Re: Speciation - how do you know?
Paul Crowley (Paul@crowleyp.demon.co.uk)
Sat, 14 Sep 96 19:14:05 GMT
In article <51bjle$po3@portal.gmu.edu>
herwin@osf1.gmu.edu "HARRY R. ERWIN" writes:
> The build of the average H. neanderthalensis male was off-scale relative
> to H. sapiens.
Take Arnold Swarchzneggar in his prime; add more muscle and bone;
You can have 20 of them with wooden spears. I'll have one angry
auroch cow. In less than an hour you'd have 20 dead or crippled
"super-Swarchzneggars"; my auroch cow might have a few scratches,
but even that's doubtful.
> There is also good evidence that they did not use missile
> weapons, but instead had a hunting style that involved closing with the
> prey and fighting it out using a spear.
How does a slow bipedal animal "close with" a fast quadruped?
Really, none of us have a clue how H.n. got its food or why it had
such a muscular build, but the theory that it regularly got close to
large quadrupeds is just plain daft. Any bipedal hominid would get
knocked over, trampled on and gored to death; and extra muscles
would be little help.
> Finally, researchers have
> discovered that the typical skeleton of a mature male has had a _number_
> of very serious accidents (disabling injuries, broken bones, etc.) in its
> lifetime.
My own (less than 2 cents worth) opinion is the H.n.'s overall
morphology was determined by climate and the muscularity within
it came from intra-species competition (fighting with other H.n.)
-- as did the broken bones.
BTW how robust were H.n. females?
Paul.
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