escaping preds in H2O
Alex Duncan (aduncan@mail.utexas.edu)
26 Sep 1995 00:26:59 GMT
In article <hubey.811404140@pegasus.montclair.edu> H. M. Hubey,
hubey@pegasus.montclair.edu writes:
>I also think that the scenario produces a brutally efficient
>selection mechanism. First of all if there was an attack from
>some nearby cats, they'd get the ones with short legs who'd
>be forced to stay nearer the shore. The bigger ones would
>wade in deeper to escape while the cats got their lunch from
>the little ones. Under this scenario, there'd be a premium
>on long legs, in addition to being taller, since they'd
>wade into deeper water and further from the shore while their
>little cousins became breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Why not just use the equipment you were given as a result of your
generalized primate ancestry, and climb a tree?
There's a problem w/ the idea that there's a premium on long legs: for
at least 2 Myr hominids had hindlimbs that were about the same length
relative to body size as is the case in modern chimps.
Alex Duncan
Dept. of Anthropology
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX 78712-1086
512-471-4206
aduncan@mail.utexas.edu
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