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Re: Waking up covered in dew
Gotschall (comsec3@worldnet.att.net)
Sat, 17 Aug 1996 21:51:52 -0700
Gerrit Hanenburg wrote:
>
> nmm1@cus.cam.ac.uk (Nick Maclaren) wrote:
> >Grin :-) I grew up there! Most of it is at high altitude (5,000 feet
> >plus), and mild frosts at night are common in the dry season. While
> >dew is not the problem that it is in the UK, there is often enough to
> >make things wet, and it is often cold enough to cause hypothermia.
>
> But exactly where did you grow up? That can make a lot of difference.
> We're talking about possible ape/hominid country here.
> Goodall in "The Chimpanzees of Gombe" reports for the Gombe region an
> average maximum temperature ranging from about 25C-26.5C in the wet
> season and 27C-30C in the dry season,while the mean minimum
> temperature stays between 18.5C and 21C.
> 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.
>
> Gerrit.
Yeah, that's kind of what I was driving at. My understanding was that
the early hominids moved away from the mountainous rainforest to the
more open and drier savanna. From other threads dealing with body hair
distribution, and a tv special where the author was inspired by an
automobile radiator,(it could happen:) I gathered that overheating was
the problem. If you enter elevation into the equation, and supposing
these early hominids had a little more on the ball then your average
chimp, heading for the hills would solve the overheating problem.
Doesn't do much for the lack of hair problem though. Well until some
one comes up with a better idea, I vote that the females of the species,
for reasons of their own, went for the hairless look, bless-em.
I thank you for your considered response.
Hob.
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