Last week we were assigned to experiment with language. First I had a conversation for 15 minutes where I was not allowed to use any version of symbolic language. I was only able to use hand signs, body language and non-verbal vocalizations while being unable to use any form of language vocal or in written form. Next we were to communication where I would only use verbal communication. These experiment show the importance of both verbal and non-verbal communication.

I found it difficult to converse without the use of communication. Clear articulation was almost impossible. The converse consisted of several hand gestures. My partner controlled the flow of the conversation while I could mostly answer with a head shake or a thumbs down. I would try to convey questions like a game of charades with little success. I was able to  easy ask for a drink of water by make the hand motion but I could not ask my partners thoughts about Game of Thrones, probably due my terrible hand motions, demonstrating that I as incapable of articulating complex ideas. My partner became frustrated mostly because he sometimes not interpret my hand motions. It came to the point where my partner would ask a series of questions to me and I would reply with a shrug or a head nod.

Being unable to express complicated ideas can be a huge detriment. If my partner and I represented two different cultures my partner’s cultures will be miles ahead in terms of communication. That culture would be able to communicate complex ideas such as battle plans and take my culture out. Our society respects great speakers. Any great leader must also a great speaker. Unfortunately we look down at other individuals who have difficulty communicating with a spoken language. Not only does our culture mocks those who have lisps or are even deaf, but they also to believe them to be stupid which is often not the case. We value well spoken individual sometimes to our detriment.  

When I had to converse with only the spoken communication, our conversation still had trouble flowing. While it was difficult to restrict facial reactions, we breezed through our 15 minute discussion. My partner described our conversation as awkward because I would simply speak in a monotone voice. I believe body movement makes our conversations more lively. Its the human reactions that makes the conversation not the words behind it. This is evident in text messages where there shouldn’t be any human reaction. We instead attempt to put in human emotion through text with emoticons and acronyms for emotions like “lol.”

There are people who have difficulty reading body language, namely people with aspergers syndrome. Since nonverbal communications is what makes us human, people with aspergers often become ostracized. Understand body language helps bring a sense of community which the brings a group closer together. However, reading bodily can also not always be beneficial. People can fake non-verbal cues to convince people of a lie, however, in general being able to understand and read body language is helpful.

Piltdown Hoax Blog Post

1. The Piltdown hoax was a hoax in which bone fragments were found and believed to be an early unknown human ancestor. In 1912 Charles Dawson claimed to have found the ‘missing links’ between apes and humans in the city of Piltown, England. The scientific community, especially the English scientific community, thought the bone fragments coined as the Piltdown Man as the jewel of London’s Natural History Museum. It wasn’t until 1953 that the Piltdown Man was revealed to be a hoax. When scientist examined the Piltdown Man under a microscope, they found evidence that the ‘fossils’ were merely a forged orangatang bone.

2. Humans are very emotional. Scientist got carried away with the Piltdown Man. English scientist were excited about having a early human ancestor found in England. They were too rash with their discovery. The Piltdown Man misled the image of human evolution for forty years.

3. Scientist in 1949 used a fluorine to roughly determine the age of the Piltdown Man. The results showed that the ‘fossils’ were around hundred million years old which was inconsistent with other fossil records. Scientist also examined the fossils under microscope to find that the teeth in the bones were filed downed.

4. Human factors can be removed from the scientific process. In 2009 the BBSRC created a Robot scientist which independently discovered new scientific knowledge. However, I believe scientist should not remove the human factor completely from science. Humans are very creative and I believe the human factors are the reasons for Einstein's General Relativity and Newton’s Laws of motion.

source: http://www.bbsrc.com/news/archive/2009/090402-pr-robot-scientist.aspx

5. This historical event taught me to question everything. Even the greatest scientist of our day could be completely wrong. I believe humans should never be 100% sure of anything they should always be questioning themselves constant. When an individual is 100% certain then that individual believes there nothing else to know about that problem.

Lemurs

A) Lemurs usually can be found in Madagascar which was attached to the African mainland 160 million years ago. Madagascar broke off and drifted eastward. It’s isolation caused the abundance of plants and animals found nowhere else. Madagascar is known for its abundance of rain forest.

