Re: Bipedalism and other
J. Moore (j#d#.moore@canrem.com)
Wed, 28 Jun 95 18:13:00 -0500
Pa> 2) Aboriginals make extensive use of water resources in the same areas
Pa> as salt water crocodiles without suffering from population destroying
Pa> predation. They know when and where it is safe to enter the water and
Pa> where not to. White toursists are the usual victims in the rare cases
Pa> where a human is taken, usually because they ignore the signs telling
Pa> them to beware of crocodiles.
It is certainly not unexpected that land-based hominids, such as *us*
(which includes Australian Aborigines), should not suffer "population
destroying predation" from water-living animals. Why would you even
think that was a possibility? What does the fact that modern land-based
people with sophisticated weaponry, such as knives and spears (and of
course guns now), do not suffer "population destroying predation" from
water-living animals have to do with a transitional water-living
population without these sophisticated weapons? Don't you even see the
ludicrous nature of using such an example (modern people with modern
weapons) as an argument about predation on a primitve hominid that
supposedly spends much of its time waist-deep or deeper in water?
Aborigines do not, as the AAT requires, spend at least half their waking
hours up to their waists, or above, in water.
Nevertheless, a quote from *Crocodiles and Alligators of the World*
(1991: 24): "The Australian Aborigines recognize differences in the risk
from various crocodile populations. In some areas, they maintain that
even Indo-Pacific crocodiles will not attack them, and they venture into
the water at these localities. Nevertheless, Aborigines do fall victim
to crocodiles, often when wading in water."
Pa> Primates in the chimpanzee class are usually good at figuring out
Pa> where danger lies, be it lions, leopards or crocodiles.
Agreed; that's why you see them holding their own against predation from
lions and leopards, and staying out of the water.
Pa> 3) The argument that apes could not have adapted to an aquatic
Pa> environment
Pa> because of sharks or crocodiles is bogus. Both predators have been
Pa> around
Pa> when many other mammal species made the transistion from land to water.
Pa> The pioneers must have been pretty clumsy in the water during the
Pa> initial stages of the transition, but they made it.
Pa> Pat Dooley
Okay, name them; name some tropical mammals that:
A) are about the size of these hominids (or smaller);
B) spend 4-8 hours a day in waist-deep or deeper water; and
C) reproduce as slowly as humans and chimps.
Please...name them. Please. I'm begging you.
Jim Moore (j#d#.moore@canrem.com)
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