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Early diets and bipedalism
Andrew Francis Grichting (agrichti@lawson.its.utas.edu.au)
Tue, 3 May 94 23:32:40 GMT
Right, now for some clarifications and opinions:
*Early Diets*
Some one asked about mans early carnivorous tendencies. In an article by Roger
Lewin in Scientific American, (Check in the CD-ROM search for his name) he
proposes a theory of scacvenging rather than the popularised "Man the Heroic
Hunter, Fastest Hominid in the West". It is a good article and seems to be well
done and easily readable, as do many books by this author.
*Bipedalism*
In all the furor about AAT and "Savannah theories" (Let's not beat that dead
horse again, The "savannah" theory is what the AAT is not.), no-one seems to
have consider the effect efficiency has evolution. Bipedalism is a highly
efficient and low-energy way of moving at a medium pace for a long time. It
is cheaper than quadrapedalism and knuckling, and gets to place where
brachiation ends with an "aaaaaah....Thump". Perhaps as the easiest way of
getting around while foraging, it developed as specimens who could walk
were more successful (I know this is not all of natural selection, but it'll
do), and thus bipedalism developed
Now, does anyone else other than David and Phillip have anything to add to the
discussion? :-)
Andrew Grichting
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