Although we are referred to as the unusual species of primate in the article ‘Primate Behavior I find that the videos on the page tell us just how similar we actually are. I was very surprised by the similarities and trade offs that we share with our non- human primate friends. The first thing that caught my attention was that placental mammals spend a lot more energy during the child development. When I think about most animal relationships, I don’t realize that there would be another species that invests so much into their offspring. My assumption was that most species were r-selected. The grasping ability is another fact I wasn’t knowledgeable about until listening to lecture. I like how the reading ties back to how this must’ve been something that created ties between us and other non- human primates. There are very logical things about chimpanzees that we share as humans with them. The DNA similarity came as no surprise because we constantly hear people comparing up to animals like the ape. The percentage of 98.5 percent did through me for a loop, because I was not expecting it to be that high. Everything from our diet to the way communicate is so similar. While reading through some of the materials I often had to go back through to figure out which group we were actually reading about because of the many similarities we share.
The article “ What is War good for?Ask a Chimpanzee.” was really interesting. I am in agreeance with some of the findings in this paper. Violence is dependent on circumstances but am unsure if I can fully agree that it is apart of our DNA. Each scenario in which violence took place there was something that made the chimpanzee react this was. We are no different as humans. We react when provoked, irritated or simply do not something, but for that most part it is based on the circumstances of a situation.
I believe we can learn so much about ourselves and the similarities we share with other non- human primates through these types of resources and articles.
Hi Britney! First, I like how you used the term ‘r-selected’ in your blog post because that is a term we learned and class this week. I could tell you were really trying to connect all the information you have learned together. You mentioned that you did not realize how much time other species spend with their offspring. I always felt that other species spend more time with their offspring’s than humans until their offspring becomes independent. I mentioned the, “What is War Good for? Ask a Chimpanzee” article in my blog post and thought it was very interesting as well! I agree with you being unsure about violence being in our DNA. I think that yes, all humans can get angry, but the cause of the anger is different from one individual to another and so is the level of anger. Also, I believe that anger is a cause and not just a natural trait. Overall, great job on your post. I enjoyed reading it!
Hey! I also found the videos gave us more similarities we are with non-human primates as well. One of the topics that made me start thinking more was how non-human primates have many forms of travel compared to humans. Humans only crawl when they are young and learning to walk. Then they spend their time up right on two fight. Non-human primates may crawl, run or even climb.Also another similarity is we both can communicate. Humans use a very complex language system with many different languages. Compared to non human primates who use their vocals to communicate and may even communicate through sign language with humans. Lastly I also believe that non-human primates can help us study human evolution so much. By either looking at how non-human primates raise their young to how non-humans communicate.
I also found the article “What is War good for? Ask A Chimpanzee” interesting and informative. The natural world is full of competitions and in the theory of Darwin, the fittest one will survive. In this case, through wars and series of violence, it could be guaranteed that the strongest one could get the mates and have more offspring. With the passage of time, the strongest traits will be written in the genes and be passed down generation after generation. Also, by killing the competitors, the animal itself could enjoy more resources, such as food, space, or mates. However, this article is also inspiring. Many people might assume that violent traits are like the instinct of primates, but I do not think it is the case. Human beings are different from other animals, because we have developed our own systems of culture, including laws and moralities.
Hello! I agree with you on how surprising it is that non human primates invest so much into their offspring. I enjoyed being able to interpret the ways in which species are raised differently through their particular selections such as r-selected and k-selected. I remember learning about the chimpanzees and how similar they are to our DNA with only a 2% difference even though we are noticeably different. It’s amazing how much we evolved from different primates with, in all honesty, not that huge of a change. If we think about it, the social structure and the way that we raised our offspring in the k-selected atmosphere is exactly the same as the way a gorilla raises her offspring with putting in full effort into the child. We have developed into these beings who evolved into humans but with the non human primates ways of performing certain social structures.
The focus on the primate species was great as it brought a lot of insight towards humans and non-humans and DNA. I definitely understand that we can learn a lot from other species like Chimps. I can say the vocabulary with this is weeks lecture help us understand how we can understand the relation between humans and non-humans and can relate to species because of many similarities that we possess. I think you were making a great distinguish between the r-selected species as we learned that they are species that spend a lot of time with their species.
Hi Britney! I found the similarity between humans and non-human primates very interesting. Some non-primate species tend to care for their offsprings just like we do. By studying non-primate species, we can learn a lot about our behavior. I was aware of the DNA statistics but I was not able to determine the things we have in common with the primate. I also believe we are not much different from primates when it comes to violence. Humans have a history of violence and the world war is a great example. Not everything is because of our DNA. We make decisions based on circumstances. People succumbed to violence to gain power, land, and resources during the world war. Chimpanzees and spider monkeys perform similar violence acts as indicated in the “ What is War good for?Ask a Chimpanzee.” article.
I read “War What is it Good For?” and found it to be interesting! I think that violence and our tendency to be violent is only the tip of the iceberg to things we can study in other primates like Chimpanzees that help us learn about humans. I like that you mentioned how the number 98.5% for how genetically similar we are with chimpanzees because I think the number would throw many people off since we initially seem so different than chimpanzees and other primates. However, I remember hearing this number before so this time was not as shocking as the first, but still an odd thing to think about! However, when you think about how many genes and things we have, that 1.5% is probably pretty huge!
Hi Britney,
I also wrote about the article “What is War Good For? Ask a Chimpanzee” in my blog post. I found the conclusions and evidence they provided to be very interesting. I mentioned how I did not think that chimpanzees would have such elaborate reasons for attacking rival tribes. I felt that that information provided a lot of necessary information on to why we may resort to violent measures to resolve conflicts. I agree with you that I am not fully sold on it being engrained in our DNA, it seems strange that both humans and chimps act very similarly to a certain extent when resolving conflict. It is definitely a topic that I feel much information can be learned from further research. With so much in common we must examine common behaviors we share and wonder if they are due to our similarities in DNA.
Hi Britney,
I found your post to be very intriguing because I had around the same response to this week’s material as you did. I also found the DNA comparison to chimpanzees super surprising and shocking, because for as long as I’m sure a lot of us can remember, we have been taught that we are a lot like chimpanzees, but I did not think that we would be as similar as 98.5% It also makes me think of the drawing of the human evolution from ape to current day. I thought the most interesting piece of reading that was provided for this week, ‘What is War Good for? Ask A Chimpanzee’ was very interesting and made a lot of thought provoking points. I do agree with you when like stated in the article, violence is dependent on our circumstances, but I do not think they were saying it was apart of our DNA. I feel like it is more of a fight or flight type of response, and like you also say (I mention this in my post too) we act based on circumstance.