Language Experiment

1. No Symbolic Language

A) I found this experiment to be both easy and difficult. It was actually easy to communicate or respond to many questions with gestures and body language most of the time. People knew how I felt about what was being said and I was also able to ask for things like a glass of water. What was hard is stopping yourself from speaking for fifteen minutes especially if there was something specific that you could not gesture to communicate.

B) Some people were up to the challenge and took control of the conversation and made statements or comments that I really did not have to respond to. While others who are naturally shy seemed lost without me helping them to be part of the conversation and did not have much to say.

C) If this was the meeting of two separate cultures it would definitely be the culture with the symbolic language that would have the advantage in communicating complex ideas. The speaking culture would definitely believe that the culture without a language was inferior and would need to develop a language or learn to speak to be worth communicating with.

The deaf seem to be a group of people in our society that have difficulty communicating with spoken language. Some people who are born deaf try to learn how to speak but most rely on sign language which can sometimes make it hard to communicate with many speaking people. It really does limit the speaking population from communicating with the deaf if they do not know sign language. Some deaf people know how to read lips but it is still difficult for them to respond once they decipher what the speaking person has said. In general I would say that being deaf limits that part of the population’s ability from having many relationships with or meeting many speaking individuals.

2. No Body Language

A) I was not able to last the full fifteen minutes using only speech for communicating. I like to laugh so within the first five minutes I smiled. Later at about the ten minute mark I used a hand gesture. When I communicate I use a lot of body language to get my point across so it was difficult to limit myself to only speaking.

B) The participants stated that I just seemed uninterested or bored by my demeanor and could not really tell how I felt about what was being said. They seemed to have a harder time coming up with things to talk about since they could not tell if I was interested or not. Also, they were ready to point out when I did not follow the guidelines of only using speech.

C) It seems that signs or body language is a very important part of our communication process. We need to know how people feel about what we are telling them. Without a reaction, we will not completely know how to proceed with the conversation.

D) There are people who have a hard time reading body language and those people miss out on simple gestures or habits people have that would let them know how people feel. If you are good at reading body language you can tell what people are thinking without them telling you or without them even knowing that they are giving their thoughts away. It can also help you know when people are lying or help you understand people better when they are communicating their emotions or feelings.

I would say if you were at a social event where you did not know most of the people there and everyone disliked you for no apparent reason it might be advantageous not to be able to read body language. If it was of no importance for you to know what these people really thought of you since it would not impact your life in the future, this would allow you to enjoy the party and go on with your life.

Piltdown Hoax Post

In 1912 Charles Dawson who was a lawyer by trade and an amateur archeologist found the remains of part of a skull in Sussex and the village of Piltdown while digging in a gravel pit. He claimed the piece could be of an ancient man and then invited Sir Arthur Smith Woodward who was a well respected geologist at London's Natural History Museum to dig with him that summer along with father Teilhard de Chardin. Dawson later made the huge discovery of a jaw bone that seemed to belong to the same skull. The discovery of this later dubbed “Piltdown Man” was thought to be the missing link connecting apes and modern man. People like Arthur Keith used “Piltdown Man” to support his theory that the big brain came before upright walking for humans, which has now been proven to be wrong. Still, the scientific community seemed to want to believe that the missing link had been found in England even though new discoveries did not coincide with the Piltdown find. Later in the 1920’s new fossils of human ancestors that lived hundreds of thousands of years after Piltdown man were found in Asia and Africa but these fossils looked less human not more human. Dawson had died in 1916 and Woodward kept on digging at the site in the summer for decades after until 1938 without any new discovery. After fluoride testing was invented full testing was done on the Piltdown fossils and they were found to be frauds. All the evidence showed that someone had gone to much trouble to pull off this hoax and forge the “Piltdown Man” fossils. Most people could not believe that scientific men of respect could do such a thing. The most obvious guilty party was seen as Charles Dawson who was the first and last person to find fossil remains at the Piltdown site. It turns out that he was also known to be a liar and a cheat before his famous discovery. Also, in 1975 carved bones found by a workman in an old trunk at the natural history museum and in 1996 they were tested and shown to have the same staining as the Piltdown fossils; the trunk was found to belong to Martin Hinton. There are still unanswered questions about the hoax but the most important thing was the lesson the scientific community learned about using the scientific method to be sure about any new discoveries.

There were many human faults at work here and the most important I think would be pride. National pride may have caused Dawson or someone else to commit this hoax just so the British people could say that they also had the remains of an ancient man. Germany, France, Spain and Asia already had claims to ancient human remains and Britain wanted to be included. There was also possibly the selfish and greedy need of Dawson or others to be in the spotlight and be accepted as truly great scientists which would give them much prestige. The last faults I will mention are just the plain lack of honor or duty of a scientific mind looking for truth in a world filled with mysteries and endless questions. Real scientists are looking for real answers and explanations, not a chance at undeserved fame.

