Where did wading babies sleep?



I believe that the first bipedal hominids were
nomads wading knee deep in clear streams and
collecting shellfish. They were better suited
for this task than otters because they could
carry their babies and because they were big
enough to sleep safely on trees.

This hypothesis does not explain where their
babies slept at night. Lacking prehensile
feet, the babies could not grasp their mother's
fur with their feet, so they could not sleep
on their mother's back. I used to believe that
the babies slept in secure shelters made on
the ground from tree branches. This idea is
incompatible with the nomadic lifestyle because
it takes too much time to build the shelters.

The most plausible place for a sleeping baby is
a nest made on a tree. The nest had to protect
the baby from the eagles, so it was much more
difficult to make than the simple chimp nest.
It took the cooperation of the entire hominid
pack (several adults) to build the baby nest
in a reasonable time (below one hour).
.


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