Tuesday, November 18, 2014

piltdown

the piltdown was a finding of a skull fossil in the 1900's by Charles Dawson, he first stumbled on a skull piece then a jaw bone which was believed to be a piece of evidence that linked between humans and apes. Although after studying these pieces , they appeared to be at least 1 million years old but after further examinations they  came to the realization that they where much more recent than that. The scientist knew right away something wasn't adding up, so charles dawson came to mind. charlesdawson was an ametur to science when he stumbled upon his findings. so in a sense this helped him build up credibility to his name as a paleontologist.The piltdown happened in sussex, england. After World war two II in 1953, the scientist were able to fully and thoroughly evaluate the skull piece, teeth and jaw bone that were believed to belong to the 2nd piltdown man, it was at that point the findings where claimed as fakes. someone had gone back to file, stain and remove teeth of the fossil to make it appear a lotolder then what it actually was. charles wanted to get his name out in the scientific world to be well known and respected, so he along with the help of a very well educated scientist falsified the information being presented on the fossil.it leaves us wondering on why someone would do something like that,but it all boils down to pride and ego of some people. in my opinion all science should be done with the purest of all intentions, it should be to help provide humanity will the best facts and evidence so we can advance asa species.
i believe a positive outcome out of all of this is that humans have developed the ability to be able to catch and distinguish the real fossils from the fake ones. i also believe that humans arent perfect, we make errors but we also learn from them and move forward.The human factor will always be a part of science, its going to include humans to do their part of collecting data and taking note of all facts. you can not eliminate it. being a scientist you know to not take things at a face value; you must dig deeper and dissect the items presented to only keep record of only the most accurate information possible.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUaJeNSkbC0&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOxHLWMiULU&feature=related

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piltdown_Man

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

primates

lemurs come from madagascar, the gibbon monkey comes from southeast asian islands and also from china,the spider monkey comes from central and south america; inhabiting the tree tops. the baboons come from saharan africa and arid lands.
the trait i was giving was dentition patterns, the definition of it is " the arrangement, type, and number of the teeth in a particular species." all animals have a detention pattern, all of which are cut out to do different jobs for helping them survive by chewing/ eating their food. 

1) The lemurs dentition pattern consist of 6 teeth and 2 K9's on the bottom, and no teeth on the top but 2 more k9s as you can see, followed by the molars in the back which help the animal chew. the lemurs k9s are the "puncturing" tool while the 6 bottom teeth help rip apart the food, their teeth help them out in their environment because they feed on nuts and fruits.



2) the spider monkeys dentition pattern is as see in the pictures, 4 big K9S and smaller teeth, the spider monkeys have a diet that consists of  smaller fruits such as berries and smaller nuts like almonds and seeds. they have smaller teeth which help the chewing process be a little easier then it comes to the smaller nuts and seeds. their teeth have adapted to the environments and the foods provided. 

3) the gibbons dentition pattern consists of 4 large K9S and smaller teeth that have a little bit more of a flatter top to them, this is because they are practical plant eaters and that helps them gride up the plants they eat ; and they also eat meat, so the larger teeth are used to rip apart the meats. over all their teeth have adapted to their surrounds and help them get the food they need to survive.

4) the baboons dentition pattern consists of 4 very large K9S and also a mouth full of flat teeth,they primarily eat insects and on occasion will hunt for fish or eat birds. they teeth have a very sharp point to them, which come in handy when fighting for territory or hunting for the meat parts of their diets. 

5) the chimpanzee's dentition pattern consists of the standard 4 K9s and what looks like the top row of teeth are thinner and flat just like human teeth. the chimps diet consist of about 50 percent fruits and the rest is insects, nuts and seeds as see below. their teeth have helped them in their environment, the stregth of their jaws are incompableandtheyr K9S are very adaptive to their surround environment



over all i feel like the environments of all these animals really do have a large effect on their detition patterns.due to the fact that without their teeth being fully  up to parr, the animal would starve, these monkeys aren't like tigers where they have their large, killer teeth and big claws to help them achieve their foods. they are all mainly plant eaters and nut eaters. they primarily rely on their teeth to live and eat their gatherings..their teeth have adapted to their surrounds to make the eating/chewing style practical for them.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimpanzee
http://www.outtoafrica.nl/animals/engbaboon.html


Thursday, November 6, 2014

bats and humans

the two species i have chosen are bats and humans; they both possess the homologous trait. 
a humans arm and a bats are are homologous to each other simply because of its skeleton structure. 
the human arm has the same structure as the bats, because of the similar bones, humans have a humerus(highlighted in purple) and a radius ( highlighted in orange) as you can see in picture below, they both also have 5 bone endings and for the human that would be their fingers. but they both have different tasks, bats are made to fly while humans are not and also bones of a bats are very hallow compared to a humans. a common ancestors to humans would be an ape while a bats common ancestor would be a microchiroptera, believed to be a smaller bat that ate  mainly fruits. 


ANALOGOUS TRAITS
the two species i have chosen are platypus and a fish. both have a fin like structure to help them navigate through their environments. And they both have thin bone structures going through their fins, which makes them more useful to paddle through waters. ( as you can see in the images below) over years of evolution both fins/webbing design helped them survive in their environments.the common ancestors of these two animals would be traced back to pre-historic animals ; although we aren't 100% sure scientists believe that platypus would be de decedents of fish. also they could relate to  monothenes and marsupials.