Human Adaptions

THE COLD

One environmental stress on humans is the cold. The cold can negatively affect us as humans in a couple different ways. The first and most likely cause of the cold on the human body is the restriction of blood flow. Through this reaction the body can shut down either by not enough blood reaching to the brain or even to the heart. This could lead to unconsciousness or even heart failure. Also due to blood restriction certain limbs may lose function such as the fingers, toes and even hands and feet.

SHORT-TERM

A short-term adaption to the cold is shivering; this allows the body to try to stay warm. It is the bodies attempt t staying warm.

FACULTATIVE ADAPTION

A Facultative adaption to the cold would be vasoconstriction, which is when the blood vessels constrict due to the temperature. This is the body’s natural response and is the reason for restricted blood flow.

DEVELOPMENTAL ADAPTION

The developmental adaption for colder climates would be that those individuals in these climates have more weight. They tend to be shorter and carry more weight in order to insulate more to keep in the heat. This is a adaption that has occurred over the generations due to evolution.

CULTURAL ADAPTION

Cultural adaptions to the cold include a number of things. First there the use of layering clothing, this is of course considered style, but is used also for the purposes of staying warm. The use of fire is also a cultural adaption. This tool that humans invented is used to warm up the body. Shelter is anther cultural way we defend ourselves from the cold. Blankets and other tools we have developed are also in this category. This list can go on and on, culturally there are many adaptions to the colder temperatures.

BENEFITS OF STUDY

The benefit from studying these adaptions to different humans stress on many different environments is high. The variety of climates allows us to have more accurate data in order to make conclusive statements. For example this data we have collected could come into use when someone decides to change environments. With this information they can be better prepared to go into that environment.

RACE

Race isn’t a good determination when it comes to understanding the variation of adaptions. Race would most likely come into play in the cultural adaptions of that specific race. Otherwise all of us can have very similar short term, facultative, and developmental adaptions. Thus using environmental conditions is a more accurate way to study adaptions in humans. It allows us to focus more on simply the body’s reaction, and not on opinions, which have their role in cultural adaptions.

Speech vs. Hand Gestures

In part “A” of this experiment I thought that it would be simple, but then again I’ve never really played fair when it came to Pictionary so right off the back there was a problem. It was extremely difficult for me not to use words to communicate what I was thinking. My hand gestures, facial expression, and body positioning were not enough to fully get what I was trying to say. My friends that I was talking to were frustrated at first because they couldn’t really understand what I was trying to tell them.  Eventually they slowed the conversation down so, we were not moving from topic to topic as quickly as we would normally. They would ask more simple questions that when added together supplied the answer to the more complicated question they had initially.

I believe that a culture with speech has a little more of an advantage in expressing complex ideas.  This however comes with specifics. For example they would have the advantage when communicating with people who communicate in the same way they do, and thus they could fully express what they mean, with a lower chance of misunderstanding. Where as a culture who only communicates to each other without words has a higher chance of misunderstanding signals. However, if these two cultures were to communicate with each other, even though it would be hard, the culture without speech would have the advantage. This is because through speech they wouldn’t necessarily understand each other, but some body movements and expressions are universal and so it would be possible to better communicate what they mean. 

Stating this however, in our culture there are those who cannot speak, such as the mute, some mentally handicapped, some who don’t understand a particular language. In these cases these people are looked down upon because our main culture is one of spoken words. By looking down upon these people it makes them believe they are lower then the rest, which is not true. Speech is not the only way to communicate, which I learned the hard way through this exercise.

 In part “B”, I had the initial impression that it would be easier, but let me tell you I apparently really like to talk using my hands, and changing volume quite a bit. I was not able to last the entire time, I was describing the book I was reading, and in talking about one of my favorite parts I couldn’t help but giggle a little bit. I love adding emphasis, so just talking was boring. I needed to add flare to my speech and so it was hard to just simply talk, nothing else.

My friends were kind of bored. The conversation got mundane, and eventually trailed off. I tried to start it again by talking about my book, but then broke the rules. Without me using excitement, sadness, emotion, or hand gestures my friends lost interest. Through this I can safely conclude that non-verbal communication is just as important as speech, because it is what adds that character of the person. It is what shows our humanity, one cannot exist without the other.

There are people out there I believe that have a difficult time reading body language, but it is mostly a natural instinct and we all do it to varying degrees. However those who can read body language really do have a large advantage. We give so much away in our non-verbal communication that we don’t even realize and so being able to understand what people are feeling without them having to say can be helpful. I cannot think of a situation where there would be a time that reading non-verbal skills would be a bad thing. In every situation that I can think of non-verbal skills are the backbone the meat of language, however one cannot exist without the other, speech and non-verbal skills go together. 

