Human Variation & Race Blog

The environmental stress I chose is cold climate. When homeostasis is being disturbed, it can cause environmental stress that negatively affects the life of humans. Ways that negatively affect humans are by causing harm to their health.  The Body begins by shivering to maintain homeostasis, but shivering can be uncomfortable and get annoying after a while.  When the body is in the process of cooling down it’s a critical part, it can result in injures such as non-freezing, Frostbite, or hypothermia which can be deadly.  Vasoconstriction, which narrows the blood vessels also can be considered a natural response from your body to keep your body warm, but can also cause damage if it’s permanent. Shivering is a short-term adaption that we as humans use when confronted with cold climate.  Our bodies begin to shake during cold climate to try to warm the body back up; our body’s muscles have spasms that help to generate heat for a short period of time. A Facultative adaption that humans react to the cold climate is vasoconstriction. When the blood vessels constrict, the flow of blood is restricted, therefore retaining body heat. The development adaptation that humans use in response to cold climate is the body, shape and size. People that live in cold climates, have a tendency to be over weight to keep in their body heat.  When the fat is distributed around human’s mid section it tend to keep the vital organs warmer and uses the fat for energy.  Culture adaptation that we see in humans that live in cold climates is their clothing.  The humans that decide to reside in cold climates use heavy clothing, such as jackets, pants, scarfs, and gloves.  When studying human variation there are many beneficial outcomes, for instance we get to see how people that have adapted to the cold could survive, when being compared to someone who isn’t.  Adaptation of a group to there surroundings physically inorder for them to survive become what I consider a race.

Language Post

I found this assignment to be hard, to try to take part in a conversation where you only use hand gestures, noises, and our body movement.  My partner was my girlfriend; first I let her do all the talking asking me different questions. I would try to respond by using my head, body and pointing at objects with my finger. As expected she made fun of my expressions.  After a while of asking me questions that required me to basically use my whole body to express what I was trying to say, she started to ask simple questions that required me only to nod my head to answer yes/no. If we are to see two different cultures meeting for the first time, the culture who could talk and use their body language to express what they wanted to say would have the advantage.  For example Latinos that come from their hometowns to the United States, they don’t know how to speak the language English as well as their native language. Therefore they rely on gestures and body movement to understand what the people who peak to them want them to understand. In this case English is the disadvantage if the Latinos, but what if an American went to the Latinos hometown the same situation would occur.

I couldn’t complete the whole 15 minutes without using any body movement; I’m a person that uses my hands, and body movement to express what I’m trying to point out. During the experiment I noticed that when I didn’t use any gestures or emphasis on my tone of voice the story I was telling seemed dull. With this experiment I noticed how body language, gestures, or even noises make a difference when trying to grab somebodies attention, and how almost every culture uses body language, gestures, and noises when expressing themselves.

Piltdown Hoax

       
        During the end of the 1900's in a small village named Piltdown England, a great defraudation occurred towards the world of science. A Archeologist by the name of Charles Dawson, claimed to have been the founder of the first early humaniod ancestor in England, while digging in a gravel pit It was a big deal that this discovery was made, because prior to its discovery there were no artifacts being found around those areas. He continued this fraud by uniting a group of the best scientists that were acquaintances and know to be the best in their profession. The scientists were,  Englands leading geologist Arthur Smith Wood Ward, French paleonlologist father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and England's leading Anatomist Arthur Keith. These men worked and contributed false information that took 40 years, till the right science equipment was available to prove to be false.

         Charles Dawson was a man that was in search of fame and remembrance. He wanted to be remembered as a man that contributed to the world of science. Being an ambitious guy lead to him lying to his colleagues about the discovery of the humanoid ancestor. Even after his death his colleague geologist Arthur Smith Wood Ward still searched the grounds, in search for more artifacts, which he never found. His so call discovery was followed for many years, till science had evolve and is capable of properly and throughly check their work.

