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Neoteny in humans is further indicated by the limbs and body posture, with the limbs proportionately short compared to torso length; [2] longer leg than arm length; [6] the structure of the foot; [1] and the upright stance. [7] [8] Humans also retain a plasticity of behavior that is generally found among animals only in the young. The emphasis ...
Neoteny in humans is the slowing or delaying of body development, compared to non-human primates, resulting in features such as a large head, a flat face, and relatively short arms. These neotenic changes may have been brought about by sexual selection in human evolution .
Steven J. Gould discussed the presentation of neoteny with "terminal additions" in humans. [8] Neoteny is defined as the delayed or slowed development in humans when compared with their non-human primate counterparts. The "terminal additions" were extensions or reductions in the rate and scope of stages of development and growth.
Sexual selection is quite different in non-human animals than humans as they feel more of the evolutionary pressures to reproduce and can easily reject a mate. [2] The role of sexual selection in human evolution has not been firmly established although neoteny has been cited as being caused by human sexual selection. [ 3 ]
Examples of precocial birds include the domestic chicken, many species of ducks and geese, waders, rails, and the hoatzin. Precocial birds can provide protein-rich eggs and thus their young hatch in the fledgling stage – able to protect themselves from predators and the females have less post-natal involvement.
Atavism can also be seen in humans who possess large teeth, like those of other primates. [9] In addition, a case of "snake heart", the presence of "coronary circulation and myocardial architecture [that closely] resemble those of the reptilian heart", has also been reported in medical literature. [ 10 ]
Cave paintings (such as this one from France) represent a benchmark in the evolutionary history of human cognition. Victorian naturalist Charles Darwin was the first to propose the out-of-Africa hypothesis for the peopling of the world, [40] but the story of prehistoric human migration is now understood to be much more complex thanks to twenty-first-century advances in genomic sequencing.
Horses and humans are two of the few animals capable of sweating on most of their body, yet horses are larger and still have fully developed fur. In humans, the skin hairs lie flat in hot conditions, as the arrector pili muscles relax, preventing heat from being trapped by a layer of still air between the hairs, and increasing heat loss by ...