Eye placement.

[oscarvan]

Greetings,

New to this forum, but not to forums in general.

Reason I signed up, is that I am having trouble finding information on a question I am trying to debate. I do not believe it is a scientifically correct statement, but I can learn.

The premise is that animals that have their eyes "looking" forward are predators.

I have done some research and find no vegan forward looking animals. I came upon the black and panda bear, which are mostly plant eaters, but both will eat insects as well as scavenge on verterbrae if the opportunity arises. There are also several primates with a similar diet.

Then there are ocean predators, well up in the food chain, that do not have their eyes forward.

Questions are:

What, within the context of biological science do we consider a predator?
Is the premise that all forward looking animals are preditors true?
Is there any correlation between diet and eye placement?
Where can I find "evidence" of accepted fact in this regard?

Thank you.

[mith]

Well the definition varies, from simply eating another to "hunting" and killing another for food. Obviously to prove your premise as true, you would need to get a database of all forward looking animals...a bit difficult but you might sort of get around that by justifying that eye placement is not evolutionarily neutral and that only predation justifies placing it in front.

Oh, yeah and the most obvious of forward facing vegans -- Hippies.

[Darby]

What's really happening is that animals that need good binocular vision - strike predators, branch leapers, etc. - tend to have either forward-facing eyes or some forward-facing aspect to the eyes (such as where the high-acuity part of the eyes are facing).