1) The environmental stress I chose was heat. Humans have adapted to almost every climate in the world. However, high temperatures (113F) causes the metabolism and human homeostasis to stop and will ultimately cause death.
2) When faced with heat stress an organism will reduce its metabolic activity so the heat in its body isn’t as high, they decrease their energy levels, humans in regions with higher temperatures usually have longer limbs because it allows more surface area on the body and the greater the surface area, the faster the body heat will dissipate into the environment and off our bodies, sweat also helps to cool our bodies.
3) The benefits of studying human variation across different environmental regions would be useful to us because we could see the differences in peoples reactions in different climates. Do people in hotter climates sweat differently than people in cooler ones? What is the average limb length in a higher temperature climate verse a cooler climate?
This would be beneficial to science so we could have a better understanding when we find fossils. We would be able to see if the limbs on those correspond with the current day adaptations and see when this started.
4) Race could be used as a more in-depth way to categorize humans and these adaptations. I think that it wouldn’t really be super important to the whole thing. Region the person is from would be the most important thing. If this was in the terms of fossils we do not know that race as a defined as it seems today.
You know, no one in the class has ever pointed out before how useless race is when it comes to understanding our ancient ancestors. Good job.
ReplyDeleteNow, some scientists from decades ago did try to equate head shape of fossils with intelligence levels and equating that with head shapes of modern humans (along with intelligence). One example of how racism and science are a bad, bad mix.
You identify four adaptations but you don't identify which ones are short term, facultative, developmental. I also don't see a cultural adaptation in the discussion.
I chose to do heat as well. Just like Ms. Rodriquez pointed out I am one who failed to mention how race was pointless. I noticed when i read your blog, things I never would have thought about myself.
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