May 31, 2007
WHAT IS THE SPEED OF CONJECTURE IN A VACCUUM?:
New theory rejects popular view of man's evolution (Ian Sample, June 1, 2007, The Guardian)
The team, led by Robin Crompton at Liverpool University and Susannah Thorpe at Birmingham University, claim our tree-dwelling ancestors learned to walk on two feet because it helped them edge along outer branches while having their hands free to grasp ripe fruit. The tactic also enabled them to clamber between neighbouring trees without having to descend to the forest floor.The scientists reached their conclusions after spending a year observing the movements of orang-utans in Sumatra. The great apes of the region are the only species to spend their entire lives in the trees. Footage of nearly 3,000 movements showed the apes consistently walked on two legs to reach the outer branches of trees, using their arms primarily for balance. Unlike gorillas and chimps, which bend their knees to walk on the ground, the orang-utans straightened their legs to adopt a more human-like gait.
Professor Crompton said such skills would have benefited early human ancestors enormously between 24m and 5m years ago, when eastern and central Africa experienced dramatic climatic cycles and the forests first thickened and then died back. "As the forests became sparse, the strategy of our human ancestors was more or less to abandon the canopies and come down to the ground, where they could use this bipedalism immediately to get around," he said.
The beauty of Darwinism is that your Just So story is no less plausible -- nor provable -- then the next guy's. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 31, 2007 7:23 PM
So we're all tree huggers?
Posted by: KRS at May 31, 2007 10:19 PM"As the forests became sparse, the strategy of our human ancestors was more or less to abandon the canopies and come down to the ground . . ."
Of course, it must have been that to create strategies, there must have been meetings -- strategy sessions -- among our ancestors. A-and then they developed speech in order better to discuss the advantages of bipedalism over quadripedalism. Following that crude diagrams were scratched in the dirt and later transferred to pieces of bark, which were given as "handouts."
One thing led to another, and that, my children, was how Powerpoint evolved. Just so.
"between 24m and 5m years ago, when eastern and central Africa experienced dramatic climatic cycles and the forests first thickened and then died back."
Alert for Al Gore: Use this scientific information to produce another slide to illustrate the dangers of dramatic climate change caused by humans.
Posted by: Genecis at June 1, 2007 10:44 AM