Re: beach & brain (was Re: DHA ... savannah and bipedalism.

From: Andrew Nowicki (andrew_at_nospam.com)
Date: 07/25/04 

Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2004 12:33:07 +0200

Andrew Nowicki wrote:

> A.africanus ate meat

Marc Verhaegen wrote:

> Not totally impossible (cf. hunting chimps),
> but not the slightest direct evidence.

I am not aware of any direct evidence that it waded in the
mangrove forests.

Your article says:

"They could have frequently waded bipedally, like mangrove
proboscis monkeys, in the mangrove forests between Eurasia
and Africa, and partly fed on hard-shelled fruits and oysters
like mangrove capuchin monkeys: thick enamel plus stone tool
use is typically seen in capuchins, hominids and sea otters."

Why would a shellfish eating hominid need thick tooth
enamel? If it had a habit of removing the shell before
eating the shellfish, we should expect a very thin enamel.
Ardipithecus ramidus had very thin enamel and was found
in a flood plane, so it fits the description of the wading
aquatic ape. By the way, I do believe that early hominids
waded in shallow water devoid of crocodiles.

Excerpts from http://www.archaeologyinfo.com/ardipithecusramidus.htm:

"Additionally, the associated strata were most likely produced within
the context of a heavily forested, flood plain environment. Evidence
for this conclusion was derived from representative non-human fossil
remains, particularly from those species whose present-day analogues
are environment-specific."

"Much of the dentition is ape-like and this hominid most likely had
a significantly different dietary niche than did later hominids. A
small canine-incisor to postcanine dental ratio, typical of all other
known hominids, is strikingly absent in Ardipithecus ramidus. In
addition to the presence of a relatively large anterior dentition,
tooth enamel is thin. Though slightly greater than in teeth of modern
chimpanzees, enamel thickness of A. ramidus is extremely thin by
hominid standards."

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