Surviving the Heat

   Heat is an environmental stress that negatively impacts the survival of humans by disturbing homeostasis. The human race is impacted by this environmental stress everyday. In some areas of the world the land is uninhabitable because the temperature reaches such high numbers that it is impossible for a human to populate the area. These areas include such regions as vast areas of the Sahara desert in Africa, the Australian outback, among other hot arid regions of the world. Heat can also negatively impact humankind by causing heat strokes, exhaustion, fevers, and dehydration. Also generally when its hot outside its because there is little to no shade in the area (also an effect of heat) and this can cause sunburns, hyperthermia, and heat rashes in humans. All of which have been known to cause hospitalization and in some cases death.

   As we have learned throughout this course, humans are highly adaptive creatures; so naturally we have developed adaptations to the stress of extreme heat. Adapting to hot environments is complex A short Term adaptation that we have developed to extreme heat is air conditioning. When you think of a hot day and you get in the car what’s the first thing you do? You crank on the AC as high as it will go and hope that the cold air kicks in fast. A facultative response to heat is skin color, some people have the ability to go out in the sun for extended periods of time and are not affected by the suns rays (typically people with darker skin) and then there are those people who (like me) go out in the sun for 15 minutes and get burnt to a crisp. An developmental adaptations that humans have developed over the span of our evolution is sweating, it’s our bodies way of cooling it self down. “In dry, hot weather, humidity is low and sweat evaporates readily.  As a result, we usually feel reasonably comfortable in deserts at temperatures that are unbearable in tropical rain forests.  The higher the desert temperatures, the more significant of a cooling effect we get from evaporation.” A cultural development is the creation of sports drinks to help replenish and replace lost mineral salts that are vital for humans in order for them to be able to “naturally” cool ourselves down. We’ve all seen it, professional athletes playing sports in hot weather conditions, as soon as they head to the sideline for a quick break they seem to always be chugging Gatorade or some other brand of “sports drink” to help them revitalize their worn down bodies.

   There are many benefits of studying human variation from this perspective across environmental clines. It can answer questions about why different races are better adapted to living in hotter parts of the world and scientists can create ways of aiding humans in adapting to extremely hot areas of the world. Also in the future when the population increases, scientists can create ways for humans to live in areas that today are virtually uninhabitable or even in the far future ways for humans to liv on other planets that are closer to the sun, thus the average temperature of the planet is much higher then here on earth. And information from explorations like this be useful to help us in many ways it helps us to understand why people with darker skin tend to live closer to the equator and people with lighter skin live the furthest north or south from the equator, its helps scientists better understand our evolution as humans and the reasons why certain races are better adapted to the heat.

   Race is merely a way to categorize people, but in this instance it’s very useful, like I said previously certain races are better adapted to living in hot areas where they are constantly exposed to the sun and high temperatures. Using race to understand the variations I listed above is a helpful way of learning about various adaptations of humankind and how to start developing ideas about the future of the human race.

Air Conditioning

Skin Color

Sports Drinks

Sweat

Language Experiment

       This experiment has been eye opening to say the least; it’s interesting how the average human takes both symbolic and gestures in language for granted. I found both parts of the assignment to be difficult, even though when I first read our assignment I thought to myself, “this will be a piece of cake.”      

