Posted on 11/17/2004 11:06:41 AM PST by ElkGroveDan
LONDON (Reuters) - Humans were born to run and evolved from ape-like creatures into the way they look today probably because of the need to cover long distances and compete for food, scientists said on Wednesday.
From tendons and ligaments in the legs and feet that act like springs and skull features that help prevent overheating, to well-defined buttocks that stabilize the body, the human anatomy is shaped for running.
"We do it because we are good at it. We enjoy it and we have all kinds of specializations that permit us to run well," said Daniel Liberman, a professor of anthropology at Harvard University in Massachusetts.
"There are all kinds of features that we see in the human body that are critical for running," he told Reuters.
Liberman and Dennis Bramble, a biology professor at the University of Utah, studied more than two dozen traits that increase humans' ability to run. Their research is reported in the science journal Nature.
They suspect modern humans evolved from their ape-like ancestors about 2 million years ago so they could hunt and scavenge for food over large distances.
But the development of physical features that enabled humans to run entailed a trade off -- the loss of traits that were useful for being a tree-climber.
"We are very confident that strong selection for running -- which came at the expense of the historical ability to live in trees -- was instrumental in the origin of the modern human body form," Bramble said in a statement.
AGAINST THE GRAIN The conventional theory is that running was a by-product of bipedalism, or the ability to walk upright on two legs, that evolved in ape-like human ancestors called Australopithecus at least 4.5 million years ago.
But Liberman and Bramble argue that it took a few million more years for the running physique to evolve, so the ability to walk cannot explain the transition.
"There were 2.5 million to 3 million years of bipedal walking without ever looking like a human, so is walking going to be what suddenly transforms the hominid body?" said Bramble.
"We're saying 'no, walking won't do that, but running will."'
If natural selection did not favor running, the scientists believe humans would still look a lot like apes.
"Running has substantially shaped human evolution. Running made us human -- at least in the anatomical sense," Bramble added.
Among the features that set humans apart from apes to make them good runners are longer legs to take longer strides, shorter forearms to enable the upper body to counterbalance the lower half during running and larger disks which allow for better shock absorption.
Big buttocks are also important.
"Have you ever looked at an ape? They have no buns," said Bramble.
Humans lean forward when they run and the buttocks "keep you from pitching over on your nose each time a foot hits the ground," he added.
No doubt, Since the early Africans had to be swift, and fast to escape the lions chasing them down and eating them. I believe it's called self preservation.
Wow! That's some speed!
Sounds like there's a story somewhere in that!
I think evolution has shown the superiority of the mind. Our electronic optics are superior to the eagles, even my puny .357 will take down the lion.
An evolutionist can believe in God. A creationist cannot believe in evolution. Who has the open mind?
I guess that "open mind" is displayed in one of your earlier posts when someone tried to educate you with the facts.
Pure fabrication. But hey, if you gotta make stuff up to support your view...
Here's how to distinguish between "speciation takes a long time" and "God's revelation takes a long time". On the one hand, most biologists/paleontologists would be able to agree on what constitutes a speciation event—there are reasonably clear criteria to be applied and, perhaps most importantly, these criteria are specifiable [sic!] before the fact). On the other hand, one would be hard-pressed to find agreement on what constitutes a revelation from God—there are really no specifiable criteria to be applied, and such revelations are almost always identified as such by communities of believers after the fact.
It's probably not quite as simple as precise predictions versus imprecise retrodictions, but it's close.
Hang in there ...
Geobacter metallireducens accesses insoluble Fe(iii) oxide by chemotaxis.
