Stonethrowing theory has a competitor/rival theory of Running by Lieberman & Bramble

From: Archimedes Plutonium (a_plutonium_at_iw.net)
Date: 11/18/04 

Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 00:27:24 -0600

--- quoting Reuters in full because I need to debate line for line ---
Humans Were Born to Run, Scientists Say

                            Wed Nov 17, 4:05 PM ET

Science - Reuters

                            By Patricia Reaney

                            LONDON (Reuters) - Humans were born to run
and evolved from ape-like creatures into
                            the way they look today probably because of
the need to cover long distances and
                            compete for food, scientists said on
Wednesday.

                                                       From tendons and
ligaments in the legs and feet that
                                                       act like springs
and skull features that help prevent
                                                       overheating, to
well-defined buttocks that stabilize the
                                                       body, the human
anatomy is shaped for running.

                                                       "We do it because
we are good at it. We enjoy it and
                                                       we have all kinds
of specializations that permit us to run
                                                       well," said
Daniel Lieberman, a professor of
                                                       anthropology at
Harvard University in Massachusetts.

                                                       "There are all
kinds of features that we see in the
                                                       human body that
are critical for running," he told
                                                       Reuters.

                                                       Lieberman and
Dennis Bramble, a biology professor at
                                                       the University of
Utah, studied more than two dozen
                                                       traits that
increase humans' ability to run. Their research
                                                       is reported in
the science journal Nature.

                                                       They suspect
modern humans evolved from their
                                                       ape-like
ancestors about 2 million years ago so they
                                                       could hunt and
scavenge for food over large distances.

                                                       But the
development of physical features that enabled
                                                       humans to run
entailed a trade-off -- the loss of traits
                                                       that were useful
for climbing trees.

                            "We are very confident that strong selection
for running -- which came at the expense of
                            the historical ability to live in trees --
was instrumental in the origin of the modern human
                            body form," Bramble said in a statement.

                            AGAINST THE GRAIN

                            The conventional theory is that running was
a by-product of bipedalism, or the ability to
                            walk upright on two legs, that evolved in
ape-like human ancestors called Australopithecus
                            at least 4.5 million years ago.

                            But Lieberman and Bramble argue that it took
a few million more years for the running
                            physique to evolve, so the ability to walk
cannot explain the transition.

                            "There were 2.5 million to 3 million years
of bipedal walking without ever looking like a
                            human, so is walking going to be what
suddenly transforms the hominid body?" said
                            Bramble.

                            "We're saying 'no, walking won't do that,
but running will."'

                            If natural selection did not favor running,
the scientists believe humans would still look a lot
                            like apes.

                            "Running has substantially shaped human
evolution. Running made us human -- at least
                            in the anatomical sense," Bramble added.

                            Among the features that set humans apart
from apes to make them good runners are
                            longer legs to take longer strides, shorter
forearms to enable the upper body to
                            counterbalance the lower half during running
and larger disks which allow for better shock
                            absorption.

                            Big buttocks are also important.

                             "Have you ever looked at an ape? They have
no buns," said Bramble.

                            Humans lean forward when they run and the
buttocks "keep you from pitching over on
                            your nose each time a foot hits the ground,"
he added.
--- end quoting ---

I am going to pick apart this recent news. Essentially I am going to say
that creation of humanity from apelines was caused by Stonethrowing not
running. And that running was just a augmented benefit. But that
Stonethrowing accelerated anatomy changes and that Stonethrowing created
bipedalism and that running augmented stonethrowing.

It appears that Mr. Lieberman and Bramble seem to ignore Throwing
altogether. I do not ignore running but I think I relegate running to
its proper perspective of importance in creating humanity out of apes.

And Mr. Lieberman and Mr. Bramble have lost this debate from the
starting gates in terms of Logic. Neither one of them can say that
Running created bipedalism. But I can easily and simply say that
Stonethrowing created bipedalism and once bipedalism was formed in
Oreopithecus and then later Orrorin that running developed to enhance
Throwing.

It is interesting that Lieberman and Bramble focus on forearms and
buttock. But is it not easy to argue that shortening forearm and
increasing buttock aids Throwing? Especially the forearm in that long
forearms is detrimental to Throwing and only aids running in a minor
degree.

Much more later as I pick apart the above....

Archimedes Plutonium
www.iw.net/~a_plutonium
whole entire Universe is just one big atom where dots
of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies