UNIQUENESS OF MAN

CONTENT

1. Human Beings as Animals
2. Man as a Primate
3. Man as a Higher Animal
4. The Human Brain

Human Beings as Animals (mammal)

Human beings are a special kind of animal. They belong to a special group of animals called mammals. As mammals, they possess the following characteristics:

1. They have high level of intelligence
2. They give birth to young ones alive (viviparous)
3. They possess hair or fur on every part of their body or certain part of the body
4. They breast-feed their young ones with milk from the mammary glands e.g cow, sheep, cat, man
5. they have four chambered hearts
6. they are warm blooded animals

Man as a Primate

Mammals can be subdivided into many groups, one of the sub-groups is primates.

Human beings belong to a sub-group of mammals called primates. Primate is a member of an order of mammals with a large brain and complex hands and feet. All primates are mammals but not all mammals are primates. Among the primates are man, gorilla, chimpanzee and monkeys.

They have the following characteristics as primates: