Re: evolutionary success of humans


pauldepstein@xxxxxxx wrote:
> I understand that there are approximately 6 billion humans. How does
> this compare with the total number of living mammals? Is there any
> other mammalian species as numerous?
>
> I am a little bit puzzled by our evolutionary success because we have
> an enormous number of relative disadvantages compared to other mammals.
> Here are just a few of them.
>
> 1) Long gestation period.
> 2) Almost no multiple births.
> 3) Bad hearing.
> 4) Poor mobility -- slow on land, and terrible at swimming and
> climbing.
> 5) Terrible sense of smell.
>
> Paul Epstein

Until the development of agriculture humans were outnumbered by a lot
of different mammals. The number of humans was probably counted in the
millions. That should tell you something about why our numbers are so
great at this time. It wasn't until agriculture that civilization that
could accomodate increased population sizes came into existence that
our population exploded.

Ron Okimoto


.

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