     For part one of the assignment we were asked to engage in a conversation for 15 minutes where we were not allowed to engage in any version of a symbolic language including speaking, writing, or ASL. I surprisingly found this experiment to be rather difficult; I was tempted to talk out loud so many times within the 15-minute conversation. Now, I consider myself to be pretty darn good at charades (typically) so when I did use hand gestures I thought I was coming across clearly; however, my partners seemed to have a difficult time interpreting what I was trying to convey. Also, is was difficult to express certain words and sentences because there was no easy way for me to physically act out what I wanted to say. Because they were having trouble trying to guess what I was attempting to communicate, my partners definitely had to alter their way of communicating, rather then participating in an actual conversation it became almost a game to see if they could guess the point I was trying to make and by the end we realized that we had not in fact actually had a full conversation. Eventually throughout the conversation they were able to guess what I was trying to express, it just took a bit longer then usual. A dialog that would have taken 3 minutes to verbally discuss took almost the entire 15 minutes to get out.  If my partners and I represented two different cultures meeting for the first time I think the culture that was able to use verbal language would have the advantage over a society that did not use symbolic language when trying to communicate complex ideas. Its very difficult to “act out” complex sentences and ideas using nothing but hand gestures and body language. The attitudes that the speaking culture would have toward the society that does not use symbolic language would be rather frustrating. My partners spent almost the entire 15 minutes trying to decipher the point I was trying to make, it felt like it took an extremely long time for them to progress with the conversation because they were constantly having to halt their discussion so that they could translate what I wanted to “say.” I felt their frustration (even though we thought it was a bit funny) I could see how challenging it might be if it was two different cultures meeting for the first time. It must also be difficult for someone in our own culture who is either mute or deaf to communicate with the other portion of the population because it is not standard for the majority of the population to speak ASL, I can see how frustrating it would be to communicate with someone that doesn’t speak the same type of language as the rest of their culture. As a server at a restaurant, I have had to serve deaf customers in the past, it consisted of a lot of pointing at menu items and written language, it was a difficult experience for the fact that I couldn’t understand ASL, we reverted to written language as opposed to verbal. I could only imagine the frustration of the person who has to love with that sort of exchange day in and day out.       

       For the second part of the experiment we were asked to communicate with out any physical embellishments including hand signals, no vocal intonation, no head, facial, or body movement’s. For me, this part of the experiment was much more difficult then the first part. As a naturally flamboyant and uppity person I really struggled with this part. I had no idea how much physical movement and different vocal tones come in to play within day to ay conversation. By the end to the experiment (which seemed to take an eternity) I was ready to be able to use my hand gestures again, facial and vocal expressions again. I have to admit, I did smile a bit during the 15 minutes and I even laughed once or twice I even had to sit on my hands because I kept on attempting to use them. I felt like a robot when I wasn’t smiling or laughing, it was very difficult to keep a straight face and to speak in monotone especially because my partners thought I was funny and maybe a bit crazy for sounding like a robot when I spoke. My partners laughed (almost uncontrollably) at me because they thought I sounded “monotoned and robotic.” After the experiment concluded I asked them how they felt about me no using hand gestures or facial expressions and they said it made them feel uncomfortable and it seemed to them that the way I was speaking was “unnatural.” They also said it was difficult to tell whether or not I was enthusiastic or indifferent during the conversation, they had no way of knowing because my voice kept the same tone throughout, same with my facial expressions, I was expressionless and they had a difficult time reading me. This part of our experiment shows that without hand gestures, facial expressions, or tone in ones voice it would be difficult to interpret the context in which the comment is made.  For example if a person was blind and someone spoke in monotone that would have a nearly impossible time trying to figure out the context in which the conversation was being spoken, they would have almost no way of telling if a person was excited about a subject or melancholy, that’s why having the ability to use expressions, intonation, and also the ability to read them in language is so important.       

       This experiment exposes how important both signs in our language as well as our vocabulary are and how imperative it is that they are used together. Without either form of language, it is increasingly difficult to communicate effectively with one another. As seen in part one of the experiment, communicating without symbolic language is nearly impossible especially when trying to convey complex ideas, and as seen in part two of the experiment it was difficult to decipher the enthusiasm or lack of excitement in a persons opinion when they are with out hand gestures, expressionless, and toneless. Both parts of language are vital for effective communication.