The positive aspects of the scientific process that were responsible for revealing the fraud were the continuous testing used by the scientific method. In the scientific method you test a hypothesis over and over until you can say that you consistently get the same results. As new methods of testing became available, science and the scientists of the time went to work to test important theories or discoveries of the time. After World War II, fluorine testing was invented which made dating of fossils more accurate. In 1949 the skull was tested and showed that the remains were only about one hundred thousand years old. In1953 there was a full scale analysis that found that the Piltdown fossils had been stained along with the artifacts and the teeth had been filed down to show human type wear. The jaw bone was actually found to be less than one hundred years old and belonged to a female orangutan that had been altered to look more human.

You cannot remove the human factor from science and I do not think I would even want to remove it. It is the human factor that makes us curious about our surroundings and interested in finding the answers to all the questions we have about nature, life, earth and the universe. It is that curiosity and tenacity that makes human beings special and the dominant species on the planet. It is our intelligence as human beings that can also make us dangerous and imperfect but has given us all our success and a thriving civilization up until now. We cannot guarantee that a hoax of this degree will never happen again, but we can probably all agree that the human factor will bring us much more success in the long run.

The life lesson that we all can take from this historical event regarding taking information from unverified sources, is not to do it. I imagine that this major hoax along with others has caused true scientists to be very careful with any claims or discoveries that they announce to the world. It seems now that modern scientists find it an important point to check and double check everything until they are 110% sure that they have enough evidence and scientific data or testing to back up any claims or discoveries. Real honorable people of science do not even want to be mistaken for a fraud or an amateur as it would ruin their careers. Every new discovery and claim must have verifiable evidence and be tested again and again before it can be taken seriously or presented to the scientific community or the world.

Comparative Primate Post

Lemur

Environment

Lemurs are found on the island nation of Madagascar off the east coast of Africa and they flourish in the rainforests located on the east coast of the island. They have adapted to varying floral and precipitation conditions throughout the island and the dry western regions but seem to prefer the rainforest environment. They live in a harsh seasonal climate in Madagascar that usually has limited resources and unpredictable extreme weather conditions. Most lemurs live in the trees but some are terrestrial.

Body Size and Sexual Dimorphism

Lemur species range in size from the 5 inch long, 1.1 ounce mouse lemur to the 2 to 3 foot 20 pound Indri lemur. There were actually also 440 pound giant lemurs that have only recently become extinct on the island. Today there are about 60 different species of lemurs and they generally do not differ in size between male and females and are monomorphic.

Environmental Trait Adaptation

Limited food resources and very specific seasonal breeding along with small group sizes have been linked to the reasons why smaller lemur species have survived and why they are monomorphic. Larger animals need abundant resources as shown by the extinction of the giant lemurs which is not available in Madagascar. Also, adaptation may have allowed only smaller males in the existing species to survive therefore causing males and females not to differ in size in surviving generations.

Spider Monkey

 

Environment

Spider Monkeys are found in large tracts of undisturbed tropical rainforests from Southern Mexico to Brazil. They live in the trees where they use their long prehensile tail to help them move among the branches. They survive on fruits and nuts and help to disperse the seeds of the fruits they eat since they eat them whole.

Body Size and Sexual Dimorphism

Adult spider monkeys reach a size of about 20 inches long and a weight of about 14 pounds. They have a very strong 3 foot tail with a hairless tip that has grooves almost like a finger tip that they use for swinging in the trees. They have very long thin arms and legs that are the reason for their spider monkey name. They have very little sexual dimorphism and the female chooses a male to mate with from her group.

Environmental Trait Adaptation

Sexual dimorphism is not seen much in spider monkeys because the males do not need to be bigger to defend from predators or fight other males for the right to mate. It seems that living up in the trees and not being involved in choosing a mate made it useless for males to be larger in size. The environment does seem to play a big part in the lack of sexual dimorphism in spider monkeys.

Baboon

Environment

Baboons live in every environment in Africa and parts of Arabia. They live in the deserts of the savanna, in the Drakensburg mountains of South Africa, and the arid regions of Namibia and the semi-deserts of the southwestern Arabian Peninsula. They are omnivorous and can eat just about anything in their environment. Baboons can adapt to any situation and eat things from flowers, leaves, and seeds, to small animals that they can catch.

Body Size and Sexual Dimorphism

Baboons range in size from 20 inches long and a weight of 14 pounds of the guinea baboon, to 47 inches long and a weight of 90 pounds of the Chacma baboon. There is extreme sexual dimorphism in all species of baboons which includes size, canine development, color and some males have large white manes. For example the Hamadryas baboon is usually about twice as big as the female.

Environmental Trait Adaptation

Due to the fact that baboons live in harem type societies it is important for the males to be larger to be able to control his troop of females and be able to compete against other males for mating rights. They are also terrestrial animals and sometimes need protection from predators. For these reasons baboons exhibit sexual dimorphism that may have been influenced by their environment.

