Re: Becoming altricial/bipedal
H. M. Hubey (hubey@pegasus.montclair.edu)
7 Oct 1995 14:48:58 -0400
Alex Duncan <aduncan@mail.utexas.edu> writes:
>This is incorrect. "Fully bipedal" hominids are large, tool-using,
>group-living primates. For a carnivore to a attack a GROUP of healthy
>humans is foolhardy.
I can see where this comes from. When a lion starts its run all
the prey animals scatter leaving one of them to be picked out
and attacked.
So, if they had the intelligence to know that if they all stood
together all bunched up, the lions wouldn't attack. Is that
it? So now we have the scenario of the smart hominids (still
not too smart) who know that if they all band together and
courageously wave their sticks and branches, then the lions
wouldn't attack. This sounds like a scenario out of the
Spartans or Romans. If they could keep their phalanx with
their large shields all next to one another and had another
row behind them with long spears, and the front row had
short swords then it would be foolish to attack. But of course,
despite knowing the rules that the soldiers are better off
if they stick together and follow the rules, armies still
break down. And these are modern intelligent humans.
Are we supposed to believe that the chimp-humanoids would
have courageously stood their ground when they could see
5-6 hungry lions charging at them? It's possible of course.
Anthropologist still discuss the idea of altruism. But
how long could they last, if they lost one brave chimp-ape
per day?
--
Regards, Mark
http://www.smns.montclair.edu/~hubey
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