Re: Waking up covered in dew
Paul Crowley (Paul@crowleyp.demon.co.uk)
Sun, 18 Aug 96 14:31:11 GMT
In article <DwAGnz.A1v@inter.NL.net>
ghanenbu@inter.nl.net "Gerrit Hanenburg" writes:
> As far as savanna is concerned,Sinclair in "Serengeti II" reports a
> relatively constant mean monthly maximum of 27-28C at Seronera
> (central Serengeti),while minimum temperature varies from 16C in the
> hot months (October-March) to 13C during May-August.
> None of these report nightly frost.
I think the time has come to quote the seminal text:
"Practically all the contemporary theories about nakedness begin
with the concept of a torrid savannah and an overheated ape.
That is an over simplified picture of a savannah environment.
It is perfectly true that the days are hot there, sometimes very
hot; but in the nights the temperature can sometimes drop as low
as 11 degrees C, and the indigenous animals have to live there
for twenty-four hours a day.
In 1989 the BBC sent a series of outside broadcast crews to
spend an entire day on the savannah, sending back live pictures
of the wildlife to be slotted into the viewing programme at
intervals during the day. Some magnificent shots of wildebeest,
lions and elephants were obtained, but in some ways the most
memorable shot was the final one of a couple of broadcasters
muffled up to their eyebrows trying to keep their teeth from
chattering. As one reviewer summed it up, 'The weather broke,
the light went, and Julian Pettifer nearly died of exposure.'
It would not have been a good time to explain to Mr Pettifer
that his ancestors had shed their fur to make them better fitted
to survive in these conditions."
From: "The Scars of Evolution" (1990) Elaine Morgan, page 60.
The surprising thing to me is that the author apparently accepts
that a recent and substantial part of our evolutionary history
was, in fact, spent in such a habitat.
Paul.
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