Technology is rarely usurped entirely. I definitely agree that rock throwing in fights still exists, and people will do it when necessary. It's not, however, a

Technology is rarely usurped entirely. I definitely agree that rock throwing in fights still exists, and people will do it when necessary. It's not, however, a primary method of warfare or 1-on-1 conflict... outside of specific circumstances like defending walls. Maybe a situation where one side has armour and swords and the other has numbers. Even then, long term, I'd wager on the the former. Hunting methods tend to perpetuate. I'm not saying that no one ever hunts birds with rocks. I'm sure many people do. I'm equally sure that very few ever fill the pot this way. For rock throwing to have shaped our arms from Habilis to Erectus, A just want to say that I'm not arguing against any core parts of the theory. Hand/thumb articulation. Shoulder biomechanics. Explosive/elastic ability. There's plenty of evidence for that. There are also plenty of alternative ways to theorize how this was useful. I think rock throwing is the popular explanation because it assumes the least behavioural complexity. It could have been more complex behaviour, like spear throwing. We only have evidence of stone tools because composition. But, I think it's safe to assume that this represents a very small part of the Erectus (even habilis) tool repertoire. If I had to accept rock throwing, my theory would be "alpha scavenger" behaviour, like brown bears. Rock throwing is be pretty useful for chasing large predators off their kill. This is an extant "hunting" method, stealing from lions. Cultures that still do this (now for cultural, more than nutritional reasons) use nothing but bravery. They walk in, projecting confidence. Lions retreat, at least temporarily. The people cut off a haunch and walk away. A crude stone knife/axe (the one tool we know was widely used) is an essential tool for this. You need to butcher super fast, before the lions regroup and try to recover the kill. That'd be an evolutionary advantage. Lions & bears do this, but it takes a lot of body mass. If a band of 50kg animals can chase off a pride of 150kg animals or a single 250kg animal... this is very efficient. Usually being alpha scavenger requires a tradeoff: large, calories consumptive body size in exchange for access to calories. Hard way to make a living, but at least plausible.