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Stone shifting - was it just about effort?
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GordonP
474 posts

Re: Anything for an easy life!
Jan 20, 2004, 18:10
Six million years ago when the ancestors of Australopithacus left the safety of the trees, they would never have survived without a weapon with which to defend themselves against preditors.

Being something like a modern chimp they had no natural weapons, their only option would have been a stout piece of broken branch for use as a club. (Modern chimps are known to use such tools, and even kill each other) If a chimp wants to use a club effectively, it must stand upright, therefore any chimp able to maintian an upright stance longer than his fellows stands a greater chance of survival.

But that is not all, any chimp who can use a club more effectively than his peers stands a good chance of becoming "dominant male", and as such has sole access to the females of the group. More or less anyway, any other chimp caught getting too close to the females would risk a nasty beating.

Therefore the ability to stand upright, by virtue of an unusual pelvic bone, not only increases your ability to survive, but increases your access to the females so ensuring your genes are passed on the next generation including the gene for a more upright pelvis.

All this is pure speculation of course but bear with me. the obvious outcome over the next three million years would be Australopithacus, an upright ape. Australopithacus stood perfectly upright but had a braincase the size of a modern chimp. Suppose one of these creatures learned to use his club like a "fighting staff", which can be used as a form of defence in personal combat. Using a fighting staff requires intelligence. Now the most INTELLIGENT ape gets the females, result three million years later, Homo Sapian.

Now tell me, is it possible that an intelligent creature like Homo Sapian could carry a fighting staff throughout three million years of evolution without discovering what a lever is. Fancy a few worms or whatever? lever that rock out of the way.

Perhaps useing levers was not a new invention by 2000 BC.
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Re: Anything for an easy life! (BrigantesNation)		 Replies:
Re: Anything for an easy life! (fitzcoraldo)
Re: Anything for an easy life! (Hob)
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