Joe E. Dees wrote:
> ...The critical factor is that being able to manipulate
> > objects caused the smarter protohumans to have a survival advantage
> > over dumber protohumans, whereas it is not clear to me that the smarter
> > chimps have any real reproductive advantage over dumber chimps.
> >
> Don't forget opposable thumbs (allowing grasping and making tool
> manufacture and use an evolutionary possible positive to develop),
Dont chimps have opposable thumbs? They have really cool opposable big toes. (I think). I wish I had those. {8^D
> ...improved speaking systems (tongue/jaw/larnyx configurations
> permitting the pronunciation of deeper vowel sounds, such as o and
> u, and the subsequent proliferation of possible distinguishable
> sounds to which could be attached meanings)...
Im thinking this came after locking knees and bigger brains. Better voices would be a clear advantage to large brained animals.
> , and neoteny (which
> allowed the bigger brains to finish growing postbirth (after passing
> through a vaginal canal which would still manage to be
> pleasureable for the male to fuck later so he would continue to
> hang around to help provide for his offspring,
This one never occurred to me. {8^D
The question now is, could all our differences from chimps have been a row of dominoes, the first one being the lockable knee? spike