Part 1:
This assignment was a lot of fun for me and I just happened to have my brother and his girlfriend in town from Las Vegas whom I haven't seen in over two years so I used the 30 (which in reality took the whole lunch hour because I kept messing up with the second challenge) minutes for this assignment with them as my partners in discussion. I did mention to them beforehand what I was doing so they wouldn't think I was just anti-social, my results were as follows:
This part of the exercise was fairly easy because I still could use body language and expressions. So when they would talk about something interesting I would still be able to point at the person speaking and shake my head in agreeance and open my eyes wide with excitement. I found that they did alter their way of talking to me but only in the sense that they wouldn't make eye contact with me unless they were asking me a question directly, usually only yes or no question however. The conversation during this time frame was after we had all gone to a baseball game, so the majority of the 15 minutes was spent discussing how excited everyone was that the Angels had just won. So again it felt like I was still part of the conversation simply because I could at least physically show I was excited without having to speak words.
The culture that obvious has the advantage of communicating was my bother and his girlfriend because they could speak words and phrases and have use verbally. So the conversation was more engaged between those two, and I felt at the end of the 15 minutes they got tired of me shaking my head vigorously with wide eyes and hands and fingers flying in their faces. Communicating is a huge advantage to understanding somebody and knowing that they understand you. I would compare it to someone who either doesn't speak English and all we can use is our limbs and facial expressions to possibly communicate, or even those that are mentally challenged we can't verbally communicate with. We usually have to gauge their attitude or responses to our questions with only their body language since speaking is too difficult to understand, or simply can't be done. I feel we are less inclined to engage in conversations with people in the above-mentioned scenario if we know they can't have a conversation back with us. Also infants would be a good example, we know how they are feeling because of their body language, or when their crying, but they can't have conversations with us so we don't speak to them unless it's meaningless baby talk to get them to smile.
Part 2:
This assignment proved to be a lot harder than I would have initially imagined. For starters, I kept using my hands and would have to start the 15 minutes over, or as my brother pointed out my eyebrows kept raising and my eyes would widen still. I didn't fully make it a full 15 minutes with this exercise, I just couldn't maintain not using expressions in this assignment, especially when it came to altering my tone of voice. I got nearly two sentences out and I would fail again. Over the course of dinner I only achieved 4-5 minutes of actually doing this properly. The monotone felt so uncomfortable and it usually resulted in all of us laughing and ending the seriousness tone. My partners were affected because they kept laughing at me and didn't want to hear my speak more than 5 words. When I would sit and just listen to them, they did not once look at me to ask me a question or try to get me involved in the conversation at all, when I chimed in with my opinions or thoughts again it would end in laughter and got me no where. This made it clear to me that being able to use signs and expressions was clearly a make it or break it deal on whether I was going to be construed as a fun person to engage in conversation with and they definitely made more of an attempt to "listen" to me when I could use body language and hand signs. The use of signs is obviously so important in our language, but I feel from this experience it's mainly from the voice tone. At one point I could keep hands and facial expressions in check, by my voice tone would still want to fluctuate big-time, but I noticed even that small minor detail made me a little bit more exciting to talk to.
I feel for the most part body language is extremely easy to read, I would compare it almost to sarcasm and whether you can depict when someone is using it. If it came down to not talking or using monotone the whole time versus sign and body language, I would truly prefer to use body language and sign language instead. A group of people who would not benefit from reading body language would be blind people, but that's being direct because they can't see obviously. An adaptive benefit to reading body language in one example would be for sex appeal. You can tell usually if someone likes you due to your body language and communication skills.
