James Week 10: What Made Humans Powerful?
How did humans become the most powerful species on Earth? It’s easy to attribute humanity’s dominance to superior intelligence, but early humans had other key traits that gave them key advantages.
One of the most important evolutionary traits for early humans was their lack of fur. This may seem confusing at first glance—after all, fur is generally a beneficial trait, as it allows for heat retention and adds an extra defensive layer around the body. However, a lack of fur improves temperature regulation in hot environments, which gave humans greater stamina in the warm African climate from which they originated. Greater stamina allowed for humans to practice persistence hunting, gradually wearing down prey over long distances.
Another key advantage for humans was their social nature. It’s important to note that sociality does not directly correlate with intelligence. Many other species, such as ants and bees, possess low levels of intelligence, yet have systems of social organization that are even more advanced than ours. However, sociality nevertheless complemented human intelligence, allowing early humans to share information and cooperate, improving survivability.
While intelligence, stamina, and sociality were all important in helping early humans survive, by far the most important traits for humans were bipedalism and opposition, traits that, when combined, were essential in allowing humans to rise to dominance. Bipedalism had three main advantages. First, it raised the head further away from the ground, which led to improved visibility. Second, it further improved human stamina, as bipedalism is generally more energy-efficient than quadrupedalism. Third—and most importantly—bipedalism freed the upper appendages to carry objects and use tools. Opposition of the thumb complemented this trait, allowing humans to grasp objects with their hands.
Opposition of the thumb allowed humans to grab
objects. Image Source: CNN
Grabbing objects in turn opened up many key skills that made humans even stronger—tool use, carrying, and throwing. By grabbing objects, humans unlocked the ability to use items, including bones and sticks, as weaponry. Longer weapons, such as spears and clubs, allowed early humans to inflict heavier damage than that dealt by their bare hands and fists. Carrying allowed humans to gather and store food and materials. In addition, throwing objects allowed humans to inflict damage from safe distances, whereas all other animals were forced to move into close combat in order to hunt prey or defend themselves. 
Grabbing objects was a key skill for early humans.
Image Source: Encyclopedia Britannica
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| The ability to throw objects allowed early humans to attack from safe distances. Source: The Independent |
Hi James! Reading your blog this week was so informative! I loved learning about the how the evolution of humans unlocked key functions that set the human species up for a lifetime of power. It is crazy to think about how the ability to grab objects was considered the trait that “allowed humans to rise to dominance” as you said, above social intelligence and stamina. Focusing more on the section where you noted the importance of social intelligence in improving a species’ ability to survive, I think that continues to be an essential part of survival in today’s society. A person’s ability to navigate the social parameters of their environment, whether that be at school, at the workplace, with new people…our collective ability to connect with each other has allowed us to grow and I loved how your information illustrates that. Great job, I loved reading your blog this week!
ReplyDeleteHey James! While I have also wondered about what makes humans so special, I was mostly focusing on the intellectual aspect of it. But I did also know that humans being social was a contributing factor, although I was not aware that humans being social was important to that extent. What makes the most sense (besides the previous two) to me is both the bipedalism and thumb advantages. It makes sense as most and I am pretty sure almost all animals have both. While I never really appreciate having thumbs, I can not imagine doing so many things without thumbs. For example, the most basic example would be grabbing things. Anyway, the most unique and interesting one to me is your point about humans not having fur. I have been told at a young age that we have not yet had any theories for why humans lost their fur. But your point about it helping them adapt to the heat of Africa makes a lot of sense. I guess the reason I never would have made that connection would have been in part due to me forgetting to, and because I figured losing fur would make things worse by leaving the skin exposed to radiation. Overall, great job in doing so much research, as you brought up lots of points and used lots of images!
ReplyDeleteNever before have I appreciated being a human this much, but this is super cool. The fact that basic changes and small differences between us and our ancestors’ relatives changed the history of our species and this planet forever is crazy. One thing I was wondering about when I read the title of your blog (what makes humans powerful?) was the idea of consciousness. Intelligence is definitely one of the biggest things that got us to the status within the animal kingdom, but would we have ever reached this status without being fully aware of our intelligence? Obviously, analyzing consciousness (and if it even exists) opens up a whole new can of worms and would turn this blog into a philosophy class but it is definitely something that makes me wonder about what things played a big role in making us so different from other animals…
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ReplyDeleteHi James! This blog was super interesting to read. Usually, when discussing what makes humans so powerful compared to other species, people focus on the advanced intellect and reasoning ability of humans; I've never thought about the advantageous physical traits of humans before. Your blog truly made me appreciate some of our physical features that we take for granted; for example, the positioning of our thumbs that allow us to grab objects, and our ability to walk on two feet. Your blog does a great job breaking down how bipedalism and opposition allowed humans to have evolutionary advantage and why physical traits, rather than intellectual traits, were necessary to give humans an early evolutionary advantage. Thanks for sharing!
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