sterlingphoenix t1_iucq25n wrote on October 30, 2022 at 9:55 AM

Reply to comment by WeddingLion in ELI5: How come humans have two big muscle and fat pouches on either side of their anus? by CJsTT

Yup, they're fast and can run long distances, well, fast. Humans aren't as fast but can run for longer. This is the point; we're not the fastest species, but we can run for longer than any other. An ostrich will get tired before a human.

Now we're not talking about a you-an-me human. We're talking hunter-gatherer humans.

WeddingLion t1_iuf1lhe wrote on October 30, 2022 at 8:54 PM

Not many humans run longer than a marathon. That's kind of our baseline long distance.

sterlingphoenix t1_iuf5zr5 wrote on October 30, 2022 at 9:24 PM

That's our modern, civilised human baseline, maybe. Our ancestors, who did chase animals to exhaustion, would laugh at our mere marathon.

WeddingLion t1_iuf7jo5 wrote on October 30, 2022 at 9:34 PM

Doubtful. Our ancestors chased food for survival. Racing an animal for that far isn't very efficient. The first recorded guy to run a marathon (to Marathon) died of exhaustion. We have so many resources that people do it for leisure.

The fact that marathon running is an Olympic event that people train for their entire lives directly disputes your comment. Not to mention the fact that ultra marathons also exist.

Our ancestors would be like "but why?"

sterlingphoenix t1_iuf86fp wrote on October 30, 2022 at 9:39 PM

Again, you're talking about modern humans.

You can read about this hypothesis here. There are critiques of it, but those are of the evolutionary path, not the fact that humans are amazing endurance runners.