Piltdown Man: What a Fake!

        In 1912 in England, near sussex in the village of Piltdown, a laborer discovered what was thought to be a prehistoric pieces of human skull. The man then showed this find to Charles Dawson, an amateur archeologist, who believed that this piece could be just what Britain needed to stay in competition with the rest of the world in terms of prehistoric findings. He then contacted Sir Arthur Smith Woodward at London’s Natural history Museum to join him at the dig to perhaps find evidence of humankind's missing link. The seemed lucky because at the dig they found a jaw bone that both men said matched this piece of skull that they had found initially. Their luck seemed to grow when they found the creatures canine, which silenced all those who doubted this find in Piltdown. Later the men found a second jaw and skull in a village near Piltdown, which sent people around the world in an uproar. This was the biggest find at this time and the world thought they had found their missing link, and it was a prehistoric englishman. 

However in 1953 the announcement was made that the Piltdown Man was a fake. This news humiliated England and all those people who were so devoted in thinking that the jawbone and skull were genuine. However when they were dating the skull, it was discovered that it was not nearly as old as everyone had originally thought. The jawbone was also not as old as everyone thought, it was in fact just an old ape’s jaw probably from and orangutan. The teeth however were the interesting part. It was clear that they were the most fake, they were crudely filled down to match the distributed size and colored to match the color of a prehistoric fossilized tooth. 

Human nature is one of imperfection, and sometimes these faults find their way into the scientific community. In this particular case ambition, greed, fame, perhaps revenge, and anger also had some part in this discovery. One man thought responsible for this discovery was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. He was first considered because they felt he wanted revenge on the scientific community because they laughed at his belief in spiritualism, communicating with those deceased. However, if it was a prank geared at humiliation then he would have not let many men waste their lives on this project, he would have reveled that he fouled everyone and got the last laugh. The next suspect was the man responsible for the initial find Charles Dawson. As an amateur archeologist with a series of suspicious finds he had a lot to prove. He wanted to climb the ladder of scientific discovery and so ambition played a huge role. Today he still stands the most likely suspect, although we will never know for sure especially with his early death only four years after his discovery. 

However, even though science was initially fooled it was the scientific process that helped save sciences reputation. Hypothesis and theories must be tested, must be falsifiable and in that sense the Piltdown man could come through. First the bones were tested with a chemical to discover the age, and found to be much younger then originally thought. Then they were tested to see how much nitrogen they contained. All these tested were performed by Giles Oakley, he discovered that the skull wasn’t all that old, and the jawbone was one of an orangutan. Although this forgery lasted for forty years, it was still the scientific method that eventually proved it false. 

Although this was a tragic part of the scientific community it is impossible to remove human flaws. We can try to take away as much as human error as possible, such as by suing the scientific method, however it is impossible to do it completely. Even so, it wouldn't be prudent to do so, the good parts of human nature are needed. Drive, desire, hope, belief, and dedication are all human qualities that would be denied if we removed human nature. Without these qualities there would be no science, human kind would just be complacent with what we know, but as humans we always desire to know more. Unfortunately with the good always comes that bad, but that is why science has checks and balances like the scientific method. 

The life lesson I take away from this story is something science has always taught me, to always question. Nothing is one hundred percent accurate at face value. Everything desires digging and research and proving, nothing should ever be accepted, we should always question. 

Primates

Lemurs (Prosimians/Strepsirhini)-

Some lemurs live among the treetops on Madagascar, which is an island of the coast of Africa.  Others can reside in the dryer areas on this island. The trees of this rainforest are where these lemurs like to call home due to their strong hands and fingers that make climbing through the trees a breeze. The Lemur’s diet is mostly a vegetarian diet. They generally eat leaves, fruits and barriers but when the lemur cannot find foods that satisfy their herbivore diet they will occasionally eat very small mammals and insects. The Lemurs diet is highly influenced by its environment, residing in the forest surrounded by trees the lemur is constantly around foliage. It is also a smaller mammal that is constantly hunted by humans forcing it to be placed low on the food chain.

Spider Monkey (New World Monkey/Platyrrhini)- 

Spider Monkeys like to reside in tropical climates. Places such as the evergreen forest in central and South Africa. Spider Monkeys make their homes in the upper canopies of trees. In this location spider monkeys can hunt without the competition of other mammals.  Spider Monkeys diet mostly consists of fruits and leaves, sometimes insects. As with lemurs, residing in the upper canopies of trees, the types of foods closest in range and away from other forms of competition are foliage, berries and insects found within the plants and the trees.

