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How Sliced Meat May Have Driven Human Evolution (sciencemag.org)
sciencehabit writes: The most tedious part of a chimpanzee's life is chewing. Our primate cousins spend six hours a day gnashing fruits and the occasional monkey carcass — all made possible by the same type of big teeth and large jaws our early ancestors had. So why are our own teeth and jaws so much smaller? A new study credits the advent of simple stone tools to slice meat and pound root vegetables, which could have dramatically reduced the time and force needed to chew, thus allowing our more immediate ancestors to evolve the physical features required for speech. The abstract for the (paywalled) article is more informative than many.
All such "explanations" backed primarily by feelings of vague plausibility should be required to show how they are better supported than ones such as BAHfest.
Maybe early proto-Republican campfire debates caused the evolution of "large hands" as selective advantage for tribal power struggles. Probably not. Show me specifically how their conjecture is scientifically stronger.
~ Whence do you come, slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?
Small teeth can just as easily eat a whole animal as big teeth. Teeth aren't just used for chewing but for attacking and taking down prey. It was tools that allowed humans to take down prey without the need for biting that allowed smaller mouths to be evolutionarily OK.
And beyond that, COOKING the meat was far more advantageous than tools to slice it.
"Sliced bread makes us evolutionarily superior"
Yeesh.. this isn't science, this is drunken bar talk...
Knives don't really replace chewing, fire does that.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
Exactly. Homosexuality is as normal as other variations. Like DOWN'S SYNDROME. Yep. All perfectly normal.
Wolves and lions with bad teeth simply die.
Also, these animals are a rather poor example of why living longer than one generation needs to procreate has a benefit. They do not tend to live in multi-generation packs. We do. Even today having parents to rely on when you have offspring is a huge advantage compared to those who cannot drop their young on their own parents to go out and earn a living. Consider how much higher the chances for your pack were when you went out hunting while your young were protected by your own parents who not only provide protection but can also aid you with their experience in rearing offspring.
IIRC the life expectancy of an early human who survived the first 5 years of his life was in the area of 35 years. 17% only means about 5-7 extra years, but it can make a huge difference for the chance of your kids' survival if your parents are around an extra 5-7 years. Considering that a woman can bear children about roughly once a year, this can mean an extra 5 offspring surviving.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.