Almost Human
A recent article in National Geographic Shows the way we evolved. I believe in Evolution. but everyone has their opinions. Enjoy!!
On the Savannas of Senegal, chimpanzees are hunting bush babies with spearlike sticks. This hothouse of chimp "technology" offers clues to our own evolution.
Daybreak is sudden and swift, as though an unseen hand had simply reached out and raised a dimmer switch. Cued by the dawn, thirty four chimpanzees awaken. They are still in the nest they built the previous night, in trees at the egde of an open plateau.
A wild chimpanzee does not get out of bed quietly. Chimpanzees wake up hollering. There are technical names for what I'm hearing - pant-hoots, pant-barks, screams, hoos - but to a new comer's ear, its just a crazy, exuberant, escalating, racket. You can't listen without grinning.
They're savanna-woodland chimps, found in eastern Senegal and across the border in western Mali. Unlike their better-known rain forest kin, savanna-woodland chimps spend most of their day on the ground. There is no canopy here. The trees are low and grow sparsely. It's an environment very much like the open, scratchy terrain where many early humans evolved. for this reason, chimpanzee communities like the Fongoli group - named for a stream that runs through it's range - are uniquely valuable to scientists who study the origin of our species.
Yet it is impossible to spend any time with chimpanzees and not be struck by how similar they are to us.
I've been keeping a list of things I have seen or heard Pruetz say drive home this point in unexpected ways. I had not known that chimpanzee yawns are contagious - both among each other and humans. I had known that chimps laugh, but I did not know that they laughed at each other, or get upset when someone else laughs at them.
I knew that captive chimps spit, but i hadn't known that, like us, seem to consider spitting the most extreme expression of disgust - one reserved, interestingly, for humans. I knew that a captive chimp might care for a kitten if you gave one to it, but I had not heard of a wild chimpanzee taking one in, as Tia did with a genet kitten. The list goes on. Chimps get up in the middle of the night for snacks. They lie on their backs and do "the aeroplane" with their children. They kiss, shake hands and pick their scabs off before they're ready.
The taboo on anthropmorphizing seems odd, given the closeness - evolutionary, genetic and behavioral - between chimpanzees and humans is the very reason we study chimps so obsessively. Some thousand-plus studies have been published on chimpanzees. As for the chimps, they are ot as intreiged by the ape-human connection. While we have been observing them, they have largely ignored us, occasionally shooting a glance over one shoulder as they move through the brush.
Roach,2008
Readers comments: I thought this was a really good article, I didn't put all of it in but I tried to cut it down to the most interesting stuff!!
Give me yor comments of what you think about this article and your views on Evolution. Thanks!!
About Me
- Mushroom Shortie
- Tryin not to write a novel here..I like gymnastics. My biggest achievment was coming 8th in the whole of the north Island! I would like to go to Nats this year! I love skiing, diving, dancing, tumbling, netball && Cricket. OH AND CHEERLEADING!!! This year Im'a start cheerleading this year! *fingers crossed*. Hopefully I can make it to the auckland allstars team! Well, I didn't write a novel, but I raved on a bit. Academically, I am trying to make an effort more on the blog. (-:>
10 comments:
It raises some interesting points about our early evolutionary conditions and likely ancestors [chimp-like hominids called Australopithecines].
This article doesn't have much evidence or proof of evolutionary theory, but it might arouse interest and get people to read more.
To be honest, evolutionary theory is well researched and proven these days. If people choose to believe religious explanations over hard science that's their right, but it seems pretty odd to me in this modern world.
Of course, there is no reason why evolutionary theory needs to be exclusively the opinion of non-religious folk. It seems logical to me that one could accept a scientific explanation based on evidence and also have faith in the existence of a creator who could have set up the whole system.
i actually went to university and studied religion and science so i could try to understand why people believe the things they do.
It was very interesting.
:-)
oh, and please do not misquote me on this subject. It will get some people hot under the collar.
and yes, the picture does look like several people in our class ;-)
Thanks for reading mr woody. Does this make me top blogger!! just joking ;-)
wow! what an excellent post marz barz. it hs some really interesting bits in it. it's really long though and it took me ages to read. but well done . did you do any research for this post, if so what are the references?
thanks
bye
:-)
evolution VS creation who cares, you have your own opinion about that sort of stuff.
yes you have your own opinion, thats the point. Have your say!
Hi Maria,
Guess what! I got into the inter intermediate gymnastics group and in August we go to a competition. Im not sure what level I am in though. I think last year I passed my bronze badge so this year I am in my silver. I am sooo excited about being one of the four girls that got into the group out of all the girls that trialled.
I've been doing gym for about two years, how long have you been doing it for?
-Alex =]
This might say it's from mrs Crowe, but that's my teacher and we couldn't work out how to leave a comment from my blog, so shes going to leave it.
Hey, I believe God created the living particles, that eventually turned out into us! Evolution and creation!
Hi, hope yo uget well soon and return to school. Too bad you missed th etrip on Wednesday - we went up Kakeupuku in the mud and slid all the way down.
good point Nenina marie - an excellent way to cater for both points of view.
:-)
Post a Comment