Paik's Blogs

1. The Piltdown Hoax was essentially a discovery by a group of scientists that introduced new fossils relating humans and apes in the course of evolution. This is called a hoax because the findings were not true, but it did fool a lot of people for nearly 40 years. These fossils were found in the early 1900s by amateur geologist Charles Dawson and anatomist Arthur Woodward. Although there were more people involved, these two were the main scientists behind this event. The fossils were found in a small town called Piltdown, hence the name. Despite these discoveries being a hoax, it somewhat sparked national attention towards Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. As expected, the initial reactions to "Piltdown man" were so surprising and shocking. The fossil, which was a jawline with some teeth on it, suggested a human-like structure millions of years ago. Many people and the scientific community viewed this as a connection between man and ape. These findings elevated Dawso

Homologous Traits a. The two species I have selected are the bird and human. These two species are totally different now, but their ancestors may have shared some traits that were homologous based off adaptations and environment change. The bird is classified as a chordate because it has a backbone, while the human is a mammal or primate. So, with this in mind, the two species are distinctively different. b. The homologous trait between each specie is the bone structure of their hands.The structure in the bird's wings and the anatomy in the human's hands are very identical, suggesting that they are homologous traits. In birds, they possess a wrist, elbow, hands, and humans have the exact same. However, the actual function and shape is very different because birds need to have elongated fingers in order to fly. Obviously, humans don't have this shape. Despite this, the bone anatomy in the bird and human suggest that the two species did evolve from a common ancestor and w