load-carrying? (Re: A critique of the BBC aquatic ape programme and the transcript.
- From: "Marc Verhaegen" <fa204466@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 01:37:21 +0200
> There are several boring PDF papers (listed below) about walking hominids.
> They provide no clue whether they were optimized for walking or for
> hauling loads. Some bipedal dinosaurs may have used their hind legs not
> only for walking, but also for grasping prey. The best way to find out if
> the hominid legs are optimized for walking or hauling heavy loads is to
> find animals having the same weight as the hominids, and using their legs
> only for walking and running (no heavy loads and no grasping). I am aware
> of only one such animal: ostrich. Ostrich weighs up to 136 kg and has
> spindly legs. Eastern gray kangaroo weighs as much as a human and it has
> spindly legs. Gallimimus was a two ton bipedal dinosaur. It had spindly
> legs despite its enormous weight
> http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/cgi-bin/res.pl?keyword=Gallimimus&offset=0
Yes, obvious: our legs are much too heavy for runners (cursorials have the
mass as much as possible concentrated proximally), and this was even more so
in erectus.
> "The role of load-carrying in the evolution of modern body proportions"
> http://www.liv.ac.uk/premog/PDFs/15kjoa.pdf
Just read this paper. IMO it gives good arguments that Lucy & WT-15k
probably did not walk BHBK. The rest is story-telling (eg, that if erectus
carried stones, they probably did not walk BHBK).
McGrew 1993 "Chimpanzee Material Culture: Implications for Human Evolution"
CUP says that chimps can move material across a landscape in additional
small journeys. IMO it's unlikely that H.erg.-erectus got their dense bones
to carry stones across the landscape (it would have made the load even
heavier), but since there are no good animal examples AFAIK (snails carrying
their houses?? beavers carrying building-materials?) it's difficult to know
for sure.
Marc Verhaegen
http://www.onelist.com/community/AAT
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