There were many things about this weeks material that surprised me that I didn’t know before, much of which is vocabulary and definitions. This included the word chordates, which means that we have a spinal chord while other beings do not, homotherms which means being warm blooded, heterodants, which means having a variety of teeth shape and sizes, homodant, which means having one use for teeth, and the Kr contiuum, which is a continuum scale of beings that spend a certain amount of energy and time into raising their young, along with how many they have. Humans are at the top since we devote so much time and energy into raising our offspring, and we only have one at a time, unless in the case of twins, triplets, etc. Other beings have many offspring, some as much as possible, and don’t spend much time or energy developing and raising them. This includes animals like frogs or goldfish.
Another thing that surprised me was that there are animals such as the marsupial, that don’t fully develop their offspring in the womb, but they give birth to them earlier and they finish developing in their pouch. This is very different to us since our offspring develop for a long time usually in the womb. Something else that surprised me, oddly enough, is learning that our eyes are seeing two different pictures, but our brains put them together to make one image. This makes sense and is obvious when you think about it, but you naturally see the world as one image.
Something else that shocked me was learning that our ancestors more than likely spent a lot of their time in trees, since traits like prehensile digits with many nerve endings suggested it. I wouldn’t have guessed this at all. I figured that they spent time on the ground, just in different environments.
There are several ways that we can better understand our own biology, behavior, and culture by studying non-human primates. One large way that we do this is by studying Chimpanzees, who are 98.5% similar to us in their DNA. This shows that we probably shared a common ancestor. They also rely more on comfort and learned behavior rather than innate instincts and resources. Humans also rely on learned behavior, and need contact and comfort from other humans to flourish. Seeing how we have evolved over time from chimps can help to predict the subtle changes that will evolve over time in the future.
An interesting way that we can see our own behavior and culture by studying non-human primates is also with chimps, as well as spider monkeys, in that they have been known to instigate war and murder other chimps. This could suggest that violence is in our DNA, and we can be ruthless in getting what we need.
One last way that we can study this is by observing hominoids, who also have complex brains and are highly invested in their young. While humans have large brains compared to our body size, we are not the only ones with complex brains. By studying this, we can see how complex brains vs. simple ones can predict our behavior and learning style.
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Hello! I also found this week’s vocabulary very interesting. These terms are things I have never heard or learned about in any other class. I also found the Kr continuum so fascinating as well because I never knew we compared how we raise our young compared to animals. In many of my psychology classes I learned about how our human eyes see two different pictures and our brain put them together. When I first learned about this topic I was so shocked that we don’t see the world as a whole.Next, I didn’t find it too surprising that our ancestors most likely spent a lot of time in the trees. I didn’t find this surprising because our closest relative is the chimpanzees. We actually share 98.6% of our DNA with chimpanzees.
I agree with you that there are so many new vocabularies and definitions. What’s more, I know some theories in Chinese and I learned them in my middle school in a Chinese environment. Learning this unit is like to establish some connections between the old knowledge system and the new English ones. Also, I think it is unique that for mammals, we won’t have so many offspring in one time, and we need really lots of time to raise one child, especially for human beings and for chimpanzees. It is great that you have mentioned various types of giving birth to offspring, such as the asexual and sexual reproduction methods. Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages, and I think these methods are the adaptation of the animals after millions of years of evolution.
Hi Jackie!
I really enjoyed reading your post and agreed with so much that you said. I also found it so interesting how marsupials don’t fully develop their offspring in the womb. To us humans it sounds so obscured, how could the offspring fully develop out of the mom’s womb? It’s a fascinating concept how marsupials utilize their pouch. I completely agree with your standpoint on how we can better understand ourselves by studying non-human primates, such as chimps. You stated that it could be a possibility that violence is in our DNA as it is in chimpanzees. This thought really got me thinking and I’m glad you included it in the post. There is no doubt that humans can be violent and ruthless at times. I would be interested in studying this idea more closely.
