Posted on 01/29/2011 4:56:25 AM PST by Pharmboy
Humans, versus other great apes, are built for running fast and long as opposed to very impressive strength, but what about Neanderthals? If a modern human and a Neanderthal competed in a marathon, who would win?
(Comparison of Neanderthal and Modern Human skeletons. Credit: K. Mowbray, Reconstruction: G. Sawyer and B. Maley, Copyright: Ian Tattersall)
In a short sprint, the Neanderthal might have had a chance, but most fit humans would always win longer races, suggests new research accepted for publication in the Journal of Human Evolution.
Anthropologist David Raichlen of the University of Arizona and his colleagues determined that our modern human ancestors were better runners. The researchers did this by studying the hominids' fossilized remains.
Marathon Running Made Easy (Sort of)
Recent research suggests that the energy cost of running at a given speed is strongly related to the length of certain limb bones. The longer these bones (Achilles tendon moment arm and calcaneal tuber from the calcaneus) are, the more energy it takes for the individual to run.
The scientists' measurements of such bones determined that Neanderthals were lousy at endurance and distance running when compared to modern humans. The sturdy Neanderthal bones, however, were built for long-distance walking and strength.
Humans Left Trees 4.2 Million Years Ago
"Endurance running is generally thought to be beneficial for gaining access to meat in hot environments, where hominins could have used pursuit hunting to run prey taxa into hyperthermia," Raichlen and his team conclude. "We hypothesize that endurance running performance may have been reduced in Neanderthals because they lived in cold climates."
Since there is an inherent trade-off between speed and strength in species throughout the animal kingdom, it is likely that Neanderthals were built more for brawn, with humans evolving lighter, more aerodynamic bodies for running. (This doesn't take into account food consumption and other behavioral factors that can add heft.)
A hypotheical Summer Olympics featuring both Neanderthals and humans would have certainly been memorable, with Neanderthals probably acing events like wrestling, rowing and archery, and humans winning cycling, triathlon and marathon competitions.
In the real-life battle for survival, running and endurance must have won out for prehistoric humans, even when they encountered Neanderthals in Europe, but why? Hopefully future studies can shed further light on this present mystery.
Where was the neighborhood (generally) into which they moved? I presume it wasn't the Upper West Side of Manhattan (though I can imagine a very interesting sitcom from such a clash of cultures).
They follow me around. When I first moved here a guy a few blocks away was arrested by the state police when several of his black mambas got loose. He'd been raising them and other types of cobras for use by both American and Indian origin snake handlers.
There's stuff going on you just don't know about...........
Well, not surprising. Persians are great sprinters but are really poor distance runners...particularly the long hairs.;-)
If only I had known then what I know now. Life is a lot of things, but dull it isn't!
Don't know if we had any snake handlers...but wouldn't be surprised.
Read some more on the subject....
If you think the guy on the left could compete in chess with the guy on the right, well...what can one say?
Clearly, it is you who has to read more. Start here, for instance. The following is from the reference cited:
The brains of adult Neanderthals were a different shape than ours — theirs were less globular and more elongated, which was the norm for more than 2 million years of human evolution, and is seen in chimpanzees as well.
"The interesting thing is within modern humans, the size of the brain correlates only very weakly with any measure of intelligence," he said. "It's more the internal structure of the brain that is important.
"And the Neanderthal, they were smart because they had a huge brain, but we think that internal structures must have been different because they grew differently, so we don't think the Neanderthal saw the world as we do."
One of my favorite bits from The Cartoon History of the Universe (highly recommended, BTW) shows early humans hunting down other hominids as they say, "We're smart! We're handsome! And we haven't invented morality yet!"
ps, since I’m of Asian descent, I’m smarter than you are, for a variety of reasons, so you should continue this discussion with someone who’s intellectually your peer.... ;)
Racial/Ethnic IQ curves
Savages.
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