Human Variation & Race

 Humans are clearly varied from one another, while all being the same is some other shape or form when it comes to how our bodies function. One of the most defining features about humans is how we are able to adapt to virtually anything given certain conditions, such as time to prepare, foresight one what to do, and a general idea of what to expect. Luckily, with the technology we have today, we are able to predict and prepare for situations we may have to adapt to, but even then there are times where even that's not possible. 

Human variation is when we may not adapt as immediately and the only thing to their disposal is the traits they were born with. 

Human Variation: Cold 

The human body's internal temperature should always be around a high 35C to 37C, this is the body's homeostasis keeping the internal temperature at a specific level. In terms of a cold temperature, as the surroundings get colder, the body's hypothalamus will react and send a signal to the muscles to shiver in order to keep the body at homeostasis. 

However, in the event that the surroundings are much too cold and the hypothalamus cannot regulate the body's temperature at homeostasis the decline in the internal body temperature will cause organs to fail as it slows down and in the end cause the body to die. This is the result of hypothermia, the condition when the internal body temperature drops too low causing the body to essentially freeze to death. 

Short-term adaptation

Short term adaptation is when the human body reacts quickly to their environment when under stress in order to maintain or regulate homeostasis or to just regulate stress all together. An example of this is GAS, or General Adaptation Syndrome. 

Alarm Stage

GAS occurs when the body activates it's alarm system or it's flight-or-fight response. It reacts quickly to the stress by increasing your heart rate, activating adrenaline, releasing cortisol (stress hormones), and a sudden increase in energy in order to complete the task to get your body out of the area of stress. 

Resistance Stage

As it begins to calm down and body has already reacted to the stressor, it slows down the processes of the Alarm stage called the Resistance stage. The amount of cortisol released is decreased, your heart rate slows down to a normal rate, but you mind and body continue to be alert until you are in safety. While in this stage, you may be more frustrated, irritable, and have a lack of concentration. When finally arriving at a safe state, your body's function normalize and you leave the Resistance stage. 

Exhaustion Stage

In the case of a stressor not going away, and the body is in prolonged stress, it will continue to be in the resistance stage for too long and in this case the body will enter and exhausted state. Pro-longed Resistance will be followed up by the Exhaustion stage. Your body will be depleted of all it's resources that allow you to maintain a current healthy lively hood. You'll lose all strength physically, emotionally, and mentally. Exhaustion can cause multitudes of problems such and burnout, anxiety, and depression. 

Facultative adaptation

Facultative Adaptation is similar to Short Term Adaptation in the fact that it doesn't require too much time to act, but when compared to each other, Facultative adaption does indeed last longer when it adapts. It doesn't require any change in DNA, but it still alters genes in response to a stressor. As long as the stressor exists the phenotypes that changed will continue to stay and disappear over time once the stressor disappears. 

Sun tanning

Sun tanning is an example of Facultative adaption in the case the phenotypic expression for one's melanin granules increase when exposed to high Ultra Violet Radiation exposure. UR Radiation is increased during the summer months, so this adaptation usually occurs during the summer and decreases in the winter months. 

Prolonged exposure of the sun increases the size of melanin granules thus darkening the skin's complexion, and this can be done to those of any complexion despite it being more noticeable on those who are lighter in tone. 

Though tanning is an adaptation to be able to withstand the UVR, some Europeans lost this ability and can no longer tan and they would have multiple sun burns over their skin and cause irritation in redness and peeling. 

This faulty tanning is due to the lack of Mc1r, melanocortin-1 receptor, that produces melanin. Those without this protein cannot adapt easily to Ultra Violet Radiation and are at risk of skin cancer. 

Because this adaptation is facultative, once UVR decreases in the winter months or the person stays indoors for long periods of time they will begin to lose their tan and their phenotypic expressions will return to "normal". 

