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rdean
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Some Like it Hot: The Scorching Site of Human Evolution
The take home message of our study, said Passey, whose report appears in the online early edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is that this region, which is one of the key places where fossils have been found documenting human evolution, has been a really hot place for a really long time, even during the period between 3 million years ago and now when the ice ages began and the global climate became cooler.
The hypothesis states that our pre-human ancestors gained an evolutionary advantage in walking upright because doing so was cooler (when it is sunny, the near-surface air is warmer than air a few feet above the ground) and exposed their body mass to less sunlight than did crawling on all fours. The loss of body hair (fur) and the ability to regulate body temperature through perspiration would have been other adaptations helpful for living in a warm climate, according to the hypothesis.
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Of course, there is the "alternate theory" that we were mystically "shimmered" into being exactly as we are today.
The take home message of our study, said Passey, whose report appears in the online early edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is that this region, which is one of the key places where fossils have been found documenting human evolution, has been a really hot place for a really long time, even during the period between 3 million years ago and now when the ice ages began and the global climate became cooler.
The hypothesis states that our pre-human ancestors gained an evolutionary advantage in walking upright because doing so was cooler (when it is sunny, the near-surface air is warmer than air a few feet above the ground) and exposed their body mass to less sunlight than did crawling on all fours. The loss of body hair (fur) and the ability to regulate body temperature through perspiration would have been other adaptations helpful for living in a warm climate, according to the hypothesis.
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Of course, there is the "alternate theory" that we were mystically "shimmered" into being exactly as we are today.
