this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2024
633 points (98.5% liked)

Funny

6795 readers
929 users here now

General rules:

Exceptions may be made at the discretion of the mods.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Quite literally. Human and other mammal scent receptors are very sensitive to thiols, sulfur compounds that are frequently found in sources of danger, like rotting corpses, feces, and toxic gas. Skunks evolved their spray to take advantage of this with high concentrations of thiols and compounds that help to adhere to things. It's like an olfactory flashbang.

[โ€“] liv@lemmy.nz 2 points 6 months ago

That's so fascinating. Thanks for the specifics!