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Humans Born to Run
chia_monkey writes "This article in MSNBC says humans were born to run. From tendons and ligaments in the legs and feet that act like springs and skull features that help prevent overheating, to well-defined buttocks that stabilize the body, the human anatomy is shaped for running. The article also goes on to talk about our rumps: Big buttocks are also important. 'Have you ever looked at an ape? They have no buns,' said Bramble."
Have you ever looked at an ape? They have no buns,' said Bramble.
Well, I can't say that I have but...
I've heard that the reason why men are attracted to women who wear bright red lipstick is because it's a throwback to how the rear end of a female ape gets red when she's horny and ready to mate. Seing a red round object triggers the same sex drive in us that it did our prehistoric ancestors. So when you are thinking of, ahem, enjoying a woman's full, red lips, it's like your homo erectus part wants to enjoy the rear end of a protohuman.
Ew. Off to use some mental floss.
Hmmmm. I have the feeling that I just made a bad situation worse...
I've heard it a little differently, that during arousal a women's lips (and other parts of her body) become flushed and swollen with blood. Red lipstick and collegen treatment are just designed to give women the look of permanent sexual arousal.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
This means that humans can run down prey. Chase an antelope, and it'll run a few hundred yards far faster than you can, then stop to rest. If you just keep dogtrotting after it, it'll do it again, and again. But after a couple miles, it'll be so tired that you can catch up with it and hit it over the head with a big stick.
This is called 'cursorial hunting'. Only wolves, hyenas, and humans can do this - chase after a quarry till it drops in its tracks.
I have also heard of an aboriginal Australian tribe that used to / still does? run down kangaroos.
Think about it. A bunch of marathon runners with spears jog after you all day. You are fit, but not trained for endurance running. Each time you stop for a break, they catch up to you relentlessly, dogging you. Only fear of death gives you the reserves to keep up your flight all day long, sprinting and then resting while they doggedly persue you. You are suprised your heart hasn't burst. Then it starts to get dark. You rest, and this time they don't persue you. They make camp. You fall fast asleep almost immediately grateful that your persuers have stopped chasing you. You wake up to the prod of a spear in your backside. OUCH! It's morning, and the people that chased you all day are upon you. Your instinct is to dart away, but you find that your every muscle has ceased to function. You feel like you must have rigormortis, and are completely unable to move as they tie you to a spit and plop you over their fire to cook.
But in addition to outthinking them, we could outwalk them.
I'm not sure abstract intelligence was that useful to our distant ancestors (though of course it has become more useful as civilisation has developed).
I'd more likely point to our superb visual acuity, and our unparalleled dexterity and communication skills. It was these qualities, coupled to our endurance, that I would argue made our species successful enough to be able to afford to develop large brains.
The point the authors made was not that humans are good sprinters, which we aren't, but that we are extremely good long distance runners. We can outrun most other creatures over long distances. This was important when we expanded into the savannah and had to beat the hyenas to any newly fallen carcass. I read this in Nature and New Scientist and also heard an interview with the guy (who used the hyena example) ... interestingly the radio interview was on a mainstream station, prime time before I had even seen any mention in the journals. One example the guy gave was that over long distances humans can outrun horses, assuming you've got people who are used to running a lot. Interesting. I remember locally there was this guy, became a national folk hero, he was in his 60s ran everywhere on the farm chasing cattle. Decided to go in an ultra-marathon, about 1,000 km. First effort he beat the world leaders by about 8 hours or more , can't remember the exact lead he had, fellow Aussies might remember Cliff Young. This gives an idea of the 'typical' endurance of a hunter pursuing game.
Bitter and proud of it.
we could outwalk them.
Very true.
An excellent example of this is an observation I read in the diary of a US soldier from the indian wars era. He noted that when the army really needed to cover long distances quickly, they had to leave the cavalry behind, because the horses couldn't keep up. Sure, the horses were faster for short distances like, say a couple hundred miles. But when they had to cover a thousand miles as quickly as possible, the horses couldn't take the pounding. If you rested them enough to keep them healthy, they were too slow. The infantry, on the other hand, could cover 30-35 miles per day, seven (well, usually six) days a week, week after week after week.
In a similar vein, ultramarathons are somewhat popular these days, many of them with 100-mile courses. I've heard that the first 100-mile race was actually started as an endurance race for horses, with the primary goal to complete in less than 24 hours. Then one year one of the riders' horse went lame, so after taking care of the animal he decided to finish the race out on foot. The next year, he decided to run the whole thing on foot, and did very well. After a few more years went by the horsemen eventually dropped out of the race -- because they couldn't compete!
These days, most ultra winners finish the 100 miles well under 24 hours, sometimes in as little as 15 or 16 hours.
A well-tuned human body is amazingly good at long-distance foot travel.
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