Re: A critique of the BBC aquatic ape programme and the transcript.

Andrew Nowicki wrote:

> Bipedal wading is not the most plausible reason
> for erect posture and obligatory bipedalism. Our
> massive gastrocnemius muscles impede wading and
> running. Perfect wading legs are the spindly legs
> of the wading birds.

Algis Kuliukas wrote:

> I disagree. Shallow water is the simplest, most predictable scenario to
> compel an ape to move bipedally. Giving it a stick, by contrast, is
> somewhere down the bottom end of the spectum. Perfect wading legs might
> be spindly in birds, but for a hominid that was also a climber, I doubt
> that would be any advantage. Our legs are longer and more spindly
> compared to apes, however.

I was wrong. You were right for reasons
that are beyond the scope of this thread.
Please read my first post in a new thread
titled "Final Solution of the Aquatic Question."

Andrew Nowicki wrote:

> There was much
> more food in edible tubers growing in the bush than in
> the stream, so bipedalism was probably due to digging
> edible tubers with digging sticks. I believe that
> Australopithecus afarensis carried a stick all the time
> and used it as a versatile tool.

Algis Kuliukas wrote:

> Sorry, but I just can't see how that helps a would be biped one jot.
> 'Lucy and her walking stick?' You serious? When digging for tubers it's
> got to be best to get down on hands and knees.

Walking stick does not help much in walking,
but digging tubers is hard work, so it may
explain sweating. In dry tropical climate
the tubers are the most abundant food source
in the dry season. Humans and hominids are
the only diggers that are powerful enough to
exploit this food source efficiently. Heavy
stick is a very handy tool. A hominid could use
it to kill a snake, fend off a predator, pry
a stone to catch a worm hiding under it...

Andrew Nowicki wrote:

> Hairlesness is not related to wading or swimming because
> the heat loss in water would have been prohibitive.
> A hominid that waded more than one hour a day would
> have hairy legs to reduce the heat loss.

Algis Kuliukas wrote:

> Hair in water's not going to help much anyway.

It depends if it is ordinary, hydrophilic (attracting
water) fur, or hydrophobic (repelling water) fur or
feathers. Hydrophilic fur or feathers helps a little.
Hydrophobic fur or feathers helps a lot. Note that when
you do not wash your hair for a long time, it becomes
greasy (due to hydrophobic lipids), and its thermal
insulation in water improves.

Algis Kuliukas wrote:

> What source are you thinking of that suggests A afarensis had massive
> gastrocs?

I just look at my bulging gastrocnemius muscles,
so the evidence is not strong. There is no reason
to believe that the first wading/bipedal hominids had
big gastrocnemius muscles. Hairless hominids were
sweating a lot, which means that they worked hard,
and they probably had big gastrocnemius muscles
so they could haul heavy loads.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Is wading the missing factor in the evolution of hominid bipedalism?
    ... Is wading the missing factor in the evolution of hominid bipedalism? ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: A critique of the BBC aquatic ape programme and the transcript.
    ... > Bipedal wading is not the most plausible reason ... > for erect posture and obligatory bipedalism. ... be spindly in birds, but for a hominid that was also a climber, I doubt ... > from the stream, but they returned to the stream every ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: Bipedalism in different substrates
    ... >kind of statement that proto-hominin x ate food source y in habitat z ... parsimoniously infer that proto-hominins may have eaten a wide variety ... underlie selection leading to obligate terrestrial bipedalism. ... >wading they did, the more bipedal they would become. ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: Bipedalism in different substrates
    ... >>the coasts and exploit all sorts of mangrove and other wetland food ... > could be obtained without wading. ... >>bipedalism is unlikely to have been a particularly good thing on land, ... is that quadrupedal wading kills in waist deep water. ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: AAT = (Plio)Pleistocene Homo spread along the coasts & got a littoral diet.
    ... >> Aquarboreal doesn't mean it necessarily includes wading. ... >> don't think it improbable (at least not in late Homo), ... Surely the best precursor to terrestrial bipedalism is some ... It's "hominins" etc. which cofuse minds & which we don't need. ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)