Week 7: Language Assignment Experiment

Part 1

This part was hard but fun. Figuring out how to make my point come across or answer a question without verbal communication was challenging but found myself laughing a lot; and then starting over because laughing is verbal communication. My partners also tried it and found it to be the same, fun but difficult. I assume this is how it would have been before sign language was invented. Wonder how many ideas or plans went in the opposite direction!

Part 2

This one I found to be hard. I didn’t realize before how much I used my body to help communicate my feelings, ideas etc. I knew I wasn’t one of those people that used their hands a lot but I didn’t realize how many facial expressions I used. Even just raising my eyebrows or shaking my head yes or no was so obvious after just a few seconds. I can't imagine anyone not using their body to communicate. Even a non vocal communication of an eyebrow raise or a sneer, it was eye opening. My partners said it was odd to witness, even if it was only for a few seconds, it isn’t what people are use to. They also tried this and none of them could do it for more than a minute. What a boring way to communicate.

Week 5 Piltdown Hoax Blog Post

1.   In 1912, amateur archeologist Charles Dawson reportedly found a fossil, part of a jawbone with two teeth that was believed to be dated a million years ago. This was a huge find, never before had ancient human remains been found in England. They had been found in other parts of the world, but not in England. Dawson invited leading Geologist Arthur Smith Woodward and French Paleontologist Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin to join him at the gravel pit at Piltdown, East Sussex England where the partial jawbone had been recovered. Other pieces of what was believed to be early human remains and animal fossils were found, mostly by Dawson, until Dawson’s death in 1916. After his death, no other fossils were found at the site.

   The scientific community was excited about the discovery, especially Anthropologist Arthur Keith who was thrilled about the finding because it supported his personal belief that humans had developed bigger brains prior to walking upright. It was a great feather in England’s cap and for England’s scientific community and a great headline grabber. The “missing link” had been found!

   From the beginning some scientists were skeptical about the find but only a few people were allowed to examine the fossils and no one was outwardly expressing their doubts. In 1949, scientists conducted tests on the fossils using fluorine testing which determines how long an object has been underground. It was discovered that the fossils were much younger than they were thought to be, approx. 100,00 years old compared to the 1 millions years old previously thought. In 1953 a full-scale analysis was conducted using better dating methods. It was discovered that the staining on the bones was superficial and that a steal knife was probably used to cut them. The two teeth on the jaw showed signs of being ground down instead of worn down naturally. The jawbone was found to be of a female orangutan that had been cut to hide the fact that the bones would not have fit an ancient human and so it would not be seen as coming from an ape. It was determined that someone had forged the fossils to look like an ancient find.

2.   I think the human faults that played into the hoax were hope, excitement and luck and pride. As previously stated, no findings of early humans had been found in England, scientists were very excited and proud that they could share in the other countries discoveries. It gave clout to English scientists, made headlines. If the small doubt that some of the people had would have been voiced better, this hoax may never have gone on for so long. If up to that point in time findings were pointing to other directions and suddenly these findings point into a totally different direction, some scientific analysis should have been conducted to try and prove it wrong. Especially in the case of Arthur Keith, he would have wanted his personal thought regarding brain size being before standing upright to be true, his human emotions won out over his scientific background.

3.   The scientific process that was responsible for bringing the hoax to light was the fluorine testing and the later dating analysis conducted. They took the hypothesis that the fossils were what they seemed to be a proved it wrong.

4.   I’m not sure that you could remove the human factor from science, or that you would want to. I think the human factor is important, we aren’t machines and the fact that we are human is why we want to find the answers to the questions of where did we come from etc. Machines don’t care don’t feel. The scientific method is in place to ensure accurate results. Unfortunately the scientific method was not conducted in the beginning when the Piltdown man was discovered. If it had been and the last step publicized the hoax would have/could have been avoided and any research that was halted would have resumed.

5.   It’s a nice thought to be able to believe everything that you hear or that is told to you but unfortunately this can’s always be the case. It is important to act on suspicion and prove things to be true or you can end up hurt and embarrassed.

Week 4 Comparative Primate Blog Post

Lemurs:

Madagascar and the tiny Comoro Islands provide the world’s only present day native habitat to lemurs, where they do not have to contend with competition from the more advanced non-human primates.

Most lemurs are arboreal; they tend to spend most of their time in the trees and bushes. Only the Ringtail lemur spends most of its time on the ground.

Body size varies greatly within lemurs, there are over 100 species, but they are typically monomorphic in body weight and size. It can be very difficult to tell the difference between males and females.

 Most lemur species lack sexual dimorphism. When there is, the female is usually larger. Their social structure and interaction are female dominated which is different from other primates. Some of the theories as to why there is little sexual dimorphism suggest that environment played a role due to the extinction of predatory birds.

file:///Users/diane/Desktop/Lemur-catta.jpg

Spider Monkey:

Spider monkeys, like lemurs, are arboreal. They thrive in the upper canopy of the tropical forests from southern Mexico to Brazil.  Their societies are sex segregated where males are dominant to females. The males are more aggressive and more socially cohesive than females. They are also more territorial. 

