Re: Why Large Gap Between Species...?
Rajindra Maraj (b068755c@bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us)
4 Dec 1996 15:54:25 GMT
Nat Turner (turner@smarty.smart.net) wrote:
: This has never been clear to me. Now that we've established man's
: origins, how do we explain the absence of all his closely related
: sub-species? Even the austrolopiths should have been better equipped
: to survive than monkeys and apes, yet they have not. Why?
: Nat
: --
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The Austalopithecines left the forrested regions for the savannahs. In
doing so they left the forests to the other apes, who remained and
continue to evolve to their present form. As savannah dwellers, the
Australopithecines were forced to compete with other, more advanced
hominids. Though they were not as intelligent as the later Homo lines,
the robust forms specialized in a rough vegetarian diet. Hence there was
reduced competion with the hunting/scavenging Homos, and they survived
well into the reign of H. Erectus. They may have been better suited than
the apes for savannah dwelling, but they had long since lost the traits
necessary for forest dwelling. Natural selection wiped them out.
raj
b068755c@bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us
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