The Suns great gift and environment stress that negatively impacts the body during homeostasis. Heat can bring on problems such as dehydration, heat exhaustion, sun burns, skin irritations, and heatstroke. When heat causes the body to over heat from its normal temperature to 104 degrees Fahrenheit, the bodies reaction to the temperature is called a heatstroke.
As a culture we seek cool temperatures or ways to escape heat by sitting in a air conditioned environment or seeking shade wherever it may be.
Sweating is a short term adaption. The body releases perspiration from its pores in order to keep cool/cool itself down.
A developmental adaptation would be the growth of less bodily hair. More hair you have the more heat your body absorbs, the amount of hair a person has contributes to the amount of heat their body as a whole can take.
A facultative adaptation would be the different skin tones. People of African decent have the darkest skin in the world, meaning they absorb the most amount of heat because of their skin tone. They are dark because their ancestors somewhere along the line adapted the increased amount of sunlight as a adaption their skin was molded genetically to be darker than that of any other race on the planet.
The studies of human variation helps us find out how we as human being adapt to certain environmental stresses. Information from these studies are becoming more and more relevant with temps everywhere and the conflict that is global warming.
An example would be Africans. those who are of the race have naturally dark skin because of their ancestors constant exposure to sunlight/UV rays/heat. Environmental influences on adaptations is better because using race could lead to stereotyping and there are people who are full blood related and birthed with different skin tones. For example: My sister is full African American and is mistaken-ed for someone who is white, (not to sound racist) the only way she is identified as African American is in her blood. Races are all connected somewhere along our timeline, however not all races experience the same environmental adaptions or have experienced the same environmental adaptions which gave birth to unique races across the world.
As a culture we seek cool temperatures or ways to escape heat by sitting in a air conditioned environment or seeking shade wherever it may be.
Sweating is a short term adaption. The body releases perspiration from its pores in order to keep cool/cool itself down.
A developmental adaptation would be the growth of less bodily hair. More hair you have the more heat your body absorbs, the amount of hair a person has contributes to the amount of heat their body as a whole can take.
A facultative adaptation would be the different skin tones. People of African decent have the darkest skin in the world, meaning they absorb the most amount of heat because of their skin tone. They are dark because their ancestors somewhere along the line adapted the increased amount of sunlight as a adaption their skin was molded genetically to be darker than that of any other race on the planet.
The studies of human variation helps us find out how we as human being adapt to certain environmental stresses. Information from these studies are becoming more and more relevant with temps everywhere and the conflict that is global warming.
An example would be Africans. those who are of the race have naturally dark skin because of their ancestors constant exposure to sunlight/UV rays/heat. Environmental influences on adaptations is better because using race could lead to stereotyping and there are people who are full blood related and birthed with different skin tones. For example: My sister is full African American and is mistaken-ed for someone who is white, (not to sound racist) the only way she is identified as African American is in her blood. Races are all connected somewhere along our timeline, however not all races experience the same environmental adaptions or have experienced the same environmental adaptions which gave birth to unique races across the world.
Why is it important for the body temperature to stay stable? You are on the cusp of this explanation but don't quite get there.
ReplyDeleteReviewing your adaptations:
Sweating is a short term adaptation. How does sweating help to cool the body?
Tanning is actually an adaptation to solar radiation, not to heat. Can you think of a developmental adaptation to heat? Check out Allen and Bergmann's rule in the assignment file in Blackboard.
The less body hair trait is an interesting one. Heat dissipation is one possible explanation for body hair loss in humans, but then why don't other organisms in hot climates lose their body hair as well? There seems to be other things going on with humans that led to body hair loss and it may well include sexual selection, not just natural selection.
Good on your cultural adaptation.
Interesting that you brought in the concept of global warming. The process of global warming is pretty rapid. Would evolution be able to work fast enough to help with this? Or can we use the information from studies like this to help us manipulate the environment to our benefit?
For your final section, can you finish the thought you are working on? Can you use race to help you explain human variation?
Humans have been evolving slowly to adjust our present environment. The global temperature has increased every year and we somehow survived in the environment with mostly I guess cultural adaption, but I assume that humans body has changed slowly just as the environment. Because even though the global temperature has increased rapidly, I does not feel such a extreme difference each year. I am getting used to that. Maybe this is also an adaption too.
ReplyDeleteThe point that you make about humans always looking for a way to stay cool is surely true. Unless you live in an very cold climate of course. I find the body truly amazing how the body is such a delicate thing. In order for us to function properly we have to be able to keep our body in certain conditions. Example as you mentioned, it has to remain under certain temperatures, went like below 104 degrees. I myself have seen two family children get a fever over 104 and they went into convulsions with seizures. And on the other end, the body must also remain over a certain temperature as well, if the body temp drops too much then we enter hypothermia, which is also very dangerous and can cause death. What is most amazing is how we adapt to such extremities, either to the cold or the heat. And how we do it in the short term and long term.
ReplyDeleteI believe the climate part is righr but it depends on what area of the world u live in. If its extremely hot of course people dont want to wear alot of clothing like we would inthe winter. But good post nonetheless
ReplyDelete