Piltdown Man

For the Book Review assignment I have been reading "Piltdown Man and Other Hoaxes" by Jonathan Maxwell.  The main hoax discussed is Piltdown man, which was once thought to be a missing link in the evolutionary lineage of humans.

A skull was found in the English county if Sussex in 1908.  It appeared to be closely related to a human's, but the jaw appeared to be very ape-like, and its discoverer, Charle Dawson, hurried home with his find and began some research.  Over the years, Dawson gained many followers who strongly believed Piltdown man was a missing ancestor of humans.  But of course with followers comes those who deny it.  The people against Dawson ranged from the religious community to his fellow scientists who believed this discovery was too good to be true.

Many of his followers were world renowned scientists, so the oppositions against  Piltdown man began to slim, except for the Americans.  American scientists refused to believe that there was the possibility of human ancestors in Europe, but none in America.  At the time, no one knew where humans actually originated (which was in Africa), so there was much dispute among different countries because they all wanted the origin of humans to be from their homeland.  Americans believed humans originated in America, so therefore Piltdown man had to have been a hoax.

Years later, in 1953, long after Charles Dawson passed away, Piltdown man was indeed discovered to be a fraud.  It turns out, the skull of the creature was a human skull and the jaw of an orangutan that were both artificially aged.  They were dropped near each other into a gravel pit left to be discovered.

To this day, the mastermind behind this hoax remains unknown, but many believe it was the discoverer of Piltdown man, Charles Dawson, that forged this "scientific breakthrough".

Hind Feathers and Flight of Early Birds

It is an extremely unknown fact that many dinosaurs and other reptiles possessed feathers to regulate their body temperature because they were all cold-blooded.  However, recent discoveries show that early birds had large legs similar to an ostrich, but their legs did not have tiny feathers, rather they were covered in long feathers that appeared to have been used for flight.  “A bizzare hind wing formed by a large pennaceous feathers (feathers with stiff vanes) along with the metasaurs is known in several non-avian dinosaurs and may have played an important role in the evolution of flight on the line to birds" (Zheng). 

 

Fossils of early birds with strange feathered hindlimbs were discovered and point to the fact that early birds may have had a similar body structure to a biplane, an airplane with two sets of wings, and upper and a lower.  Then, as evolution proceeded, the hindlimbs of birds shrank and lost their feathers.  And their forelimbs grew larder and grew longer and more efficient feathers.  Now the only feathers on the hindlimbs of modern birds are tiny and fluffy and used only for insulation purposes.  

The use of hindlimbs during flight was most likely much easier to accomplish than flying like today's birds.  Without the use of their hindlimbs, it it likely that birds never would have been able to leave the ground.  

            

http://www.sciencemag.org.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/content/339/6125/1309.full

Origin of Venom

             Venom is a widely used trait among the animal kingdom.  It has gone through convergent evolution throughout the animal kingdom.  Convergent evolution is when the same trait evolves for the same reasons, but in completely different lineages.
             Many animals use venom either to hunt or to protect themselves from predators.  "Venom is the mark of a special club, a select subset of the animal kingdom. It includes vipers, jellyfish, spiders, scorpions, centipedes, bees, cone snails, newts, platypus, and even a primate" (Zimmer).  Venom is made up of molecules specifically designed to harm another animal.  There are two types of venom, neurotoxins and  hemotoxins.  A neurotoxin is designed to break down the nervous system and the brain, causing a swift death in many animals.  A hemotoxin is designed to break down blood cells and organs, causing a slow and painful death.

 

            All the animals containing venom evolved this unique trait completely separate, but only for two main reasons.  They all evolved venom to either hunt prey or defend from predators.  Snakes, scorpions, and spiders developed venom to both hunt and defend themselves.  The black widow spider has one of the most potent venoms in the animal kingdom, but it cannot inject larger animals (such as humans) with enough venom to cause immediate fatality.  Many other animals like poison dart frogs, puffer-fish, and even some mammals developed venom to protect themselves from predators.  The poison dart frog has a unique, bright colored pattern to warn predators that its skin is highly toxic.

