Why do chimps/humans have relatively larger ears than other apes?
|
fceska_gr
Does anyone have a view as to why chimps/bonobos and humans have relatively larger ears compared to OWM, gorillas and orangutans? Small / flat or internal ears are a sign of aquaticism. Though
relatively small compared to chimps, humans have larger ears than
other apes. I guess smaller ears were ancestral to great apes.
Then why would humans and chimps get larger ears?
Francesca
|
|
|
|
On Thu, Nov 18, 2021 at 04:49 AM, fceska_gr wrote:
Most likely, smaller ears were ancestral to great apes, as you suggest, Francesca. Why the chimp-human LCA got larger ears? "The better to hear you with, my dear" (said the Wolf to Little Red Riding Hood.) -- AquaticApe.net |
|
|
|
Yes, Francesca, I've been asking this myself for years. I'd think H.erectus had smaller ears than we have, hidden in their headhairs when diving. But why do gorillas have much smaller ears than chimps??
|
|
|
|
alandarwinvanarsdale
Gori;;a tends to live in cooler environments than chimps. Might be related in part to thermoregulation.
Sent from Mail for Windows
From: Marc Verhaegen
Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2021 3:41 PM To: AAT@groups.io Subject: Re: [AAT] Why do chimps/humans have relatively larger ears than other apes?
Yes, Francesca, I've been asking this myself for years. I'd think H.erectus had smaller ears than we have, hidden in their headhairs when diving. But why do gorillas have much smaller ears than chimps??
|
|
|
|
Orangutans have small ears like gorillas. This suggests that small ears are ancestral to great apes: the LCAs shown here at 13 and 8 Ma ago had small ears. Chimps, bonobos, and humans have large ears, suggesting that their LCA at 6 Ma had large ears.
Human ears are smaller than chimp ears. This difference can be explained the same way that all other differences between humans and chimps can be explained: the human branch had an aquatic phase, whereas the chimp-bonobo branch did not. -- AquaticApe.net |
|
|
|
On Thu, Nov 18, 2021 at 02:41 PM, Marc Verhaegen wrote:
I'd think H.erectus had smaller ears than we have, hidden in their headhairs when diving.Marc, your drawing suggests that hair would make the ears (and shoulders) of Homo erectus more streamlined. But it does not have that effect. Hair only adds friction in the water, which is why swimmers wear bathing caps.  -- AquaticApe.net |
|
|
|
alandarwinvanarsdale
Different great apes splitting off from a tree leading up to humans is not at all supported by genetics. And is disputed by some morphologists well before the genetic evidence demonstrated this model to be wrong. Humans have Gorilla, Orang, and Pan derived genes. The assumption that we “split” from chimps after other great apes is not at all safe, and evidenced only by our having more chimp than other great ape derived genes. ________________________________________________________________________________________________If genes or traits are truly derived, and we have them, that means we got them after our initial divergence from other great apes. It is well understood, though many in paleoanthropology lack such understanding, that higher frequencies of derived traits or genes from some group often does not mean closer relationships. Often it is due to factors like closer proximity and exotic genes from one group being favored over exotic genes from another group (which might actually be more closely related, but hold different niches). _____________________________________________________________________________________________Just because discredited ideas are often repeated by people who are behind the times, does not suggest those ideas have any merit. Humans today have packages of derived genes from all extant great apes, from interbreeding after initial divergences. This was / is NOT predicted by the linear tree model of human / great ape gene flow. If we split with no ongoing gene flow from other great apes in a linear manner, then we should share all genes from older splitting great apes with younger splitting great apes also. This is not the case. _________________________________________________________________________________________________We have genes that came to us from all extant great apes, which are not shared with any other extant great apes. This means there was no linear style exclusion from other great apeas in humans. ILS could be invoked, the problem is people that are that far behind do not understand ILS either so do not know how to invoke it. All they know for magical invocations about this is convergence, which does not work for this issue. Packages of genes are too complex to be from convergence.
Sent from Mail for Windows
From: Allan Krill
Sent: Friday, November 19, 2021 1:20 AM To: AAT@groups.io Subject: Re: [AAT] Why do chimps/humans have relatively larger ears than other apes?
Orangutans have small ears like gorillas. This suggests that small ears are ancestral to great apes: the LCAs shown here at 13 and 8 Ma ago had small ears. Chimps, bonobos, and humans have large ears, suggesting that their LCA at 6 Ma had large ears.
|
|
|
