Re: Homo & molluscs

"Rich Travsky" <" traRvEsky"@hotmMOVEail.com> claims that humans have a
better sense of smell than chimps in message
news:431BE662.3E89D76A@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Marc Verhaegen wrote:
> >
> > Yes, Lee, yes, sure, my boy, human ancestors got a poor sense of smell
to
> > run over the savanna...
>
> http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/08/29_smell.shtml
>
> Study shows humans have ability to track odors, much like bloodhounds
> 29 August 2005
>
> BERKELEY - Though humans may never match the tracking ability of dogs, we
> apparently have the ability to sniff out and locate odors, according to a
> new study by scientists from the University of California, Berkeley.
>
> Student volunteers presented with odors to one nostril or the other could
> reliably discern where the odor was coming from, and functional magnetic
> resonance images of their brains showed that the brain is set up to pay
> attention to the difference between what the left and right nostrils
sense,
> much the way it can localize sounds by contrasting input from the ears.
>
> "It has been very controversial whether humans can do egocentric
> localization, that is, keep their head motionless and say where the
spatial
> source of an odor is," said study coauthor Noam Sobel, associate
professor
> of psychology at UC Berkeley and a member of the campus's Helen Wills
> Neuroscience Institute. "It seems that we have this ability and that,
with
> practice, you could become really good at it."
> ...
> Porter, Sobel and their colleagues reported the results in the August 18
> issue of the journal Neuron.
>
> In a review appearing in the same issue of the journal, Jay A. Gottfried
of
> the Department of Neurology at Northwestern University's Feinberg School
of
> Medicine noted that the UC Berkeley findings open numerous avenues for
> further research. "Finally, what are the implications for the Provençal
> truffle hunt?" he wrote, only partly tongue-in-cheek. "In the traditional
> world of the truffle forests, the dog (or pig) is king. The evidence
> presented here suggests that humans are every bit as well equipped to
carry
> out the search."
> ...
>
> > "Lee Olsen" <paleocity@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> > news:1125420211.486529.34080@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > Marc Verhaegen wrote:
> > > > You keep missing the point:
> > > > - AAT (shoreline adaptations sometime after the H/P split) is based
on
> > > > comparative data, eg,
> > >
> > >
> > > Circumstantial musings are not evidence when there are many other
> > > possibilities that explain our evolution better (see Langdon 2005).
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > it's ridiculous to believe that olfactory reduction is
> > > > for running over some plain,
> > >
> > >
> > > Hunters like the long-legged-savanna Homo do not rely on olfactory
> > > senses like a short-legged jackals, because Homo can see farther than
> > > they can smell. Your savanna chimp argument is a nonstarter. There are
> > > no chimp fossils on the savanna 2 Mya, so naturally they haven't been
> > > hunting on the savanna as long as Homo, so I can't imagine why Homo
> > > wouldn't have lost more sensor area than they since Homos had far more
> > > time on the savanna to lose them.
> > >
> > > AAT completely fails to falsify this.
> > >
> > >
> > > same for tens of other human features (AFAIK
> > > > the *only* human feature that is often seen in cursorial mammals is
long
> > > > legs, but this is also often seen in wading birds).
> > >
> > >
> > > "However, there is simply no evidence that early hominins were
> > > dependent on aquatic habitats or foods and the model is
> > > unparsimonious." (Langdon 1997).
> > >
> > >
> > > > - So far, you completely fail to explain how archeol.data falsify
this.
> > What
> > > > I see is a fast dispersal of Homo to Java & Algeria. Give 1 reason
why
> > not
> > > > along the coasts.
> > >
> > >
> > > Fast dispersal maybe, depending on who's dates one believes. You want
> > > fast? Then it is ridiculous to believe that a crooked ocean beach is
> > > the shortest distance between two points. The straight-line savanna
> > > trail, following the cheetahs of course, is the shortest, fastest
route
> > > to China. Archaeologists have a trail of bones and tools to follow and
> > > you are left with nothing more than your imagination as a guide.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > Sorry, Lee, no time for empty "discussions".
> > >
> > >
> > > Suit yourself, you haven't provided 1 little argument that refutes the
> > > savanna/hunting hypothesis.
> > >
> > > <snipping what you failed to answer>
> > >


.

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