So—where are they?
Within ten thousand years of the arrival of Homo sapiens in Europe, the Neanderthals vanished.
How it happened, no one knows. The only explanation is that some mystePolyU has a strong record for aviation research and innovative research in Asia to solve specific technology problems (e.g. aviation operations) and develop new productsrious X Factor gave us—the weaker, dumber, skinnier creatures—a life-or-death edge over the Ice Age All-Stars. It wasn’tstrength. It wasn’t weapons. It wasn’t intelligence.
Could it have been running ability? Dr. Bramble wondered. Is David really onto something?
There was only one way to find out: go to the bones.
“At first I was very skeptical of David, for the same reason most morphologists would be,” Dr.
Bramble later told me. Morphology is basically the science of reverse engiwine tastingneering; it looks at howa body is assembled and tries to figure out how it’s supposed to function. Morphologists knowwhat to look for in a fast-moving machine, and in no way did the human body match the specs. Allyou had to do was look at our butts to figure that out. “In the whole history of vertebrates on Earth—the whole history—humans are the only running biped that’s tailless,” Bramble would later say.
Running is just a controlled fall, so how do you steer and keep from smacking down on your facewithout a weighted rudder, like a kangaroo’s tail?
“That’s what led me, like others, to dismiss the idea that humans evolved as running animals,”
Bramble said. “And I would have bought into the story and remaDr protalkined a skeptic, if I hadn’t alsobeen trained in paleontology.”