Human evolution; our feet differ from apes. (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, February 27, 2020, 20:02 (1517 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Our feet differ from apes

QUOTES: "When humans walk and run, the front of each foot repeatedly pushes on the ground with a force exceeding several times the body's weight. Despite these strong forces, the human foot maintains its shape without severely bending. Such stiff feet—unique to humans among primates—were important for the evolution of bipedalism[/b]. (David’s bold)

I would certainly agree with the bold, but would also suggest that bipedalism led to the evolution of stiffer feet.

All "'Our evidence suggests that a human-like transverse arch may have evolved over 3.5 million years ago, a whole 1.5 million years before the emergence of the genus Homo, and was a key step in the evolution of modern humans," Venkadesan said". (David’s bold)

DAVID: we are as different from apes in our physical attributes as in our special brain. Note my bolds: Stiffness developed long before true Homo species arrived. I view this as God pre-planning our appearance as He managed evolution.

dhw: I have no idea why your God, who apparently can design what he wants to design in any way he wants, should find it necessary to preprogramme or dabble all these different phases, tinkering with feet, hands, pelvises, brains, in order to design the only species he wanted to design, but we can leave this to the thread on your theory of evolution. I would suggest that these developments follow a natural process whereby parts of the body may change according to usage and the demands of the environment, as organisms seek to survive or enhance their chances of survival. This is actually what you suggest in your next comment:

DAVID: From the Darwin standpoint, why should Lucy develop a stiff foot she didn't really need when she existed? She could run faster which tells us she was designed to be able to save herself on the ground by running.

dhw: And so you have answered your own question. The stiff foot developed because it improved her chances of survival. This to me sounds far more reasonable than the suggestion that God stiffened her foot in order to “pre-plan our appearance” 1.5 million years later.

As usual you are back to Darwin and I'm sticking with God the designer who knew she had to run faster. She survived so she probably had stiffer feet when she appeared after the huge fossil gap in evolution from apes. In your theory the pre-Lucy knew she had the need to move quickly so she designed her feet in advance, or did she stumble around and jump to the trees when necessary. We know she had long arms and ape-like shoulders

DAVID: This means she was designed with the ability to protect her on the ground from the beginning of her species appearance. Not a slow Darwinian adaptation.

dhw: It’s a pity we don’t have a few thousand pre-Lucys to see how stiff all her ancestors’ feet were. And then a few thousand more fossils to see how stiff the feet were between all the generations of all the hominins and early homos prior to Sapiens. Without them, of course, it’s impossible to say how fast or slow the adaptation was.

Agreed, but she survived and my God took care of the needed designs. We have to work with the only fossils we have. It still looks like H. sapiens ended with most unusual unexpected characteristics