            Venom is a highly unique trait, but it is extremely advantageous to many different animals all throughout the animal kingdom. 

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/01/09/on-the-origin-of-venom/

Fixed Behaviours and Migration in Parasitic Flatworms

     Parasites can have a detrimental effect on all animal and plant life.  They infest their host, and more often than not, causing extreme illness, or, very often, fatality.  By learning how parasites function and their different behaviors, it can become possible to prevent sicknesses and death because of parasites.  Dr. Suzanne Sukhdeo, a parasitologist at Rutgers University, is doing just that.  Dr. Sukhdeo primarily studies the behavioral and migration patterns of parasites that infest many plants and animals that are consumed by humans.  In Dr. Sukhdeo's research paper, published in the International Journal for Parisitology, "Fixed Behaviours and Migration in Parasitic Flatworms", she studies how parasites know which direction to travel and how to get to their designated area of the body.  As many already know, eating an organism with parasites will almost always allow the parasite into your own body, causing you to become extremely ill.  The study of parasite behavior is a relatively new field, because it was unknown for centuries that parasites had very distinct behaviors and migratory patterns.  How does a liver fluke almost always know which direction to travel in order to get to the liver?  How does a tapeworm know how to get to the intestines?  This study has the potential to prevent fatal sicknesses stemming from the infestation of parasites.  

Found DNA Can Create a 3-D Model of Strangers

   Heather Dewey-Hagborg, an information artist from Brooklyn, has found a way to create a portrait of a stranger using only DNA found on the ground or in the garbage.  You are leaving trails of DNA behind you everywhere you go, like chewing gum you spit out, a hair that falls off you while walking, or a cigarette butt you stomp out. 

Dewey-Hagborg collects bits of trash laced with strangers’ DNA and it is coded.  As of right now, the only traits she is capable of reading is eye color, gender, and maternal ethnicity.  She then searches through a database of possible faces and choses the most aesthetically pleasing face to be showed as a printed 3-D model in her most recent project, "Stranger Visions" in an art gallery.  Although they are only printed 3-D pictures that in no way fully resemble her ‘subject’ the pictures are still very life-like because she uses a high quality 3-D printer.

This project is still in its beginning stages, but it has loads of room for evolution and perfection.  This could be used to search for missing children or criminals after it is nearly perfected.  Just remember, any time you give spit your gum out, you are leaving your DNA behind for anyone who wants it.  

How Did The Dinosaurs Evolve?

     Dinosaurs are one of the most famous groups of living organism ever to inhabit the Earth, but an interesting question is, where did they come from?
     Dinosaurs arose from a family of prehistoric reptiles called the archosaurs, who evolved from a common ancestor between fish and reptiles, one of the first creatures to make the transition from water to land.  From that common ancestor, three branches formed, the pelycosaurs, the therapsids, and the archosaurs.  The therapsids gave rise to the first mammals, who existed somewhat in secrecy along with the dinosaurs, but were unable to flourish with them.
     The archosaurs rose up after the Permian/Triassic Extinction Event, which was a massive extinction that wiped out three quarters of the world's terrestrial animals. The archosaurs, who thrived for thousands of years evolved and gave rise to the dinosaurs, who thrived for millions of years.
     The dinosaurs 'ruled' the Earth for an extremely long time, up until the K/T Extinction , that wiped out 70% of Earth's land animals, including the dinosaurs.  The most accepted theory behind this extinction is that a massive meteorite struck the Earth, clouding the sky for years killing many plants and many animals.  Without any plants, the herbivores starved and died out, and without herbivores, the carnivores had nothing to eat and also died out.  Also, the impact caused earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, destroying much of Earth as it was known 65 million years ago.
     Very few animals survived, but the ones that did consisted of some avian-like dinosaurs, that gave rise to birds, many mammals, and tortoises. With the extinction of dinosaurs, animals such as mammals were able to rise and evolve.

http://dinosaurs.about.com/od/dinosaurevolution/a/dinevolution.htm