Hey hey!

This week has definitely been my favorite week so far. I feel the material was really important, not only to science majors but everyone in general. I say this because it is interesting to know how we have adapted and evolved alongside many other species, such as gorillas, apes, etc. Like I said last week, hominins do share many characteristics with humans that help us understand modern human biology and how we compare to one another. I am fascinated by how much our species has adapted since the beginning of time.  It makes me so curious to what the future holds and how much our species can and will change. I also learned so much hominins that I did not before and so many of my assumptions I found to be incorrect.

This week we learned all about hominins and traits that they have and ones that we share. I never realized exactly how closely related we are to each other! One trait I find pretty awesome is bipedalism. Bipedalism is when an organism moves with the two rear legs or limbs. Bipedal also means “two feet.”  I could not imagine not being bipedal, I feel everyday task would be so much harder than how we have it. This trait has helped our species, along with others, learn and capable to use advanced tools to survive, build a shelter, and hunt for food. Another trait I would like to discuss is brain size. I did not know the hominins have a very small brain size compared to their actual head.  Our brain fits to our head, unlike humans. I guess I just assumed they would be like us and have a brain that fits their crtannial, but that is very untrue. Lastly, another trait I learned a lot about this week is the large teeth of apes. Not only do they help them eat large foods they hunt, they also use them for protection and survival. Something that I did not know was that they have gotten smaller because they no longer use them as much as they have in the past. This means they have found other foods to eat that no longer require this large teeth and.or they have newsb  way to defend themselves against predators.

Hominin diversity has for sure affected human diversity. Over the millions and millions of years, homo sapiens and other species have changed so much. Fossilized skeletal remains of early human ancestors can help anthropologists reconstruct and learn from the past because we learn the traits our ancestors no longer needed and how they changed to survive in this world. Studying the past shows anthropologists how to better change and evolve for the future.We now are bipedal and encompass so many other traits we did not have before. Paleontology is very interesting to me because we learn how we and all the amazing other species have adapted traits to better survive. Overall, I feel I benefited from the lectures this week because I have a better understanding of the world, how it has adapted and evolved, and how it could change in the future.

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