Re: Gliders to Fliers? (Was Re: Ruben Strikes Back)

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 9/25/99 7:23:10 PM EST, dbensen@gotnet.net writes:

<< NOOOOO!  Well, I don't know about tree kangaroos and the climbing 
hypothesis
 makes sense, but humans did not become bipedal as an adaptation to 
arborality.
 Humans became bipedal AFTER they descended from the trees. >>

Nobody says bipedality is an adaptation >for< arboreality. Rather, it is a 
natural outcome for an animal >previously adapted< to climbing, that has 
essentially lost the locomotor aspects of its forelimbs and has taken the 
easier route to a terrestrial lifestyle as a bipedal animal instead of 
re-evolving a quadrupedal stance. This almost certainly happened with humans 
(bipedality came before massive cranial enlargement and may even have 
permitted it) as well as with theropod dinosaurs.