What Makes Humans Unique From Other Animals
Top 10 things that brand humans special
Humans are unusual animals past whatever stretch of the imagination. Our special anatomy and abilities, such as big brains and opposable thumbs, have enabled us to modify our world dramatically and even launch off the planet. In that location are also odd things about united states of america that are, well, just special compared with the rest of the animal kingdom. So what exactly makes u.s. so special? Some things we take for granted might surprise you.
one. Speech communication
No 1 enjoys a good gab session like humans. Just why can't apes, our closest living relatives, talk like us? Later on all, the shape and office of the larynx and vocal tract are fairly similar across primates, comparative studies accept found.
To answer this question, look no further than the encephalon.
Primates tend to have a wider vocal repertoire when two features of the encephalon — the cortical clan areas that command voluntary control over behavior, and the brainstem nuclei involved in control of muscles governing vocal production — are larger, a 2018 study in the periodical Frontiers in Neuroscience plant. In humans, these features are larger than in other primates.
"In simple terms, primates with bigger cortical association areas tended to brand more sounds," study co-researcher Jacob Dunn, an associate professor of evolutionary biology at Anglia Ruskin Academy in the United Kingdom, wrote in The Chat. Other factors, such as genetics and the anatomy of the song tract, probable also accept an effect, and research into their relation to speech is ongoing.
two. Upright posture
Humans are unique among primates because our main mode of locomotion is walking fully upright. This way of moving frees our hands up for using tools. Unfortunately, the changes made in our pelvis to help us move on two legs, in combination with babies with big brains, makes man childbirth unusually unsafe compared with the rest of the animal kingdom.
Unlike other primates, humans have a lumbar curve in the lower back, which helps u.s.a. maintain our balance equally nosotros stand and walk, but it also leaves us vulnerable to lower back pain and strain, Live Science previously reported.
3. Nakedness
We expect naked compared with our hairier ape cousins. Surprisingly, even so, a foursquare inch of human skin, on average, possesses as many hair-producing follicles every bit a chimpanzee's (Pan troglodytes) pare, a 2018 study in the Journal of Human Evolution constitute. It's just that humans often have thinner, shorter, lighter hairs on most of our bodies than almost primates exercise, so it's easy to think of united states of america as "naked."
So, why are humans covered with short, almost invisible hair? About 2 million years ago, an adaptation caused members of the genus Man to miniaturize body hair, while another adaptation increased the number of eccrine sweat glands, which most mammals take only on their palms and the soles of their feet, Live Science previously reported. These adaptations made it easier for Homo to cool off while running long distances because of the exceptional ability to sweat a lot.
If humans were covered with thick pilus, like apes are, sweat would coat the hair, which would make it harder for the sweat to evaporate, which is how sweat cools u.s. off. It'due south a skilful affair nosotros have miniaturized hair; it makes cooling off a breeze.
Fun fact virtually pilus: Fifty-fifty though we don't seem to have much, information technology apparently helps us detect parasites, according to a 2011 report in the journal Biology Letters.
four. Wearable
Humans may be chosen "naked apes," simply most of united states of america wear clothing, a feature that makes us unique in the brute kingdom. Chimpanzees take been documented adorning themselves with items — 1 wild chimp wore a knotted skin "necklace" made from the leftovers of a slain red colobus monkey, a 1998 report institute, while a captive chimp in Zambia started wearing grass "earrings" that she had draped over her ears, a fashion trend that spread to her fellow chimps — but these adornments didn't protect or insulate the chimps from the elements like human wearing apparel do.
The development of human being wearable has even influenced the evolution of other species — body lice (Pediculus humanus humanus), unlike all other kinds, cling to clothing, non pilus.
Nosotros've as well invented wear for animals, who, truth be told, don't always enjoy getting dressed up.
v. Boggling brains
Without a incertitude, the human trait that sets us farthest autonomously from the animal kingdom is our boggling brain. One of the human encephalon'south most prized regions is the overdeveloped cerebral cortex; information technology represents over fourscore% of our brain mass and is thought to contain 100 billion neurons, according to a 2009 written report in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. The cerebral cortex is associated with circuitous, higher thinking, such as decision-making, executive control, emotional regulation and linguistic communication. Even though the human brain makes upwardly almost 2% of body weight, information technology consumes more than 25% of our torso's overall free energy, a 2018 study in the Periodical of Human Evolution reported.
Humans don't have the largest brains in the world — those belong to sperm whales. Yet the human encephalon, weighing merely about iii pounds (one.3 kilograms) in adults, gives united states the ability to reason and think on our feet beyond the capabilities of the rest of the animal kingdom.
6. Easily
Contrary to common misconceptions, humans are not the only animals to possess opposable thumbs — most primates do. (And unlike humans, the rest of the great apes even take opposable big toes on their anxiety.) What makes humans unique is how we can bring our thumbs all the way across the hand to our ring and trivial fingers. In other words, our opposable thumbs are much longer than other primate thumbs, according to the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York.
Our long thumbs and their power to easily impact other fingers helps us firmly grasp and manipulate objects. We besides have fine musculus command, meaning we can do wildly unlike activities with our hands, such equally throw a curveball or agree a pen to sign our names, according to the AMNH.
