Mandatory Synthesis Essay

664 Words2 Pages

The Article is about the evolution of eccrine sweat glands in humans and other primates, with a focus on their use to regulate body temperature as well as when in evolution this developed. They received their information on the sweat glands of primates from other research papers that had done testing on sweat glands for different reasons. They took the information from those other papers and after compiling it together, ran it through a few statistics functions to average the data and make it more usable. The information in the data that they were looking at is the presence of increased capillarization, and glycogen content. These are key factors to sweating and the use of eccrine sweat glands. Increased capillarization allows for more …show more content…

This type of climate is where sweating is most effective. By looking at the phylogenies of the various primates they had data for, they were able to come to the conclusion that the evolution of human sweat glands that were used for body temperate regulation occurred during the time of Australopithecus. They determined that the pressures for the evolution of and then the retaining of eccrine sweat glands used for temperature regulation were the climate of the environment, which is what caused it. The trait was also beneficial to endurance running which is assisted by the upright posture which would have occurred at the same time. The continued use of endurance running as well as the development of large brains is why the trait was maintained. Larger brains produce more heat, and the increased ability to reduce internal heat allowed us to cool these larger brains. In their article they were very detailed about the process used, this with the data given leads me to believe that their findings are correct. They were specific about how the data was obtained both for them, and how the original research got this data. The descriptions of the processes used for sweating and how each part affects the process helps show the development of the glands use for temperature regulation as well. With the information provided it forms a cohesive picture of its development that supports their conclusions

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