Shafted By Evolution?

J

Ja'far at-Tahir

Grand Ayatollah of SciForums
Registered Senior Member
Does anyone else think we have been given the shaft by evolution? Speaking physically. I mean look at all the other primates, Silver Backs, Baboons, and other such species; humans are meek and feeble in comparison. We're like the naked mole rats of the ape world and really, our only saving grace is our intellect. :shrug:

:m:
 
AFAIK Human skin is unique in that it allows us to run down large game. Because we efficiently sweat (using our skin) we are able to lose enough heat while maintaining speed to outpace large game - which must stop and pant to lose heat through their tongue (even large cats have to stop and pant).

When pursued by a predator large animals will always keep moving. If you keep a large animal moving long enough it's body temperature raises about a degree or so, which is enough to prevent normal neural conduction from occurring in their brain - at which point they blackout, collapse and we have an easy meal ... without even having had to fight for it.

Just keep big game moving under the African heat long enough and you can eat good at the end of the day and do so without worrying about being pawed or gouged.

No other animal has evolved this strategy.
 
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Yes, we are good runners, but we also don't have to be big to digest large amounts of cellulose. We are intelligent, so we create tools and eat meat. There were larger hominids, but evolution gave them the shaft.
 
Ja'far at-Tahir said:
our only saving grace is our intellect. :shrug:

:m:
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Are you serious? What would you exchange this saving grace for? What is your intellect worth, to you?

The only thing that I wonder about is why we can grow our hair so long.

freaky_long_hair.jpg


Whats the advantage of that?
 
Having large muscles means you are more likely to suffer when there is a famine. Small people require less food, and if you don't have to be big to fight off animals, there is no advantage to it.
 
We are hardly weak when we caused the extinction of many large animal species, and are currently working on plenty of the rest. Because of us, the tiger is almost gone! And that's one of the most powerful land animals that exist.
 
Ja'far at-Tahir said:
Does anyone else think we have been given the shaft by evolution? Speaking physically. I mean look at all the other primates, Silver Backs, Baboons, and other such species; humans are meek and feeble in comparison. We're like the naked mole rats of the ape world and really, our only saving grace is our intellect. :shrug:

:m:
Click to expand...

I think evolution has been pretty good to us considering we are still here.

If there is one place of weakness it's not in dealing with larger animals since we have proven to be able to control and dominate every species. Considering that if we wanted to we could easily make polar bears and lions etc to be extinct.

But our greatest enemy is ourselves (war etc) and bugs, meaning viruses etc.

Those two things have done the most damage to us.

I am not worried about bears and lions taking over.
 
jpappl said:
Please elaborate.
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Well, for one, I understand why we have become the alpha species. Number two, I was mainly just talking in terms of, if you and a Silver Back where in the Amphitheatrum Flavium and you had to fight, as is, it's safe to say the Silver Back would win. Also, how even chimpanzees can horrifically maul their owners. As is, were not the strongest of the apes. Hence why I said physically.
 
Ja'far at-Tahir said:
Well, for one, I understand why we have become the alpha species. Number two, I was mainly just talking in terms of, if you and a Silver Back where in the Amphitheatrum Flavium and you had to fight, as is, it's safe to say the Silver Back would win. Also, how even chimpanzees can horrifically maul their owners. As is, were not the strongest of the apes. Hence why I said physically.
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Well then why not bigger than a bear or lion ?

I wouldn't say the silver back would win with variables thrown in. Specifically the use of anything available as a weapon.

Which is why we have become what we are.

Which is also why everyone wants to have the technological upper hand.
 
Sure in a ring or death Tyrannosaurus is King, but, we are well adapted to survival.

Spidergoat@
Yeah, I often wonder why the other hominids died out. Why?
Also how does interbreeding fit into the story? Non-Africans are the descendants of Neanderthal and homosapians which bred together (at least sometimes) and the same seems likely of homosapians and homoerectus - so in one sense it's not that homoerectus died out due to competition, but that we're the end results.

But yes, there were at times a few other hominids that all shared Africa together. Why did some die out or did they? I think they did.

Also it's suggested that homosapians went through a bottleneck not that long ago in (I think) Western Africa. We almost went extinct. If I remember correctly it's postulated our population was around 10 thousands. This may be where our intellect got a huge selective boost - which I'm still wondering if it was sexually selected for? Maybe, maybe not.
 
Ja'far at-Tahir said:
Does anyone else think we have been given the shaft by evolution? Speaking physically. I mean look at all the other primates, Silver Backs, Baboons, and other such species; humans are meek and feeble in comparison. We're like the naked mole rats of the ape world and really, our only saving grace is our intellect. :shrug:

:m:
Click to expand...

You mean all those endangered animals?
 
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