Mark Glen
9/25/2012
Anthro 101
The Piltdown hoax was a great deception on the science world that occurred during the early end of the 1900's in Piltdown, East Sussex, England. An amateur archaeologist, Charles Dawson, had supposedly found artifacts of an earlier humanoid ancestor while digging in a gravel pit. He immediately began to construct a team of only the best scientists in that region; England's leading geologist Arthur Smith Woodward, French paleontologist Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and England's leading anatomist and Woodward's best supporter, Arthur Keith. Together, these men discovered what has become known as the Piltdown man. The Piltdown man was a fake all along, but it took the world of science 40 years to discover its fraud.
Indeed, by nature, humans have faults and in this situation, many of them were displayed. Archaeologist Charles Dawson was a man who sought fame and notoriety, he wanted to be nationally recognized for his scientific contributions. So his self-interest was the fuel that propelled his drive and motives. It caused him to lie among his colleagues, cheat with artificially stained evidence, and deceive the entire science world. Though his "findings" were accepted at first, they were thrown out when science was proficient enough to properly and thoroughly check their genuineness.
Finally, in 1949, when science had the appropriate tools to properly date fossils, a full analysis of the Piltdown man artifacts was conducted. Scientists began with Florine tests, which by measuring the Florine contents of fossils they'd be able to roughly estimate a date for them. 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 until a few years later in 1953 that they realized the bones were artificially stained, cut and shaped with a steel knife, and its teeth were filed down. A man named Martin Hinton who was a volunteer worker at the time had more bones in a trunk that were dyed the same way as the bones of the Piltdown man. Scientists were able to tell tell the parallel consistencies by engineering an identical process of dying other bones and producing the same result.
The human-factors that cause errors such as the previously mentioned to occur, also cause tremendous discoveries for science. I believe it is impossible to entirely make the human-factor obsolete. They can definitely be reduced, however, they're naturally occurring passions. For instance; jealousy, persistence, desperation, and impatience all have the potential to drive motivation, but it's the individual that decides what path to steer the vehicle. So I would, as much as possible, try to reduce the human-factor.
Taking data at face value with unverified sources can be very dangerous, especially in science. To be recognized as a reliable scientist source, you have to be prepared to present a sound argument for your discoveries, this means your claim must be able to support your conclusion and both must be falsifiable. An entire project can be disregarded or stopped altogether if the sources of data are unsustainable. My advice is, to make matters convenient on yourself, verify your sources and thoroughly analyze your experiments, because the facts and credibility depend on both the analysis and source verification.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Comparative Primate Blog Post
Mark Glen
Anthro 101
9/19/2012
LEMURS:
a) Lemurs are typically found out in the wild, in what is known as the Old World. ie; Europe, Asia and
Africa. However, they are exclusively native to the Madagascar and Comoro Islands territory.
b) Diet: They are herbivores. They eat fruit and leaves, sometimes even eat insects (mostly the smaller lemurs).
c) Lemurs can be prey to many other animals, so to stay high up in the trees and at mid-level puts a limit on what they can eat. At that level they have iifruits, leaves and insects. This dietary conformity is a direct influence from iiitheir environment, making it an adaptation.
SPIDER MONKEY:
a) They live in the tropical forests of Southern Mexico to Brazil, found in Central and South America.
b) They're herbivores; they eat leaves, fruit, nuts, gums and occasionally insects.
c) This primate isn't much bigger than the other animals that surround its environment. So it isn't preying on many things. It's inability to kill large animals leaves its menu very short, so it has adapted to eating fruits and nuts.
BABOON:
a) They're found in Africa. They sleep in trees or on cliff faces, spend their days in grasslands searching for food while in large groups.
b) They're omnivores; they eat both meat and fruit. In fact, large baboons eat other monkeys, chimpanzees and flamingos.
c) Since they are not in trees throughout the day and are big enough to eat other medium sized animals, fruits and nuts do not satisfy their hunger or nutrition. They also require meat. The way they've adapted to hunting for meat is to hunt in large groups, they also have elongated and very sharp canine teeth.
GIBBON:
a) They're found in Southeast Asia.
b) Omnivores; eat both meat and fruit. They eat plants, leaves, flowers, seeds, tree bark, tender plant shoots, insects, spiders, bird eggs and small birds.
c) They rarely go to the ground and since they are so well equipped to swing through the trees, they are rarely caught by prey. They stay up in the trees at a level where they can easily access bids and their eggs and fruits and leaves. This is how they've adapted to their environment.
CHIMPANZEE:
a) They're found in Western and Central Africa, from the Atlantic coast to the inlands.
b) Omnivores; they eat meat, plants, fruits, seeds, tree bark, plant bulbs, tender plant shoots, flowers, termites, ants, small animals. They even drink water. Their method for obtaining the water is to chew up a leaf and sop up the water like a sponge.
c) Chimpanzees are among the primates that show signs of intelligence. A testiment to this is how they drink their water. They've developed a step by step method to get their H2o, similar to how infants entering their toddler stages begin to form step by step plans to achieve their goals. They aren't likely to be prey all of the time, but they do need to prey on other, smaller animals to reach their nutritional satisfaction.
In totality, they've all evolved in simiar ways. They all eat fruits and plants, all live in trees, and none of them are incapable of being prey. However, some of the primates grew to be larger, causing them to require more nutrition than nuts alone can offer. So they've adapted to eating meat. They grew larger, sharper teeth, and developed tactics and strategies for hunting. Most of them, having to survive in the trees, have just adapted to and settled with only eating fruits, herbs and birds.
