Week 5: Piltdown Hoax

     On December 18th, 1912, the duo of Sir Arthur Smith Woodward and Charles Dawson presented Piltdown Man, nicknamed "the earliest Englishman," to the world. The remains of this Piltdown man were a skull and jaw fragment, fossilized and said to be the earliest link on the evolutionary chain to man. In the years that the Piltdown discoveries were accepted as fact, man scientists based their careers on these discoveries and the world itself accepted the British discovery that man arose in Britain. The credibility and standards of the Natural History Museum of London, along with the post of Sir Arthur Smith Woodward as part of the Natural History Museum, these discoveries were accepted at face value, even though the evidence didn't necessarily add up. Well, in 1953, thanks to the dutiful work of Kenneth Oakley and his chemical testing, it was proven that the Piltdown items, all of them, were forgeries. In other words, it was all a big hoax that had fooled the scientific community for over 40 years. The discovery of this hoax occurred through Oakley's chemical testing, which was testing for the items' nitrogen content, which didn't coincide with the estimated dates. Upon further investigation, the skull was discovered to have been an orangutan's jaw that had been filed, boiled, and stained in order to appear older than it really was and more human. All of these discoveries were proven false, rocking the foundations and credibility of London's Natural History Museum. The question of science's credibility came to the public's mind. How can the public trust that what these scientists say or discover are truthful or honest?

     Human nature dictates that human beings are imperfect and bring biases to all their endeavors. Sadly, even the quest for scientific truth can be lead astray by human faults. The nationalism that infested the world during the buildup to the first world war was a primary cause for this hoax. Britain, as a nation and identity for its people, needed to be as good or better than the rest of Europe, especially when it came to human origins. What could be better than to say that the human race rose within your borders and spread to conquer the world? Even better, the first man was English. Well, this put the country into the perfect state for a hoax such as the Piltdown Man to occur. Richard Dawson seemed to be an egomaniac in the sense that he seemed to be obsessed with garnishing more academic credibility as an amateur scientist. As an amateur, he was unqualified to truly say that what he discovered was what he said he had discovered. He was consistently stretching his knowledge and the truth in order to make a name for himself. Woodward's unwavering and adamant support for the Piltdown Man was also unbecoming for a scientist. As the pre-eminent person in his field, it was his duty to be as critical of the discovery as possible, especially before accepted it as fact. However, the spotlight placed on Woodward and the worldwide fame and recognition went to his head, turning him into a celebrity rather than a scientist.

     In my opinion, the "human" factor cannot be completely removed, but it can be severely limited. Rather than make national ventures into scientific inquiry, we should push for more international scientific work. With the collection of resources of multiple, if not every nation, our possibility for scientific discovery will become almost endless. Also, having unrelated, both in regards to family and nation, investigations into discoveries will keep people from accepting hoaxes for outside agendas. Science and scientific discovery should be based on a quest for the truth and an effort to actively understand the universe and make it a better place for all, including humankind. If it were possible to remove the human factor from science, it would be a grand mistake to do so. Even with all these costs and faults that humans bring to the table, human curiosity is also the driving force in science. Without one, we can't have the other, but that doesn't mean that we can't do our best to limit the negative factors humans bring to scientific inquiry.

     Personally, I have a new-found skepticism when it comes to science. Scientists are not above deceit for their own personal gains, like the rest of humanity. They are neither the best of us, nor the worst. However, just because people have the ability to lie, that doesn't mean they will do so. Everything should be seen from a skeptic viewpoint until it can be verified and proven by multiple means. That's the life lesson to take away from this hoax. Don't believe something until they can prove it is true, rather than someone just telling you that it is true. Proof is necessary to be accepted as truth, without proof, there is no certainty.

Week 4:Comparative Primate Biology Post

Body type and sexual Dimorphism:
1) Lemurs (Prosimians/Strepsirhini)
a) Lemurs are native only to Madagascar and the neighboring Comoro Islands. Most lemurs live in trees and spend the majority of their time at the top of the rainforest or in the forest mid-level. The exception to this are ring-tail lemurs, who spend the majority of their time on the ground. The environmental distribution of the lemurs extends from the lush, wet rainforests of eastern Madagascar to the southwestern dry desert.
b) Lemurs vary greatly in body size by specie, from weighing only an ounce to weighing 15 pounds. Most lemurs exhibit sexual dimorphism in regard to having different coloring between males and females.
c) The varying body sizes are linked to the environment in regard to where they are located. Smaller bodies are adapted more readily to living on the tree tops where branches are thin and fragile, not being able to accommodate large amounts of weight. The sexual dimorphism exhibited by lemurs is also based on the environment and social patterns. With lemurs being spread out not only over areas but also different heights, it becomes an issue to readily distinguish males from females without sexual dimorphism.
d)

2) Spider Monkey (New World Monkey/Platyrrhini)

a) Spider Monkeys live in the tropical rainforests of Central and South America, ranging as far north as Mexico. These primates spend their lives living in the trees, using their tails and thumb-less hands to powerfully grip branches from tree to tree. These animals live in groups and spend most of the day in groups as large as two to three dozen animals.

b) In regard to Spider Monkeys, sexual dimorphism is non-existent while differences in body size between males and females aren't that distinguishable.

