KNOW WHAT ARE THE UNIQUENESS OF MAN
Reader's Digest explains in his book, Library of Modern Knowledge, that
Adaptations that distinguish our species from other animals
The most fundamental reality about man is that he is an animal that, like all other creatures, relies on plant life for the essential constituents of his body's metabolism-oxygen and organic nutrition.
Despite enormous gains in scientific and technical abilities, contemporary man is ultimately as dependant on the natural world to maintain his survival as the first member of his species.
However, man can fulfil his wants in a more complicated and comprehensive manner than other animals because he has accumulated superior knowledge throughout the course of development.
The study of man is an investigation of how man gained these adaptations and put them to use.
Man is a mammal.
The fact that man is a mammal derived from a specific order of animals known as primates, which were specialised for living in trees, accounts for the majority of his fundamental adaptations.
Man, like other animals, has a warm blooded constitution and great thermal insulation in the form of fat and hair.
As a result, man, like other animals, has been able to colonise portions of the world that were formerly inhospitable to cold-blooded species.
In the case of man, his later adoption of clothes and other artificial heating methods is just an extension of animals' natural inclination to wean themselves off of reliance on natural sources of heat.
Another distinguishing feature of mammals is that they have many types of teeth, allowing them to chew a greater variety of food and digest it more effectively than other animals.
Reptiles, for example, do not have this dental adaption.
The sophisticated manner in which contemporary man prepares his meal is an outgrowth of another fundamental habit of mammals: chewing food rather than swallowing it whole, which guarantees that it is absorbed as effectively as possible.
Mammals are further distinguishable from other animals by the fact that they give birth to living young that are unable to care for themselves for a period of time after birth.
During this time, parents must care for their children; else, the species would go extinct.
The milk produced by the mother animal to nourish her young is the most visible manifestation of this maternal care.
The adaptation that most differentiates man from other animals is his enormous brain, which he owes in part to his heritage from the tree-dwelling primates—a family that includes monkeys, apes, lorises, lemurs, and tarsiers today.
Life in the trees required strong vision rather than a highly developed sense of smell or touch, as well as stronger hand-eye coordination than was required by ground-dwelling animals.
Such a life also resulted in the evolution of more adaptable limbs for climbing and hanging from trees. All primates have prehensile, or grippable, hands and feet.
In the case of humans, the foot eventually lost its trait as it adapted to walking.
The greater use of sight, as well as hand-eye coordination, necessitates a more complex network of nerves than relying on the sense of smell.
As a result, most primates have bigger brains in proportion to body weight than other animals, as well as outstanding stereoscopic colour vision.
Another factor contributing to the primates' enlarged brains and enhanced intellect was their prehensile limbs.
These limbs, particularly the hands and arms, evolved into new organs that allowed an animal to explore and influence its surroundings.
This, in turn, lowered the dependence on the sense of smell in all primates, including man, resulting in the flat-faced look of monkeys, apes, and man. Animals that rely mostly on scent, on the other hand, have prominent muzzles.
Man, like primates, has a predisposition to produce just one or two kids at a time.
This has enabled them to obtain the comprehensive post-natal care they need.
References:
1. Library of Modern Knowledge by Reader's Digest
2. Eugene Zhyvchik on Unsplash
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