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The theory is the other way around AFAIK. Humans can outrun essentially every land animal if they chase for long enough (most animals have much worse thermal ma
by cycomanic 2y ago
The theory is the other way around AFAIK. Humans can outrun essentially every land animal if they chase for long enough (most animals have much worse thermal management so they will have to stop after a while to cool down). That allowed early humans to bring down much faster and larger prey, essentially chasing them to exhaustion.
- whyenot 2y agoYes, it is called persistence hunting, and humans are very well adapted to this style of hunting because of our ability to shed heat and run/walk very efficiently. Wolves are another animal that has this behavior. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistence_hunting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistence_hunting
- optimalsolver 2y agoAlso African painted dogs.
- deepsun 2y agoYes, but not every land animal, some can outrun Homo on the long distances as well (wolves, horses, deer). Mammoth couldn't and died. Moose cannot as well, but survived somehow.
- cenamus 2y agoI actually highly doubt that a deer would fare better than a trained human on 50+km, but can't provide any sources
- panick21_ 2y agoActually a human and horses on long distances aren't that different. I don't know about wolves, but seems like they would overheat.
- cjrp 2y agoIndeed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_versus_Horse_Marathon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_versus_Horse_Marathon
- panick21_ 2y agoThat's still a pretty short distances. I think in Ultramarathon, humans would win.
- luqtas 2y agowith carbohydrate gels, fancy shoes and years of training on the asphalt and a bunch of servants throwing you motivational words and ice water bottles?
- deepsun 2y agoWell, it's rider on a horse. Would be fair if the human runner also carried another human on their shoulders. Besides, ancient horses were much smaller and couldn't carry a rider, hence chariots. I would like to speculate that smaller means better thermoregulation, so smaller horses fared better on long distances versus Homo genus.
- dhosek 2y agoWhat deer have going for them is the ability to blend in to a herd so that when chasing a deer, if it gets in with the herd, you may end up chasing a freshly rested deer instead of the one that you’ve worn out which gets a chance to rest and regroup. Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run has some interesting chapters about this (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0307279189/donhosek http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0307279189/donhosek)
- caseyohara 2y agoAverage fit humans can run down horses and deer, and I would bet wolves too. > Other animals, such as deer, bison and others, have bodies more suited to quick, short-distance running. The difference means that an average human being in running shape could catch a horse, deer or almost any other animal by pursuing it to exhaustion. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-theory-humans-evolved-ability-distances.html https://phys.org/news/2024-05-theory-humans-evolved-ability-...