AsleepInYorkshire wrote:... the necessity of climbing trees has resulted in the flattening of their feet. Some individuals within the tribe even exhibit the presence of six toes on each foot and six functional fingers on each hand.[/i]
Slight tangent, but I was reading the other day about neanderthal man, whose skeleton typically has short legs and a very powerful right arm. (As evidence by localised thickening of the arm bones, which is often seen in sailing-ship crews as a result of all that repetitive rope-pulling. Or even in tennis players....)
Anyway, the theory these days seems to be that when Mr Neanderthal first wandered out of Africa, he would have evolved shorter legs because they reduced the loss of body heat in a colder climate, while also making it easier to navigate rocky European terrain. And that the thicker right arm was probably due to fighting, stabbing woolly mammoths, and generally cutting stuff up.
Mr Modern Human, however, had no need of such exertions because he was more of a farmer than a hunter-gatherer, so he stayed thin and weebly, and relied on his better adaptability and better social skills. Which would have been a bit of a problem in the alley behind the pub, where your average 250 pound neanderthal would have swiftly beaten him to a pulp.
Eventually, of course, Mr Modern came out on top. But thank goodness there weren't more southpaw neanderthals, or evolution might have taken a different path?
BJ