Mary's Monday Metazoan: Arboreal goats? : Pharyngula

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Mary's Monday Metazoan: Arboreal goats?

Category: Organisms
Posted on: January 4, 2010 10:19 AM, by PZ Myers

It's a bit disappointing. This video would be so much cooler if it were arboreal goats on fire.

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Comments

Posted by: Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort | January 4, 2010 10:27 AM

Who would have thought a goat could be so nimble...

Posted by: Glen Davidson | January 4, 2010 10:29 AM

Ha ha, giraffes, you thought you didn't have competition for that food, didn't you?

If giraffes evolved long necks, why are their goats (on fire or otherwise), pygmies, dwarves, and apes?

Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/mxaa3p

Posted by: skeptical scientist | January 4, 2010 10:29 AM

How did they get up there? It shows them jumping down, but they could hardly have jumped up. I wouldn't think hooves would be very good for climbing trees...

Posted by: Standard Curve | January 4, 2010 10:37 AM

It is my considered opinion that they're nesting.

Posted by: Samwise | January 4, 2010 10:51 AM

They stand over the sapling and wait.

Posted by: https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawl3TpOVyxxwCT5cVU3M80c_cpxoMBZmiOQ | January 4, 2010 10:52 AM

OMG GOATS ON TREES

Posted by: Sven DiMilo | January 4, 2010 10:53 AM

I wouldn't think hooves would be very good for climbing trees...

And yet they do! This phenomenon, by the way, has been used as an argument in the ground-up vs. trees-down debate re the evolution of flight in birdosaurs. People say "But theropods show no adaptations for arboreality" and the killer reply is "Goats!"

Posted by: natural cynic | January 4, 2010 10:54 AM

The fruit of the goat tree.

Posted by: natural cynic | January 4, 2010 11:01 AM

... is just kidding.

#10

Posted by: Aratina Cage | January 4, 2010 11:10 AM

A quote from Wikipedia:

Goats are also widely known for their ability to climb trees, although the tree generally has to be on somewhat of an angle.

#11

Posted by: flyonthewall | January 4, 2010 11:12 AM

Ha Ha.
At first i thought there were just a couple of goats in the tree. then it turned out to be a clown car, they just kept coming.

Does anyone know if they've evolved special hooves for this?

#12

Posted by: lmalena | January 4, 2010 11:22 AM

The only green on that video is on the tree. These goats are under a natural selective pressure: Climb up the tree or die.

skeptical scientist said: I wouldn't think hooves would be very good for climbing trees...

If they can climb up ridiculous small clives and bare rocks, why not trees?

#13

Posted by: GoatRider | January 4, 2010 11:38 AM

Harold! Come back Harold!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkw2DdoskPY

#14

Posted by: RamblinDude | January 4, 2010 11:47 AM

Would like to come back in a few million years. Prehensile tails? Elongated, dexterous hooves?

#15

Posted by: Kathy Orlinsky | January 4, 2010 11:59 AM

These are clearly the fruits of a vegetable or Scythian lamb tree. Previously thought to only produce a single lamb which would eat the grass around its stalk, this variety must feed on leaves before being ripe enough to fall.

#16

Posted by: Darrell E | January 4, 2010 12:00 PM

Very cool. I saw this in a documentary sometime in the past year, but I can't remember exactly where what or when.

OT. Praise the fucking lord! Whoever that may be. Thanks largely to Nerd Of Redhead I have finally managed to sign in agains using TypePad. THANK YOU Nerd Of Redhead!

Something to add to NOR's instructions in that previous post. Apparently, TypePad has recently changed the look of their site. If you signed up for TypePad some time ago the site still looks the same, UNLESS you click on the link to see the all new typepad. This is the important point. NOR's instructions apply to Typepad's NEW look. AND, in addition to looking different, the old TypePad screen does not have the radio button option to exchange emails that is necessary for you to enable.

Also, even after you have succesfully enabled the exchange emails function, and saved it, you will still on occasion get the error that gives you a screen full of code. But, usually within two or three tries you will be able to log in.

