Re: Speciation - how do you know?
Phillip Bigelow (bh162@scn.org)
Thu, 17 Oct 1996 19:58:39 -0700
Paul Crowley wrote:
>
> In article <3262F767.77B9@scn.org> bh162@scn.org "Phillip Bigelow" writes:
>
> > Crowley answered:
> > > Do male gorillas have all that musculature just to gather leaves?
> > Oh Paul...Paul...
> > Why do you have this fixation on male anthropoids in your answer?
> Yet
> we have very little idea as to why male gorillas are so muscular.
> So how are we going to come to sound conclusions about an animal
> that is long extinct about whose detailed anatomy, food, lifestyle,
> niche, etc., we know next to nothing?
Exactly. You are now making my point for me.
> The concensus is that Neanderthals were stocky (like Inuit or Saami)
> because an adaptation to the climate. No one knows why they were
> generally so muscular.
That is NO concensus. It is, however, one hypothesis.
> Whatever it was, it was NOT chasing after swift-footed prey. *That*
> is the only "mindless speculation" around here.
However, a stocky build doesn't necessarily *preclude* a hunting-related
hypothesis, either. Particularly in a large-brained species like
H.s. neanderthalis
>Shame that it's
> also part of the received thinking to which you are so mindlessly
> attached.
I have never claimed, nor do I necessarily believe, that the more
"stocky" build of neanderthals was due to an adaptation to hunting
practices.
Frankly, I have no idea why this group of hominids was more
stocky.
I was simply pointing out to you that, to impose one single
cause on an effect (e.g. "stockiness" in neanderthals) vastly
oversimplifies the problem, and will probably lead to inherently-
flawed conclusions.
(Your reasoning is analogous to making the claim that Blue Whales are
so big because, well, they eat a lot of plankton for a living).
By the way Paul, why *are* Blue Whales so much larger than Right Whales?
<pb>
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