Developmental Adaptation

Developmental Adaptations are when there are changes in DNA in the overall population as a reaction to a stressor that is prolonged for generations, thus causing evolutionary changes. 

Acclimatization 

Upon entering high altitudes the body enters acclimatization, basically more red blood cells are produces so that more oxygen can be carried through the cardiovascular system. The lungs then increase in size and the intake and outtake of CO2, carbon dioxide, is also expedited. 

The reason proper acclimatization is developmental adaptation is that there are those who are born to be better suited for living in higher altitudes than others. When these populations have been living in these areas for generations, their lungs increase in size and they also naturally produce more hemoglobin. Which allows for more oxygen to be carried by blood to allow them to live in higher altitudes. 

An example of this are Tibetan Villagers who's phenotypic genes include 10 oxygen-processing genes that are not found generally in those who live in lower altitudes. 

Cultural Adaptations  

Cultural Adaptations are the literal adaptations of adopting different practices and cultures to enable them to survive in different environmental stressors. 

Developmental Adjustment: Foot Binding

Though, not necessarily a positive adaptation, foot binding resulted in an adaptation in which a the anatomical change of Chinese women in the 20th century that developed in their life time into adulthood. 

It was a popular culture practice to bind one's foot into tiny shoes in order to look petite, innocent, and cute and was considered to be attractive. So, the smaller the shoe the more appealing the women were to men at the time. 

This cultural practice caused a Cultural Adaptation where the populations in this time all leaned towards wearing small petite clothing, more specifically shoes in order to "fit into the crowd" sort of speak, but this practice cause their feet to permanently shape into the shape of the shoes they wore when they were younger. Though it helped them attract men at the time it was none other than a stunt in normal foot growth as they grew older. 

The practice involved binding the feet of young girls to stop the growth of their feet, and allow them to fit into small shoes. Even though this practice is no longer legal, and actually a form of mutilation now, at the time it helped these women gain higher statuses through marriage. 

Benefits of Studying Human Variation

Studying human variation allows us, as humans, to be able to learn how we may learn about the factors that involve the adaptations and significance of why humans change and adapt in certain situations and stressors. This may include physical or genetic variation but either way know how humans will respond to certain areas of stress such as altitudes, sunlight, disease, and cultural practices. 

With the study of these natural processes it may improve how scientists and doctors today treat different patients depending on the physiological and genetic variation involving human development. Such as skeletal adaptations where stressors such as physical trauma on the bones may vary depending on population that is effected. This study can be seen in Paleopathology, which covers this exact topic of trauma and diseases in the skeletal structure. 

Race and Variations of Adaptations

Race in today's society doesn't really help us understand variation of human adaptations due to the melting pot of today's world especially in Western Society. Race wouldn't necessarily help us understand different adaptions due to race not necessarily equating to where one lives. However, it may help us understand this variations when consider their ancestors and or secluded populations today. 

For example, when considering the developmental adaptation of the Native American Tibetan races. We can assume that because of their race and where they came from, their variation of race co-insides with their adaptation to high altitudes. 

The Fraud of Piltdown Man

Piltdown Man "Fossil" pieces

Piltdown Man

The Hoax

In the early years of the 1910's, a British paleontologist by the name of Charles Dawson discovers a find of the lifetime. He supposedly discovers a fossil that was apparently the "earliest" known relative to humans, but to everyone's surprise it was founded in Piltdown, Uckfield located in the United Kingdom. Upon discovery of the pieces of the skull many skeptics and scientists questioned how or if the skull really were from the same creature as the jawbone just seemed out of place in comparison to the skull.

However, this was to be expected from a very early ancestor of humans, for the jaw to be questionably ape like more so than human like, but the only issue with this was to really determine anything they needed canines to solidify and appease those her doubted Charles Dawson. To everyone's surprise a canine tooth that sort of matched the expected size showed up almost a year later. 

