Skulls Engineered for Hard Knocks

Skulls Engineered for Hard Knocks

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The braincase of a skull may well be, as advertised, a strongly built and cleverly engineered structure, but listening to all that incessant banging coming from the direction of the crab apple tree in the garden, one has to wonder: is it really strong enough to keep a woodpecker from having the most terrible headache?

And what about those rams and deer you see butting heads with such determined ferocity? The echoing, crashing sounds, the visions of extreme and repeated violence, the frequent tangling of horns — how do animals with an instinctive need for such brutish behavior prevent their brains from turning into rice pudding?