Piltdown Man

         
      The Piltdown hoax was a  fraudulent scientific discovery made in the early 1900’s. In 1912 an amateur archeologist named Charles Dawson was digging in a gravel pit in the southern English village of Piltdown. He claimed to have found the remains of an ancient human skull. Shortly after his discovery, Dawson invited England’s leading geologist Arthur Smith Woodward to help with the analysis. Dawson also invited French paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Together, the three made astonishing finds in the gravel pit. At the time, the Piltdown man discovery was one of the most prolific scientific discoveries ever made. It had a tremendous impact on the scientific community, the site was said to have dated back around a million years, also at the time scientists had discovered primitive human remains in Asia, Germany and France but never before in England. The most astonishing find in the gravel pit was that of a jaw bone, it appeared that the three men had come upon the “holy grail” of paleontology, the missing link between apes and humans. Later in 1912 at the Royal Geological Society the men made their first public announcement of their discovery. Finally England,  like other great countries had ancient human fossils, and England’s ancestors might turn out to be the oldest primitive human remains ever discovered. Newspapers and the scientific community were ecstatic over the breakthrough. Over the next few years the three men uncovered more fossil remains at Piltdown, which gave little room for skeptics. For nearly  a decade, Piltdown man was the model for human evolution. However scientists began making discoveries throughout Asia and Africa, the ancient human fossils the found didn’t coincide with that of the Piltdown man. At the time there was no easy way to tell if the Piltdown man was an actual human skull because certain testing and accurate dating methods had yet to be developed.         
       The turning point didn’t come until after World War II with the advent of new technology, by measuring the fluorine content in fossils, scientist could roughly date them. In 1949 scientists conducted this experiment on the fossils, and the results showed them that the remains of Piltdown man were only 100,000 years old as opposed to the million or so years old that scientists had previously thought. In 1953 scientists launched the first full scale analysis of the Piltdown man. They revealed that the staining on the bones was superficial, the material had been cut when it had already been fossilized, and the teeth had been filed down by a modern tool, and the jaw bone dated back to less then 100 years, and the jaw bone came from a female orangutan.  All of this evidenced concluded that someone had forged the findings of the Piltdown man.         
The faults that come into play in this scenario are the human trait of competition, naturally England being the prominent country it is would want to compete with the rest of the world for scientific discoveries and in showing the rest of the world that their ancestors dated back further then anyone else’s. Because whoever conducted the hoax was so worried about competing with the rest of the scientific world, decades of work went to waste and all the time and work that some scientists did relating to the Piltdown man went completely to waste because they were basing their hypotheses upon false artifacts.        
       If anything positive can come from this its taught the scientific world to “check all their bases” before coming to any solid conclusions. Because the hoax was such an embarrassment to science, it has taught scientist to make sure they’re conducting multiple accurate tests. When the seed of doubt was planted about the Piltdown man scientists conducted multiple experiments trying to prove the remains to be valid or false; they dated the material, used microscopes to examine the evidence, and used chemicals to prove that the remains had been stained. Once they learned that the remains were in fact that of an orangutan, scientists learned to forever use the scientific process in all their scientific discoveries and not to simply trust the “good word” of others.        
      I don’t think its possible to remove the human factor from science, however if it were possible I do think that if removing the “human” factor were possible it would drastically reduce the chance of errors like the Piltdown man from happening. For example, much like the theory of evolution there are some scientists out there who believe in gravity which is a factual scientific discovery but they let their religious views prevent them form recognizing the theory of evolution which is also a factual scientific discovery.         
       The lesson that can be taken from this is, “just because someone says it, doesn’t necessarily mean its true.” The entire scientific community took Dawson, Woodward and Chardin’s word and look what happened; they were fooled; the biggest hoax in paleontology history could have been prevented had someone taken the time to check the facts rather then just assuming that the three men were telling the truth. Take the time and do some research and educate yourself.

Comparative Primate Blog Post

Lemurs (Prosimians/Strepsirhini):

a.)   Lemurs are forest creatures, many species live in Madagascar’s tropical rainforests, but some live in dry deciduous forests with dry brush and scrub, but can also be found in closed canopy forest. Lemurs have the most restricted range of all primates, being found exclusively on the island of Madagascar and the nearby Comoro Islands, where they do not have to contend with competition from the more advanced non-human primates. Ring-tailed lemurs spend a lot of time on the ground, almost as much time on the ground as in the trees; which is unusual among lemur species. They forage for fruit, which makes up the greater part of their diet, but also eat leaves, flowers, tree bark, and sap. The pygmy mouse lemur is the smallest primate in the world. Its head and body are less than two and a half inches long, though its tail is a bit more than twice that length. Unlike other lemur species it is found in open areas and will walk along the ground as well as moving between the trees

b.)  Ring-tailed lemurs live in groups known as troops. These groups may include 6 to 30 animals, but average about 17. Both sexes live in the troops, but a dominant female presides over the group. Lemurs are unusually sociable for prosimians, this is especially true of the ring-tailed lemurs. Unlike most other primate species, lemur females generally dominate males in their social interactions. They communicate through powerful scent glands and use their unique odor as an interaction tool. During mating season, male lemurs battle for dominance by trying to out-stink each other. They cover their long tails with their smelly secretions and wave them in the air to determine which animal is most powerful. After successfully mating, some lemur species, such as the dwarf and mouse lemurs, have litters of two or more young. Others, such as the sifakas and ring-tailed lemurs, give birth to only one baby at a time.

