[extropy-chat] HISTORY: Solved & Unsolved Riddles

[CurtAdams at aol.com]

In a message dated 11/12/03 10:49:15, jonkc at att.net writes:

>Lucy could walk upright as well as you or I can but her brain was no larger
>than that of a chimp and it would be more than a million years before even
>the simplest tools show up in the fossil record, nor is there any evidence
>that she engaged in hunting, if she did it must have been for something
>like
>mice. I think Lucy was a very long way from being top predator, when she
>stood up she was just telling those who were what's on the menu.

Not necessarily, at all.  Chimps aren't top predators, but they have very 
effective group defense mechanisms and neither lions nor hyenas normally
bother them.  Lucy had a bigger brain than a modern chimp and probably
was even more social, so she had little to fear from anything she knew 
about.  Also, the australopithicenes inhabited open woodland so tree
escape would always be an option.

Personally, I lean to the tool use theories for upright walking, but the
various theories aren't mutally exclusive.