Gibbon

Environment

Gibbons are found in Southeast Asia and China in the evergreen tropical rainforests of the regions. They live in the trees and rarely are found at ground. Although they live in the trees they have not tails because they are actually apes. Gibbons travel through the forests by swinging through the tree tops. They eat a variety of fruits, figs, berries, leaves, vines, insects, and bird’s eggs.

Body Size and Sexual Dimorphism

Gibbons weigh about 20 pounds, are about 3 feet long and show very little sexual dimorphism. With most gibbon species males and females are about the same size with the exception of maybe the siamang gibbons, but even then the difference is slight. Gibbons are the smallest of the apes with long arms and legs to use for swinging in the trees. They are also known for pair bonding or being monogamous to their breeding partner.

Environmental Trait Adaptation

It seems that due to the fact that gibbons are arboreal with very few predators and the fact that they are somewhat monogamous, they really have no need for sexual dimorphism. There is no need to fight off predators and very little competition against other males so size does not seem to be an issue. These smaller apes are also able to survive with lesser resources in their environment.

Chimpanzee

Environment

Chimpanzees are mainly found in equatorial forest belt stretching across Central Africa. They are mostly found in dense tropical forests but can also be found in woodlands and swamps. Chimps usually eat and sleep up in the trees but they also do spend a good amount of time on the ground. They eat a variety of foods like fruits, flowers, leaves, insects, eggs, seeds and small animals. Their main predators are leopards.

Body Size and Sexual Dimorphism

Chimpanzees do have sexual dimorphism with the average male weighing 150 pounds and females weighing up to 100 pounds. They have long strong arms that they use to swing from tree branches and short bodies.

Environmental Trait Adaptation

It seems that spending time on the ground while having some predators may be part of the reason males are larger than the females. Males also need to compete with other males for females and the position of alpha male. Larger males can better protect their communities and allows males to compete for a better position in their community group. The chimpanzee environment does seem to have an effect on their sexual dimorphism.

Summary

It seems evident that the environment of an animal has a direct effect on their physical and behavioral traits. It is clear that the environments of the primates that were compared had a direct effect on the sexual dimorphism of each group. Primates that spend more time on the ground like baboons seemed to have more sexual dimorphism and larger body size in general than primates that spent more time in the trees. It also seems that primates in harsher climates like the lemurs in Madagascar were smaller in general and lacked sexual dimorphism, while the larger primates did show sexual dimorphism and probably have better resources for food. A lack of competition over mating or having females choose their mates also affected the lack of sexual dimorphism in some of the primates. In all, it seems that the environment of an animal has a great effect on their physical and behavioral traits.

Analogy and Homology

1)   Homologous Traits

A)  The two species for the homologous trait are modern man and chimpanzees. Both species are very similar in almost every aspect. Man and chimps have two arms two legs each with five digits. The skull and all the features like eyes, ears, mouth and nose are all arranged the same with similar proportions. Muscle groups and bones and all major organs are also arranged in a very similar fashion.

B) The homologous trait is hands with four digits and an opposing thumb. The hands of a man and a chimp are almost exactly the same structurally with four digits and an opposing thumb on each hand. Both species use hands to grab things and pick things up although humans are able to do much more delicate actions. Chimps seem to have much larger hands in proportion to their bodies with much longer fingers. Chimps not only use their hands to grab things but also to swing among the tree top branches. When it comes to the feet, the differences are much more noticeable between the two species. While human feet are made for standing and walking, chimp feet are built more like a second pair of hands that can also be used to swing and hang on to tree branches.

C)  The common ancestor of man and chimps is still a missing link but was most likely an ancient ape like creature. It is most likely that this common ancestor did posses this homologous trait of hands with four digits and an opposing thumb because it was passed on to both chimps and men.

2)    Analogous Traits

A)  The two species for the analogous trait are dolphins and sharks. These two species look very similar and live in the same environment but are two completely different animals. They both have similarly shaped bodies with fins and tails to swim through the ocean, but dolphins have a skeletal structure made up of bones while sharks have only cartilage. Dolphins also have lungs and need to breathe air through a blow-hole, while sharks use gills to extract oxygen from the water. Also, dolphins are mammals while sharks are a type of fish called selachimorpha. Sharks have even been around for about 420 million years when dolphins have only been around for about 10 million years.

B)  The analogous trait in dolphins and sharks is fins. They both have three fins and a tail (or fluke for dolphins and caudal fins for sharks) which helps propel them through the water. Yet, sharks use their tail in a side to side motion while dolphins move their tails up and down. In general it seems they use their fins in exactly the same way to propel themselves through the ocean waters, although they are completely different animals and species.

C)  To find the common ancestor for sharks and dolphins we would probably have to go back to an ancient early reptile or amphibian that lived on land or even an earlier sea dwelling creature. It might be possible that the shark’s ancestors never left the ocean while the dolphin’s ancestors did move to land and then returned to the sea as a mammal. It would be hard to find the common ancestor due to the difference of 410 million years of the existence of sharks and dolphins. Yet, I would still guess that common ancestor did have fins, because these two species have such a similar analogous trait.