Anthro 101
9/19/2012
LEMURS:
a) Lemurs are typically found out in the wild, in what is known as the Old World. ie; Europe, Asia and
Africa. However, they are exclusively native to the Madagascar and Comoro Islands territory.
b) Diet: They are herbivores. They eat fruit and leaves, sometimes even eat insects (mostly the smaller lemurs).
c) Lemurs can be prey to many other animals, so to stay high up in the trees and at mid-level puts a limit on what they can eat. At that level they have iifruits, leaves and insects. This dietary conformity is a direct influence from iiitheir environment, making it an adaptation.
SPIDER MONKEY:
a) They live in the tropical forests of Southern Mexico to Brazil, found in Central and South America.
b) They're herbivores; they eat leaves, fruit, nuts, gums and occasionally insects.
c) This primate isn't much bigger than the other animals that surround its environment. So it isn't preying on many things. It's inability to kill large animals leaves its menu very short, so it has adapted to eating fruits and nuts.
BABOON:
a) They're found in Africa. They sleep in trees or on cliff faces, spend their days in grasslands searching for food while in large groups.
b) They're omnivores; they eat both meat and fruit. In fact, large baboons eat other monkeys, chimpanzees and flamingos.
c) Since they are not in trees throughout the day and are big enough to eat other medium sized animals, fruits and nuts do not satisfy their hunger or nutrition. They also require meat. The way they've adapted to hunting for meat is to hunt in large groups, they also have elongated and very sharp canine teeth.
GIBBON:
a) They're found in Southeast Asia.
b) Omnivores; eat both meat and fruit. They eat plants, leaves, flowers, seeds, tree bark, tender plant shoots, insects, spiders, bird eggs and small birds.
c) They rarely go to the ground and since they are so well equipped to swing through the trees, they are rarely caught by prey. They stay up in the trees at a level where they can easily access bids and their eggs and fruits and leaves. This is how they've adapted to their environment.
CHIMPANZEE:
a) They're found in Western and Central Africa, from the Atlantic coast to the inlands.
b) Omnivores; they eat meat, plants, fruits, seeds, tree bark, plant bulbs, tender plant shoots, flowers, termites, ants, small animals. They even drink water. Their method for obtaining the water is to chew up a leaf and sop up the water like a sponge.
c) Chimpanzees are among the primates that show signs of intelligence. A testiment to this is how they drink their water. They've developed a step by step method to get their H2o, similar to how infants entering their toddler stages begin to form step by step plans to achieve their goals. They aren't likely to be prey all of the time, but they do need to prey on other, smaller animals to reach their nutritional satisfaction.
In totality, they've all evolved in simiar ways. They all eat fruits and plants, all live in trees, and none of them are incapable of being prey. However, some of the primates grew to be larger, causing them to require more nutrition than nuts alone can offer. So they've adapted to eating meat. They grew larger, sharper teeth, and developed tactics and strategies for hunting. Most of them, having to survive in the trees, have just adapted to and settled with only eating fruits, herbs and birds.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Homologous vs Analogous Traits
Mark Glen
Anthro 101
9/13/2012
Homologous:
Humans vs Bats -
a)
Humans and bats both possess forelimbs. Though both species are mammal, the forelimb provides a different function for each species.
b)
Structure and function of the human forelimb (hand particularly) is designed for grasping and possesses five fingers. The hand of the bat also has five fingers, but is unable to grasp. However, they have webbing in between to equip them with the ability to fly. The two display differences as a result of adaptation to different environments and speciation.
c)
The common ancestor between the two was an 80 million year old shrew-like species. Scientists have discovered this through computer analysis; reading evolution backwards and putting together a large portion of this species' genotype. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/07/science/07paleo.html
d)
Analogous:
Butterfly vs Bird -
a)
Butterfly wings are much smaller, much weaker and much more fragile. Bird wings are much bigger, much heavier and can carry much more weight.
b)
The wings on birds are constructed of many bones, muscles that cover them, and feathers that cover the muscle. They are simply a second set of legs, only adapted for flying. Butterfly wings don't have feathers, rather, they have scales. Each species has adapted wings to carry them to destinations through the air. Butterflies transport themselves from flower to flower and birds from tree to tree. For each this is a form of survival. Butterflies need to be close to the ground to drink fluids and close to flowers for their pollen. Whereas birds become prey if they are unable to get higher than their predators, so they rest high up in the trees.
c)
There are no common ancestors between birds and butterflies, despite having adapted wings that serve the same purpose.
d)
Anthro 101
9/13/2012
Homologous:
Humans vs Bats -
a)
Humans and bats both possess forelimbs. Though both species are mammal, the forelimb provides a different function for each species.
b)
Structure and function of the human forelimb (hand particularly) is designed for grasping and possesses five fingers. The hand of the bat also has five fingers, but is unable to grasp. However, they have webbing in between to equip them with the ability to fly. The two display differences as a result of adaptation to different environments and speciation.
c)
The common ancestor between the two was an 80 million year old shrew-like species. Scientists have discovered this through computer analysis; reading evolution backwards and putting together a large portion of this species' genotype. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/07/science/07paleo.html
d)
Analogous:
Butterfly vs Bird -
a)
Butterfly wings are much smaller, much weaker and much more fragile. Bird wings are much bigger, much heavier and can carry much more weight.
b)
The wings on birds are constructed of many bones, muscles that cover them, and feathers that cover the muscle. They are simply a second set of legs, only adapted for flying. Butterfly wings don't have feathers, rather, they have scales. Each species has adapted wings to carry them to destinations through the air. Butterflies transport themselves from flower to flower and birds from tree to tree. For each this is a form of survival. Butterflies need to be close to the ground to drink fluids and close to flowers for their pollen. Whereas birds become prey if they are unable to get higher than their predators, so they rest high up in the trees.
c)
There are no common ancestors between birds and butterflies, despite having adapted wings that serve the same purpose.
d)
Thursday, September 6, 2012
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