Re: skinny runners

Marc Verhaegen wrote:
>
> The savanna believers' view is solely based on so-called "outrunning" of
> other animals on the savanna. I don't see why they should outrun anything:

No one says that.

> our typical foods are more abundant on the waterside. Besides, most people
> can't "outrun" anything (women??), but if some people (KhoiSan = recent
> adaptation at the very best, and only in men) can "outrun", they carry water
> = recent tool.

Tongo chimps: http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9403/9403.ch01.html

Meanwhile, in the arid region of Tongo (in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo),
chimpanzees carry around with them the water-filled roots of a Clematis plant,
which they use and sometimes share in the style of a water bottle.

> This is what more sensible people think of the far-fetched outrunning idea
> (an idle attempt the re-establish the now discredited savanna idea):
>
> D. M. Bramble & D. E. Lieberman 2004. Nature 432, 345-352.
> Endurance Running and the Evolution of Homo.
>
> Bramble and Lieberman in a recent paper in Nature propose that early Homo
> evolved adaptations for endurance running (ER) in open terrestrial
> environments1. However, it is not clear why the authors have chosen ER as
> the specific locomotion style worth examining in terms of its role in human
> evolution. Indeed, a plausible alternative is not considered and one can ask
> why they did not take into account swimming and diving - locomotion styles
> that radically differentiate humans from all other primates.
> Darwin2 noticed how Tahitians "dive and fish like otters" and
> "have the dexterity of amphibious animals in the water". Human swimmers can
> cross the English Channel, free-dive more than seventy metres deep and hold
> their breath for more than five minutes3. There is archaeological evidence

This is a recently acquired ability as well.

> for long-standing familiarity with the sea from the occupation of the island
> of Flores by 800,000 years ago4, and for the most likely use of swimming and
> diving to procure food resources, such as 125,000-years-old shell middens5

DOn't need to swim to get shellfish.

> and Acheulian tools discovered in ancient reefs in Eritrea6. Today many

More tools sites found on land away from water. You don't need a tool
kit to open shells.

> ...
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: skinny runners
    ... I don't see why they should outrun anything: ... >> our typical foods are more abundant on the waterside. ... which they use and sometimes share in the style of a water ... and "have the dexterity of amphibious animals in the water". ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: skinny runners
    ... > other animals on the savanna. ... I don't see why they should outrun anything: ... Did you read Boaz and the arguments that were given by Donald Mitchell? ... water but the Turkana Boy couldn't? ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: skinny runners
    ... >> other animals on the savanna. ... I don't see why they should outrun ... >> our typical foods are more abundant on the waterside. ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: skinny runners
    ... >>> other animals on the savanna. ... I don't see why they should outrun ... Why would he have to carry water? ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: skinny runners
    ... > "outrunning" of other animals on the savanna. ... our typical foods are more abundant on the waterside. ... > aborigines do not have to carry water everywhere with them. ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)