RE: BRACHIATING (fwd)

["Stewart, Dwight" <Dwight.Stewart@VLSI.com>]

Dwight Stewart
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        -----Original Message-----
        From:   Jim Choate [SMTP:ravage@einstein.ssz.com]
        Sent:   Monday, August 10, 1998 6:06 PM
        To:     dinosaur@usc.edu
        Subject:        RE: BRACHIATING (fwd)


        Forwarded message:

        > Date: Mon, 10 Aug 1998 15:41:38 -0700
        > From: "Stewart, Dwight" <Dwight.Stewart@VLSI.com>
        > Subject: RE: BRACHIATING

        >  I believe the latest theory on hominid bipedalism is that it
was a strategy
        > for standing taller in order to look out for predators.  It
USED to be
        > thought that it was necessitated in order to have the hands
free.
        > Richard Leakey has done a lot of work on this.

        So what happened to the theory that it was related to cooling?
Any pointers
        to its downfall?


        It's still out there & MAY be correct (in fact).  I think the
main thrust of Leakey's argument was that upright posture came before
increased brain size.
        If I understand his point correctly - he is stating that having
the hands free may have contributed to increased brain size.  INSTEAD of
the other way around.
        The cooling & the "looking out for something that might EAT you"
theories
        Don't seem incompatable though.

        It would seem logical that form can be the result of several
simultaneous functions.

        One would suspect the same could be true of dinosaur bipedalism,
in that several (perhaps seemingly unrelated functions) could dictate or
at least contribute to form.   

        To PROVE I have attention deficit (like most physicists), have
there been any recent finds of Acrocanthosaurus?  That is to say, found
& NOT destroyed (as I hear has happened a couple of times here in
Texas!)?  I was wondering about the spines that were indicated (60 cm?).

        Thanks! _________________________________________________

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                                               Jean Piaget

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