How can they tell how strong a toe was without having muscle tissue to examine? Bone size seems irrelevant. Europeans typically have larger bones in their feet than Asians do. So what?
Can similar shifts be seen in finger sizes?
Did we just keep the little ones (fingers) for digging bugs and various substances out of bodily orifices?
Why not just have bigger toes to retain heat during the ice ages, whereas smaller toes with less unit volume per unit of surface area would be more prone to freezing?
After the climate mediated, big, hairy toes would sweat more and smell bad, where delicate toes would be less prone to getting funky and driving Og-ette out of the cave.
Thus, a shift in mating habits brought about by foot odor....
Not a biologist or anything, but my understanding is that muscle is attached to bone by ligaments and tendons, and bone thickens at the attachment sites with exercise. The more you exercise, the thicker these attachment sites become. So they don't need to examine the muscle tissue directly to tell how heavily muscled the toes were.
"How can they tell how strong a toe was without having muscle tissue to examine? Bone size seems irrelevant. Europeans typically have larger bones in their feet than Asians do. So what?"
Bones respond to physical stress by getting bigger and denser. Even the ligament attachment points will get bigger and denser, and increase the surface area by becoming wavey. Stress from muscles action will do it. That is why you want to exerecise all your life to prevent osteoporosis and all the problems it causes.