Re: Faster Than A Hyena?

<pgarrone@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:d5edbbf3-d62d-4657-a0c3-905c9afd26f6@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I can relate that as a youth in a rural area, we hunted wild pigs to
castrate them, and did this by running them down, homo erectus style.

Luckily, you did not have to compete
with lions, hyenas, cheetahs, wild dogs,
smilodon, dire wolves, giant carnivorous
bears, and all the other predators around
with HE.

It takes a certain intelligence to cope with the hunted animal's
various strategems. So its still an option. However any sensible
person would obviously just lay a trap and save all that unnecessary
energy expenditure.

Very likely. So why all the supposed
selection for speed and endurance?

As to why the A'piths went extinct? Leakey says they were under
pressure from Homo on one side

Homo were in a different habitat --
according to you and to standard PA.

and Baboons on the other.

They'd been competing with baboons
from day 1. Why evolve at all if they
did not have some distinct advantages?
Baboons will always survive in dense
jungle (where no one maintains
hominds lived). Apiths must have
had some edge in more open habitat.

As to niche swapping, obviously most species occupy quite stable
niches, but homo is the "first", so must have transcended a sequence
of niches quite rapidly, biologically speaking

A classic cop-out. We can forget all
evolutionary theory which applies to
every other species, and invoke a set
of special ones for our own line.

This is not scientifically respectable
(but that is never a concern for
standard PA).

There do not seem to be any barriers going from
brachiating ape,to a'piths walking on the savanna,

Except that it is manifest fantasy.

to homo habilus
with scavenging and running and stone tools, to erectus with endurance
hunting,

More fantasy.

to full language and rationality of homo sapiens.

Language and *some* rationality
indisputatbly arrived over some period.

Probably the most difficult step is the evolution of Homo from Apith.
I find the scavenging hypothesis fairly satisfying

Hopeless. A primate does not descend
from the trees to start scavenging. There
were already many species far better
adapted to the purpose. We have no
liking for rotten meat; we have a poor
sense of smell, we are hopeless in the
dark. Normal adults carry a large weight
of fat. There is nothing that indicates
scavenging.

as if fills the criteria of small gradual steps,

Gradual steps? Nonsense. The
adaptation to cope with rotten meat
is huge. All cats are carnivores, but
none will touch rotten meat -- even
though they must encounter it all
the time. Much the same applies to
carnivorous birds. Only those with
special adaptations (e.g. vultures)
will eat rotten flesh.


Paul.


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Faster Than A Hyena?
    ... you did not have to compete ... it is not difficult to envisage Homo ... Baboons will always survive in dense ... with scavenging and running and stone tools, ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: Faster Than A Hyena?
    ... it is not difficult to envisage Homo ... They'd been competing with baboons ... Baboons will always survive in dense ... with scavenging and running and stone tools, ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: Faster Than A Hyena?
    ... that all species of homo, including the early/questionable ones, were ... niche from later ... castrate them, and did this by running them down, homo erectus style. ... I find the scavenging hypothesis fairly satisfying, ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)