Basically i wondered what people's view were on the theory of our origins.
From what i have learnt in my lectures in uni, and then various texts afterwards, im finding it increasingly amusing how we are basically juvenile forms of most of our major ancestors.
Neoteny is as far as i am aware the retention of juvenile features (or persisting in a juvenile state).
Now just to setup the playing board i think the best example is the origin of vertebrates is thought to be from the sea squirt (dont know how many people have seen these things, they're quite good fun, but just seem pretty useless) However the interesting thing is that the juvenile form is similar to a worm, and has a very basic notochord (prerequisite to spinal column). Here's the first major step that involved using juvenile forms. (having been asked to edit this to give some backups, simple searches on "neoteny" "tunicates" and "vertebrate" "evolution" etc on google will give a good list of what appear to be uni lecture notes on the subject. I attempted to get some papers online but i couldnt get hold of my Athens pass and so couldnt access most of the online journals. I will hopefully be able to back this up with some more journals once i get access again.)
The next one which i feel has effected our existence HUGELY is that of our increased intelligence. It is felt once again that we retain a longer childhood, and even extend our degree of learning in adulthood to a much greater degree than even our closest cousins (chimps and gorillas), because we have retained being childlike in terms of interest and curiosity etc. Another neoteny we have kept (though im not sure personally on this one, any confirmation would be nice), is the angle at which our necks are naturally. I have read that during pregnancy the angle of the neck in primates is different for a time, than that of the angle after birth (or during later development in the womb). Whereas we retain this first angle as such. This i suspect would be very useful in terms of comfort whilst having an upright stance permanently. (but as i said im not too sure of the actual skeletons etc or process so not too sure on this one). This idea i think i got from Desmond Morris (The Naked Ape). Once again with access to journals i will hopefully be able to back this up, unfortunatly i borrowed the book and so cant just give the references he used off hand, im sure there will be some more upto date stuff as well tho.
Any further examples would be appreciated, any views etc etc. Just thought that a few people out there would find this amusing (probably both creationists and evolutionists, tho for different reasons i suspect).
Unseul
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