They range from 18 to 25 inches in height and from 10 to 19 pounds in weight. Due to the relative absence of sexual dimorphism, males and females are roughly the same size.

Baboon:

Baboons are found in almost every habitat across Africa. They are extremely adaptable animals. They prefer semi arid habitats like the savannas, but some live in tropical forests. They require good water sources and safe sleeping places either in tall trees or on cliff faces.

In all baboon species there is pronounced sexual dimorphism, usually in size but also sometimes in color or canine development. Male baboons body mass is up to twice that of the females. There are also obvious differences in facial features such as the rostrum surrounding the upper canines.

In a species where males face a lot of competition for access to mates, larger body size is one trait that can offer a selective advantage. Sexual dimorphism is a result of mating pressure.

Gibbon:

Gibbons are small sized apes that live in the dense jungles and tropical rain forests across Southeast Asia. They spend most of their time in the trees. There is plenty of food in the trees for them and are a safe distance from predators.

Most adults are small and light weight in size, around 3 feet tall and between 13 to 20 pounds in weight. Males are slightly larger than females. Gibbons have little sexual dimorphism in body size with the exception to the siamang’s species.

Gibbons are the only ape that is monogamous in their mating patters and form a nuclear family group.

Chimpanzee:

Chimpanzees are found across a west-east belt in Africa. Their range spans 22 countries. They live in a wide variety of habitats including dry savannas, evergreen forests, mountain forests, swamp forests and dry woodlands. They are quite adaptable creatures.

Chimpanzees are slightly sexually dimorphic, 

males and females look much the same except the males average weight is 88 to 132 pounds and females average between 70 to 104 pounds. Males and females have an average height of almost 3 feet tall. Both sexes have the same black hair covering their bodies with white beards, pale faces and prominent ears.

Week 3 Analogy/Homology Blog Post

Week 3: Analogy/Homology Blog Post

1. 

A) I chose the horse and the zebra for Homology.

A horse is a plant-eating mammal with a flowing mane and tail.

A zebra is an African wild horse with black and white stripes.

B) Both animals have manes and tails. A horse’s mane, if left to grow is long and flowing where as a zebra’s mane is short, mowhawk like, coarse hair that is striped. Horses are mainly domesticated and zebras are not. The most common difference is the zebra’s stripes. Different horse breeds have different coat colors and patterns but none possess the stripes of a zebra. Unless a unique breeding occurs and then a hybrid is born.

C) Animals in the genus Equus have evolved over millions of years from a deer like animal, the proto-horse, with four toes, to the species we know today that are single toed hooved animals. 

            



2.                 

A) I chose the dolphin and shark for analogy.

Sharks are long bodied marine fish that are predatory.

Dolphins are small marine toothed whales that have beaklike snouts and are social.

 B) Both sharks and dolphins have streamlined bodies, side fins and a triangular dorsal fin. The dorsal fin is necessary for larger sea animals for stability. Both species live in the ocean and prefer warmer waters. Both are predators, hunt fish and swallow their food whole. Both sharks and dolphins are fast proficient swimmers and sharks have been known to breach the water like dolphins do. The reason these two species have analogous traits is due to convergent evolution. They have had to adapt to their water environments.

 C)From what I have read, the common ancestor between sharks and dolphins is a mystery. They didn’t inherit their similar body shapes etc. from a common ancestor.

 


 

     

Week 2 Protein Synthesis
Here is my sentence:

CAATACACCTAAGACGGCAGTGTCTGACCGCTTTTAATCCGT

   In 1798 English economist and ordained minister, Thomas Malthus wrote "Essay on the Principle of Population." The central theme of Malthus' work was that populations increase at a faster rate than resources do. Malthus recognized that in non human population size is always limited by the amount of available food and water. He also believed that hunger and disease were aspects of life implemented by God to stop populations from exploding. Those that were less able would die out, leaving the stronger and the ones with more desirable traits to survive. Darwin read Malthus' work and developed his theory of natural selection. He applied Malthus' ideas to populations of all species and came up with the idea of "survival of the fittest."
   Malthus' work demonstrated how resources are limited, how the planet does not have enough resources for any organism/species to over produce/populate and survive.
   Darwin was influenced by many. But it was after he read Malthus' works that he came up with a theory that he could work by, making Malthus the most influential person to Darwin.
Darwin didn't publish his hypothesis right away. For one he didn't think he had enough data to support it. But his most pressing reason for not publishing was that his work was controversial for the time. There were strong religious convictions and his evolutionary theory went against the churches' beliefs.
http://evolution.about.com/od/Darwin/tp/People-Who-Influenced-Charles-Darwin.htm