Due to the lack of forensics, dating, and just poor scientific intuition at the time Piltdown Man became the only, and undisputed, human ancestor being founded specifically in the United Kingdom. Before the reveal of Piltdown Man being found out as a hoax, the United Kingdom took pride in the fact that it was the, "earliest Englishmen as the lords of creation," (Discovery Science). 

Eventually, as time passed by and more and more fossils of human ancestors arose from dig sites in places such as Australia, Asia, Africa, and so on, the authenticity of Piltdown Man was beginning to be questioned. During this time, the technology scientists have are now much more advance than it was in 1912, so scientists were able to use better dating technology to determine the age of the fossils and even reexamine them as a whole. 

The information founded was outstanding, solely because Piltdown Man was a fraud for over two decades. The fossils were notably stained, the jaw bone was merely less than a hundred years old (from an orangutan),  the lower molars were shaved down using modern tools, the canine was forged, and everything was just off about the entire thing. 

With this forgery being discovered, it was now time to figure out just who and why this was done in the first place. Such a discovery cannot just be forged without a reason, it threw off scientists for years and set back paleontologists and human study back many steps. The first person to come to mind was obviously Charles Dawson himself, as he was the one who found the first and any other later Piltdown fossils. Though because of his early death in 1916 it made it so that his forgery got to live and never be questioned by anyone, but he couldn't have pulled this off by himself. The fossil authenticator of Piltdown was a man named  Sir Arthur Smith Woodward, and with his authenticity, Dawson was able to get away with the hoax for many years. Yet, when looking into the background of Charles Dawson, it was quite clear he was the mastermind behind everything as he was a master of forgery and had the most to gain from such a discovery. In the end, Charles Dawson got what he wanted, to die with a discovery and fame that he had founded no one ever has. Hoax or not. 

Positives of Science

Due to the lack of information and the plausibility that the Piltdown skull was actually real during the 1910's-1940's scientists lacked the drive and tools to actually prove otherwise. However, as technology grows and research continues it was easier to actually disprove the existence of Piltdown as a whole. What brought up to look into Piltdown in the first place was not due to new technology, but findings later in the world that made scientists question the legitimacy of Piltdown. These findings were later skulls of human ancestors founded in countries such as Africa, Asia, and Australia where despite the skulls being younger in age, they were more ape like than man like despite the supposed earliest fossil, Piltdown, being more man-like. With this scientists took the opportunity to look back into the fossil and user newer technology to date the fluoride of the skull and jawbone to determine that accurate date. The answers were all over the place, as some pieces were only a few hundred thousand and the jawbone itself only being less than a hundred years. Along with the aging not being accurate it was noted that the fossils were stained with some dye and the bone was tampered with using copper modern tools to shave down the canines, molars, and the shape of the jaw. With all this considered, the fraud was exposed and all the errors Charles Dawson made were finally corrected. 

Human Factor

It's impossible to remove human factor from anything really, especially science. Because in the end, humans are the ones who are classifying anything in science. Humans are the ones who code and tell what the machines to do. Humans are the core and essential part of any scientific discovery overall. See, removing human error would be nice, but removing human factor isn't what we need. Human Error and Human Factor are two completely different things. The Human Factor allows for us to see the details of something in the scientific community using knowledge and understandings that technology can never correct. However, human error is the result of humans being clumsy, emotional, blind, and just not as precise as a machine. These errors throw us off and it isn't anyone's fault really, but it is still error that can be corrected by both other humans and technology. 

Life Lesson

This entire journey about the hoax that is the Piltdown Man is that we cannot trust everything at face value, and that unverified sources will never be reliable even if the information ends up being correct, you cannot back up any of your claims as such. Though, I think this hoax isn't really a good way to learn that lesson as Dawson and Woodward were esteemed scientists in their field that both had a hidden agenda. Dawson deceived the world and Woodward "verified" his discovery. The lesson is more so, even if you find one source, you should look into other sources and cross reference them to see if the information overlaps. That way you know more than one source agrees with the claim. 

