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Re: Speciation - how do you know?
Stephen Barnard (steve@megafauna.com)
Sat, 14 Sep 1996 20:53:59 -0800
Paul Crowley wrote:
>
> 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.
The Masi of Africa, who are quite gracile in build, have traditionally
killed lions with spears.
Steve Barnard
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