Re: An alternative to ST and AAT
wvanhou237@aol.com
10 Nov 1996 17:09:38 GMT
In article <55lpgn$qs0@news.cc.ucf.edu>, clarke@acme.ist.ucf.edu (Thomas
Clarke) writes:
>In article <327A0E11.7012@scn.org> Phillip Bigelow <bh162@scn.org>
writes:
>> Paul Crowley wrote:
>>
>> > That's the whole mystery of bipedalism. It should not
>> > have happened. It does need special justification - <snip>
Let's set the scene a few million years past. We have an
ancestor
roughly the same as a chimp. This would have been somewhere east of the
present day Rift Valley. Since he no longer lived in a fully forested
landscape
his ancesters had long ago had to develope an omniverous diet. As the
landscape
changed further he had to depend more on a meat diet and less on vegies.
The climate got colder and drier. At that stage he had to become less of a
gatherer
and more a scavanger. Since he was in no way equipped to contend with the
more dangerous of the other scavangers his only choice was to grab what he
could get and run for safety. For that, two hands are better than one.
That would definitely select for bipedalism.
W F VAN HOUTEN
Older. But wiser ?
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