Re: An alternative to ST and AAT
Tom Clarke (clarke@longwood.cs.ucf.edu)
5 Nov 1996 16:58:39 -0500
Robert Gotschall <hobgot@sprintmail.com> writes:
>Thomas Clarke wrote:
>> only one [animal] who walks like a man.
>> Does this not suggest the possibility of special evolutionary
>> circumstances?
>One special evolutionary circumstance could be that of all the
>terrestrial bipeds mentioned, humans are the only ones with primate
>ancestry.
Touche. That is indeed a special evolutionary circumstance.
Still, I wonder why a bipedal varient of the bears did not arise.
Bears seem to me to be pretty versatile in their use of limbs,
like primates.
Of course implicit in my question is the idea that human-style
bipedalism was not dependent on other factors - like intelligence.
However, the fossil record seems to show that Australopithecenes
were pretty much bipedal chimpanzees (may I speak loosely?).
Australopithecenes were far closer to modern human gait, than to
modern human brain capacity.
Tom Clarke
--
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
Hamlet - Shakespeare
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