Re: When we became bipedal

On 2.7.2024. 23:58, JTEM wrote:

  Mario Petrinovic wrote:
 

         Ah, you know sooo much. Apes were the predominant species in canopy in Miocene, and at that time the whole

 Pure conjecture.
 I'm not disputing your right to conjecture, only noting that there
is better conjecture... ideas that are not so reliant on a lack of
information.
 I subscribe to the good Doctor's model, or a variant there of, where
"Apes" evolved from a bipedal ancestor.
 In other words, an early Waterside (Aquatic Ape) evolved FIRST, then
what we call apes began to split off... and this "Splitting off" was
a process that never ended during the entire evolution, right up to
so called "Modern Man."
 It works. It fits.
 "Da wived in jungles" does not.
 We did not evolve in the tree tops any more than we evolved on the
savanna, i.e. "not at all."
 

         So, first you had bipedal ancestors, then what?

 Actually, FIRST we had waterside (Aquatic Ape)
 The good Doctor has a plausible start:  Insular Isolation
 Isolation of a group on an island is strongly associated with Insular
Dwarfism, but not only is it also associated with Insular Gigantism
but is has been argued that Gigantism precedes Dwarfism....
 FIRST they get large, because of the lack of predators AND the fact
that they are in competition with each other... themselves.
 So they get big. Selective pressures are on "Big"
 THEN what normally happens is that these BIGGER animals with no
natural predators exhaust all their resources. Suddenly the selective
pressures are on SMALL... Dwarfism. But what if...
 What if these larger animals, instead of exhausting resources and
growing small, what if these animals INSTEAD turned to exploiting
the sea?  With this new high protein diet they could grow even
larger!
 No downward pressures, they continue to experience all the selective
pressures on "Bigger."
 There. We go from a fruit & nut eating tree monkey to something much
larger, consuming protein...
 THEN we add the usual Aquatic Ape arguments on upright posture,
bipedalism, larger brain...

Animals are different on islands because on islands you lack predators. Do you know of any animal that evolved on islands that survived on mainland? Of course, not. Good Dr. Moreau's island.