#17

Posted by: recovering catholic | January 4, 2010 12:09 PM

What do you get when you cross an arboreal goat with a fainting goat?

#18

Posted by: bullofthewoods | January 4, 2010 12:19 PM

What do you get when you cross an arboreal goat with a fainting goat? BBQ.

#19

Posted by: ted.dahlberg | January 4, 2010 12:46 PM

What do you get when you cross an arboreal goat with a fainting goat?

A goat which may or may not make a sound when it falls in the woods.

#20

Posted by: PhilTurdwater | January 4, 2010 1:10 PM

What do you get when you cross an arboreal goat with a fainting goat?

The ACTUAL catalyst for Newton formulating his theory of gravity.

#21

Posted by: BigDogMi | January 4, 2010 1:14 PM

They still need a little more evolving, but, I think eventually they will get there!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TvuLbDrd6g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_K4sj2KYTo

#22

Posted by: blf | January 4, 2010 1:15 PM

What do you get when you cross an arboreal goat with a fainting goat?

Goats that learn to fly really really quickly.

#23

Posted by: Silič O'Nopolitanopoulos, Färschdbischuf Beesknees aus Ulm und Klein Elguth, Elector Pharynguline. | January 4, 2010 2:26 PM

What do you get when you cross an arboreal goat with a fainting goat?

Depends. Do we have to stare at it?

#24

Posted by: timrowledge, Ersatz Haderach | January 4, 2010 2:57 PM

ZOMG Goats on the Roof!
And just down the road from my house!

#25

Posted by: eddie | January 4, 2010 3:43 PM

That's a nice tree. Pity it suffers from a goatfestation.
Hoping for a leopard or three.
- ridiculously small clive.

#26

Posted by: Rachel Bronwyn | January 4, 2010 4:02 PM

Goodness. Have the developed little fingers and toesies to hold onto branches with? How on earth are they doing that with hooves?

#27

Posted by: Paul Burnett | January 4, 2010 6:17 PM

In the early 1950s I lived in Tripoli, Libya, for a couple of years. We would see goats grazing in (what I may mis-remember as) olive trees all the time - they take a short run and go up rather nimbly. It's apparently not that different from the rock-hopping that mountain goats do on mountains. See more pictures at http://www.odditycentral.com/videos/the-tree-goats-of-morocco.html

#28

Posted by: Aratina Cage | January 4, 2010 6:30 PM

That's a nice tree. Pity it suffers from a goatfestation.
Hoping for a leopard or three.

There is only one way to stop a goatfestation from spreading: Burn down the forest!

#29

Posted by: Romeo Vitelli | January 4, 2010 6:42 PM

I saw that in Morocco. The nuts of the Argan tree were too hard so the Berber farmers would encourage goats to eat them and the farmers collected the nut pits from the goat feces. They then ground the pits to extract the argan oil which was used for all sorts of culinary and cosmetic purposes.

Nowadays they're supposed to be extracting the oil using industrial presses but the farmers are still having the goats climb the argan trees. For some reason, people aren't eager to buy oil made from goat feces. Go figure.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argan_oil

#30

Posted by: MikeTheInfidel | January 4, 2010 7:59 PM

Obligatory Monty Python reference

#31

Posted by: Kaleberg5 | January 4, 2010 9:55 PM

Great CGI!

#32

Posted by: Newfie | January 4, 2010 10:07 PM

"Yer tries are full of goots!!"

#33

Posted by: MadScientist | January 5, 2010 2:05 AM

I've seen goats do that; they're great animals as pets but they can be incredibly frustrating. They seem to be able to jump over anything or else chew through it; I'd lost many trees to that sort of goatish behavior. Baaaad goats! Baaaaad!

#34

Posted by: cicely (Inadvertent Phytocidal Maniac) | January 5, 2010 1:17 PM

If a fainting goat falls out of a tree in the forest, and there's nobody there to stare at it, does it catch on fire?