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Piltdown Hoax 05/13/14
In December 1912 in a little town called Piltdown located in East Sussex England a man by the name of Charles Dawson, an amateur archaeologist, had been handed fragments of what appeared to be a jawbone and part of a skull. When he himself later visited the site he found more fragments, alongside stone tools and animal fossils Although he did enlist the help of a few other scientists (i.e. Woodward) it was Dawson himself who found these fragments. The most incredible find was that of a jawbone that appeared to be "ape-like" but the teeth were stunning the scientists because they were flat like a humans; it was soon praised as remains of early humans and perhaps even, the "missing link" between the connection of apes and human evolution (the term "missing link" is now used relatively lightly since scientists believe there is not one "missing link" there is perhaps an "indefinite number of missing branches"). This was all later determined to be a huge elaborate plan to dupe everyone in to thinking they were the "missing link".
Arthur Woodward was a highly prestigious scientist back then, although his main expertise was of fish fossils, the people took his word of the findings at face value and had no reason to doubt his findings due to his reputation in the community. Not to mention most of the public was silenced after more fossils came to light further proving what the remains actually were and even if someone had doubts, you'd have to be a brave soul to challenge scientist of such high caliber. Arthur Keith was also a scientist who backed up these findings because they backed up his personal theory on human evolution, which is humans developed larger brains before being able to walk upright (which has now proven false and England has since found a fossil proving that the upright walked happens long before the brain enlargement).
The world was fooled for almost forty (40) years until further testing was done on the fossils by pouring fluorine content on them which proved they had been artificially stained by man, and the teeth that were such a key component had actually been hand filed down by something abrasive to replicate that of a humans tooth. Not to mention the fragments found had been manually cut by a human hand. Examination under intense microscopes saw the abrasion marks on the teeth from the filing. The jaw and teeth were not even the same age as the skull. Years later in fact remains were found in Asia and Africa that negated the findings of Piltdown and showed that evolution began with bipedalism and not the increased brain size.
In the end it's the pride and own self interest of some, yet to be proven, man(men) (although Dawson was suspected he's innocent until proven guilty) that led to this massive deceit for so long. They were so consumed with wanting England to be the point of interest for the first discovery of a break through fossil that would be the answer to human evolution that he/she/they didn't care about deceiving the public, that was his/her/their human fault. Some other faults that may come in to play is that they kept these remains under such tight lock and key for so long, that even those that wanted to do their own research on the findings were forbidden access to them. That to me can't happen as it disallows further testing to be able to falsify the evidence. I don't feel as though you should completely remove the "human" factor in science as it leads to new discoveries and hypothesis', but as history shows you can't take people (even "scholars" and "gentlemen" of science) at their word, you have to let the evidence speak for itself. Clearly in this case, proper testing was not done on trying to falsify these findings, even when doubts arose. This human error happened because of one mans greed and self interest, so for that purpose naturally the human factor proved negligible.
As for the life lesson taken from this unthinkable historical event, is that we must not take people at their word without proper and clear testing and evidence to support it. This post was kind of fun for me because I almost feel like I am being challenged as a hypocrite since I have always preached that in science "you need evidence you need evidence!" and here in this case, evidence was presented yet fooled so many for so long. Although early scientists such as Woodward and Dawson did not have the magnitude of resources we now have today, who's to say there's not some other scientist with ulterior motives out there waiting to fool us all?
Arthur Woodward was a highly prestigious scientist back then, although his main expertise was of fish fossils, the people took his word of the findings at face value and had no reason to doubt his findings due to his reputation in the community. Not to mention most of the public was silenced after more fossils came to light further proving what the remains actually were and even if someone had doubts, you'd have to be a brave soul to challenge scientist of such high caliber. Arthur Keith was also a scientist who backed up these findings because they backed up his personal theory on human evolution, which is humans developed larger brains before being able to walk upright (which has now proven false and England has since found a fossil proving that the upright walked happens long before the brain enlargement).
The world was fooled for almost forty (40) years until further testing was done on the fossils by pouring fluorine content on them which proved they had been artificially stained by man, and the teeth that were such a key component had actually been hand filed down by something abrasive to replicate that of a humans tooth. Not to mention the fragments found had been manually cut by a human hand. Examination under intense microscopes saw the abrasion marks on the teeth from the filing. The jaw and teeth were not even the same age as the skull. Years later in fact remains were found in Asia and Africa that negated the findings of Piltdown and showed that evolution began with bipedalism and not the increased brain size.
