Submitted by violetmammal4694 t3_1231x4h in askscience
Gtronns t1_jdw5plw wrote
Reply to comment by Lonely-Description85 in Why are nonhuman erect bipedal animals so rare? by violetmammal4694
Exactly. There are some great theories out there by evolutionary biologists.
So the idea is that we adapted a long time into trees, then the trees receded, and we adapted to the ground.
Now that we had gripping hands, and feet that could walk us places, we started being able to shape our environment and our tools, which led to greater intelligence.
Combine all of that, leads to us spreading out. Humans that went borth to Europe adapted to the lack of sunlight evolved. The humans that went on to asia evolved differently, to their climate, and they were the ones that were the ones that kept migrating, until they got to the americas (land bridge from russia to alaska that was exposed when ocean water receded into the ice caps - ocean water evaporates, clouds flow over the continents, it snows/rains, that precipitation turns to ice and stays as ice, ie a glacier, thus leading to the exposed land bridge). There they kept migrating south. The evidence for this is found in similarities that asians and native americans share genetically.
TL;DR We evolved in trees, trees stopped growing where we were, we evolved for the ground, ground got dry, we evolved to travel. We traveled far while the oceans were low. Go humans!!
Lonely-Description85 t1_jdw7lyh wrote
There is biological evidence, can't find link atm, that when our species first started to eat saltwater fish was when our brains' frontal and temporal lobes really started to develop. Our occipitals were already highly evolved from our ape ancestors. So as we started to initially travel along ocean and river lines, eating omega rich foods skyrocketed our cognitive development even more.
Gtronns t1_jdw86h9 wrote
Yeah, ive heard some theories like that, basically we are hairless water apes.
Ive also heard that we made leaps and bounds intelligence wise once when we started cooking our food with fire. Some theories say that we started eating cooked food after scavenging the remains after a forest fire, and finding cooked meat. Hard to say what actually happened, but i find that one to be a fun one.
Lonely-Description85 t1_jdw9g6x wrote
It would make sense, the smell of a well cooked deer from a forest fire might have engaged the hunger mechanism in our ancestors, I could get behind that idea.
mobappbrowse t1_jdwjwcw wrote
The “aquatic ape” theory has been largely dismissed. There’s no compelling evidence to support it.
Lonely-Description85 t1_jdw7v12 wrote
As well as learning how to acquire the nutrient source.
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