After watching the videos and reading the articles on this weeks material. I have learned about a variety of ways that non human primates provide information for human evolution. I really like how the video ” Primates as analogies for understanding human biology and behavior” expressed how the traits that we have as humans are important. which can mean that the traits played a pivotal part in evolutionary progression. Although every trait is for a specific reason in evolution, the video reminds us that everything has tradeoffs. For example, we as humans are homeotherms meaning we are warm blooded and can live in a variety of different places while still being able to survive. Whereas something like a snake can’t endure those same conditions.
While going through the videos and links this week, I especially enjoyed watching the National Geographic video “The New Chimpanzee.” This video analyzes several ways in which chimpanzees are comparable to humans, but the aspects that I found especially intriguing were topics regarding the female chimpanzees and their young. The behaviors of the females and infants are some of the purest representations of biological instincts of humans, so it was fascinating to analyze their actions and mannerisms in different scenarios to help better understand our own behaviors, emotions, and methods of communication. Another thing that really surprised me is how chimpanzees are about 98.5% similar to is when it comes to our DNA. I have learned before that we share similarities but when it comes to DNA I had no idea we were that close because we do look very different from chimpanzees. Also in regard to understanding our human biology and behavior we see that primates bind together during times of danger and predation and I found that interesting because humans act in the same way. In the wake danger, when we feel threatened we can retaliate and even sometimes form the numbers to bond together. This demonstrates to be that our own biology, behavior and culture can be understood through the lens of our ancestors and how we have evolved as humans, and non-human primates help us understand the history of human evolution in more depth.
I believe that studying non-human primates can be very helpful when trying to understand our own biology, behavior, and culture. We can see by studying these non-human primates that we have more in common than we think. Humans are not the only animals to have these kinds of behaviors. We are not the only animals to take care of our offspring with so much time, care, and love. Primates have less offspring and care more for them. When we have offspring, we raise them and teach them as much as we can. Other animals have many babies at one time and are not really phased by them. For example, sharks have babies, they swim back to where they were born, give birth, and swim away. The sharks let the newborns act on instinct, not by what the elders can share.
Hello!
I was also really surprised by how much DNA we still share with chimps! I think I read something one time about how we share a lot of DNA with bananas too, but obviously I’m not sure how true that is. I like understanding how other animals take care of their young too, because we see how much of our actions are based on instinct and how much of it is learned behavior. Obviously some of it has to do with our own culture because there’s such a diversity between different human groups when it comes to child rearing.
I also liked learning about K-species such as ourselves because it’s really interesting how we have evolved into having less children but in most cases they live to adulthood. Obviously other species will have 100s of offspring and hope some of them survive, but humans have really narrowed it down.
Hi Joseph,
I also thought and mentioned in my post that it is interesting how close our DNA is to non-human primates and in particular chimpanzees. We have learned this before many times, but whenever it is mentioned once again, I always am shocked but then after thinking it should not be surprising but makes sense as to why this is. After this week’s material and learning more about social behavior similarities in primates, I would completely see why that 98% similarity is there.
I thought that at your last thought, you are right that humans are not the only organisms that behave in a certain way, where many animals can show love, care, and support when raising young ones. And I thought that was a great point to mention, it can be outside of primates as well.
Hey Joseph!
I thought you did an awesome job on your blog post. The main takeaway from the lecture videos being that in evolution, everything has tradeoffs was incredibly fascinating to me as well. The warm blooded/ cold blooded phenomenon between different species is the best example of evolutionary tradeoffs I could think of as well. I also wrote about the fact that we share 98.5% of our genetic makeup with chimps. I couldn’t get over that to be honest! I really liked how you linked that back to how we can learn from primates regarding our own evolution and I agree that humans often retaliate in major ways when feeling threatened. I also liked your knowledge of sharks and how it relates back to raising offspring in the community of humans. Overall great job!
Hello Joseph,
I agree that learning about primates really teaches us a lot about human origins. I enjoy looking at behavior more than the biology itself (which makes sense because I am a psychology major). I think it is cool that we can look at emotion in these animals too like wanting comfort over food. I also liked thinking about how these animals had effected our culture. I feel like people are really stuck on just the biology portion and how we evolved physically, and not the cultural or emotional side of it. I would have to read about the evolution of emotions and where we think that certain parts of the brain developed and grew from. Maybe I will research this in the future.
Thank you for sharing!
Hello Joseph,
I agree, I was too interested in hearing about the “trade-offs” in mammals. For example, I have always known that most mammals have less offspring than other animals, but I never had thought more about how or why. The term “high-quality offspring”, though peculiar to say, makes a lot of sense. Mammals are more advanced than other creatures, but it comes at a cost. This is most clearly seen in the time that it takes to raise young, as we operate through more learned behaviors rather than instinctual.