Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
been important to the cognitive evolution of hominids from
Homo habilis
to
Homo erectus
.” Fre-
derick L. Coolidge and Thomas Wynn, “The Effects of the Tree-to-Ground Sleep Transition in
the Evolution of Cognition in Early
Homo
,” abstract,
Before Farming
2006 no. 4, article 11,
ht-
34
One theory proposes that
Referencing articles by Jeremy Cherfas and John Gribbin that ap-
peared in
New Scientist
in 1981, Kano describes how ape lineages that were possibly coevolving
with pre-humans on the savannah may have returned to the rainforest, abandoning their largely
terrestrial lifestyles (
The Last Ape
, 11). See also Committee on the Earth System Context for
Hominin Evolution and National Research Council,
Understanding Climate's Influence on Human
Evolution
(Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2010),
http://www.nap.edu/open-
34
And some genetic studies
Bjorn Carey, “Human and Chimp Ancestors Might Have Interbred,”
Live Science, May 17, 2006,
http://www.livescience.com/783-human-chimp-ancestors-inter-
34
As for DNA
Prüfer et al., “The Bonobo Genome Compared”; Pennisi, “A Little Gorilla in Us
All”; Scally et al., “Insights into Hominid Evolution.”
35
Scientists have theorized
Wrangham and Peterson,
Demonic Males
, 204.
35
This theory, however
Wrangham and Peterson,
Demonic Males
, 225, referencing Marc Colyn
et al., “A Re-appraisal of Palaeoenvironmental History in Central Africa: Evidence for a Major
Fluvial Refuge in the Zaïre Basin,”
Journal of Biogeography
18 (1991): 403-7.
35
The glacials come in cycles
Daniel A Livingstone, “A Geological Perspective on the Conserva-
tion of African Forests,” in
African Rain Forest Ecology and Conservation: An Interdisciplinary
Perspective
, ed. William Weber et al. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), 51.
36
If we continue our time-lapse
Livingstone, “A Geological Perspective,” 53. It is extremely dif-
ficult, based on existing evidence, to evaluate the size of forest refuges that existed during the last
glacial, though it is certain that the rainforests were greatly reduced.
36
Rivers would have hampered
Wrangham and Peterson,
Demonic Males
, 225 .
37
However, the chimp-bonobo ancestor
In explaining the bonobo diet, Wrangham and Peterson
write: “They have evolved to take advantage of the more digestible parts of the gorilla diet—not
the tough, low-quality stems that occur in patches around swamps, but the juicy, protein-rich
growth buds and stem bases of young herbs. We even can see the marks of this evolution in
their teeth: Bonobo teeth have longer shearing edges than those of chimpanzees, adapted for eat-
ing herbs in a way that surprised people when they first discovered it in 1984. Bonobos have
evolved in a forest that is kindlier in its food supply, and that allows them to be kindly, too.”
Demonic Males
, 223-24, referencing Kano, “A Pilot Study on the Ecology of Pygmy Chimpan-
zees
Pan paniscus
,” in Hamburg and McCown,
The Great Apes
; Richard K. Malenky and Richard
W. Wrangham, “A Quantitative Comparison of Terrestrial Herbaceous Food Consumption by
Pan
paniscus
in the Lomako Forest, Zaïre, and
Pan troglodytes
in the Kibale Forest, Uganda,”
Americ-
an Journal of Primatology
32 (1994): 1-12; Richard K. Malenky et al., “The Significance of Ter-
restrial Herbaceous Foods for Bonobos, Chimpanzees and Gorillas,” in
Chimpanzee Cultures
, ed.
Richard W. Wrangham et al. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994): 59-75; W. G. Kinzey,
“The Dentition of the Pygmy Chimpanzee,
Pan paniscus
,” in
The Pygmy Chimpanzee: Evolution-
ary Biology and Behavior
, ed. R. L. Susman (New York: Plenum, 1984): 65-88.
37
With so many resources
Wrangham and Peterson,
Demonic Males
, 222-27.
38
New research, however
Stuart Wolpert, “Last Time Carbon Dioxide Levels Were This High:
15 Million Years Ago, Scientists Report,”
UCLA Newsroom
, October 8, 2009,
ht-
As I was in the final stages of writing this topic, atmospheric carbon dioxide surpassed 400
parts per million. Sources stated that it was the highest level in at least three million years, as op-
