In Evolutionary Race, Humans Went the Extra Mile (15 m per day for food)

[papau]

Seems their detailed biomechanical analysis (of ligaments and tendons that serve as springs to store and release mechanical energy, a more balanced head with a flatter face that makes it easier to balance the head during the up and down shocks of running, a ligament that runs from the back of the skull and neck down to the thoracic vertebrae that acts as a shock absorber, and of the ability to rotate to counteract the movement of the legs) suggests that distance running was not a minor ability as it "ultimately led to the development of the large brain that sets modern humans apart from all other creatures". MAYBE?

http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/showcase/la-sci-running18nov18.story

In Evolutionary Race, Humans Went the Extra Mile, Study Says
By Robert Lee Hotz
Times Staff Writer

November 18, 2004

Humanity was born to run.

More than by brain size or tool-making ability, the human species was set apart from its ancestors by the ability to jog mile after lung-stabbing mile with greater endurance than any other primate, according to research published today in the journal Nature.

Indeed, human beings evolved as the cross-country stars of a primordial runner's world 2 million years before the advent of jogging shoes, tracksuits and arthroscopic knee surgery.

Mounting a challenge to the conventional wisdom about human origins, researchers at Harvard University and the University of Utah concluded that the ability to run long distances was the driving force shaping the modern human anatomy.

Such running ability could have given early humans a survival edge in scavenging on the open savannas of Africa.<snip>

[Skinner]

1. Very interesting article.

They make a compelling case that we are very well adapted for long-distance running. But after reading through it, I don't see much evidence to back up the claim that it "ultimately led to the development of the large brain." I'm wondering if the researchers actually make that claim, or if the writer of the article slipped it in himself. Did I miss something?

[Papa]

2. It seems to me that the author is attributing this claim to the researcher

based upon where it appears in the article.

[papau]

3. Agree-given that larger brain does not equate with smarter, the idea seems

a bit wierd.