Re: AAT reply from Elaine Morgan
Gerold Firl (geroldf@sdd.hp.com)
5 Jan 1995 12:57:59 -0800
In article <589028710wnr@desco.demon.co.uk> Elaine@desco.demon.co.uk writes:
>Long-distance running. The classic reference to this is David Carrier's
>paper on the energetic paradox of human running, in Current Anthropology
>25, 4. Endurance running may have provided spin-off benefits for
>highly-evolved bipeds but that advantage would not have accrued to the
>shambling two-legged gait of the first ancestors so cannot account for
>the emergence of bipedalism.
But it appears to me that the SAH (sweaty ape hypothesis) is more
consistant with this difficult transition than the assumption of an aquatic
phase. Our sweat system allows us to be active at midday, when other
savanna animals must be quiescent. This would allow our ancestors to
venture down from the trees in safety during the development of true
bipedalism, and eventually lead to the evolution of our long-distance
running ability, and the transition to big-game hunting.
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