Comment on Fingies
merc@sh.itjust.works 12 hours agoThere are certainly some injuries that are survivable, and that would let a horse survive long enough to heal, if they were a creature that could heal. I assume it’s that leg healing reduces their speed or endurance, or requires that they consume more calories. They put all their points into “get away from predator” and zero points into “deal with injuries”. I guess as long as the average female horse has more than 2 young that survive, that’s enough.
So, probably there were mutant horses that could heal a bit better, but maybe they required a bit too much food, or they were a bit slower than the other horses.
Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 hours ago
Basically this, part of how they get their speed (legs being mostly tendon and cartilage) is what makes healing so difficult. Both tendons and cartilage have far less blood supply compared to muscle or skin, which heal much more quickly. So if a horse developed legs with more tissue and muscle (and thus an increased blood supply, improving healing), they would have been slower than their skinnier legged cousins and had no competitive advantage.