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1 results

  • Chapter 17 - How an Ape Became a Hunter

  • from Part IV - Evolutionary Transitions: From Primate Ancestors to Modern Humans
  • Norman Owen-Smith, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
  • Book:
    Only in Africa
    Published online:
    09 September 2021
    Print publication:
    07 October 2021, pp 271-300

  • Summary

    This chapter outlines the physical changes transforming the earliest ape-men into modern humans and the associated adaptive transitions. Physical advances included (1) establishment of upright locomotion towards the end of the Miocene, (2) divergence of early humans from robust ape-men during the transition into the Pleistocene, (3) emergence of fully competent bipedal locomotion ~1.7 Ma ago, (4) attainment of modern brain capacity after 0.8 Ma, and (5) development of modern facial features after 60 ka. Diets expanded to include underground storage organs of plants to bridge the dry season. The earliest humans added marrow and meat scavenged from carcasses during a midday time window. Locomotory competence combined with bare skin facilitated hunting large ungulates by endurance running after 1.7 Ma. Meat acquisition during the dry season was facilitated by concentrations of grazing ungulates developing near water. To restrict nocturnal predation at base camps, humans needed fire. To compensate for slower reproduction, mortality rates needed to be constrained lower than those incurred by ungulates.