Human Variation

1. Environmental stress such as heat can be very detrimental to the survival of humans. Dehydration is a major problem in areas where the temperature is above average. Heat not only affects humans directly but indirectly as well. Extreme heats have caused famines and drought which have threatened human survival in the past.

2. An example of a short term adaptation for humans against heat would be sweating.

A facultative adaptation would be a tan.

An example of a developmental adaptation would be skin color.

Last, an example of a cultural adaptation to heat would be different clothing.

3. The benefits of studying human variation is that we can discover why so many different human traits exists. Also it helps us identify some ways to fight against environmental stresses. Information such as this is useful because different areas have greater environmental factors to consider.

4. Race would show that skin color is just based on the pigmentation of your skin. This is just a result of a human trait variation that protects from the sun’s ultraviolet rays. Environmental influences on adaptations are a better way to understand human variation because it shows a wide variety of ways that a human could adapt to a certain stress.

Language Blog

Part 1   

For this experiment, I tried to communicate with my cousins without using  hand signs or verbal language. I found out that this was very difficult and close to impossible.  Sometimes, I would mistakenly speak to get my message across or do some sort of body language gesture to get my point across. I was surprised at how much we are reliant on verbal language as a means of communication. The impressions of my partners were strange facial expression towards me.  They laughed because I communicating in a way that was not understandable. Since they couldn’t understand me, I told them about the experiment. One of my cousins tried the experiment as well and failed miserably because he didn’t even know how to start. The attitude of a speaking culture toward a culture that does not use symbolic language would be similar to the results of this experiment. The speaking culture would wonder why they would use the easier alternative of verbal language. In our society, people who are deaf have difficulties in communication with spoken language. As a result, we have to use different , more complicated means of communications such as sign languages.

Part 2

                In this experiment, I actually was successful in lasting the full 15 minutes speaking without any physical embellishments. However, the conversations felt very monotone and stiff.  It was a little less difficult then the first experiment but it had its own difficulties. Usually, I talk while making small gestures like a head nod or moving my hand. In this experiment, I found myself repeatedly stopping myself from doing these habits. I found that my partner was not able to clearly and efficiently speak sometimes in the conversation. For example, he tried to point to something but could only use his voice to show where it was located. This experiment shows that body language is just as important and as useful as verbal language. Body language allows us to infer many small things that aids in spoken language. One disadvantage of body language is that different people can misinterpret it. Be able to use body language is an adaptive benefit. For example, to avoid making a sound, two humans use body language to warn the other of a predator like a tiger. An environmental condition in which it would not be beneficial in reading body language is a natural disaster. For example, the panicked look a few peoples’ faces could cause confusion and frenzy.

Piltdown hoax

     The Piltdown hoax was when I fossil was found in the place called Sussex, near the village of Piltdown in England, was claimed to be a missing link between apes and humans. It was found by a laborer digging at Barkham Manor and he later reported it to Charles Dawson, an archaeologist. The scientific community was in an uproar. They were eager to see one of the most closest human ancestors. People at the time didn’t know much about early human fossils, therefore it was a really crucial find to them. When Kenneth Oakley did a chemical test to date the fossil, he found that it wasn’t as old as they thought. Further observations and tests showed that the fossil was just a regular ape skull. This impacted the scientific community by creating a diminished image of science. This made the public believe that science was less credible.

     The faults that come into play are curiosity and the desperation to find a link to human ancestors. These faults prevented the scientists from thinking logically and doing several examinations before claiming that the fossil was a link to our human ancestors. Scientists mistakenly concluded ideas about the fossil before actual evidence was looked into.

     The positive aspect of the scientific process that helped prove the skull was a hoax was the idea of trying to falsify the discovery. With another observation, Oakley observed that the teeth of the skull had been filed and it had been skillfully stained and boiled. The chemical test to date and authenticate the fossils helped immensely.

     Removing the human factor in science is very unlikely because it’s natural for humans to be curious and determined to discover and claim things without proper evidence. Removing the human factor would be ideal for science, because the error margin would be greatly reduced.

     An important lesson with this hoax is that scientific discoveries can be proven false and its essential to provide sufficient evident before any claims are made. This historical event shows how jumping to conclusion could devalue a science or argument.

