Don't get it (Re: Ape to Man - where did the hair go?)

Hello pbaylis,I appreciate that this post may have missed the boat somewhat (I never get round to joining in quickly enough) but I thought I'd stick my twopenneth in.I think the hunting down prey on foot thing pretty much sums up the two adaptations you seem interested in (hair-loss and brain size). This method of hunting is still carried out by some tribes in Africa (I saw it documented on the telly but can't for the life of me remember the program name), and it fascinates me.It's not simply one man running after an antelope, it requires teamwork. One man picks out a grazing animal and starts running after it. Naturally the animal easily outpaces the man over short distances but the man keeps dogging it, not letting it settle down and rest. As the animal is good over short distances, but not good at keeping a constant jog it will eventually get knackered. Of course the man chasing it is pretty creamed as well, and not really in any state to finish it off - this is where the other members of the team come in. There are two people tracking the chase at a more sedate pace, carrying spears and when they catch up....My point is (eventually) that this kind of hunting is clearly tricky without the ability to keep cool (by sweat evaporation from a non-furry body) and inteligence (by the development of large brains). These adaptations clearly have advantages so why is it so hard to accept humans evolving from an hairy, grunting ancestor?

I agree, so much of this post will be a touch of preaching to the choir. It would be interesting to see the differences between two cat species listed and compared to the list of chimp/human differences.There seems to be an invisible barrier errected by a lot of creationists between the other apes and humans. To me, the differences are really not too large to be explained by (relatively) small genetic changes and plausible selective pressures.The title of this thread seems to demonstrate this quite well:Why on earth is lack of thick hair a major stumbling block?Likewise, why do upright walking and brain size pose a problem? The only thing I can think of is that they don't want to think that we are that similar: a touch of the "Urrghhh, horrible hairy ape!". If you look closely at our ape cousins, you see how truly closely related we are.