"Taller" is one of those weird adaptations where
there are any number of perfectly rational
explanations, all of them quite good. Which is why
I dismiss most of them as rubbish.

Well, I prefer a convergence of points over "A"
explanation.

Like how "Taller" and "Upright" are both beneficial
in exploiting marine resources. Sure, they developed
the ability to dive, there's plenty of evidence to put
any questions to rest, but did it happen right away?

First time out, did they just hold their breath for
three minutes, grabbing something off the sea bottom?

Possible but not probable.

Just by walking upright they could wade across deeper
water, or out wade further. The "Further" is my point
here because the further out they could merely walk, the
less time they need to be under the water.

This would allow them to exploit the Low Tide line even
when it was High Tide! Or, when it was low tide, to go
out further and reach resources that would otherwise go
untapped.

Also: "Bigger" is a defense against predator. Or at least
any that are sufficiently smaller than you. And "Bigger" is
the trait of a species in competition with itself. When
they were getting picked off in large numbers it never
mattered. But when they grew higher up on the food chain
their biggest concern was each other.

You've heard of insular dwarfism, correct? Well, many will
tell you that not only is insular gigantism a thing but it
often (some argue "always") precedes insular dwarfism.

Put simple: Population is isolated with no natural predators.
There's selective pressure, competition between males, to
get large and no selective pressure (predators picking them
off) to stay small so they get large. This helps too exhaust
resources, throwing selective pressures on being small...

So insular gigantism, competition against themselves...
sexual selection... all perfectly rational explanations for
growing taller. But Aquatic Ape can incorporate all of those
AND add others.

Oo! Aquatic Ape can even explain those others!

How did they get stranded on an island unless they were
following the coast, found themselves on some land that
wasn't an island only for the Glacial Period to end, trapping
them on what is now an island with rising sea levels?

Also: These would leave only about 10k years for insular
gigantism to arise before the next glacial period began,
dropping sea level.

The Holocene is a lengthy Interglacial. They generally only
ran about 10k years...

But you need Aquatic Ape to move them around like this,
get them to all these places where they could be isolated.


::Discuss::






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