c) Living entirely in trees and spending the majority of their time in groups, there is no real advantage to differences in body sizes or sexual dimorphism in spider monkeys. Smaller bodies are more useful for navigating trees and with constant grouping, there is no readily available need to distinguish males from females.

d)

3) Baboon (Old World Monkey/Cercopithecidae)

a) Baboons live in Africa and Arabia, with five different species. Baboons seem to prefer savanna and other semi-arid environments in Africa and Arabia, but they can also be found in tropical rainforests. Baboons, unlike the other primates mentioned, are terrestrial and spend most of their time on the ground.

b) The body size of baboons can range from 30 pounds and 20 inches all the way to 90 pounds and 47 inches. Sexual dimorphism is expressed in baboons with males generally being larger, males of the Hamadryas species have a white mane, and some species of males have more developed canines.

c) The sexual dimorphism and body size differences stems from the terrestrial environment of the baboons. To readily defend from predators, males are larger and have more developed canines. Baboons don't have the option of climbing to the tree tops to escape from predation.

d)

4) Gibbon (Lesser ape/Hylobatidae)

a) There are 15 species of Gibbon ranging from India to China to Borneo, living in subtropical and tropical rainforests. Gibbons spend the majority of their time in the canopy, hardly ever coming ground-side.

b) Gibbons range in body size from the largest, siamangs, growing to 29 pounds and smaller species only growing to nine pounds. Gibbons exhibit little sexual dimorphism, with body sizes between male and female being fairly similar and only siamangs showing different coloration between gender.

c) The reason for low amounts of sexual dimorphism again extends from the environment. Living in the tree tops, there is no advantage for one gender to be bigger than the other. Behaviorally, in regard to gibbons being monogamous and mating for life, there is no need to distinguish males from females for breeding purposes, because a gibbon keeps the same partner for life.

d)

5) Chimpanzee (Great ape/Hominidae)

a) Chimpanzees inhabit African rainforests, woodlands, and grasslands. Chimpanzees live in both tree and terrestrial environments, being adapted to both in regard to their long arms and shorter, powerful legs.

b) The sexual dimorphism exhibited by chimps is similar to that in humans: males are larger than females. Males tend to be both taller and heavier than their female counterparts, Males on average weigh 43kg, while females weigh 34kg.

c) The sexual dimorphism exhibited in chimpanzees stems from their part terrestrial living arrangement. The larger males are more adapted to defend the group of chimpanzees in terms of an attack by a predator or group of predators.

d)

Summary:

The environment, in regard to both differences in body size and sexual dimorphism, is the decider on whether those two traits will be exhibited. For all the primates discussed who were mostly tree-dwellers, differences in body sizes and sexual dimorphism was not beneficial to the species, so they weren't traits that were developed. For the primates who were terrestrial or partly terrestrial, these two traits were beneficial in regard to protection from predators. Trees seem to serve as natural barriers against predators, so the primates that didn't have these natural barriers had to develop a trait themselves to offer protection, which in turn is sexual dimorphism, specifically through different body sizes between males and females.

Week 3: Analogy/Homology

1) Homologous trait: Echolocation in regard to sperm and killer whales
A) The two species that possess echolocation are sperm whales and killer whales, which are both Odontocetes, or toothed whales. Both whales' habitats are distributed throughout all oceans.
B) In all Odontocetes, echolocation is achieved through the passing of air through the phonic lips, which create clicks in the direction the whale's head is facing. The sounds themselves are focused in a whale's melon, which is part of the nasal apparatus. The sounds, or clicks, are then bounced back and heard within the whale's inner ear. In regard to killer whales, echolocation is used for both hunting and communication. Because killer whales do not hunt in excessively deep waters, the wavelengths used for creating their clicks are not very low and their range of hearing in regard to echolocation matches the sounds they produce. In regard to sperm whales, because they hunt under the photic zone (where light can penetrate), they use much lower frequencies when echolocating.
C) The common ancestor of these two species was a toothed whale that had developed echolocation. This is known because all Odontocetes possess echolocation, which is attributed to a common ancestor who had evolved this trait for hunting.
D)

2) Analogous trait: Echolocation in killer whales and microbats

A) The marine mammals known as killer whales, which possess the trait of echolocation, are Odontocetes. Microbats are a suborder within bats, which are flying mammals, and are known for their ability to use echolocation. The Australian ghost bat, which is carnivorous and hunts large insects, lizards, frogs, birds, and other bats is the particular microbat that I will focus on.

B) Both killer whales and Australian ghost bats use echolocation as a hunting tool. In Australian ghost bats, they emit high pitched sounds through using their vocal chords and once the sound has bounced off an object, it returns and is heard through the bat's ears. The bat is able to identify how big the object is by the intensity of the echo and it's direction by which ear the sound returned to. The killer whale produces a click through the passing of air through it's phonic lips and picks up the sound once it bounces back through it's inner ear. Killer whales also use forms of these clicks to communicate over long distances.

C) Both species are mammals, but whales are marine mammals while bats are flying, land-based mammals. The common ancestor to both species was indeed a mammal, but the common ancestor is so far back in both species' histories that it was before the development of echolocation. Therefore, echolocation is a case of parallel evolution.

D)

Week 2: Protein Synthesis

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