littor...@gmail.com wrote:
Hominoid evolution is not so difficult in general (even I can understand...).
Bipedal wading is seen in e.g. Nasalis monkey in mangrove forests, they also climb sometimes arms overhead.
If we back up a little, take in a wide view, the proverbial Big Picture, there is no denying that your idea that the exploitation of aquatic resources
led to bipedalism, and apes are ancestors of these bipedal species that regressed, makes a HUGE amount of sense.
Where we split is in that I see this process continuing throughout the
history of our genus, resulting in not just apes but Ardi, Lucy and
eventually Neanderthals & Denisovans (etc): Groups peeling away
from the parent population, moving inland, adapting to a new niche...
I see Homo going to disparate specialists to the consummate generalist
as resulting from the sharing of genes between these niche groups via
the "Aquatic Ape" parent population.
And, yes, I see bottleneck such as cataclysmic events (Super volcanoes, asteroids) and interbreeding issues (The chromosome fusion) heavily
favoring the complexity of the parent Aquatic Ape group, in a sense
"Resetting" the system and allowing this process to begin all over again, starting at a "Higher Level."
Oo! I'm all a-tingle!
We say "Out of Africa" today because one such cataclysm, and when I
say one I mean at least two, favored the African population(s) over that
of Europe and most of Asia... going back much further than African
population had been descended from a Eurasian group.
Toba HEAVILY favored Africa over Eurasia and even Sundaland, as
Sundaland was Ground-Zero.
And I have to agree with people like John Hawks, who shamelessly
worships at the church of Darwin, that CULTURE is important. We are
speaking of Homo, humans, and culture can and does shape us. For
this reason I can't dismiss r/K selection. There were different breeding "Strategies" for sure. Male genitals have changed, evolved a great
deal, at least as much as our hand or foot. I mean, we lost a whole
bone! So clearly there was a great deal of selective pressure going
on there, which means sex was an enormous contributor or shaping
modern man. And, sex, sexual reproduction does pertain to culture
at a fundamental level.
There. I think I touched on all the taboos... maybe forgot cannibalism
but, hey, THAT went on!
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