Analogy & Homology

Analogy and Homology in Water Species 

Great White Shark

Humpback Whale

Bottlenose Dolphin

When perceiving at these three sea animals, you can notice that all three of them have fins, dorsal, tail, and flippers. Despite these similarities only two of these species are ancestral similarities. 

Homologous Traits

Bottlenose Dolphin 

The Bottlenose Dolphin is a sea mammal who swim in schools and hunt their food by corralling the fish in large swirls of fish herds. They swim in schools together and are intelligent animals who are generally friendly with humans. They throw their fish into the air and catch them as they fall into their mouths. This is done repeatedly until the school has had their share. 

Humpback Whale

The Humpback Whale is the largest known mammal in the world who swims across the ocean in pods, not schools, and stay with each other till death. Despite their size, that is their only defense when it comes to predators. They are not equipped to hunt or attack of any predators, not like they have any, but this changes the way they hunt. They are carnivores, but if they cannot hunt they simply allow the krill they eat to enter their mouths for them to consume as they swim across the ocean. 

Teeth

Humpback Whale

The Humpback Whale is a sea mammal that is also considered a carnivore just like the Great Whiteshark, but their teeth are ultimately extremely different. You see, they don't really have teeth but something called baleen. These rows of baleen are used to capture and trap thousands of krill and shrimp they come across. They do not hunt, but instead simply capture. The baleen are hairy likes teeth akin to finger nail material that ensnare the krill and traps them so that they cannot escape.  

Bottlenosed Dolphin

The Bottlenosed Dolphin is also a carnivore, but their teeth are more closely related to the sharks rather than the whale's baleen. Dolphins only use their teeth to chew their prey, and use other methods to hunt fish. And since they can hunt, Dolphins do not have Baleen like Whales. 

Common (General) Ancestor

The Whale and The Dolphin both have the common ancestor of the terrestrial Cetartiodactyla that stem from the artiodactyl family. These mammals were even toed carnivorous artiodactyl, but the fact that they were carnivores is the point here. That being that generally, the artiodactyl are herbivores and deer-like, so the classify the whale and the dolphin in this group would be close, but not cigar. However, the teeth of the dolphin and the whale do come from this family, the way the Humpback Whale's baleen developed is due to other changes and not their ancestor. The Whale's Baleen is the only species on earth that is known to have this filter system, so where they got this from isn't entirely known by biologists. 

Cetartiodactyla

Analogous Traits

Great White Shark

The Great White Shark is a Carnivorous Fish who hunts large fatty mammals such as penguins, seals, large tuna, and such. They are predators that attack and swim in small schools, but they hunt them as if they are similar to that of predators on land such as large cats. They stalk and hunt their prey before eventually attacking. They swim in the ocean at high speeds and are aerodynamic in structure. 

Bottlenose Dolphin 

The Bottlenose Dolphin is another sea animal who swims in the ocean with a similar aerodynamic structure to a Great White Shark. They need to swim through the ocean to get where they need and to swim after prey. The main reason for their shape is to allow them to swim freely in the ocean. 

Anatomy 

Great White Shark

The Great White Shark is a large predator who swims in schools and is dynamic in structure, they have dorsals, fins, flippers, and a tail. Their skeletons are made completely of cartilage to allow for more smooth swimming and flexibility when traveling in the ocean. They are also not mammals, so they have gills to take in oxygen rather than lungs. 

Bottlenosed Dolphin

Structurally the teeth of the dolphin and shark seem similar, but are very different. Dolphins' bones are made up of bones and not cartilage like sharks. They however do have dorsals, fins, flippers, and a tail in a similar shape to that of the shark. These structural similarities are solely because of analogous pressure of living and evolving in the ocean. They are needed to successfully populate in their current environment.

