Re: Morgan; various
Elaine Morgan (Elaine@desco.demon.co.uk)
Tue, 31 Oct 1995 13:46:08 GMT
In article:
<Pine.OSF.3.91.951026135914.28845B-100000@curly.cc.utexas.edu>
David Froehlich <eohippus@curly.cc.utexas.edu> writes:
>
> On Thu, 26 Oct 1995, Elaine Morgan wrote:
>
> >
> > Comments on four odd items. I'll come back to tears again
(sigh) later.
> >
> > 1. Why didn't the first hominids leave shell-middens? For
the same
> > reason that sea-otters don't. They don't collect
shell-fish; they eat
> > them on the spot.
>
> So there is no evidence because it doesn't exist? You
assume a hell of a
> lot about the behavoir of organisms you cant even find
fossils for.
The implication was that absence of shell middens proved that
shellfish were not being eaten. I was merely pointing out that
it proves nothing of the kind.>
> > 3. Chimp bipedalism. Alex, we have had Rodman and McHenru
quoted at us
> > more than once. Yes, they do indicate that "chimp
bipedalism and chimp
> > quadrupedalism are about equally energetically efficient".
But that
> > only applies to their walking, not to their running. Also
the paper
> > discusses only energy costs, and ignores how much faster
they are on
> > four legs than on two.
>
> But isn't energy cost one of the "problems" that AAS is
trying to
> explain?
No. It is one of the problems SMS is trying to explain. AAs
contends that in water bipedalism was adopted under duress, in
order to breathe, and was therefore resorted to regardless of
energy or other costs incurred.
Elaine
>
>
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