I overheard someone pointing out how dangerous it is to sneeze when driving, and it got me thinking about the disadvantage we incur at times when we have both eyes closed.
My question is this - given the number of times we blink a day, is there any evolutionary advantage to a species which would blink with only one eye at any time (ie winking) unless closing both simultaneously was specifically necessary?
Are we more susceptible to swift predators as a result of the frequency with which we close both eyes, and is there any species which does its routine blinking with only one eye at a time?
Blinking happens so quickly, I can’t imagine even a swift predator would be able to react that quickly. And even if there was a predator that could react, literally, in the blink of an eye, I would think that winking might even be worse. For that split second it throws off your depth perception and requires you to refocus.