Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Martial Eagle with Prey
Philip Tobias wrote some excellent anatomy topics and took us on field trips to the
archaeology digs at Sterkfontein, Kromdraai, Swartkrans and what is now the Cradle of
Mankind museum area. I also went cave diving in Sterkfontein and explored the underwater
caverns but never saw any fossils of interest. He lectured us extensively on the ancient
australopithecine apes, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, subsequent hominins and their anatomy,
locomotion (our ability to ballet dance and our thin flexible gracile necks; agile rotating
shoulders of a pitcher throwing a ball; thin waists, long powerful legs allowing us to be better
long distance endurance runners and hunters in comparison to other animals), diet and
Acheulean (named after Saint Acheul in France) tool making, characterized by handaxes,
scrapers, cleavers, picks, and bifacial stone flaked cutting tools. He also lectured us on the
Kalahari San Bushmen and hunter-gatherers since in the 1950s and 1960s he had done research
on the Bushmen and their ecology. One of the interesting topics of the time was
Man the
Hunter
edited by Lee and DeVore, based on a conference of anthropologists and
archaeologists, although later revisionist anthropologists have since criticized it for its
simplicity and lack of taking into account of external pressures on hunter-gatherers. The
advantage that modern bipeds had over Australopithecus was that Homo bipeds could travel
faster over longer distances, carrying things with them like tools and weapons in their arms,
had larger brains to process hunting information, lacked hair and had sweat eccrine glands and
thus did not overheat with running, and did not have to spend as much time foraging and eating.
The Namibia gemsbok and dik-dik have developed a unique heat exchange systems in their
noses to keep their brains cool in the Namibian desert. Humans on the other hand keep their
entire bodies cool by being hairless and sweating. Bramble and Lieberman also argued in an
article in Nature that human's rich arterial blood flow to the scalp that then drains to internal
cavernous venous sinuses inside the skull after being cooled by the sweating scalp is a unique
human adaption to keep our brains cool during running. The one animal that also relies on
running down prey through endurance is the dog family. Unlike African wild dogs though, a
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