In the end it's the pride and own self interest of some, yet to be proven, man(men) (although Dawson was suspected he's innocent until proven guilty) that led to this massive deceit for so long. They were so consumed with wanting England to be the point of interest for the first discovery of a break through fossil that would be the answer to human evolution that he/she/they didn't care about deceiving the public, that was his/her/their human fault. Some other faults that may come in to play is that they kept these remains under such tight lock and key for so long, that even those that wanted to do their own research on the findings were forbidden access to them. That to me can't happen as it disallows further testing to be able to falsify the evidence. I don't feel as though you should completely remove the "human" factor in science as it leads to new discoveries and hypothesis', but as history shows you can't take people (even "scholars" and "gentlemen" of science) at their word, you have to let the evidence speak for itself. Clearly in this case, proper testing was not done on trying to falsify these findings, even when doubts arose. This human error happened because of one mans greed and self interest, so for that purpose naturally the human factor proved negligible.
As for the life lesson taken from this unthinkable historical event, is that we must not take people at their word without proper and clear testing and evidence to support it. This post was kind of fun for me because I almost feel like I am being challenged as a hypocrite since I have always preached that in science "you need evidence you need evidence!" and here in this case, evidence was presented yet fooled so many for so long. Although early scientists such as Woodward and Dawson did not have the magnitude of resources we now have today, who's to say there's not some other scientist with ulterior motives out there waiting to fool us all?
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Comparative Primate Blog
The trait I will be comparing among these five primates will be: Body size and Sexual Dimorphism
1. Lemurs
a) Specifically, Lemurs are only found on the Comoro Islands and Madagascar off the Southeast coast of Africa. Majority of Lemurs live in overgrown tree areas, i.e Rainforests. Lemurs eat mainly fruit and nuts and tend to eat mostly at night to avoid predators. Which is beneficial since they are nocturnal animals. Lemurs are also on the brink of extinction due to their habitats being torn town by humans (i.e. deforestation).
b) Lemurs can be as small as 1 oz. when born and grow up to 20 lbs in some cases. So not much bigger than a cat. They have a small brain to body ratio. Most Lemurs also have nails, instead of claws and use their "wet nose" senses. Their "hallux" is what allows them to grasp on to the tree limbs. Mostly Lemurs to have much of a sexual dimorphism in size and canine tooth morphology, but some species to have a larger females but the most common is the brown lemur.Their strong sense of smell is important in determining whether another lemur would be a good breeding partner. The female has social dominance.
c) The Lemur is able to climb trees with its small body and ability to climb. Since most of their food is in trees they can sustain being up there for long periods of time, especially during a fruitful season. This helps with their trait of being small because it makes them less accessible to predators. The larger Lemurs are able to spend more time on the ground perhaps indicating ability to fight off predators. When they were isolated on Africa, Lemurs were able to adapt without having to compete with such animals as monkeys and squirrels.
d) Male(right) and Female(left) Lemur:
2. Spider Monkey
a) Spider Monkeys habitat mainly consists of the evergreen rainforests, semi deciduous forests and mangrove forests. So there is a wide range of where you can find these animals from Mexico to Central America. They prefer to live in the upper layers of the forests and eat things such as nuts, berries, fruits and insects and in some cases bird eggs and spiders. Unlike the Lemur, they have tails that they're able to swing with fro branch to branch and hands that can grip.
b) The spider monkey has a slender body with long and narrow limbs. Their brains are less complex, their nostrils are further apart and the thumbs are not opposable. The Black-headed Spider Monkey is the largest of its species. Their tails are long and flexible and the skin on the tips of the grooves resembles fingerprints. There is not a lot of differences in sexual dimorphism although like the Lemur, the females are more dominant than the males and are usually the ones to scare off predators. Males tend ravel in packs while the female leaves the group at any early age.
