Source: Our ancient ancestors 🐡
Connectedness is a biological imperative. That’s probably something you already knew. But did you know this primal instinct is over 500 million years old?
The earth was a very different place then, the continents mostly barren and lifeless, clustered together forming a supercontinent called Gondwana.
The real action happened in the oceans. Early ancestors of crustaceans and molluscs were beginning to emerge, alongside strange filter-feeding creatures, including one very important fish.
This ancestor possessed a rudimentary nervous system, a precursor to our own with a vital pathway called the dorsal vagus, finely tuned to trigger a fear response in the face of danger.
Then some 200 million years ago, as life ventured onto land, a new neural branch emerged in mammals. The ventral vagus brought with it the remarkable capacity to connect, communicate and forge social bonds.
You know where this story ends. With us. The things we think, words we say and how we listen to each other can all be traced back to this primeval nerve. It shapes our ability to move in and out of connection and the rise and fall of our moods.
Leave a Reply