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Re: Why Large Gap Between Species...?
Noel Dickover (ndickover@ver.lld.com)
Fri, 6 Dec 1996 09:58:57 -0500
In article <588lag$s4j@news.smart.net>, turner@smarty.smart.net says...
> In article <58774n$iib@newsgate.duke.edu>,
> Geoff Alex Cohen <gac@cs.duke.edu> wrote:
> >Nat Turner (turner@smarty.smart.net) wrote:
> >: Why do you assume there was "competition"? I doubt seriously if piths
> >: competed against hominids.
> >
> >I didn't assume. I'm saying that demography theory says that if there
> >is competition, both extinction of one species and coexistence of
> >multiple species are possible.
> >
> >But why would you doubt competition? There is a limited number of
> >appropriate sleeping habitats; there is a limited amount of fruit or
> >nuts available for eating; in an arid environment there may well be
> >a limited number of sources of water.
>
> Competition suggests different groups competing over scarce resources.
> What about "niche" theory? Would H. habilis, erectus, and H. sapiens
> competed over precisely the same resources? Certainly H. sapiens and the
> piths wouldn't have. And how was this competition played out anyway?
> Erectus kills off the piths, habilis kills off erectus, H. sapiens kill
> off habilis?
>
> Which begs the question, "Why didn't the piths kill off apes and chimps?"
>
> Nat
I don't think we can rule out the possibility that these groups could
still breed with one another, and that, through time, they evolved into a
single species.
Best,
Noel Dickover
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