language blog

Part 1-
This assignment was hard to start with but as it progressed it seemed to get easier. For example when my friend was telling how cold it was outside I just shivered and he understood that I thought it was cold also. My partner did alter the way he would speak to me asking mostly just yes or no questions to make it easier on him. Also, he was laughing at the way I was trying to communicate just using hand signals and hitting things. After doing this experiment it is clear to me that a culture that uses vocal communication can communicate ideas with each other much easier then a culture who uses does not use vocal communication. I would think that a culture that uses vocal communication would look down on a culture that uses symbolic language. It is very difficult to have a conversation with someone who does not speak. I have a friend who has a brother with down syndrome and it not always easy to communicate with him, even though he knows what people are saying and understands most things. I noticed that people never really speak to or have a conversation with people who can't speak because it can be hard to understand there symbolic language.

Part 2-
I lasted about 8 minutes then slipped up and started to move my head around. The experiment was hard for me because I like to move around when I am talking, the hands were not hard for me to keep still, just moving my head was a bit difficult. My partners were not really affected by my limitations in speaking because I could still speak but had no expression. In our society non-speech language is important for example you can tell if a person is mad, happy, sad, or even sick just by looking at there body language. There are people who can have a hard time reading body language at times. Reading peoples body language can help you know if a person is mad and you probably should not talk to them or ask a favor from them. Also, in the game of poker it is a good thing to know how to read body language well, you can use the expressions people are making to help determine if they are bluffing or not. An environment for not reading body language could be if you are in a foreign country, and by using body language you could tell they do not want you there,  this could be a good time because if you are happy it might make you mad if you could look at people and know they don't like you.

week 4 Primates

Diet comparison
Lemurs
A.) Lemurs are only found in Madagascar, which is in island in the Indian ocean just east of Africa. The reduction in rainfall to there environment is endangering the lemurs, because they need fresh water to live. Lemurs spend most of their time up in trees or bushes.
B.) A lemurs diet consists of mostly vegetables such as, leaves or flowers. Also they will eat some fruits, little insects and sometimes little animals. Lemurs will eat almost any plant that is edible.
C.) The environment of the lemur has effected there diet. Since lemurs live in the rain forest there is a lot of trees with leaves and also insects which are part of there diet. Lemurs are small, so they couldn't hunt large animals,  they had to find food that they could survive on and the food they eat does just that.

Spider Monkey

A.) Spider Monkey's live in the tree tops from southern Mexico to Brazil. These primates live in the rainforest's and like to stay in there natural habitat, they don't wonder off. They are found in wet rainforest's in the trees and hardly ever found on the ground.

B.) Spider monkey's eat mostly different fruits, seeds, nuts and insects. These new world monkey's also will eat bird eggs found on the top of trees.  Spider monkey's will also from time to time eat certain leaves and flowers.

C.) The environment has not effected there diet much but provides them with food. The rainforest's they live in have a lot of different fruits which make it easy for spider monkey's to get to, so the availability of food may have cause them to eat what they eat.

   

Baboon
A.) Baboon's live in east Africa and can be found in a number of different habitats. These primates can be found in rainforest's or in the desert. A requirement for the baboon is where it sleeps at, they like to sleep on a cliff side or in tall trees so they can sleep safely.
B.) Baboon's are omnivores but grass makes up most of there eating habits. They also eat berries, seeds, leaves, and bark depending on where they are. A baboon will also eat different animals such as fish, shellfish, birds, small antelopes, and velvet monkey's.
C.) The environment the baboon lives in does effect there diet. Since baboons are found in many different habitats they eat many different things depending on if they are by water, in the rain forest, or in the desert.

 Gibbon
A.) Gibbon's live in old growth tropical rainforest's located in southeast Asia. These monkey's like to stay up high in the trees to stay away from danger on the ground.
B.) Gibbon's are omnivores but almost three quarters of there diet is fruits. When there is no fruit to be found they also eat leaves flowers, seeds, and bark. Other then trees and plant life for there diet they eat insects, spiders, bird eggs, and small birds. Gibbon's drink water from rain or dipping there hands in water and slurping it from their fur coat. Gibbon's usually only eat in the mornings from around 6 a.m. to 10 a.m.
C.) The environment this primate lives in does effect there diet. Since Gibbon's like to stay high in trees they only eat what is up on trees or birds that will fly from tree to tree.

Chimpanzee

A.) Chimp's live in in large communities in the tropical forests of Africa. Communities of chimpanzee's can range anywhere from 10 to 150 primates, while the males will stay in one community there whole life and once a female are adults they will leave to a neighboring community. Chimp's spend just as much time on the ground as they do in trees. 

B.) Chimpanzee's eat mainly fruit are not limited to eating only fruit. They also enjoy eating leaves, seeds, bark, honey, nuts, and termites. Also, they eat mammals including birds and other monkey's. Meat only consists of about 5% of there diet so they do not eat to many mammals in there life time. The types of monkey's they eat are baby bushboks, colobus monkey's, and baby baboons. The chimp's success rate for hunting is very high from 55-80%.

C.) The environment does not effect the Chimpanzee's diet to much it seems they eat anything that they can. Living in a forest makes them more inclined for eating leaves and plants. 

The environment each primate lives in does effect there physical and behavioral traits. Most monkey's diet's are about the same, vegetables, leaves, fruits, seeds etc. The difference is the monkeys that go on the ground eat bigger animals and insects also they eat more of a variety. Monkey's that stay high in the trees only eat things that go up that high or what the plant life provides for them.

  

week 3 Homology&Analogy

Homology
1. The arms of a human and of a seal are homologs and have a common relationship even though each look different from the outside, structurally they are the same.
2. In the human arm each bone is a little longer including the humerus, radius, and ulna. The bones in the seals limb is thicker then that of a humans and the ulna is shaped a little different. There are differences because humans use there arms to pick up and grab objects while seals use there limbs to crawl and swim.
3. Both seals and humans are mammals.

Analogy

1. An example of two species with analog traits would be the wings of a bird and of a butterfly. Both have wings but did not come from the same ancestor.

2. Both birds and butterflies have wings wings so they can fly around there habitat. Both have wings because of the way they have evolved and to better fit there environment.

3.The common ancestor of the two species, birds and butterflies, did not have wings.