this has nothing to do with your all's genetics contest directly, however . . .
1)whenever an organism is put into a new habitat, it changes--one of the cause of speciation. In this case, the chimps stuck with the trees, while we went to the grasslands. we were adapted, as the chimps are, quite well for tree life.
2) our brain size did not increase because we left Africa. if you'll note, our direct anscestors came from Africa no later than 40,000 yrs ago. (homo sapiens left africa at this time, homo erectus left at the time you state. we are decesended from the african homo erectus*)
3)that last statement, about the "stasis" of chimps, is false. Mutations do occur in them. So they will have changed. As a side note, they haven't really moved out of their niche, so they have remained relatively the same, but . . .
By the way, did you ever notice that none of the fossils found in equtaorial Africa are ape ancestors, only hominids?
really, well I never . . .
bull.
quote:
The three primates called Bugtipithecus inexpectans, Phileosimias kamali, and Phileosimias brahuiorum all date back to the Oligocene some 30 million years ago - when monkeys dominated only Africa. These were small lemur-like catarrhines that prospered in an ancient tropical rainforest
Eosimias - Wikipedia
while the fossils listed in this article were found in Pakistan, you'll notice that it says that
monkeys were in in Africa. And monkeys are not apes. This logically means that we should find monkey fossils in Africa.
quote:
Victoriapithecus macinnesi was a primate. It was described from a single fossil specimen, the oldest Old World monkey skull fossil. It was discovered near Lake Victoria in Kenya
Victoriapithecus - Wikipedia
and what's this!? a monkey fossil, actually in Africa.
And as to the assertion that all these ape fossils are hominid ancestors, what of:
quote:
However, chimpanzee fossils have now been reported from Kenya
However, chimpanzee fossils have now been reported from Kenya
you'll note that this is a chimp fossil, and chimps are not our ancestors, and they are apes.
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