Re: Alternating gait

From: Paul Crowley (slkwuoiutiuytciuyik_at_slkjlskjoioue.com)
Date: 11/11/04 

Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 19:01:58 -0000

"Nick Maclaren" <nmm1@cus.cam.ac.uk> wrote in message news:cmvfnt$ogs$1@gemini.csx.cam.ac.uk...
>
> If you look at how most of them hunt,
> and how baboons and other social animals respond, it is the outlying
> animal that fails to reach the group in time that is dinner.
>
> That is almost certainly one reason why chimpanzees and bonobos have
> retained their quadrupedal ability.

Agreed. (Although there are many other
reasons as well.)

> The problem with the weapon
> theories is that they don't explain how an outlying female or young
> animal can defend itself against a predator rush - even modern
> humans armed with iron spears and guns are susceptible.

I agree that any 'weapon theory' on that
basis would be indefensible. Females
with infants and other young would often
have had to forage in small and/or largely
female groups, and would have been
hopelessly vulnerable to predation.
There is no conceivable defence (per se)
against surprise attacks where the
predator seizes and runs off with a child.
A hominid community would not be
able to survive if it was subject to such
attacks on even an occasional basis.

That is why I claim that hominids could
only have lived in locations from which
they could have, in effect, excluded all
large predators. One such location would
be off-shore islands, not unlike modern
Zanzibar. They could probably have also
occupied certain mainland coastal sites
provided (a) the geography was favourable
-- such as peninsulas, or isolated valleys
set in largely desert regions;
(b) where the hominid density was high
-- meaning that competitors such as
baboons were also largely excluded; and
(c) where parties of hominid males could
actively patrol by day, locating (from
tracks) the incursion of any predators,
and then either killing them or driving
them out.

> Weaponry might answer the nighttime issue, if the groups were large
> enough to allow for half a dozen adults on guard at all times.

Weaponry at night would be next to
useless. The hominids would only
have harmed themselves.

Paul.

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