Re: Speciation - how do you know?
HARRY R. ERWIN (herwin@osf1.gmu.edu)
13 Sep 1996 12:22:06 GMT
Paul Crowley (Paul@crowleyp.demon.co.uk) wrote:
: In article <5140cp$hsl@portal.gmu.edu>
: herwin@mason2.gmu.edu "HARRY R. ERWIN" writes:
: > H. neanderthalensis had a number of skeletal specializations . . .
: Fine, OK, it had a remarkably heavy build, but . . .
: > H. neanderthalensis had a number of skeletal specializations
: > for close-in combat with large mammals . .
: This is sheer fantasy. Combat with aurochs? Or with any large
: quadruped? If this was how it normally got a significant proportion
: of its food the life expectation of the average H.n. would be very
: short.
: This is 19th century thinking, Harry. It's time to get out of it.
: Paul.
The build of the average H. neanderthalensis male was off-scale relative
to H. sapiens. There is also good evidence that they did not use missile
weapons, but instead had a hunting style that involved closing with the
prey and fighting it out using a spear. Finally, researchers have
discovered that the typical skeleton of a mature male has had a _number_
of very serious accidents (disabling injuries, broken bones, etc.) in its
lifetime.
--
Harry Erwin, Internet: herwin@gmu.edu, Web Page: http://osf1.gmu.edu/~herwin
49 year old PhD student in computational neuroscience ("how bats do it" 8)
and lecturer for CS 211 (data structures and advanced C++)
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