Comparing Primates

Body Size and Sexual Dimorphism

Lemurs

a.       Lemurs are only found on the island of Madagascar and other islands off the east coast of Africa. Generally they live in trees or bushes.

b.      Lemurs range in size from 30g to 9kg. Also Lemurs are unique because both the male and the females are not different in size.

c.        In the environment, the larger Lemurs tend to be diurnal and eat leaves, fruit, buds, bark and shoots. While the smaller Lemurs are nocturnal and insectivorous. The smaller Lemurs have adapted by avoiding larger predators during the day by feeding in the night.

Spider Monkeys

a.       Spider Monkeys are found in the tropical forests of South America and Central America. They live around wet regions and are found on the top of trees.

b.       Male and female Spider monkeys weigh around 20lbs. Also female Spider monkeys are usually a little larger than the males.

c.       Since they have large sizes, Spider Monkeys prefer an environment   that has huge areas of forest.

Baboons

a.       Baboons are found in savannah-like areas and woodlands and hills throughout Africa.

b.      Different types of Baboons vary in size, but they range from 20 inches to 40 inches and ranging from 30lbs to 90lbs in weight.  Among Baboons, males weigh twice as much as females. In addition another type of sexual dimorphism that is present is color.

c.       Body size is an advantage to the male Baboons because of the competition for the females.  It determines the chances of mating among Baboons.

Gibbons

a.       Gibbons live in the tropical and subtropical rainforests from India to Indonesia and also from north to southern China.

b.      Gibbons weigh from 13 pounds to 25 pounds. They exhibit little sexual dimorphism.

c.       Their small sizes allow them to move around their environment and feed while hanging from tree branches.

Chimpanzee

        a. Chimps live in forest areas and in large communities.

        b.  A male chimpanzee weighs about 150 pounds and females weigh about 100 pounds. Sexual      dimorphism in chimpanzees are similar in humans such as shape and size.

c.  Chimps depend on their communities in order to survive in their environment.

Homologous/Analogous

1.a. Two different species that possess a homologous trait are humans and whales. The structure they have in common are the human hand and the whale flipper.  They are similiar in bone structure however whales use their flippers for swimming and humans use their hands for holding objects and other things like that.

b. The function of whale flippers focus on movement in the water. This trait is only found in aquatic mammals not on land. Human hands can be used for a variety of things such as throwing, pushing, grasping and etc. Human hands are not generally associated with movement as a means of transportation. Its interesting because the whale flipper or fin is extremely similar to the structure of the human hand but still has a different function. Whale flippers have a thumb and 4 other finger bones just like humans. Although the finger bones of whales are very wide and compact unlike the human hand. Also it contains less bones. The shared trait between the two species is different because they have evolved to be used for different purposes.

c. Their common ancestor was a land living mammal and we can confirm that by comparing fossils to the present day species.

2. a.  Two species that possess an analogous trait are birds and butterflies. Birds and butterflies both use wings to navigate but they are completely different in structure.

b. Although they have the common trait of wings, the butterflies’ wings are composed of tiny bones, completely different from the composition of a bird’s. Both species have responded to the environment by adapting and growing wings. They do not share a common ancestor but instead share a common adaptation to the environment.

c. If you go back far enough in time when they had a common ancestor, the common ancestor would probably not have wings because it would have adapted to a very different environment.

Protein Synthesis

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Historical Influences on Darwin

I think that Thomas Malthus had the most positive impact on Darwin's development of his theory of Natural Selection. Malthus introduced the idea of competition of the availability of resources to the scientific community. He argues that population size was held in check by the lack of resources. Malthus explained the idea of a decline of living conditions because of overpopulation which was relatively new thinking at the time."He blamed this decline on three elements: the overproduction of young; the instability of resources to keep up with the rising human population; and the irresponsibility of the lower classes."
(http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/malthus.html)
Darwin took this idea of the competition for the lack for resources and made his theory of Natural Selection. Malthus's idea was the basis for Darwin's work.

The points that Malthus was mostly related to his work were: the idea that all organisms have to potential of reproducing exponentially, what prevents organisms from reproducing at their potential, and that resources are limited. Malthus was not concerned about species change. Although, he insisted that the human population be limited because of the reality of limited resources. This idea became Darwin's key principle of natural selection, the fact that competition between individuals affected species.

Darwin would not have developed his idea of natural selection because competition of resources has to occur in the process of natural selection. Whether it be competition for mates or other resources such as food.

The church was highly against Darwin's work because it went against its teachings. Also Darwin's work went against the entire natural history of Europe. Eventually, Darwin went on to publish his book On the Origins of Species.