No, but Ants and Bugs with antenna were the first dowsers..
Eohippus are one horse ancestor.
Woodcock bills are sensitive and used without eyes to probe and "feel" for prey.. But then a woodcocks brain is upside down from other birds brain positions.
Robins exaggerate the hop hop hop pause and feel and listen. Why the hop?
Woodpecker thumps repeatedly and pauses for the listen. For a disturbance caused reaction of prey ( by the thump) struggle to excite the senses.
Sonar on ship is pinged out and awaits a return signal should something be struck with the outgoing signal. Not all that far removed in crude theory from a metal detector coils business.
Fish have lateral lines. Some visible.
Filleting fish ; shows bones that go from those lines to the spine. I don't know the correct term , we call then pin bones on panfish. Not to be confused with ribs which also meet spine.
those lateral lines detect vibrations. And help interpret them. Fish don't starve in stained water.
Perhaps too it is in part how synchronized swimming of masses of small fish can be fluid.
Catfish whiskers?
I've put minnows in with tank captives and it isn't a sight hunt. Yes catfish can see.
But once prey is touched to confirm the very important prior scent work the grab reflex is triggered. A greater trust and therefore success that visual. It's a smell (?) mechanism in excess of the scent ability that brought the cats position towards prey area.
I put a small bass in the same tank and it bounced around the glass in a full panic without needing secondary (beyond scent) confirmation of predators existing in the tank.
Of course the panic/struggle excited the lateral lines of any lateral lines.
The minnows would group in the slight current created by the tank filter and hold there. Not exciting senses beyond scent. Did the filter current confuse lateral line sense detecting the slight prey movement holding multiple prey in position? It was unrelated to the bass signal regardless.
Observing the above tanks contents without eyes would have numerous conflicting signals.
Even of the stationary non living targets. By their existence one way or another.
Human biofeedback/auras/phantom pains following amputation which I'm personally familier with are impulses played in a loop.
Why? Because nerves can be described as the brain is constantly sending signals and expecting them to return as reply. And when no reply arrives the previous reply is substituted.
I can feel what does not exist. Because to my brain it exists. Being that it did exist prior.
The relative that dowsed followed buried fence. (Age covered ) . And counted burial graves.
That's underfoot still.
It's also direct.
The instant anyone declares long distance signal potential without a conduit of water (here we are at over half our bodies being water and sensitive to equipment thumping above the water table a half block away because,,,Water.. Isn't the same as ferreting what is between us and the equipment doing the thumping.
We're not trying to locate the equipment. And the water was already dowsed ) it becomes a reach in more ways than signal.
And air for signal mobility is fraught with peril. And E.M.I. and a host of other interference, wobbly inference , and modulation. Getting stepped on happens with equipment well designed and powered for stability strength.
Our grounding vs the heavy equipment. We both thump and feel a guess of water depth as a backhoe thumps another stump far above the water.
But what's above the wet stratus still yards below?
The right answer should begin with , it depends.
Here there's rocks scattered in sand that doesn't suggest rocks. But to the blind not touching them they are. There. About this big. Solid. Uniquely out of place because they are ..There. About this big that one. Solid so they're not sand. Or gravel. Or clay. Or water. Or wood.
One of the dogs dug up ten year buried gloves I didn't know existed.
I lost a buried skull.
I'd asked someone to mark with a coin after I buried it after trying to bury it multiple places.( Frozen ground. Too big of roots. Ect,)
I never recovered it.
I metal detected and found a coin with no recovery.
I detected known prior disturbed attempt spots. I probed with a heavy rod. Multiple times multiple years. A pine board was also just below the surface after I was done burying.)
No no one dug it up.
Multiple times I located the same very small spot in that area of the property I buried a small amount of paint powder.
Hmm. I didn't try an earth compacting vibrating machine.
Nor wires . Something about that area which is clear of interference disagrees with my locating more than paint dust.
I did wire claim where the waterline is out front but didn't dig it up to prove it. Don't recall if I chased the gas line.
Before a friend moved he had my chasing a pond pump wire. Too deep really for a detector but too shallow for code of 48 inches for frost line.
I recall the wire uncovered in a spot and think I avoided cutting it. Unlike elsewhere.
But similar to a copper line to a no longer visible fountain. Underfoot all.
