 19:44, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
[edit] That cat is soo cute.
OMG, I want to pet it!
[edit] Meow!
That cat is really cute. =^_^=
Maybe the article should mention that housecats use their whiskers to determine whether they can fit through a crevasse. -- Myria 15:20, 28 July 2005 (UTC)
- Possibly you mean crevice? Crevasse isn't often used for anything less than a metre wide, so unless you have a particularly obese housecat in mind... Tyrhinis 11:01, 11 June 2006 (UTC)
- Is that actually true? Do cats really use their whiskers to tell whether they can fit into an opening? Wbrameld 03:12, 21 March 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Distribution among mammal species
I'd like to see more information in the article about which mammal species have whiskers and which don't. The article says "most mammals," but which ones, and what's the evolutionary history? Do all mammals with whiskers share a common ancestor that had whiskers? Are there mammal lineages that once had whiskers but subsequently lost them? Wbrameld 21:26, 16 December 2006 (UTC)
can humans have whisker(s)?? i mean, i have a friend who happens to have one, so , is that possible?? cyrille 22:58, 20 March 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Replaced Cat Pic
I put the picture of the cat and its vibrissae back on because the vibrissae are easily seen. Also, the cat is the most common animal associated with whiskers (in my opinion and in the opinion of the people I know, at least). --Kevin (TALK) 01:03, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Vibrissa useful in localizing odors
Vibrissae are found in many different species and are associated with connections to a significant amount of neural tissue. Something so ubiquitous must have an important function. I would like to suggest that an important function of this sensory organ is to add a directional component to the sense of smell. An animal that relies heavily on the sense of smell will benefit greatly if it can tell from which direction the smell came - in other words which way the wind is blowing. Most vibrissae are located around the nose, ideally located to sense the direction from which an odor arrived. Humans pay little attention to their own olfactory sense and I fear we also overlook the importance of this in other species. GeoOlive 17:53, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Mechanoreceptors??
Why is there nothing on this page about mechanoreceptors? These receptors are what allows vibrissa to function as they do (they are what allows an animal to sense things with its whiskers). More specifically, it is the stretch-activated ion channels of the mechanoreceptors that turn mechanical stimuli (i.e., a touching of the whiskers) into nerve impulses. This is hugely important to this article, as without the above mentioned functions, vibrissa would not be at all useful. Fuzzform 02:59, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Removed picture
The above picture was removed from the article for aesthetic reasons. I've left it here so that if the article is expanded a great deal in the future, this picture can be replaced on the article. Thanks, Spawn Man 05:10, 12 June 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Dark spots
I notice that cat vibrissa dent to have dark, spot-like patches of hair color at the base. Is there a biological reason for this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 118.92.27.198 (talk) 15:43, 24 November 2007 (UTC)
