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Human ancestors walked on two feet but their children still had a backup plan
- quadcore 8y agoCurious if those guys had discovered fire already, had furs or tools, 3 millions years ago.
- isostatic 8y agoFrom the article: > If you were living in Africa 3 million years ago without fire, without structures, and without any means of defense, you'd better be able get up in a tree when the sun goes down
- ttsda 8y agoFire is estimated to have begun to be controlled by humans around 1.7 to 0.2 million years ago.
- toasterlovin 8y agoI'm curious who is estimating 0.2 million (200k) years. That is not very long ago. As a point of comparison, there are populations of humans who have been genetically isolated for that long (the Khoisan in southern Africa).
- bb101 8y agoIf you find this interesting, I'd highly recommend watching the Cosmos series on Netflix. Once you get past the first few minutes of cringeworthy effects, it gets deep very quickly and presents the evolution of our species, planet and universe in very accessible terms.
- dTal 8y ago>Based on the skeletal structure of the child's foot, specifically, the base of the big toe, the kids probably spent more time in the trees than adults. Fascinatingly, this is still true today! Kids love climbing trees. I used to love climbing trees. It's funny to think that the true reason for my disposition was a deep, ancestral fear of being eaten.
- dboreham 8y agoAlso true of Bears. Cubs can climb trees while adults can't.
- Harvey-Specter 8y agoAdult bears definitely can climb trees. [0] So can adult humans, obviously. [0] http://www.bearsmart.com/about-bears/dispelling-myths/ http://www.bearsmart.com/about-bears/dispelling-myths/
- taeric 8y agoI'm curious if that is just a mutilation of "Cubs can climb trees that adults can't." Not that "Cubs can climb trees, adults can't." That said, I thought it was common knowledge that bears are good climbers. There are some wonderful videos of bears climbing up to a hunter's tree stand. Would have to be a terrifying experience.
- agumonkey 8y agohehe, we used to climb a lot too, surprisingly high, unattended and completely improvised. A new generation of kids from new neighbors is spending a lot of times in trees, to the despair of their parents (and mine since it involves a lot of loud voices)
- Florin_Andrei 8y agoAlso, tree houses are fascinating for kids.
- e40 8y ago
- patrickg_zill 8y agoI hate this (too common) stupid phrasing for science articles, as if a 1 year old rationally decided that he/she should climb trees more often. Does it bug anyone else?
- amriksohata 8y agoYes! It's shampoo science
- nomy99 8y agoI remember wanting a tree house to feel safe and alone
- tabtab 8y agoBig cats do most hunting at night, so sleeping in the trees but wandering around on foot looking for food during the day seems like a good life strategy. Fending off the smaller daytime predators was probably within a walking ape's ability via sticks and stones. I suspect they had to use sticks and stones for such, because they were otherwise physically wimpy creatures: relatively small jaw & teeth and no significant "claws". As they perfected defense with sticks & stones eventually they probably started using it for offense, and self-breeding for skill with tools, leading to modern humans. (Modern chimps even occasionally use tooth-sharpened sticks for hunting tree mammals.)