7. Burn down
Humans' ability to control burn down brought a semblance of day to night, helping our ancestors to come across in an otherwise dark world and keep nocturnal predators at bay. The warmth of the flames also helped people stay warm in common cold weather, enabling us to live in cooler areas. And of form information technology gave us cooking, which some researchers suggest influenced man evolution — cooked foods are easier to chew and digest, perhaps contributing to reductions in human tooth and gut size.
There is evidence that humans used burn down every bit far back equally 1 1000000 years ago, but archaeological testify shows it became more widespread in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle Eastward about 400,000 years ago, Live Scientific discipline previously reported.
8. Blushing
Humans are the only species known to blush, a behavior Charles Darwin called "the most peculiar and the nearly human being of all expressions." It remains uncertain why people chroma, involuntarily revealing our innermost emotions (though we do know how information technology works).
From an evolutionary perspective, perhaps blushing signals that someone has messed up but is acknowledging their mistake to avoid a confrontation. It could besides exist an indicator of emotional intelligence, Ray Crozier, an honorary professor at Cardiff University's School of Social Sciences in the United Kingdom, told the BBC.
"A prerequisite for embarrassment is to be able to feel how others experience — you have to be empathetic, intelligent to the social situation," Crozier said.
nine. Long childhoods
Humans must remain in the care of their parents for much longer than other living primates. For case, humans accept nearly twice as long every bit chimpanzees to mature, and information technology looks like our ancient man relatives, such as the 3.2 one thousand thousand-year-erstwhile australopithecine Lucy and a ane.6 million-yr-former Homo erectus boy, reached adulthood faster than mod humans do, Science magazine reported.
The question so is why practise modern humans take so long to mature, when it might make more evolutionary sense to grow as fast equally possible to have more offspring? The explanation may exist our large brains, especially its high number of cortical neurons; other animals with large numbers of neurons in the cognitive cortex, such as some birds and mammals, too take long childhoods and extensive longevity, a 2018 report in the Journal of Comparative Neurology establish.
"It makes sense that the more neurons you have in the cortex, the longer information technology should accept a species to reach that signal where it's not but physiologically mature, but too mentally capable of being independent," Suzana Herculano-Houzel, author of the 2018 study and an acquaintance professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University, said in a statement. "The delay too gives those species with more than cortical neurons more than time to learn from experience, as they interact with the environment."
10. Life after children
Most animals reproduce until they die, including the frisky marsupials known every bit dusky antechinuses (Antechinus vandycki), whose males mate in a marathon frenzy until they drop dead, as well equally many species of octopus, whose males die soon after mating and whose females die subsequently disposed to their eggs.
But in humans, females tin survive long later ceasing reproduction. This might exist due to the social bonds seen in humans — in extended families, grandparents can help ensure the success of their families long subsequently they have passed the historic period when they themselves can take children. The and so-called "grandmother outcome" is real; an assay of births and deaths between 1731 and 1890 in Republic of finland showed that babies had an increased chance of survival if their maternal grandmothers were between 50 and 75 years old, likely because the grandmas helped with kid rearing, a 2009 study in the periodical Current Biology establish.
Editor'south Note: Originally published in 2011. Updated in March 2016 and Feb 2022.
Boosted resources
- Acquire more almost human evolution at The Smithsonian's Human Origins Program
- Peruse the latest findings at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
- Read the latest anthropology news written by scientists effectually the earth at The Conversation.
Bibliography
Dunn, J.C., Smaers, J.B., Frontiers in Neuroscience, 2018
Fitch, W.T. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2000
Dunn, J.C., "Why apes can't talk: our study suggests they've got the voice just not the brains" The Conversation, Aug. 10, 2018
Kamberov, Y.G. et al. Periodical of Homo Evolution, 2018.
Dean, I., Siva-Jothy, Chiliad.T., Biology Letters, 2011
McGrew, West.C., Marchant, Fifty.F., Pan Africa News, 1998
Dye, L., "Did a Chimp Invent Jewelry?" ABC News, 2014
Herculano-Houzel, S. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2009
Jawabri K.H., Sharma Due south. Physiology, Cerebral Cortex Functions, NIH Books, 2022
Boyer, D.M. Periodical of Human being Development, 2018
"The Grasping Paw," American Museum of Natural History, accessed Jan 2022
Coughlan, S., "Also hot to handle," BBC, 2007
Gibbons, A. "Neandertals, like humans, may have had long childhoods," 2017
Herculano-Houzel, S. The Journal of Comparative Neurology, 2018
Wolf, A. "Why does it accept humans then long to mature compared to other animals? Look to your neurons!" Vanderbilt University Research News, 2018
Chapman, S.N. et al. Current Biological science, 2019
Source: https://www.livescience.com/15689-evolution-human-special-species.html#:~:text=Humans%20are%20unusual%20animals%20by,even%20launch%20off%20the%20planet.
Posted by: culbertsoncrin1958.blogspot.com
0 Response to "What Makes Humans Unique From Other Animals"
Post a Comment