Re: AAT Theory
H. M. Hubey (hubey@pegasus.montclair.edu)
9 Oct 1995 00:48:55 -0400
Phil Hunt <philip@storcomp.demon.co.uk> writes:
>As to why the fur was lost, I can think of 2 possibilities offhand:
>to keep cool while running during the day, or sex selection.
Well, the sex selection seems to be a standard dumping ground like
money to explain things for which we can't find any other explanation.
I don't see any way to prove or disprove sex selection changes for
anything in general.
As for the keeping cool, it would mean that they had to somehow
become more active than the apes from which they split. And if
the climate got dry and cool, then why would they need to change
their conductance when it was sufficient for the hot and moist
forest. To get this kind of activity during the day, it seems
they'd have to do a lot of running or something and they weren't
exactly suited for it when they got started. We're not particularly
fast now. Why would they need so much of this? To escape predators?
--
Regards, Mark
http://www.smns.montclair.edu/~hubey
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