            Later in the years to be exact in 1949, when the world of science had the proper tools to determine an estimate of a fossils date. The tests consisted of Florine tests, which by measuring the Florine content they could determine a rough date for the fossils. By this they discovered that the jaw-bone was less than 100 years old and belonged to a female orangutan and not a human. It wasn't long before scientist and geologist realized that the bones were artificially stained, cut and shaped with a steel knife, and its teeth were filed down. Martin Hinton a volunteer worker was found to obtain in the trunk of his car more bones dyed the same way as the Piltdown Man.

          Even though the Human-factor such as the previous one occur, some important discoveries have been unveiled. I believe that the human-factor could not be diminished but kept under control. These Human-Factors are natural ocurring passions that may give a person a motivation but depends on the persons point of view. I would either reduce the human-factor as much as possible.      

Lemurs

Lemurs live on the island of Madagascar, a large island off the east coast of Africa. This island provides the lemurs with tress to swing on, making them arboreal. The lemurs tend to eat leaves, bark, fruits, and berries making Madagascar a perfect habitat for them. The lemur’s dentition is heterodent, meaning they have multiple tooth morphologies. Their dental formula is 2.1.3.3, 2 incisors, 1 canine, 3, premolars, and 3 premolars.The lemur’s teeth are perfect for grooming themselves due to the six comb-like teeth that stick straight out from their jaws. They also use their comb teeth to pick out seeds from the fruit

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Spider Monkey

The spider monkey is a new world monkey that lives in the forested regains of central and South America. Spider Monkey’s prefer to live in tropical rain forests in the canopies high above the ground, making them arboreal herbivorous, meaning they tend to only eat fruits, leaves, and nuts.  The spider monkey’s dental formula is 2.1.3.3; the dentition pater is 2 incisors, 1 canine, 3 premolars, and 3 premolars. Spider monkeys as some other monkeys are fruit eaters; they use their incisors to pick fruits off trees.

Baboons

Baboons live in east Africa, Kenya, and Tanzania. They’re very adaptable animals, they can survive without water for a couple days, or lick the dew off there fur if needed water. Baboons have powerful jaws and teeth’s and the dental formal is similar as the gibbons and chimps. The dental formula is 2.1.2.3; the dentition pattern is 2, incisors, 1 canine, 2 premolars, and 3 molars. Baboons are omnivorous, meaning that he eats both plants and small animals meanly due to its habitat. The baboons use their central incisors for cutting food, their premolars and molar for grinding and tearing of the food they are consuming and the canines is also used for tearing their food.

 

Gibbons

Gibbons are found in Southeast Asia. They live in tropical and subtropical rain forests. Gibbons have been considered endangered by many countries. They are omnivores, meaning that they eat both meant and fruits. Gibbons have shortened jaws with long canine teeth. Their dental formula is 2.1.2.3; they have 2 incisors, 1 canine, 2 premolars, and 3 molars. Gibbons lean towards eating fruits, which due to their habitat is everywhere.  The structure of their teeth has been adapted due to their environment, to help them eat their food.  

 

Chimpanzee

Chimpanzees are found in western and central Africa. Chimpanzees can live in dry savannas, evergreen rainforests, and swamp forests making them very adaptable to their surroundings.

The Chimpanzee, gibbons, and baboons share similar dental formulas. . The dental formula is 2.1.2.3; the dentition pattern is 2, incisors, 1 canine, 2 premolars, and 3 molars. Chimpanzees have 32 teeth; 16 on the upper jaw and 16 on the lower jaw. They used their molars to grind on leaves and fruits. Chimpanzees diet consists of meant and plants since they are omnivorous, making their teeth adaptable to anything.

When studying these primates dentition patterns, we can determine that the primates environment and type of food makes an effect on their dental structure. We see that Spider Monkeys and lemurs are new world monkeys and share the same dental formula 2.1.2.3. Both of them habitat in similar environment and eat similar food as well, forming their dentition corresponding to their natural environment. The three left also share common dental formula 2.1.2.3 making them old world monkeys. Their dental structure is similar due to the type of food they consume.