SCI/TECH: Monkey Apes Upright-Walking Humans

Here's a couple analogies for your question that may help to put things in perspective:

Sabre tooth tiger is to the modern day tiger as australopithicine is to modern man.

Rescessive bipdeal survival mechanism is to ape as goose bumps are to modern man.

What are goose bumps, right? I always though this was cool....prob cuz I'm a cat person - but when a cat gets frightened the hairs arch on its back due to the same mechanism as the goose bumps we get when we enter a cold or foreign environment - it's a throwback to evolution that really isn't required anymore since we aren't covered in thick amounts of hair anymore - except for maybe Robin Williams - lol

I don't know if you're in college yet or going to be or out or not going or whatever, but if you dig this stuff, I'd check out Anthropology - You may not become a millionare but it'll keep your mind going - I don't know what I'm gonna do with it yet, but it's helped with a few debates here on ATS - lol *shrugs*

[edit on 7/21/2004 by EnronOutrunHomerun]

Originally posted by Esoterica

Originally posted by jp1111

Originally posted by Esoterica
This is in no way evolution, as single creatures don't evolve by definition. This has nothing to do with her DNA.

Freaky and cool nonetheless, though.

In case, if you're referring to my post, I was making a joke about evolution happening that fast. I know how evolution happens (mutations in genes passing through generations, adaptations in new environments and developing new traits, etc.)

I knew were joking, but I'm not sure that everyone here knew it as well. Figured I'd nip a problem in the bud

Allright!

EnronOutrunHomerun,

Cool, I get what you mean now. It's a mechanism that developed for other previous reasons.

So what DO they call a trait that keeps recurring in different species, like the
Big cats I was referring to..?

I like cats and dogs too, and have 2 and 3 of each respectively..
The reason I bring them us is my Black cats has a HUGE set of canines,
he even freaks out the Vet, they are so large.
He's able to hunt larger prey than your average cat because of those fangs.
Full grown rabbits instead of mice, you get it.

Quick, someone call Dr. Zaius.

Originally posted by Viendin
This actually could account for a missing evolutionary link. The one thing that set us apart.

Wouldn't continued evolution of other primates into anything closer to human be contradictory of the whole evolutionary theory? Now, don't take this post as a case against evolution, but as a case against continued evolution of apes into humans.

If in fact humans evolved from apes, the apes we evolved from are non-existant. The apes that exist today have, then, also evolved, and the primates they evolved from are also non-existant. It is like saying (and this is just an absurd analogy) if dogs evolved from rats, and now we see rats taking on traits which "prove" they are still evolving into dogs. Totally against evolutionary theory.

Evolution occurs when a new species within an animal family is borne. Signs of mutations are not proof of evolution, as most mutations occure from inbreeding. Evolution is when these mutations actually benefit the species making it stronger or more invulnerable to it's environment- among other things. Animals with mutations are born that way. It is the survival of the animal containing this mutation, it's advantage or disadvantage over it's kin, and the passing on of these mutations that establish evolution. Not a simple adaptation to compensate for pain as with this ape, or even a learned action- like sign language- as with others.

I don't think this prooves any infalibility of evolution, if anything it strengthens it....

The other primates within our family of species are not "striving"
to become human. What led our primate ancestors in the past to evolve into modern day humans was a selective process that cannot be duplicated. If chimps and gorrilas and others continue to evolve in the next few million years they are going to develop environmental adaptations...something that could split chimp group 1 from chimp group 2 b/c of their different family cultures, dwellings, or hunting techniques

One also has to remember that this ape that has begin to walk bipedally is in a isolated environment - chances are that if this occured in its natural environment it would be shunned from the group, negating any chances for reproduction - it would also not be able to defend itself well in this new posture and might die prematurely - 2001: A Space Oddesy has that awesome opening sequence of the one ape learning to use the tool and then learning to walk and then teaches his band to walk and threatens the less advanced tribe.....well - that whole sequence in the movie in reality encapsulated about 2 million years+ of evolution, with each step occuring gradually

spacedoubt I think that those reoccuring traits are just a part of our natural genetic make-up which is expressed in phenotypes (what is seen) and genoptypes (what is coded for) - homozygous vs. heterozygous - what is passed down in our genes, like getting your father's eyes or...heart disease, hehe - some lie dormiant for a few years and some reoccur in every generation