This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending the autism walk at the Detroit Zoo.  I was little bit more observant of the monkey exhibit more than any other. Since being enrolled in this course I can say I look at the world slightly different. Constantly comparing what I learned in lectures during this course to the society I live in today. During my visit to the zoo, I noticed how the baby monkeys would play with one- another and run around like they were playing tag, the older monkeys just watched them to make sure they were safe. This remined me a lot of my siblings and I when I was younger and how my mother would watch us play around to ensure our safety. I feel this is important to note when picking out hominin traits that would help us with our modern human biology.   

  Our fossilized skeleton remains is vital, because we can see how humans were centuries ago to how we are today. Our teeth are important to note, when talking about similar traits between humans and hominins. Between both species our teeth share similar characteristics and when looking at fossil remains form years ago anthropologist can now make assumptions on diets from both species and how they have evolved. Earlier hominis by the name “Ardipithecus kadabba,” had very large teeth like an Ape. More than likely their teeth were used for predatory hunting and self-dense.  As I said prior anthropologist can make assumptions on lifestyle when it comes to fossil remains. A second species, “Ramidus,” which had a smaller set of teeth. This meant a change in behavior, were they found a new defense mechanism that didn’t involve their teeth.    

   During this lecture I discovered that monkeys or chimps aren’t bipedal, but it’s Important to notice that resemblance between both chimps and humans. The fact that they aren’t bipedal is interesting to me because they are displaying characteristics of a human that isn’t natural to them. I learned the phrase “monkey see, monkey do,” was not derived from children following one another, but from actual monkeys mocking other monkeys and humans. I say this because with monkeys being quadrupedal and now knowing standing on both legs for them is uncomfortable, they may have seen humans doing it and began to mock them. During lecture it was explained that humans could train themselves to stand on their hands or dogs are trained to stand on their legs, but ultimately is not comfortable and we return to normal. Since monkeys are quadrupedal, most times when they are standing on their legs it’s too burn calories. Quite thought-provoking to discover that monkeys care to burn calories.   

 To conclude this lecture, I discovered that hominins stretched over the course of 10 million years creating very diverse species, that lived all over the world. These hominins display very ape like features, and a couple to note are: Ardipithecus, Sahelanthropus, Australopithecus. These are the only species of early hominins that is known to anthropologists, there are more to discover that will essentially create a complete blueprint.