Anthro101

Part 1: For the first part of this assignment we were required to not use verbal communication only hand cues and facial expressions. This was much harder than I expected for myself because it was tough keeping the conversation going. It was also hard focusing and choosing how to say what. A few times I found myself stumped as to what hand movements to make to communicate with my partner and that started to confuse them. For my partner they felt the activity was difficult because some times they weren't able to understand me and they also they also had  hard time finding new things to stay to keep the conversation alive. I found this particular part difficult because using spoken language is something we do everyday so to not use it at all was hard. In addition, finding other things to use in place of spoken word is very difficult because you won't get the same response as you would with spoken word. Keeping a conversation going on long without using verbal communication is the...

The Piltdown Hoax happened in 1912, when an amateur archaeologist named Charles Dawson was said to have found part of an human skull that was the connection between humans and apes. He found this discovery while digging under gravel near Piltdown, a village in Sussex, England, which is where the name "Piltdown" came from. A short time later he brought along Arthur Woodward to help him and together they found more skull fragments in the same area. The significance of this is that the archaeologists stated that the findings was proof of a human ancestor that lived 500,00 years ago. It also connected humans to apes because of how big the jaw was and how it looked like human teeth. The science community was torn between this issue. Some were doubting the truthfulness of the Piltdown man while others decided to believe because it answered the long-standing questions they had about humans and apes. Those who didn't believe it didn't really speak out about it because they di...

Blog Post: Analogy/Homology 1) a. The two species I chose that have the same trait happened to be dolphins and seals because they both possess fins. Even though one stays in the ocean all the time, and the other can come on land they have the same structures. Though, dolphins stay in the water they are not fish because they use their lungs to breathe instead of gills like fish. Dolphins evolved from land because the mammals were fish eaters and so, they changed over time. Seals are a cold-water species that can go and be on land. Seals happen to come from land animals too as some can walk on all fours. b. The homologous trait is the the flipper on the dolphin and the seal. This looks like a medium length triangular shape on the dolphin and a smaller triangular shape on the seal. Both traits are made with same skeletal structure with bone and the connective tissue. The dolphins use their flippers are a long length to steer while swimming and the seals are shortened and webbed to pro...

Blog Post: Historical Influences on Darwin The individual I've decided to list as an influence on Charles Darwin is Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. Lamarck was a French scientist who happened to be one of the primary people to suggest that humans came from a lower species and adapted over time. Lamarcks' contributions to science revolved mostly around his Lamarckism which stated that species change and become more complex as time goes on. He held theories about elephants, giraffes, and also humans and organisms and how they pass things on to their offspring and continue to change. Lamarck had many flaws in his theory because these species cannot pass on things the way that he stated they could. But he is respected because he was one of the first people to bring evolution into the conversation and he allowed others to come after him and build on what he created. From the bullet list there are many points that are connected to what Lamarck believed in, such as, "Individuals d...