c) Much like that of Lemurs, the Spider Monkey also gets most of it's food from the trees but unlike Lemurs must travel a further distance in search of it. Thus, with their ability to swing from their tails making them more agile animals and can move swiftly.
d) Male and Female Spider Monkey:
3. Baboon
a) Baboons are typically found in Africa or Arabia, preferring savanna and other semi-arid habitats, while some remain in tropical rainforests. Interestingly enough, Baboons seem to require habitats with water but they can also survive for long periods of time by just licking the nights dew from their fur.They are most adaptable of the ground-dwelling primates.
b) A baboon can grow anywhere from 50-100 pounds and live anywhere from 20-30 years. There are two main types of Baboons, the olive baboon which is larger and darker and the yellow baboon, more slender and lighter in color. The male is also significantly larger than the female, twice in size in fact. Females develop a longevity relationship with other females while males may live in several different groups. Females will also groom her relatives, mother and sisters. Male and female baboons started to walk on their hands to show that they were ready to mate in hopes of attracting the baboons that were not necessarily "sexier" but showed better traits for survival
c) Because of their standing on their hands mating call they learned to adapt together in their environment. As natural selection occurred the physical look of the baboons changed and they no longer knew the handstand meant they were ready to mate.
d) Male and Female Baboon:
4. Gibbon
a) Are very acrobatic and can be found mainly in Southeast Asia, in tropical rainforests. They like to live in the trees as well as most of the animals above and rarely go on the ground. Their diet is mainly fruits and leaves. When they are on the ground they go in packs, and always have their arms in the air for balance.
b) Gibbons are small animals anywhere from 24-36 inches tall and only about up to 18 pounds in weight. They have a mall head to match with very light bone density. Very long arms and a short slender body and no tails. Male gibbons are only a little bit larger than female gibbons. Gibbons are believed to (much like the penguin) form life-long bonds with their mate. Again, the female is the dominant in the family. They do things in pairs with their mates, so when one is caught without her mate the males view this as a free for all that the mate is not doing his job right, therefore offspring may be made with others than her mate.
c) Because the Gibbons are so small and can move in trees so extravagantly, predators are very unlikely to catch them. They like the Lemur, are endangered due to humans ruining their habitat. They do things in pairs to defend their territories and warn off predators.
d) Male and Female Gibbon:
5. Chimpanzee
a) Chimps can be found in 21 African countries and prefer dense tropical rainforests but can also be found in woodlands, swamps and savanna.
b) Chimps are the closest living relatives to the human. They are covered in black hair and have flat faces and forward facing eyes.Their ears, hands, feet and face are all uncovered though and have no hair. Male chimps however, are slightly larger and can way anywhere from 90 to 115 pounds! The female swells and that's when the males typically know it's mating time. However, females choose which male they want to mate with, this enables them to chose the one with the most dominant characteristics. A male must be extremely friendly for a female to chose him, and avoid copulation. The female also does not abandon her mate choice.
c) Chimps are very closely and rely on their communities for food and survival.
d) Male and Female Chimpanzee:
In conclusion, the one thing I found regarding the majority of these primates is that they are all tree climbers and have characteristics that allow them to swing from trees, live in the trees and harvest the food there. They all seem to be very family orientated and remain close to their relatives for long, if not for their full lives. Many of these animals seem to be on the brink of extinction however simply because of humans coming in and taking over their territory and deforesting their lands and homes. All of them can stand on two feet and use their eyes far less as a means to survival than humans do. Because the majority of them do not grow to be very big, they depend on these trees for survival.
