From: The Berean Call

Friday, November 19, 2004 10:00 AM

Evolve This!

Running Revolution Started as Evolution

Millions of years before headphone-wearing joggers clotted the streets of
America, the development of the ability to run played a crucial role in the
evolution of early humans, according to new research.

Without running, our bodies might have turned out looking like those of
apes, said Harvard University anthropology professor Daniel Lieberman,
co-author of a new study in the Nov. 18 issue of Nature. "This ability of
ours to run incredibly long distances rather efficiently is incredibly rare.
It's unique," he said. "No other primates like to run, or are even good at
it."

By developing bodies that allow for running, humans may have boosted their
ability to both hunt and scavenge for food, Lieberman said...Lieberman and a
colleague, biology professor Dennis Bramble of the University of Utah,
became interested in the development of running several years ago when they
watched a pig run on a treadmill. "He looked at that pig and said, 'That pig
can't hold its head still,' and sure enough, the pig was wobbling its head
around from side to side," Lieberman recalled. By contrast, "when you look
at a human running, they're terrific. We're like pogo sticks. If you watch
someone running, particularly someone who has a ponytail, that ponytail will
be bobbing up and down, but the eyes of the runner will be stable like a
missile. We wondered how on earth we do that."

The researchers found numerous physical traits that evolved in humans and
appear to be critical to the ability to run: head designs that prevent
overheating and allow humans to see the world as they run without too much
jiggling; a ligament in the back that acts as a kind of shock absorber;
shorter forearms that allow for better counterbalancing of the upper and
lower bodies; and huge buttocks that provide stabilization (Dotinga, "Forbes
Magazine," Nov. 18 - HealthDayNews).

[The researchers freely attribute the physiology of humans to "design."
It takes incredible faith, anchored on nothing, to attribute "design" to an
unfeeling, non-sentient, absolutely random process, which has never been
demonstrated].