BIOL 1500 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Anglerfish, Ontogeny, Weaning
8 Jul 2015
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Reasons for lengthened ontogeny: social conventions, increasing knowledge required for survival: decreased sexual dimorphism: even though there are lots of differences between men and women, we are relatively similar compared to, say, elephant seals, or anglerfish, language. It is by far one of the most amazing evolutionary features of humans. With language, we can create a thought and implant it into another person"s brain without the use of surgical tools! We can change the feelings and the behaviours of others. Babies learn that with a simple utterance, they can have objects brought to them from distances away! But lots of other species communicate with sound. What makes our language different is the number of bits" per second that we can utter compared with other species. Check out the story of the pioneer plaque for a source of endless amusement.
