Animals get bigger for a reason. I remember, a billion
years ago (maybe 2 billion), it was very often stated
that "Size is a defense." And that seems true.

https://a-z-animals.com/blog/8-animals-that-can-kill-an-elephant/

Well, hey, so size isn't always a defense...

And if an elephant's size isn't proof against predation,
can we all agree that your hominids didn't grow large
for defense? Or at least not in defense against anything
in a savanna?

No, "Bigger" is usually a sign of a lack of predators, and
thus the members of a population are primarily in
competition with each other... the species is competing
with itself...

Google: "insular gigantism"

Gorillas, for example, are in very stiff competition. You've
got a dominant male, a bunch of females and a whole lot
of sexually frustrated loners... so they have to be big and
strong. If they're not bigger and stronger than the next
male, they're not getting laid!

So we have to account for size, and that size was either a
vestige of an ancestral form or it is reflective of what their
social order was.

This might also help to explain Neanderthal anatomy,
which pretty much everyone agrees was POWERFUL. If
Neanderthals were a lot closer to gorillas than Bonobos
in breeding style, and there seems to be evidence
consistent with the notion, then they were in competition
against each other, driving evolution into something a
tad stronger than a Sherman tank...

The short & sweet? I don't see any scenario where a
savanna environment does this. They're in competition
with themselves, driving them larger while at the same
time a prime target for savanna predators..

Nope. Don't like.

I see a need for a different environment, one ABSENT
predators. And I have difficulty with the usually island
scenario because that can and supposedly DOES very
often lead to insular gigantism, it's typically followed
by insular dwarfism! Some have gone on to claim that
every instance of insular dwarfism was preceded by
gigantism...

It's logical.

Cut off, without any real predators, they find themselves
in competition with themselves, driving up size. Then
island resources dwindle, placing all the selective
pressure on getting small...

But the island does work, and many people have raised
it as a likely origins for "Hominoidea," and it does fit
nicely the "Punctuated Equilibrium" model... and as our
good Doctor tells us; "Isolation is the engine of evolution."

Wow. Are you guys great, or what?

You came up with the island idea... when? How long ago?

Seems pretty strong. But we are talking *Way* back, more
than 7 million years ago... perhaps more than 9 million...

(Someone help me with the dates)

Just saying.




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