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Re: A layman's question on bipedalism
T&B Schmal (schmal@firstnethou.com)
Wed, 10 Jul 1996 21:29:46 +0000
In article <4r7d4n$hdg@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>, Robert Scott
<rscott@mail.utexas.edu> wrote:
> In article <4qq2l8$se9@newsbf02.news.aol.com> ORDOVER, ordover@aol.com
> writes:
> >Just picking up the thread of my question again -- is there a reason,
> >other than speciecist egotism, that there is a "mystery" of human
> >bipedalism but not a "mystery" of avian, dinosauroid, and marsupial
> >bipedalism?
Bipedalism is often just the shorthand word for all the changes in LCA
that occurred at about the same time. The coincident freeing of the hands
is actually as interesting, or more interesting, than bipedalism per se.
There is really nothing in nature quite like the brain growth, cultural
changes such as food sharing, reproductive strategies, tool use - the
really unique things in manthat are caused by standing up. The next time
you see "bipedalism", if you mentally substitute "standing up" and all it
encompasses you might be more impressed.
Tom Schmal
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