@Blickers,
Quote:You have that backwards. Homo Sapiens or predecessors lost their fur while all of them still lived in Africa, when they stopped climbing trees in the forest and moved into the hot African grasslands. The Homo Sapiens started becoming somewhat hairier when they moved out of Africa up North, thereby demonstrating that your hairy ideas prove the opposite of what you think they do.
What you just said is a weird change in the species, loosing characteristics and recovering them after a while.
You must show that such kind of change is genetically possible.
as far as I can see, it's a great imaginary description of yours but is far away of a possible change in species.
Quote:Your timing is off. Australopithecus might have made a tasty meal for the local predators, but by the time Homo Sapiens came on the scene the genus Homo was at or very near the top of the food chain. Half a million years ago Homo was already using razor sharp stone tips for his spears, which changes the power equation between Man and Beast very much in Man's favor. Fact is, predators were figuring out that they were better off leaving us alone.
Lets make it more simple and realistic.
When humans don't take baths or shower for weeks, stink worst than most of the species. Dogs, mules, rats, rabbits, lions, etc have shown a "limit" of stinking when their bodies are not in contact with water for weeks and months; however, humans "limit" of stinking in the wild will cause many predators to look somewhere else.
(Funny case in the news years ago were lions having eating the entire body of an African man, but left his feet intact)
But humans, before protecting themselves in houses and later on in cities, one of their "natural" protection was their body smell.
Quote:We weren't a prey animal, by the time we became Homo Sapien we were top of the heap. Even now, people in undeveloped parts of the world seek out any predators that kill or attack a human and kill it with their sharp spears. Which means the only predators left now and probably for hundreds of thousands of years mostly figured out to steer clear when THEY smelled US. The genus Homo, and probably Australopithecus as well, devoted their energies to getting larger brains capable of devising more deadly hunting weapons. It turned out to be a much better survival strategy than wasting precious resources on keeping their sense of smell sharp.
You are implying that humans helped themselves to obtain bigger brains.
Such is a nuts idea.
Wolves, bears, rabbits won't even know that their skin is changing color in Winter season. The change of the color of skin is not at their will. The chameleon changes colors by cause of its fears or any outside or inside change. They don't control the changes of color in their skin.
Animals who developed a certain level of new knowledge, like domesticated dogs, their offspring didn't born with "greater brains" either.
But, lets play the game in base of your position.
How humans were capable to do so? I ask, because today humans can't do that, we can't change color of the skin using our will, neither the size of our bodies or, the number of teeth, unless we use tools and other methods.
So, explain this part, what is your hypothesis explanation of such devoting of energy to get large brains?
Quote: probably Australopithecus as well, devoted their energies to getting larger brains capable of devising more deadly hunting weapons.