HUMAN STORY...help!!!!!!!!!! (1 Viewer)

[Abtari]

hi there just wanted to clear something up...

in focus ideas 4 and 5 there are a few dotpoints that talk about evolutionary significance of this and evolutionary significance of that.,...

what exxactly do they mean when they say assess the evolutionary significance? do they mean what advantage a certain trait possesses in evolutionary terms for the organism or do they mean what significance does the trait have for our study and understanding of evolution...etc etc?

help would be much appreciated

 

[lislabella]

my dot point sheet doesn't list anything about evolutionary relationships but considering that the topic to date seems to be about evolution in terms of features that were advatageous for the evolution, survival and bi-pedal lifestyle of humans, i'd go with "what advantage a certain trait possesses in evolutionary terms for the organism".

 

[Abtari]

thanks for your thoughts.

um, if you go to focus idea 5 in the human story and the right hand column, there is something about evolutionary significance. especially since the keyword used is assess, i got a bit concerned about what they actually meant when they said evolutionary significance.

 

[lislabella]

ohhhhh on the practical side..... i get ya. i'm assuming when it says "assess the evolutionary significance" its refering to humans. In which case it means (in my opinion) look at the simialarities and differences and explain why they are significant for the evolution of humnas... i.epposable thumb, locking knee joint vs. non locking knee joint, shape of the skull resulting in brain size, the position of the spinal chord in the base of the skull - ours is in the middle allowing us to see straight ahead where as the chimp's is further back allowing the head to look up because of the way that they move.

helpful?? i'm finding this topic really confusing!

 

[Alaranth]

Not having read the sylabus, my guess would be the significance of features of human ancestors in relation to modern humans. Eg, species X was the first to have an opposoble thumb, this was significant be cause it allowed species X to do such and such things, leading to survival of the fittest, it evolved beacuse of these conditions, and thats why we have opposoble thumbs today.

 

[Abtari]

Evolutionary Significance!

ok, were getting a bit sidetracked. partially my fault.

assess the evolutionary significance of polymorphism in human species today.

would that mean say things like more melanin for people in hot areas is good for protection and less for people in cold areas is okay because they dont need it, plus they can get more vitamin d etc? or would you say

the evolutionary significance is that it shows that natural selection does exist. that you are morel likely to find dark skinned people in hot places, that you are more likely to find stockier, shorter and bulkier people in colder areas because they are the kind of people who have been most successful in living under those particular conditions??

is there a SIGNIFICANCE for the actual species/population OR is there is a SIGNIFICANCE for our study of evolution in HSC biology and beyond....

thats basically what i wanted to know.

 

[illodous]

lol my thoughts are that this option is really evil...

 

[lislabella]

agreed
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