Language Post

In Part One of the Language experiment, when I was asked to speak without using symbolic language, I found it very difficult. I could only explain things to a bare minimum and was unable to describe anything specifically. For example, I gestured that I was looking for somebody, but I could not even describe that it was a person that I was looking for, so my friend who helped participate in the assignment believed that I was just looking for something and had no idea what it was.

My friends participating in the experiment were not able to say much in return because they found it very difficult to understand what I was trying to communicate to them.

If my partners and I represented two different cultures, I believe that the culture that actually uses symbolic language has the advantage because, as previously stated, it is very difficult to communicate without it. Those who use the symbolic language would find a culture who didn't use it to be very primitive, and probably not even bother to try to communicate with the other culture because it would be very difficult and time consuming. Individuals who are mute and/or deaf would have a difficult time communicating with others who use spoken language. It would be the same for pretty much any other person who doesn't know how to speak english in America.

In Part Two of the experiment, when I was asked to speak without physical embellishments, it was very difficult to last the whole 15 minutes because it was very unnatural for me. It required me to focus completely on speech which is not normal for anybody. I found it almost as difficult as trying to speak a foreign language, and I kept forgetting what I was talking about and how I felt about what I was talking about.

My partners involved in the experiment became very bored and eventually wanted me to just stop because the had no idea how I felt about the subject that I was talking about (the events of my day).

This experiment shows that the use of, "signs" are very important in communication because you can convey emotions without having to state them, and it also makes conversation more interesting for the people who are listening.

Yes, there are people who have difficulty reading body language, and even using body language. If you possess the ability to read body language you can understand a lot more about the emotions that are trying to be conveyed within that body language.

I believe the only time that there would be a benefit to not reading body language would be if the person is trying to hide something or lying about something.

Piltdown Hoax

1. The Piltdown hoax began in 1912 in Piltdown in England.  The founder of the fossils was Charles Dawson who found what seemed to be fragments of an ancient human skull.  The scientific community was amazed because it was the first human fossil found in England, and it seemed to be older than any fossil found in other countries.  The turning point in the discovery of the hoax was in 1949, but the first full scale analysis of the fossil fragments was in 1953.  They discovered that the fossils were artificially stained and that the teeth were filed down.  They also discovered that the jaw bone belonged to a female orangutan that was less than 100 years old.

2.  Even though scientists can be considered curious, creative, and persistent, they are also trying to gain scientific prestige.  The scientists involved in the Piltdown hoax had no other way of gaining said prestige unless they lied, cheated, and were deceptive.  These faults negatively impacted the scientific process because it caused several scientists to research the hoax for more than 40 years.

3. In 1949, scientists used a fluorine test to attempt to date the fossils.  They found that the fossils were relitively young.  In 1953, when scientists ran their first full scale analysis with better dating methods, they easily saw that the fragments were artificially stained.  When the scientists looked at the teeth in the jaw bone under a microscope they found that the teeth were filed down.

4. No, not at this time because we are the smartest beings in existence, and there is nothing more knowledgable at this point to reduce errors in the scientific process.  I would not want to completely remove the "human" factor because I believe that without humans there would be no science in the first place.  It is sad that scientists would reduce themselves to lying and cheating to gain prestige.  Unfortunately, at this time there is no way to eliminate the "human" factor.

5.  I was very surprised while learning about the Piltdown hoax and I think that you have to explore things for yourself before you take anyone's word for it.  Any person has the potential to lie and cheat.

Comparative Primate

Lemur

3a: Lemurs live in Madagascar, which is an island located off the coast of South Africa in the Indian Ocean.  Lemurs have evolved to cope with an extremely hard seasonal environment.  Madagascar has a very tropical climate with a rainy season which lasts from December to April and a dry season which lasts from May to November.

3b: The lemur's locomotor patterns include vertical clinging and leaping which means that they support themselves vertically by grasping onto trunks of trees or other large plants while their knees are tightly flexed.  By forcefully extending their long hind limbs, they can spring powerfully either forward or backward (151).

3c. This trait can be influenced by the environment because Madagascar is a rainforest which is home to many trees.  Verticle clinging and leaping would be the easiest way for lemurs to move around because there are many trees in the rainforest.

3d:


Spider Monkey (New World Monkey)

3a: Spider Monkeys can be located in the tropical forests of Central and South American.  They live in the upper layer of the rainforest in the high canopy.

3b: Spider Monkeys use a combination of leaping and arm swinging.  They also use their prehensile tail which can serve as a fifth hand.  Prehensile tails are exclusive to New World primates and have not been seen in any Old World Primates.

3c: It is vital for New World monkeys to use this locomotive pattern because they hardly ever touch the rainforest floor.  Their tail is used like a fifth hand, enabling them to grab onto vines and use their hands to grab fruit and other food.

3d:
 

Baboon (Old World Monkey

3a: Baboon prefer to live in the savanna, and very few live in the rainforest.  According to the textbook, the species lives througout sub-Saharan Africa.  Savannas are very hot and dry.

3b: Opposed to lemurs and spider monkeys, baboons do not have strong tails, and they spend most of their time on the ground.

3c: Because savannas are dry and consist mostly of open land, there are not many trees there.  This is why it is suitable for baboons to spend most of their time on the ground.  According to the text, Thy spend a good deal of time feeding, sleeping, and grooming.  Also, the have areas of hardened skin on the buttocks called ischial callosities which serves as padding.

3d:


Gibbon
3a: Gibbons live in the tropical and subtropical rainforests in Southeast Asia, islands, and China.  Similar to spider monkeys, they live in the forest treetops.

3b: Gibbons are arm swingers or Brachiantors.  Brachiation is a form of locomotion which involves hanging from a branch and moving by alternately swinging from on arm to another.  So, Gibbons swing from tree limb to tree limb using only their arms.

3c: This is useful to gibbons in their environment because they live in the tree tops of the forest.  Their form of locomotion makes it easy for them to get around.

3d:


Chimpanzee
3a: Chimpanzees live across Central Africa.  The live on both sides of the Congo River.  It is the deepest river in the world, and it flows through the Congo Rainforest.

3b: Chimps walk quadrapedally and on their knuckles.  They are also capable of walking bipedally, which they will do ocassionally.  The use of their knuckles is called knuckle walking.  They use their knuckles because their arms are so long compared to their legs, so instead of walking with their hands flat on the ground, they support the weight of their upper body on their knuckles.

3c: Walking quadrupedally helps chimps use their hands for terrestrial locomotion while still enabling them to use their long fingers for climbing. 

3d:


4. I think that the level of influence that the environment has on the locomotor patterns of primates is very important because every primate uses their locomotor patterns to effectively get around where they live.  Spider monkeys use their tails to get around the treetops in the rainforest and never touch the ground, whereas baboons do not have strong tails because they live on the ground. 

Analogy / Homology

1.
a. Coyotes and Wolves share the homologous because they are both canines that walk on four legs and travel in packs.
b. Coyotes are distinguished by their big bushy tails, wolves are considerably bigger than coyotes. It is possible for coyotes and wolves to mate and have pups.
c. The common ancestor for both of them is a wolf
d.

2.
a. Snails are mollusks and fire salamanders are vertebrates.
b. The two species share the analogous trait of their, "camera-like" eye.
c. The two species do not share a common ancestor.
d.