Baboon (Old World Monkey/Cercopithecidae)-

Baboons tend to reside in Africa or Arabia, preferably on the savanna and other semi-arid habitats, although a few reside in tropical forests. On the Savanna baboons eat mostly grass, some leaves, seeds, various fruits and roots. Baboons will also occasionally eat insects and even go as far as to dig into the ground to eat roots deep within the earth when supplies are low. Baboons are even known to eat small rodents; lizards and some adult males can even eat larger prey. Baboons are larger and so cannot make it up into the trees, which is why they make their home on the Savanna. With their larger size, they have the ability to open up their diet to the animal’s allows grazing on the grasslands. In this way their environment influences their diet, because they must live on the ground they have more access to a wider array of foods.

Gibbon (Lesserape/Hylobatidae)-


These primates call the tropical forests of southeastern Asia their home. This includes islands in the area as well as on the mainland. The Gibbons find the like residing in the trees and rarely make it to the ground. The main diets for the Gibbon are ripe fruits, such as figs. They can also eat leaves, flowers, buds, bird eggs and insects. Again because Gibbons reside in the trees, their environment influences them to eat what is closely at hand such as plants, fruits and insects that reside in and grown on the trees.

Chimpanzee (Great ape/Hominidae)-

Chimpanzees live in the African rain forests, woodlands, and grasslands and can be found throughout many different countries in western and central Africa in climates ranging from tropical, humid rainforests to the dryer and more arid regions of the savanna and open woodlands. However Chimpanzees are mainly found in rain forests and wet savannas. The Chimpanzees diet consists of mainly fruit, whose type varies in accordance with the season in which they are most ripe. When food is scarce, they eat trees seeds, flowers and bark. They also eat a variety of insects, termites being the most nutritional.  Their environment influences their diet mainly on the seasons, when fruit is most ripe to when it is 

available.

Overall, the environment didn’t have too much of a great influence on the diet of these primates. In a sense it did, because those primates that mostly reside in the trees will eat more foliage, while those primates that have more access to the ground will expand to more meat. However the range is not that large. Mostly the environments influence is when the fruit and plants are in season to grow, and what foods are available when the fruits and plants are not in season. 

Analogy and Homology

Homology

Two species that share a homologous trait are the Porpoise and Humans. The porpoise is similar to a dolphin however tends to be smaller, has a rounded head and a blunt jaw and use their extremities to swim. Humans stand up straight, have two legs and two arms that are used to walk on land, but can also be used to swim as well. The feature that is important in the comparison with humans and the porpoise is the fin and hands, which stem from a common ancestor.

The porpoise flipper can be compared to the arm and hand of a human. The flipper is shorter with more restricted movements, where as the arm of a human is long, a little less then half the size of the body. The motion of the arm is numerous because of the many different joints. The flipper and arm however do share the number of flanges, which are five. However the purpose of these traits are quite different. The human use their arms and hands for tremendous activity, lifting, pushing, climbing, eating, and swimming. All these activities require different functions from the arm and hands, which is the cause for the great complexity in this structure on the human body. In the case of the porpoise, there are less requirements of the flipper. The flipper of the porpoise is mostly used to swim, and not really anything else due to the short nature.

The common ancestor between the human and the porpoise came millions and millions of years ago, but the reason we can tell this common ancestor gave them this homologous trait is because the similarity of the structure. Although the functions are not the same, the bone structure evolved and changed based on an original structure. The differences only formed based on environmental differences. 

Analogy

The two species that I choose for the analogous trait are a bird and a butterfly. The butterfly is part of the insect family, they are generally small however to vary in size, as well as shape and color. They’re look is based on their environment; the color of their wings is best suited for their environment. A bird also varies in shape, size and color. Birds however have the ability to be quite a bit larger then that of a butterfly, however both creators share the analogous trait of the wing.

The trait of the wing in both bird and butterfly allow the creature flight. In both creatures there are only two wings, on either side of the body allowing for the body to be the center of balance. Roughly the shape of the wings are similar, to engage in similar ways of flight. Although the butterfly is a member of the insect family and the bird is a member of its on class, the have both evolved using the same analogous trait, the wing.

Both the bird and the butterfly can be traced back to the time of the dinosaurs, in fact birds are said to be descendants of dinosaurs. At this time both ancestors had the ability to fly, however the question is if we go back far enough, does their common ancestor have this analogous trait of the wing. The answer is no, this trait was developed based on the environment, and because the structure is so different it is hard to believe that it came from the common ancestor. The butterfly has no bones in the wing, where as the bird has many bones. In fact the structure of the creature itself is entirely different so t

his evolutionary development with the wing was based on evolving in a similar environment.