Human Origins Rethink ?
Out of context: Reply #17
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- TheBlueOne0
"Bipedalism may have been a poor way for Ardipithecus to get around..."
Was listening to a podcast with an anthropologist last week that really put the pressure on this whole "bipedalism is a poor way to get around" thing. In fact, bipedalism is a glorifyingly amazing way to get around over long distances. Consider also that humans are one of the few (if not only) mammals that perspires. In other words we expel excess heat through our skin, whereas all other mammals - dogs, horses, cats, etc.expel heat through respiration - i.e. panting. Meaning they have to stop after heavy bouts of exertion.
Sure, as mammals go we are kind of slow, no matter how much we celebrate Usian Bolt, but the anthropologist made the point that, sure over a few miles a horse or a cheetah will smoke a human, but extend that to a 25 miles scale and human will win everytime hands down, because the horse has to stop and rest for such long periods of time. He further summarized that humans excelled at hunting, which we started at before fire and weapon making skills, primarily because we relentless tracked down the game until it grew exhausted.
Another guy has theorized that we actually domesticated fire pretty early on, which meant we were cooking our food, thus extracting more caloric content from it. This explains our smaller bellies and the timeline for our smaller teeth...
I love this stuff...
- Ardipithecus probably didn't need to travel very far.Mimio