c.)   During an evolution that lasted millions of years, different species developed. Lemurs’ behaviors and adaptations evolved differently from the primates in other parts of the world. Lemurs have strong hands and fingers to help them to climb trees easily and their muscular legs are adapted for jumping. They have also formed troops for security, there’s safety in numbers. Hawks and other predators are less likely to attack a group than a lone lemur. 

Spider Monkey (New World Monkey/Platyrrhini) :

a.)   New World monkeys, like the spider monkey, are limited to  the tropical forest environments of southern Mexico, Central, and South America. The tropical rainforest provides a comfortable and safe environment for the monkeys to inhabit. Spider monkeys find food in the treetops and feast on nuts, fruits, leaves, bird eggs, and spiders. Spider monkeys spend almost all of their time in the canopy and rarely descend to the forest floor.

b.)  These New World primates are social and gather in groups of up to two- or three-dozen animals. At night, these groups split up into smaller sleeping parties of a half dozen or fewer. Foraging also occurs in smaller groups, and is usually takes place early in the day. Spider monkeys can be noisy animals (I’ve experienced this myself) and often communicate with many calls, screeches, barks, and other sounds. Mating between black spider monkeys first involves the female approaching a potential male and presenting her genitals. If he shows interest, the mating pair separate themselves from the group either briefly or up to several days. If a female is ranging in a subgroup without males, she will react to the calls of males from neighboring groups by leading her group in the direction of the calls and will either choose to mate with one of the males of this new subgroup or will continue on, looking for other potential mates. Typically, females give birth to only a single baby every two to five years.

c.)    One characteristic that defines the New World Monkeys is the presence of a prehensile tail. A prehensile tail is characterized by having a patch of skin at the tip of the tail enabling the animal to use it like a fifth hand. The hands of the Spider Monkey possess no thumbs their tails allow them to grip and pick up objects. Also, the presence of a central eye area is characteristic of this group. It can be seen in the phylogenetic tree as a characteristic that differentiates the spider monkeys from the lemurs. 

Baboons(Old World Monkey/Cercopithecidae):

a.)   The Old World monkeys occupy a wide variety of environments in South and East Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and even Gibraltar at the southern tip of Spain.  Some species inhabit tropical forests, while others live on arid grasslands and even mountainous areas with heavy winter snows. There are five different species of baboons. All of them live in Africa or Arabia. Baboons generally prefer savanna and other semi-arid habitats, though a few live in tropical forests. They spend much of their time on the ground. Baboons are opportunistic eaters and, fond of crops, become destructive pests to many African farmers. They eat fruits, grasses, seeds, bark, and roots, but also have a taste for meat and will eat birds, rodents, and even the young of larger mammals, such as antelopes and sheep.

b.)  Baboons form large troops, composed of dozens or even hundreds of baboons, governed by a complex hierarchy. Males use shows of physical power to dominate rivals, and troop members spend endless hours carefully grooming one another to remove insects and dead skin. Baboons are among the most social animals and their strong social bonds are fundamental to their lives.  Baboons are usually very sexually dimorphic.  In these species, adult males are often twice as large as females and much more aggressive. These are effective weapons in defense against predators and competition with other males for mates. Females develop prominent sexual skins around the time of ovulation.  This is a signal to males that they are sexually receptive.

c.)   Although they are affected by ecological variables in similar ways as other animals, baboons are more adaptable than most and as a result have colonized a wide variety of niches across Africa. As one outcome of their ecological flexibility, they do quite well when living alongside humans.

Gibbon(Lesser ape/Hylobatidae)
 :

a.)  These acrobatic mammals, are prevalent in the dense forests of southern Asia, are perfectly adapted to life in the trees and rarely descend to the ground.. There are 15 recognized species of gibbons ranging from northeastern India to southern China to Borneo. They are all tailless, and their long coats vary from cream to brown to black. Gibbons thrive on the abundant fruit trees in their tropical range, and are especially fond of figs. They will occasionally supplement their diet with leaves and insects.

b.)  Gibbons are monogamous (a rare trait among primates) and live in family groups consisting of an adult pair and their young offspring. Adults regularly defend their territory against others of their species with piercingly loud whooping and hooting vocalizations. Also, the family will stake out a territory and defend it using loud, haunting calls that can echo for miles throughout the forest. Mated pairs, and even whole families, will sing long, complex songs together.

c.)  Some species of gibbon have even adapted large throat pouches to amplify their calls. Gibbons have long arms with sturdy rotary cup shoulder joints, comparatively short legs, permanently curved fingers, and light weight bodies.  These traits allow them to swing long distances with little effort. Their shoulder joints are even specially adapted to allow greater range of motion when swinging. They have strong, hook-shaped hands for grasping branches, comically outsized arms for reaching faraway limbs, and long, powerful legs for propelling and gasping. When gibbons walk, whether along branches or in the rare instances when they descend to the ground, they often do so on two feet, throwing their arms above their head for balance.

Chimpanzee(Great ape/Hominidae)

a.)   Chimpanzees habituate themselves to African rain forests, woodlands, and grasslands. The chimpanzee diet is usually at least 90% vegetarian.  Males are more likely to eat meat than are females, although chimp-hunting skills are relatively poor. Chimpanzees usually sleep in the trees as well, employing nests of leaves. Chimps are generally fruit and plant eaters, but they also consume insects, eggs, and meat, including carrion. They have a tremendously varied diet that includes hundreds of known foods.

b.)  Chimps are intelligent animals with generally pleasant personalities. However, the males are less peaceful than the smaller females. Chimpanzees live in fluid societies of 10-50 individuals without monogamous mating bonds.  Membership changes through time as females move from one community to another seeking new mates.  In contrast, males usually stay together in their natal community throughout their lives and act as a group in defending the food resources of their territory against incursions by other chimpanzee communities.  These interactions can be quite noisy, violent, and sometimes fatal. Chimpanzees live in social communities of several dozen animals, Females can give birth at any time of year, typically to a single infant that clings to its mother's fur and later rides on her back until the age of two. Females reach reproductive age at 13, while males are not considered adults until they are 16 years old.

c.)   Chimpanzees are comfortable walking quadrupedally on the ground in addition to climbing in trees. Chimpanzees are our closest living relatives, sharing more than 98 percent of our genetic blueprint. Humans and chimps are also thought to share a common ancestor who lived some four to eight million years ago. Although they normally walk on all fours (knuckle-walking), chimpanzees can stand and walk upright. By swinging from branch to branch they can also move quite efficiently in the trees, where they do most of their eating. Chimpanzees are one of the few animal species that employ tools. They shape and use sticks to retrieve insects from their nests or dig grubs out of logs. They also use stones to smash open tasty nuts and employ leaves as sponges to soak up drinking water. Chimpanzees can even be taught to use some basic human sign language.

Summary:

All species of primates have adapted very well to the environment in which that inhabit. Primates that primarily inhabit the canopy of forests have evolved physically to suit their environment some with prehensile tails others with rotary joints and permanently curved finger joints to enable them to swing through trees. Primates have also adapted socially, often living in large troops or families to improve their chance for survival, forever proving that there is power in numbers. Socializing within these troops and families is also a very significant aspect to the life of a primate as well. It’s interesting that the different species of primates are so scattered throughout the world and are often isolated from other types of primates, its an interesting aspect to their evolution that the different types of species with all of their physical and behavioral traits are so different from each other. This idea is proven through the fact that the environment that these primates live in drastically influences their expression of physical and behavioral traits.

Information provided by: Introduction to Physical Anthropology Course Book, National Geographic Website, Palomar.edu 

Below are images that my boyfriend and I took in Costa Rica, we were on a random hike and to our surprise, these monkeys surrounded us!! One of the coolest experiences we've ever had!!