Discovering Biological Anthropology

As a student of mechanical engineering I have been taking all science classes related to my major and didn’t really have to take any biology related classes which makes me feel incredibly lucky since I have a pretty bad memory. Last summer I was informed by my academic adviser that I wasn’t all that lucky and that in order to graduate from sixth college I had to take at least one course in biological sciences area. I had taken one biology class before and despite my enormous amount of effort to get a passing grade I had failed the class and so taking a biology class was not an option for me. I decided to take a psychology class because my friend who had taken it before told me that it was a pretty easy class and so I went ahead and took that class expecting an A + or in worst case scenario a B+.  Two weeks into the class I changed my grading option to pass/no pass realizing that psychology was not something that I could get a good looking grade in. About halfway through class I just really wasn’t so sure if I would be able to pass the class and at the end I ended up not getting a passing grade. Having failed both  biology and psychology classes, I had no other option but taking my chances with anthropology class which I expected to be as horrible as those two other classes. The first thing I did after enrolling in anthropology course was changing my grading option to pass/no pas fearing and expecting to have a hard time memorizing all those long and difficult scientific names.

Evolution of human

The first day of class I was very much surprised that I actually loved what biological anthropology was all about. I was so interested in the topics covered that memorizing those scientific names was not a pain any more.  What was amazing about this class was that although I had previously heard about Darwin and his evolution theory, I had never actually read about the scientific evidence that back this theory up.  The word “Evolution” as many of you already know refers to changes that occur over time in proportion of individual organisms differing in one or more inherited traits. Evolution explains how a specific specie can physically change over time and what causes these changes to occur. In 1858 the theory of natural selection  as a driving mechanism of such changes was first proposed  by Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace. Natural selection is a process in which some traits become either more common or uncommon due to environmental effects and is key to species survival especially when dramatic changes occur in habitats of those species.  

 As you can see in the pictures below, people living in central part of Africa are tall and thin verses Eskimos who are much shorter and have more body fat to protect them from cold. The differences that exist between these two populations demonstrates how natural selection helps species to adapt to their environment and survive in harsh conditions that others will definitely not be able to survive in.

Native Africans

Eskimos

I'm absolutely glad that I ended up taking this class since it stimulated a lot of thinking and doubting which I benefited from. I feel like I grew as a person by exposing myself to something that was way off my mind at the time and learned so much about human evolution and as a person who was a nonbeliever of evolution I suggest other nonbelievers to look into the evidence, ask questions and search for the answers to find out more about evolution.