On a visit to D.C.

Oh these papers? These papers in my hands, you wanna know about these papers? Oh sir, these papers are some of the most important papers and scientific research happening right now. These papers can help us understand so much and can lead to advancements in multiple fields of study. These papers are on human evolution!!!! Now sir you may think "human evolution? what more do we need to know about that? Isn't it just straight forward, we evolved". And to that sir I respectfully will tell you you are wrong. There is still so much to learn when it comes to human evolution. We have only just begun to scratch the surface. Learning about our past will help our future and by the looks of it we need all the help we can get with our future before its too late. Not to mention we can learn important things about genetics that can help with medicine!

Ya know it's just such a shame because we could know so much more and do so much good if we simply had the funding for it. Oh wait you can help with that can't you sir? 

If two Hominin met...

Humans today have never interacted with another species of hominin because we are the only species of hominin still alive... for now. This is not usually the case. In the past there is evidence of more than one hominin species living at the same time. We also have confirmed that not just at the same time but in the same area!!! And in a unique case even in the same cave in Drimolen, South Africa!!!! 

So what would it be like for two species of hominin to meet? There is no way of completely knowing to my guess is as good as yours. Given the nature of life and survival of the fittest and all that one can assume how things went down. I assume that when two species of hominin first came across eachother the first thought was fear of the unknown. They probably thought something along the lines of "they look kinda like us but they're not us so they must be a threat". They also probably thought the other was invading their territory. So the first interaction may have been hostile or defensive. Now if they could get past the fear of each-other and learn to coexist (as we know some have) then I believe there would have been a lot of competition. Competition for mates between the species, competition for food, and competition for territory. I bet even a Romeo and Juliet scenario isn't completely out of the question

Summary of "Combining prehension and Propulsion: The Foot of Ardipithecus ramidus"

The goal of this article is to distinguish how modern humans feet are very different from modern African ape feet. Looking at the foot of Ardipithecus Ramidus gives us insight into where this change first started occurring and what makes human feet so unique. Our feet did not evolve from one similar to modern African apes like we once believed. Apes feet are specialized for supporting large bodies and climbing whereas humans feet do no need these specializations. The foot of Ar. ramidus contains a bone called os peroneum which is a big key in our understanding of the foot. This bone is related to the grasping of the big toe keeping the foot rigid until needing to be grasped. This bone happens to be present in old world monkeys and gibbons not usually in modern apes. Apes do not need to have their feet rigid because they do not do leaping so instead their feet are much like their hands with effective grasping techniques. The Ar. ramidus shows us that our last common ancestor with apes did not have any of these changes to the feet but instead was able to upright walk and have the grasping big toe. Human feet have evolved in a completely different direction than ape feet. Our more rigid feet are a lot better for upright walking and running!!! 

Bipedalism

So when it comes to bipedalism for humans one key feature is the limbs of course. Bipedal beings have an orthograde trunk on extended lower limbs. Meaning that their upper body sits upright and their legs are longer than their arms. The reason that humans have achieved erect bipedalism has to do with where their center of gravity is. This allowed human arms to become free of locomotion in order to instead carry things such as tools or babies. The femura also has a lot to do with bipedalism. It has to do with the shape and depth of different parts of the femur such as the femoral head and the gluteal lines.  The femur is more straight and longer than quadrupedal animals. This picture helps give a good look at the femurs between different species and now the femural head has changed. 

If humans came from chimps, why are there still chimps?

    If humans came from chimps, why are there still chimps? This is a question that has been asked forever. It probably started occurring around when the theory evolution started taking off. This is a question mostly asked by those who disown the idea of evolution (these people cannot be helped smh) but also by those who simply do not understand. So the goal of this post is to help those who do not understand. 
    So it is not that humans came from chimps but instead that we share a common ancestor with chimps. Evolution is not a linear line but instead a tree with many branches. The roots of the tree grew each branch of the tree but each branch took on its own traits and "personality" as it adapted and evolved. So chimps are more like our cousins versus being a direct ancestor of humans. Chimps and humans have a common ancestor and then both went separate about 6 million years ago on their own evolutionary "branch". This is why although we have a lot in common with chimps we are also very different from them. 

    So why are we so different than chimps if we have a common ancestor? Why are we more "evolved"? This was likely due to what drives all evolution. After the humans and chimps branches split they were most likely dealing with different environments and such. Therefore chimps most likely were fine in their environment and no longer needed to evolve. On the other hand the more recent ancestors of humans were probably in an environment where they needed to adapt and evolve. They were also constantly moving which probably continually lead to the need for adaptation. Which most likely lead to our most current evolved state that we view as superior to chimps. When in reality it's not that we are "superior" but rather that we simply had different situations than chimps and needed to evolve differently than them. 

Gender and Race and why its still an issue that needs to be talked about!!!

Do we really need to keep bringing up gender and race? Yes, yes we do actually. Now usually when a topic is brought up enough people get tired of it and don't care to talk about it anymore. Well that CAN'T be the case when it comes to gender and race!!!! We need to continue talking about gender and race because there are evident issues from the past and current that deal with them. It is important to keep talking about them and having difficult conversations with people in order to fight this issue. That being said let's talk about Evolution. Oh wait how are we even supposed to properly understand evolution without getting diverse perspectives on the matter. Or maybe we should we just leave it up to the racist old white men? I think NOT!!! Which brings me to my favorite quote from this weeks readings by Jason Organ, "Evolution is all wrapped up in white supremacy and a generally- destined patriarchy. This is not evolution. And this is not my evolution. I know you're nodding your head along with me". Im tired of everything including our evolution being centered around white men and so should you. Thats why the Black Feminist theory is so important! It gives a unique new perspective to our understanding of evolution which should be valued highly. We have to continue to strive towards diversifying science so that we can get perspectives from minorities and not like the white men continue to skew our understanding of the world. 

Organ, J. (2020, May 18). It is unethical to teach evolution without confronting racism and sexism. Retrieved May 29, 2020, from https://blogs.plos.org/scicomm/2018/11/29/it-is-unethical-to-teach-evolution-without-confronting-racism-and-sexism/

Introduction

Hey everyone!! My name is Breanna or just Bre for short. I am a Biological Anthropology major with a minor in Criminal Justice. I hope to pursue a career in Forensics one day!!! Im sure due to covid-19 this was not what we were expecting our summer to look like. So I say we make the most of this class and these discussions to have some fun social distancing interactions!! Im looking forward to meeting you all and for a wonderful first summer class!!!