Re: Evolution, Bipedalism, and Precision Throwing in Hominids

On 4.8.2024. 21:30, JTEM wrote:

  Mario Petrinovic wrote:

         I was thinking about African savanna lately. As I am seeing it, African Savanna (as compared to Euro-Asian steppe, which, of course formed only after the last glacial period, I presume) could form only because of being depleted of people. Savanna, simply, is too far inland from the sources of salt. But, savanna, originally, emerged in Europe, north Mediterranean, Vallesian crisis (officially 9.75 mya, I just glanced through Agusti at al. 2013 paper about the subject, but I see that they found such environment, with Hipparion horses, 11.5 mya, in Vienna basin). Bipedal apes emerged in the very same environment.

 Ridiculous!
 The savanna is the least capable of supporting biodiversity.
 The population is at it's smallest on the savanna. There's much higher
biodiversity in the forest. Any population that learned to exploit the
sea, and I don't even mean they had to build fishing polls here, could
support an even higher population density/biodiversity than could the
forest.
 You can argue something of a reverse selection, where a shift to the
savanna put enormous pressures on a population, because it couldn't
support as many mouths to feed, so any little advantage could
persevere. But if that's half the answer than it's the smaller half,
as it doesn't move our ancestors across the globe or grow them larger
brains...

I don't know what you are talking about, of course jungle has higher diversity, it isn't the problem in diversity. It is the problem that I have hard time to find in Euroasia wild animals that we have in savanna. They are all domesticated. Compare zebras to horses. In Asia even elephants are domesticated.
See this:
India (subcontinent) - 1,710,000 sq miles, 1.9 million people, GDP per capita roughly the same as in Africa
Africa (continent) - 11,730,000 sq miles, 1.4 million people, GDP per capita $ 2,180
Europe (continent) - 3,930,000 sq miles, 0.75 million people, GDP per capita $ 34,230
I would think about this.