[ExI] Fire and evolution (was hypnosis)

[Dan]

Wasn't the homo line (from the hypothesized homo/pan split) also in different 
niches at this point too? I'm not sure of the research done on pan genus itself 
-- in terms of its evolution -- but I was under the impression that it was 
limited to dense forests -- while the homo line was exploring many different 
niches, some of them not dense forests.

Regards,

Dan


----- Original Message ----
From: "lists1 at evil-genius.com" <lists1 at evil-genius.com>
To: extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
Sent: Tue, November 2, 2010 5:23:25 PM
Subject: [ExI] Fire and evolution (was hypnosis)

From: "spike" <spike66 at att.net>

"I have long pondered if speciation between humans and chimps was accelerated by 
the fact that for some reason the protohumans figured out that little burning 
bush trick, and the chimps didn't, or just couldn't master it.  This would 
represent the technology segregation we talk about today, that separates those 
humans who use electronics from those who do not.  Today it is called the 
digital divide.  Back then it was what we might call the conflagration chasm."

That would be surprising, as the earliest current evidence for the domestication 
of fire is ~1.7 million years ago, and that is hotly disputed: many 
archaeologists put it ~400,000 years ago.  All these dates are long, long after 
the human/chimp/bonobo split 6-7 million years ago.

Of course, the progression of protohuman evolution from the split onward had 
many different branches, and was not a neat linear sequence...there were many 
species of Australopithecus and Homo which died out.  So Spike's hypothesis may 
well be correct for a more recent evolutionary divide.

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