Differences

Under their exterior are their bone structures. The shape of their exterior limbs may looks the same, but as stated before their bone anatomy plays are large role in the reason as to why the similarities are analogous. Sharks are made of cartilage and Dolphins are mammals, so they are made up of bones. However, because they are mammals the bone structure (not just material) are also different. The bones of a dolphin show signs of being descended of mammals, as the sharks are quite obviously descended from fish. 

Shark (top) - Dolphin (bottom)

Common (General) Ancestor

If you go back far enough the closest ancestor you may find that a dolphin and a shark share is the lobe-finned fish. This fish is considered to be the ancestor for nearly every single type of species from millions of years ago. This however does not mean they are similar from genetic descent because the evolutionary line for these two split off where the dolphins ancestors head to land and the shark stays in water. The lobe-finned fish developed into an amphibian like creature who then went on to be a mammal, bird, reptile etc. This is the most common ancestor there is to them, but even then this may not even be the case, because the lobe-finned fish is the ancestor for mammals, birds and reptiles, not fish. The Ray Finned fish is more genetically similar to the shark than the lobe finned fish structurally, so the similarities between the Great White Shark and the Bottlenosed Dolphin is analogous and not genetic. 

Historical Influences on Darwin

 Charles Darwin Influences. 

Charles Darwin may be considered the father of evolution, but the credit for his theory cannot only go to Darwin alone, as there are other scientists who either help prove or disprove his theory of evolution. 

One being: 

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

Lamarck was a french biologist who contributed to the science and theory of evolution in the early 1800's, about around the same time Charles Darwin was alive. He was known for his own theory of evolution knows as Lamarckism. Lamarckism is the idea that the development or physical changes of an organism goes through its life time is then transferred to it's of-spring. This was to support his theory that in order for evolution to take place, one must die and "go extinct" to continue forward for evolution as a species cannot go extinct, but instead turns into a new species. 

Lamarckism was later disproven in modern evolution theories through geneticists in the 1930's, because of how physical changes in an organism that happen AFTER birth are not kept as they are strictly aesthetic changes and not genetic changes in the MRNA/DNA. 

Some of the evolutionary key points may have influenced Lamarck in theory of evolution, but this does not necessarily mean he is right. 

Organisms with better access to resources will be more successful in their reproductive efforts

- The idea that certain organisms with better resources contributes to the idea that in their life time an organism may be injured or be aesthetically changed in some shape or form that may either help or not one to get certain resources. For example, a rabbit whose fur is pure white may not have easy access to food and such as they are constantly at risk of being consumed by a predator compared to maybe a light brown rabbit. However, let's say this rabbit were to get into a situation that permanently changed it's fur color to a darker shade. Thus, this rabbit may have equal or better access to resources, but just cause their fur was changed after birth this does not mean their offspring will have this newly found fur color. Even then, Lamarck believed that in this situation that for evolution to take place that this would apply and for some reason that the aesthetic changes would continue into the offspring.

Could have Darwin use Larmarckism to support his own theory? 

Darwin didn't necessarily need Larmarckism to support his theory, but because of how the influence was negative it certainly did help. Larmarckism was founded because of how Lamarck noticed the changes of animals due to the environment they lived in, but didn't realize that adaptation is not the same as evolution. Humans are being that can adapt to many environments, but adapting doesn't mean we evolved to live in that environment naturally. It supported Darwin's theory of evolution in the way that he was wrong, so that it crossed out the suspicion that outside forces can force evolution and not genetics. 

The Church and Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin and the Church did not have the best relationship, as Origin of Species completely went against everything the church believed in and told its followers what to listen to. The Church did everything in their power to discredit Darwin's theory by slandering his theory by suggesting things like we originated from monkeys and saying things like Darwin disapproves of Adam and Eve. Darwin simply wanted to ask, "How did we come to be, and why?" It wasn't some rebellious act against the church, but the church took it personally and created conflict between eachother. 

Citations: 

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Baptiste-Lamarck

https://www.britannica.com/science/Lamarckism

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/02/3/l_023_01.html