[Marxism] So it's not the opposable thumb, after all?

[Brian Shannon <Brian_Shannon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

News
Published online: 17 November 2004; | doi:10.1038/news041115-9
Distance running 'shaped human evolution'
Michael Hopkin

Our African ancestors may have been talented endurance athletes.

Long-distance running was crucial in creating our current upright body
form, according to a new theory. Researchers have suggested that our
early ancestors were good endurance runners, and that their habit has
left its evolutionary mark on our bodies, from our leg joints right up
to our heads.

Early humans may have taken up running around 2 million years ago,
after our ancestors began standing upright on the African savannah,
suggest Dennis Bramble of the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, and
Daniel Lieberman of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As
a result, evolution would have favoured certain body characteristics,
such as wide, sturdy knee-joints.

The theory may explain why, thousands of years later, so many people
are able to cover the full 42 kilometres of a marathon, the researchers
add. And it may provide an answer to the question of why other primates
do not share this ability.
        
Our poor sprinting prowess has given rise to the idea that our bodies
are adapted for walking, not running, says Lieberman. Even the fastest
sprinters reach speeds of only about 10 metres per second, compared
with the 30 metres per second of a cheetah. But over longer distances
our performance is much more respectable: horses galloping long
distances average about 6 metres per second, which is slower than a
top-class human runner.

"Everyone says humans are bad runners, because when you think of
running you tend to think of sprinting," he adds. "There's no question
we're appalling sprinters, but we're quite good at endurance running."

Full at
http://www.nature.com/news/2004/041115/full/041115-9.html

______________

I was a fair distance runner myself.

Brian Shannon


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