Re: AAT Theory
pete (VINCENT@REG.TRIUMF.CA)
7 Nov 1995 02:23:03 GMT
Troy Kelley (tkelley@hel4.brl.mil) sez:
`Let me see, the basic theories on bipedalism
..[list of possible reasons for bipedalism]...
`Did I get them all? Even without going to the library? Please let me know
`if not (I am sure you will). So which one do you want to discuss? The are
`all such good theories, I would imagine you would want to discuss all of
`them ;)
You've left out the most convincing, to my mind: that suggested here
by Alex Duncan, that the hominid ancestor was a suspensory tree
dweller, similar in some ways to gibbons, who thus was already
essentially erect, and for whom bipedalism was structurally
preferred if not mandatory when forced to travel on the
forest floor. I could add the speculation that such a creature
was already social, travelling in troops of perhaps 15 or 20,
and had incorporated into its behaviour the propensity to
hurl fruit at potential predators. Such a configuration might
be enough to just enable it to compensate for its awkward
gait, when changing climate required it to venture farther
and farther from dwindling clusters of canopy forest. Replacing
fruit with sticks and stones, and bluffing like crazy with
threat displays, the travelling lunch menu might just survive
to the next grove.
--
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vincent@triumf.ca <== faster % Pete Vincent
vincent@freenet.vancouver.bc.ca % Disclaimer: all I know I
% learned from reading Usenet.
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