Many types of animals get hiccups besides humans. But all are mammals. A hiccup is a spasm of the diaphragm, and it seems only the mammalian diaphragm is susceptible. However, some amphibians have a similar reflexive gulp which leads some to suspect that hiccups are a vestigial amphibian trait. This is further supported by some embryonic similarities between amphibians and mammals. Another theory observes that only mammals get hiccups, and that babies and the young are especially afflicted, and suggests that it is related to mammalian reflexes that coordinate breathing and milk sucking.
The longest known case of hiccups belonged to Charles Osborne, who had them from 1922 to 1990 - 68 years. That would be about 430 million hiccups.
Brief and mostly accurate explanations of things.
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