1. Lemurs
a) Specifically, Lemurs are only found on the Comoro Islands and Madagascar off the Southeast coast of Africa. Majority of Lemurs live in overgrown tree areas, i.e Rainforests. Lemurs eat mainly fruit and nuts and tend to eat mostly at night to avoid predators. Which is beneficial since they are nocturnal animals. Lemurs are also on the brink of extinction due to their habitats being torn town by humans (i.e. deforestation).
b) Lemurs can be as small as 1 oz. when born and grow up to 20 lbs in some cases. So not much bigger than a cat. They have a small brain to body ratio. Most Lemurs also have nails, instead of claws and use their "wet nose" senses. Their "hallux" is what allows them to grasp on to the tree limbs. Mostly Lemurs to have much of a sexual dimorphism in size and canine tooth morphology, but some species to have a larger females but the most common is the brown lemur.Their strong sense of smell is important in determining whether another lemur would be a good breeding partner. The female has social dominance.
c) The Lemur is able to climb trees with its small body and ability to climb. Since most of their food is in trees they can sustain being up there for long periods of time, especially during a fruitful season. This helps with their trait of being small because it makes them less accessible to predators. The larger Lemurs are able to spend more time on the ground perhaps indicating ability to fight off predators. When they were isolated on Africa, Lemurs were able to adapt without having to compete with such animals as monkeys and squirrels.
d) Male(right) and Female(left) Lemur:
2. Spider Monkey
a) Spider Monkeys habitat mainly consists of the evergreen rainforests, semi deciduous forests and mangrove forests. So there is a wide range of where you can find these animals from Mexico to Central America. They prefer to live in the upper layers of the forests and eat things such as nuts, berries, fruits and insects and in some cases bird eggs and spiders. Unlike the Lemur, they have tails that they're able to swing with fro branch to branch and hands that can grip.
b) The spider monkey has a slender body with long and narrow limbs. Their brains are less complex, their nostrils are further apart and the thumbs are not opposable. The Black-headed Spider Monkey is the largest of its species. Their tails are long and flexible and the skin on the tips of the grooves resembles fingerprints. There is not a lot of differences in sexual dimorphism although like the Lemur, the females are more dominant than the males and are usually the ones to scare off predators. Males tend ravel in packs while the female leaves the group at any early age.
c) Much like that of Lemurs, the Spider Monkey also gets most of it's food from the trees but unlike Lemurs must travel a further distance in search of it. Thus, with their ability to swing from their tails making them more agile animals and can move swiftly.
d) Male and Female Spider Monkey:
3. Baboon
a) Baboons are typically found in Africa or Arabia, preferring savanna and other semi-arid habitats, while some remain in tropical rainforests. Interestingly enough, Baboons seem to require habitats with water but they can also survive for long periods of time by just licking the nights dew from their fur.They are most adaptable of the ground-dwelling primates.
b) A baboon can grow anywhere from 50-100 pounds and live anywhere from 20-30 years. There are two main types of Baboons, the olive baboon which is larger and darker and the yellow baboon, more slender and lighter in color. The male is also significantly larger than the female, twice in size in fact. Females develop a longevity relationship with other females while males may live in several different groups. Females will also groom her relatives, mother and sisters. Male and female baboons started to walk on their hands to show that they were ready to mate in hopes of attracting the baboons that were not necessarily "sexier" but showed better traits for survival
c) Because of their standing on their hands mating call they learned to adapt together in their environment. As natural selection occurred the physical look of the baboons changed and they no longer knew the handstand meant they were ready to mate.
d) Male and Female Baboon:
4. Gibbon
a) Are very acrobatic and can be found mainly in Southeast Asia, in tropical rainforests. They like to live in the trees as well as most of the animals above and rarely go on the ground. Their diet is mainly fruits and leaves. When they are on the ground they go in packs, and always have their arms in the air for balance.
b) Gibbons are small animals anywhere from 24-36 inches tall and only about up to 18 pounds in weight. They have a mall head to match with very light bone density. Very long arms and a short slender body and no tails. Male gibbons are only a little bit larger than female gibbons. Gibbons are believed to (much like the penguin) form life-long bonds with their mate. Again, the female is the dominant in the family. They do things in pairs with their mates, so when one is caught without her mate the males view this as a free for all that the mate is not doing his job right, therefore offspring may be made with others than her mate.
