968
Feathers?
(sub.wetshaving.social)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 26 May 2025
968 points (99.7% liked)
memes
15642 readers
4254 users here now
Community rules
1. Be civil
No trolling, bigotry or other insulting / annoying behaviour
2. No politics
This is non-politics community. For political memes please go to [email protected]
3. No recent reposts
Check for reposts when posting a meme, you can only repost after 1 month
4. No bots
No bots without the express approval of the mods or the admins
5. No Spam/Ads
No advertisements or spam. This is an instance rule and the only way to live.
A collection of some classic Lemmy memes for your enjoyment
Sister communities
- [email protected] : Star Trek memes, chat and shitposts
- [email protected] : Lemmy Shitposts, anything and everything goes.
- [email protected] : Linux themed memes
- [email protected] : for those who love comic stories.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Interesting thought, but don't penguins have feathers for insulation from cold weather so without the feathers they probably look less chunky.
Isn't it primarily fat rather than feathers?
They probably have some fat as well, but penguins are mostly insulated by their special feathers, which are adapted to prevent the cold water from actually reaching the skin.
Nah, you can look at pics of penguins that lost their feathers. Their body shape is from the fat.
They definitely do but my point was that the actual volume is from the fat so they are very much fat chonkers. The feathers are laid on top of each other to be waterproof so they don't really make up volume. You can check the pic below for reference (I am not sure how to add embed sorry).
Penguin feathers
I am not sure which would he primary insulator but fat definitely helps a lot and pretty commonly found in other animals for the same purpose. You can also see some featherless penguins in zoo are given cute little jackets lol.
their circulatory system is also pretty adapted for them, thier blood vessels usually can do countercurrent exchange of heat, rete mirabilis, this is common in cold adapted creatures. so they technically dont lose heat when it goes near the skin surface.
penguins do have one of the densest feathers per square centimeter of any bird.
Penguins without their feathers are still pretty chonk, and decidedly penguin-shaped.
Their feathers (adult feathers, anyhow) are actually rather short but their coverage is extremely dense. The feathers make them waterproof, not insulated. Their thick skin and layer of fat is what makes them coldproof.
It looks like me looking at myself in the mirror after a shower.