• Cypher@lemmy.world
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    10 days ago

    Oh you think sweating is unique?

    What other animals can throw like a human and can craft weapons? Projectiles were the big leap not mindless running.

    • Lupus@feddit.org
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      9 days ago

      It is widely assumed that the edge human species had was the ability for long distance movement through a high ability to regulate the body temperature very effectively. Through that humans were able to secure a steady and relatively safe and reliable supply of important nutrients, which allowed, among others, the human brain to develop further.

      This gave the human species the foundation to grow and settle in other environments and also to focus time and energy on other things like learning to throw or craft tools and weapons, which then solidified and expanded the advantage that had been achieved by very unique biological traits.

      So one probably wasn’t possible without the other, but the human species needed both of those developments to make it into the dominant species it now is. It’s not a question of one or the other, one came first and was necessary to be able to develop the second, so in a way you’re right and wrong.

      • Cypher@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        It is widely assumed

        By people not paying attention to what we actually know about the oldest human societies. The human shoulder likely took far longer to evolve than increased sweat and lower body hair. Nothing can throw with the accuracy of a human.

        and also to focus time and energy on other things like learning to throw or craft tools and weapons,

        Hard to spend much time and energy on anything other than running down prey when it takes endless hours just to catch it, then having to haul it back to others who need to be fed.

        So one probably wasn’t possible without the other

        Potentially but like I said one of these is completely overblown in significance.

        • slickgoat@lemmy.world
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          9 days ago

          When our great ape ancestors descended from the forests and into the open plains their primary sources of protein were fleet deer-like creatures. These animals couldn’t be sneaked-up on by humans. Even big cat predators have a certain amount of trouble doing this and they have explosive speed and deadly equipment. Humans had a well documented set of skills that they employed that you are determined to underestimate.

          We still employ this hidden talent to this day in a few instances.

          Modern day marathon runners use persistence running, first utilised in organised battle a few thousand years ago.

          In modern day selection for special forces, such as the SAS, the final component is a five or six days grueling forced navigation test, whereby the candidate just traverses a mountain range from point-to-point carrying an impossibly heavy back pack. Virtually no sleep and very little food. They do this day after day after day. This skill taps into persistence running development as an evolutionary advantage. It allows the soldier to survive in harsh circumstances, such as escape and evasion.

          Persistence hunting is so well studied and excepted that your objection is not really clear. Nor have you really explained how we would have jumped the hundreds of thousands year gap from living in trees to missile weapons against faster prey. Shoulder development doesn’t do it. And great apes do have powerful shoulders today.

        • guy@piefed.social
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          9 days ago

          The human shoulder likely took far longer to evolve than increased sweat and lower body hair.

          Well other primates have about the same shoulder, but humans sweating is superior. So you have it backwards. Shoulder first, sweating and less fur after