c) Because the Gibbons are so small and can move in trees so extravagantly, predators are very unlikely to catch them. They like the Lemur, are endangered due to humans ruining their habitat. They do things in pairs to defend their territories and warn off predators.
d) Male and Female Gibbon:
5. Chimpanzee
a) Chimps can be found in 21 African countries and prefer dense tropical rainforests but can also be found in woodlands, swamps and savanna.
b) Chimps are the closest living relatives to the human. They are covered in black hair and have flat faces and forward facing eyes.Their ears, hands, feet and face are all uncovered though and have no hair. Male chimps however, are slightly larger and can way anywhere from 90 to 115 pounds! The female swells and that's when the males typically know it's mating time. However, females choose which male they want to mate with, this enables them to chose the one with the most dominant characteristics. A male must be extremely friendly for a female to chose him, and avoid copulation. The female also does not abandon her mate choice.
c) Chimps are very closely and rely on their communities for food and survival.
d) Male and Female Chimpanzee:
In conclusion, the one thing I found regarding the majority of these primates is that they are all tree climbers and have characteristics that allow them to swing from trees, live in the trees and harvest the food there. They all seem to be very family orientated and remain close to their relatives for long, if not for their full lives. Many of these animals seem to be on the brink of extinction however simply because of humans coming in and taking over their territory and deforesting their lands and homes. All of them can stand on two feet and use their eyes far less as a means to survival than humans do. Because the majority of them do not grow to be very big, they depend on these trees for survival.
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Homologous/Analogous Traits
HOMOLOGOUS:
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1. For your homologous traits provide the following information:
(a) I chose the Cat and the Dog as my homologous example because of their paws.
(b) The homologous trait in each of these species is of course, their paws. The cat however comes from the feline species while the dog comes from the canine species. Although it is noted that a big differences in these species is of course their size and bone structure, dogs are usually known to be much larger animals and cats usually always small and petite. Also you will notice that the dogs ears are sometimes bent and slumped over, while the cats never are. When it comes to their paws, cats use their nails to scratch at things and catch prey (i.e. mice, birds, etc) and they are able to climb up trees with ease, while the dog cannot.
(c) The ancestors of cats and dogs is most likely to have been linked to ancient "carnivoraformes" from millions of years ago. Fossils of teeth were discovered *1. (" Dormaalocyon’s teeth places it very close to the carnivoraforms’ evolutionary roots.) as well as samples of their vertebrates concluding it was a tree-hopper.
(d) Cat Paw:
Dog Paw:
Works Cited
*1. Francisco, Mikael Angelo. Cats and dogs had a common ancestor, and here it is. GMA Network. 15 January 2014. Web. 1 May 2014.
ANALOGOUS:
2. For your analogous traits provide the following information:
(a ) I chose the Turtle and the Snail as my analogous example because of their shells.
(b) Both of these animals have a shell that encompasses their bodies. I myself have two red-eared slider turtles and I am always curious as to their ancestor species. Turtles are considered reptiles while the snail is not. Snails seem to maintain a very small shape while the turtles can grow to be up to 200 lbs. Snails are classified as slugs and not reptiles but more on the non-shelled monopod, molluscs and annelids spectrum. The snail shell is secreted by specialized glands while the turtle shell is considered skin-like.
(c) My research has shown that earlier reptiles did not possess the shell, but was considered "Odontochelys semitestac". Turtles ribs have broadened over generations which have evoled from previous anatomicall structures, yet it remains one of the most fascinating things to zoologists. Snails have formed from the annelid worm ancestry. Perhaps the shells weren't evolved back then because the protection wasn't required and their muscles and vertebrates didn't evolve enough.
(d)
My own two red-eared sliders at home in fact:
Snail Shell:
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