Hi Jackie, I really liked you blog! Many of the topics that you mentioned are some that I also found interesting. Learning about the traits that suggest that our ancestors most likely spent lots of time in trees was super interesting to me as well. It’s something that I never really thought about, but after learning about it, it makes sense that they may have lived that way. I agree, if I were to have had a discussion about that before, I would’ve also just assumed that they lived most of their lives on the ground. I also agree with your thoughts on how we may be able to analyze our on behavior and culture through the study of chimps and spider monkeys. I found the article by Eric Wayman to be a good example of how we can see how behaviors that we possess, such as aggression, may have evolved from those two species.
Hi! I found it very interesting how you brought up that certain species such as the marsupial that has different development techniques. I never knew before this weeks readings that the offspring finishes development outside of the womb. The idea of r selected beings and k selected beings, I believe, is a smart way to separate and differentiate the different species we have on earth. One could not decipher the difference between primates if we didn’t have this system of r selected and k selected. The amount of energy species such as humans put into raising their offspring is important to understand because then we can see how much less of an effort it is for frogs and r selected species. It’s amazing to think that our ancestors spent their times and developed their niches in trees. Something with our fingertips evolved away where we don’t have the ability to climb up in trees like our ancestors were able too.
I thought what you said about looking at chimpanzees for learning about our own evolution – based on its reliance on learned behavior – was interesting. Until this week I didn’t realize how much we learned this way compared to other animals that rely on “innate instincts and resources.” This makes us different from many other species and helps us not only enable us to adapt to our environment(s) but even helps us change our environments as well to best suit our needs. I feel that because of this ability to change our environment, our brains have continued to grow to the size that it is today, without the cost of the lessening of other senses over time – such as our sense of smell and sight. I too agree that looking at chimpanzee behavior can give us insights to how our behavior has evolved over time.
Hi Jackie! A couple of things from this week caught me by surprise as well. Watching the first two lecture videos we were given a lot of knowledge on the fundamentals. Like you, I was surprised by the many definitions we were shown. I knew we were called homo sapiens but I never knew where that term came from. As well as many other facts we were given that you also spoke about, the Kr continuum: We as humans devote so much time and energy into raising our offspring we would be devastated to lose them. Vs other species that have many offspring at once and don’t spend as much time and energy with their offspring. Relating it to chimpanzee’s they are more like us when it comes to having offspring, they spend time and energy on their children as well. We are much more like them than I couldbe imagined.
While I think it is always interesting and important to learn new things, I think that each learning experience tends to differ depending on the person. It is nice that you were able to grasp lots of new content alongside learning and expanding your own vocabulary. I think that this is something we are all going to come across numerous times while participating in this course. I found that a lot of the things that piqued your interest coincided with that of mine. Perhaps the most interesting and prominent thing you said in your post was towards its conclusion. I think that studying the most complex of brains alongside the most simple ones, is possibly one of our best methods of collecting information on our own species.
I too was really surprised by this weeks material. This class in general has opened my eyes to a whole new concept of life and where humans come from. As you said that we learned about marsupials that do not fully develop their offspring in the womb as do humans but give birth to them anyways. They then finish developing in their pouch, which is totally crazy. Compare this to humans who care their offspring for about nine months until the offspring is developed enough to survive from its mother (in most cases). It is crazy to me that we can be so similar to some species and so different from others. I agree that it can help us understand humans better by understanding our distant relatives like chimpanzees. By studying their behavior we can learn about how humans would interact as both us and chimps rely on learning from observation as you discussed.
Hi,
I enjoyed reading your post because you touched on a wide array of things that interested you this week. I also thought that the vocabulary and different jargon that was used was super informative and interesting. With all classes there is always new vocabulary and new things to be learned, which is exciting. The brain seeing two different pictures and putting them together is also very interesting, but like you said makes sense when you think about it since we have two eyes and separate parts of our brain. I also like how you mentioned that the idea of how we have evolved from chimps and how that can help us predict changes in humans that may be seen in the future. It is very fascinating how you can look back at things, and even at how things have evolved to learn about the way that things work.