This is the transcript of a weekly television show here in Australia called Quantum, which looks at recent advances in scientific theories and technologies.  I'm an addict!  Last week's show took a look at how social animals (humans and dogs for example) developed an obvious eyebrow to signal their emotional state, whereas loner-types like cats never did.  It got me thinking: would this theory hold true for social cats, like lions?  So I googled some images and yes!  Lions do indeed have a differently coloured small patch of fur which resembled eyebrows!  It's not so obvious as in dogs or humans, but certainly is there, where it's absent in other big cats like leopards and cheetahs.  The transcript to the show is below:

QUANTUM
How come loads of people say they hate cats and hardly anyone says they hate dogs? Well, Dr Jonica Newby has a theory about that, and it's all to do with dogs' eyebrows.

Dr Jonica Newby (cuddling her siamese cat)
I have always loved cats. So how come so many people say they hate cats? Whereas hardly anyone in our culture says they hate dogs? Well, I have a theory about that. And it's all to do with eyebrows.

NARRATION
All animals have brow ridges because they protect the eyes. But there's something peculiar about what we call the eyebrow. It seethes with a life of its own, and very few animals can do this. Dogs have proper eyebrows. Cats don't. Why? I asked around, but you'll be shocked to discover there's hardly any research on this. But a few top veterinary anatomists got on the case, and this is what we've all come up with.

Dr Jonica Newby
The key seems to be this little muscle here. The levator anguli oculi medialis. And according to this bible of dog anatomy, it's a small, strong muscle that passes through the portions of the upper lid that bear the hairs designated as the eyebrow. Now it's unusual to call a little muscle like this 'strong', so that immediately catches the attention ...hello sweetie ... and its job is to lift the upper lid and erect the hairs of the eyebrow.

NARRATION
Now if you look at the equivalent muscle in the cat, it's not strong, and attaches all the way across the eye ridge. Which means the cat can't do much interesting with that muscle. Whereas the dog's levator anguli oculi medialis is perfectly placed to raise just one edge of its eyebrow. But the deeper why question is, why do dogs have this special eyebrow muscle, and most animals don't? Well the best theory concerns the evolution of social living. In general, the most social animals have the most expressive faces.

Dr Jonica Newby
Ooh!

NARRATION
One study showed foxes who hunt alone had about half the facial expressions of wolves who work in packs. In fact, in wolves and dingoes, the eyebrows are often even a different colour, exaggerating the movement.

Dr Jonica Newby
And the most intelligent social species, with no fewer than two muscles dedicated to eyebrow movement is us. And we like eyebrows. So here's my theory.

NARRATION
Because dogs have such expressive faces, and especially eyebrows, we humans feel intuitively we can read them. Whereas cats, who evolved to hunt alone, can barely even move their face above the eyes. We have to learn to read them.

Dr Jonica Newby
But people, it's not their fault. Cats are loving and lovable - they just didn't evolve proper eyebrows. Did you, sweetie? Mm.

This post was last modified: 07-02-2011 04:06 AM by Alison.

Here's the link if you'd like to watch the segment:
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/3257934.htm
Alison

Dogs suck. They're loud and don't bury their junk.

Cats are smart. They are clean and quiet, otherwise they would be lunch, and they know it. They know how to climb trees and hide. They are evasive as well as clean and quiet.

So that's why I don't trust cats! No eyebrows!

Imagine how Jean Harlow's and Marlene Dietrich's careers would have tanked if they hadn't painted on those little skinny eyebrows.

You can at least tell when a dog is worried, but all a cat has to give us a clue is those little stripes above where the bridge of their nose would be.

No help.

Dogs are like NTs in a lot of ways, but nicer. I like dogs better than I like people. I'm not quite a "Dog Whisperer", but I am good with them. I was one of those kids who occasionally had dogs follow me home.

I don't love cats, but I have a more natural affinity for them if that makes any sense. At one stage I had a girlfriend who lived in the US and I flew over to visit her for a couple of weeks. She was a cat person who lived in an apartment with 2 cats. One was a small, black male cat that was really anti-social (its mother was a stray) and which didn't like people - including my girlfriend. I got a hysterical phone call one time while I was at work in Sydney - the black cat was hiding under some furniture and staring at her and she was crying "my cat is evil and it hates me!!!". I made friends with it in a few days by behaving pretty much like a cat - being nice to it while taking the attitude of "I don't care if you want to be my friend or not" and barely acknowledging its existence.

Dogs are loud, but that's a good thing. Wouldn't you like a warning when someone enters your property? Besides, they most certainly bury things, almost habitually.

Also, studies of intelligence in both dogs and cats have been done, and frankly, the dumbest dog is smarter than the smartest cat. Besides, how many cats play fetch with you, or can be taught some fabulous tricks, huh? Plus, how many cats would fend off a well-built intruder?

To be fair, they are quiet, out of the way, evasive, etc. That much is true, but how useful is that in the average home filled with people the cat actually likes, assuming it likes anyone at all?

Dogs, on the other hand, are a pack animal, and know they are stuck with the people they got, so it's either get along or get bent. This may not always be the case with bigger or more stubborn dogs, but this is by no means the majority, not by a long shot. Cats, on the other hand, are picky as hell and would rather live elsewhere the majority of the time. There are friendly cats, I'll admit that, but in my experience, they are the minority.

In short, dogs>cats, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, 100 years a century, 10 centuries in a millennia.

And frankly, neither cats or dogs are clean animals. They're both dirty as they can get, it's just that cats are better at hiding it.

This post was last modified: 07-04-2011 04:25 AM by robexib.

I'm not a fan of dogs at all.  In fact, I'd probably be one of the few mentioned in the article that actually hates them.  To me they are the NTs of the animal kingdom, and I much prefer cats.  I might not know what cats are thinking, but then, I don't know what dogs or NTs are thinking either, despite their eyebrows.  I'm not a mind-reader.  You can be fairly sure you've got a friend in a cat if it sits close to you with it's back to you, to show it trusts you.  That's fine by me.  But I was born and bred on a farm,  and my dad and mum always made a point of: "humans inside, animals outside".  Although we had a cat door on our laundry door for our old cat Karla, she had the run of the house but preferred the outside.  
Alison

i find this fascinating!

Eyebrows, for me, i do not experience them as emotionally relevant from others and i cannot adequately produce my own eyebrow emotions that make sense to others.

It does cause social impairment but only because that is the standard, that people do read eachothers' tiny hair shape movements!

This post was last modified: 04-11-2012 09:46 PM by Rockie.

Never been a dog person, they are way too loud, way too social, and they come back to those who mistreat them. Mistreat a cat, and they have the sense to bugger off.

And I am sick and tired of seeing dog shite all over the streets. Its vile. If people are going to take on a dog, they should have the decency to remove dog crap and dump it in a bin somewhere. Kids could step in it, track it into the houses, or catch all manner of the most abominable pestilence. Plus dog shite stinks something hideous. Dogs barking does my nut in too. Although I have taken in a stray once as a kid.

They say that you can tell the caliber of a man, by how they treat animals. Good people are generally good to animals, whereas violent, thuggish types tend to treat animals the same way they treat animals. If there is one thing I hate, its animal abuse. Its on a par with rape and paedophillia IMHO.

I love both cats and dogs!