Microorganisms that use insoluble Fe(iii) oxide as an electron acceptor can have an important function in the carbon and nutrient cycles of aquatic sediments and in the bioremediation of organic and metal contaminants in groundwater. Although Fe(iii) oxides are often abundant, Fe(iii)-reducing microbes are faced with the problem of how to access effectively an electron acceptor that can not diffuse to the cell. Fe(iii)-reducing microorganisms in the genus Shewanella have resolved this problem by releasing soluble quinones that can carry electrons from the cell surface to Fe(iii) oxide that is at a distance from the cell. Here we report that another Fe(iii)-reducer, Geobacter metallireducens, has an alternative strategy for accessing Fe(iii) oxides. Geobacter metallireducens specifically expresses flagella and pili only when grown on insoluble Fe(iii) or Mn(iv) oxide, and is chemotactic towards Fe(ii) and Mn(ii) under these conditions. These results suggest that G. metallireducens senses when soluble electron acceptors are depleted and then synthesizes the appropriate appendages to permit it to search for, and establish contact with, insoluble Fe(iii) or Mn(iv) oxide. This approach to the use of an insoluble electron acceptor may explain why Geobacter species predominate over other Fe(iii) oxide-reducing microorganisms in a wide variety of sedimentary environments. Nature 2002 Apr 18;416(6882):767-9.
Calgary (09/25/04)- Researchers are unraveling the details of just how certain types of bacteria are able to use iron in their metabolic processes, and cause corrosion in oil pipelines. All this thanks to the recent sequencing of the genome for Desulfovibrio vulgaris. This bacterium is a type of anaerobic prokaryote known as sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB), which changes sulfate to sulfide as part of its normal metabolism and respiration.
SRBs are found throughout the environment in soil, marshy lands and marine sediment. They play a vital role in the global cycling and transport of sulfur and other elements. Some varieties of SRB create a slimy biofilm on the inside of natural gas and oil pipelines, creating a narrowing of the pipe as well as corrosion. The corrosion, caused by the bacteria utilizing the metal for its sulfide production, creates damage that is both extensive and costly in the oil and natural gas industries.
The biofilms form because the bacteria are essentially fishing for food, according to Gerrit Voordouw, PhD, professor of microbiology at the University of Calgary. He points out that the inside of a pipeline has few nutrients for bacteria, but they have adapted to become more efficient at harvesting the sulfates they need.
"When an environment is nutrient poor and is flowing, it's a good idea to attach to a surface. That way, you are exposed to more goodies than when you flow with the flow," he said. He likened it to the way some bacteria attach themselves to rocks in Alpine streams where almost pure water offers little food. "If the bacterium was suspended in the stream, it would just float with the water and not get any nutrients. But if it attaches to a rock, forms a biofilm and the water flows past, it can sample a high amount of water," he said.
What SRBs need from their environment are sulfates, which they chemically turn into, or "reduce" into sulfide as part of their metabolic and anaerobic processes. They also take up hydrogen atoms (some of which are available from the pipe itself) which are used on the reducing process.
In order to reduce sulfate into sulfide, the bacteria must facilitate a chemical reaction that adds electrons to the sulfate. To do this, electrons are taken from hydrogen or other donors such as iron in the pipe.
"If you put a piece of metallic iron into a culture of these bacteria in a petri dish, it corrodes very rapidly," Dr. Voordouw said. The removal of electrons weakens the metal, and the steps the bacteria took to accomplish this were a mystery until now. Now that the genome has been sequenced (there are more than 3.5 million base pairs), researchers can unravel the actual mechanisms of how the bacteria can perform chemical reduction of metals -- and weaken pipes. The things being learned about the D. vulgaris genome are applicable to other SRBs.
bump
I guess it is because when we post the facts we get responses like:
Pure fabrication. But hey, if you gotta make stuff up to support your view...
This study must have focused on the French. Did the scientists also conclude we were born to drop our weapons?
Evolution hoax and conspiracy to destroy running : Jeremy Wariner, first white american to enter the top ten of global sports
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1197709/posts
Trancription from the link :
- the idea that drugs will make somebody win in running or jumping is nothing but the product of a well staged campaign of lies (false accusations included).
- Kenteris will for ever be remembered as the victim of the most evil conspiracy ever seen in sports.
Berlin : Paul Tergat first man ever to run the marathon under 2:05
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/990921/posts
Trancription from the link :
As humans reach the limits, this might as well be one of the last REAL (100m, 400m, 800m, mile, and long distances) records to be broken by runners.
You didn't read the articles. Of course, your refusal to "see" is parallel to your acceptance of blind faith.
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