B) Generally the smaller species of lemurs eat primarily fruit and insects and the larger lemurs consume plants. Large lemurs are known to eat insects in when necessary.

C) Because Madagascar was an isolated island, lemurs had little to no competition for food and no real predators to be found. Due to this unique environment, the lemurs evolved to the island niches.

D)

Sources

http://www.wildmadagascar.org/wildlife/lemurs.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10601983

Spider Monkey

A) Spider monkey live in the tropical rain forests of Central and South America. Tropical forests have consistently more species than the forests of Africa and Asia. The biodiversity of plants species occur in the tropical rain forests, specifically the Amazon Rainforest.

B) Spider monkeys are omnivores. They tend to eat fruit and seeds but they occasionally eat bark, insects, and bird eggs At zoos they are fed various fruits, seeds, leaves and flowers.

C).Like lemurs, Spider Monkeys do not have much competition for food. They are accustomed to travel from tree to tree to get their food. Due to this they did not develop opposable thumbs because swing does not require the thumb.

D)

Sources

http://www.macalester.edu/~montgomery/spidermonkey.html

Baboon

A) Baboons are extremely adaptable. They generally live in savannas but some live in tropical forest. Baboons tend to live around tall trees or cliff faces.

B) Baboons are also omnivores they diet consists mostly of grass, berries, seeds, leaves, roots, and sap. They have been known to eat small quantities of meat such as fish and birds.

C) Since baboons do not have a restricted diet they can live in many places. Baboons feed and socialize in groups around fifty.

D)

Sources

http://www.awf.org/wildlife-conservation/baboon

Gibbon

A) Gibbons are found in northern India and the islands of Indonesia. They inhabit the dense jungles and tropical rainforests across south-east Asia.

B) Gibbons are omnivorous. Three quarters of their diet is fruit ground in trees. The other quarter consists of insects, eggs, spiders, small birds, and reptiles.

C) Gibbons have evolved to live the majority of its life in the trees due to predators. Leopards and large snakes cannot climb high into the trees. Its only natural that Gibbons eat mostly tree fruits.

D)

Sources

http://a-z-animals.com/animals/gibbon/

Chimpanzee

A) Wild populations of chimpanzees are only found in Africa inhabiting the tropical rainforest of what used to be the equatorial forest belt of Africa.

B) Chimpanzees are omnivores that eat mostly figs. They also are know to eat red colobus monkey, termites and ants, and various types of fruit.

C) Since the majority of Chimpanzees’ diet  consist of figs, they are found where they grow. Figs grow in dry and sunny areas with deep and fresh soil.

D)

Sources

http://www.janegoodall.ca/about-chimp-range-habitat.php

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/08/02/how-to-eat-like-a-chimpanzee/

Summary

Animals must adapt to survive. To survive animals must consume food in their environment to survive. Therefore Animals adapt to consume food.

Analogy & Homology Blog Post

Homology

• Dogs are mammals in the Canidae family. Mankind domesticated the Grey Wolf thousands of years ago. now we keep domesticated dogs as pets.
  Cats are small furry carnivorous mammals. It is believed that mankind domesticated cats in ancient Egypt because they were treated with great respect. We also keep domesticated cats as pets
• The Pelvic bones of cats are near parallel with little curving which is used to helps a cat jump. The Pelvic bones of dogs are more curved which helps a dog run.
• Dormaalocyon latouri is a 55 million-year-old species believed to be the common ancestor of cats and dogs. We know this mammal was carnivore with bent ankles, primitive teeth, and a pelvic bone similar to both cat and dogs.
• Dog’s Pelvic bone.
• Cat’s Pelvic bone.

Analogy

• Owls are nocturnal birds of the order Strigiformes. They have a broad head and feathers adapted and large eyes.
  Butterflies are insects that have brightly colored wings. They are reside in a diurnal group of the order Lepidoptera.
• Both animals have wings that can be used for flight. Butterfly wings are covered with scales and owls wings are covered in feathers. Both animals have adapted to life in the air independently.
• While these animals both have a common ancestor they evolved their wings independently. The common ancestor would not have wings or this would be a homology trait.
• Owl
• Butterfly