Chronology:Africa

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BC 2,000,000c.1 Overhand Throwing Evolves in Primates

Location:

Africa

Age of Players:

Adult

"A suite of physical changes -- such as the lowering and widening of the shoulders, and expansion of the waist, and a twisting of the humerus -- make humans especially good at throwing  . . . it wasn't until the appearance of Homo erectus, about 2 million years ago" that this combination of alterations came together.

Note: Chimpanzees can only throw like a dartboard-contestant or a straight-arm cricket bowler.

Stone-tipped spears only appeared about a half a million years ago.  "That means that for about 1.5 million years, when people hunted, they basically had nothing more lethal to throw than a pointed wooden stick . . . . If you want to kill something with that, you have to be able to throw that pretty hard, and you have to be accurate.  Imagine how important it must have been to our ancestors to throw hard and fast."

 

Sources:

Roach, N.T., Venkadesan, M., Rainbow, M.J., Lieberman, D.E., June 27,  2013. "Elastic energy storage in the shoulder and the evolution of high-speed throwing in Homo." Nature. volume 498, pp. 483-486.  See https://scholar.harvard.edu/ntroach/evolution-throwing

Peter Reuell, "Right Down the Middle, Explained," Harvard Gazette, June 27, 2013.See http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/06/right-down-the-middle-explained/ (includes video of human throwing motion). 

Comment:

The article asserts, without supporting detail, that straight-arm (cricket-style) throwing is less effective.

Query:

Do British researchers agree that cricket-style bowling would be less effective as a hunting technique?

Do published comments on this paper add insights?

Circa
2000000 B.C.
Item
BC 2,000,000c.1
Edit

-2000000c.2 Humans Evolve as Runners

Location:

Africa

Age of Players:

Adult

"We are very confidence that strong selection for running" <occurred some two million years ago>

Sources:

D. Bramble and D. Lieberman, "XXX," Nature, November 18, 2018. 

Circa
2000000 B.C.
Item
-2000000c.2
Edit