On Mon, 16 Apr 2001 14:18:07 -0500, Philip Thrift <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>At
>     http://www.becominghuman.org/
>
>and a Q&A with David Johanson at
>
>   http://usatoday.com/news/science/2001-04-16-tree-site.htm#more

Actually the Q&A with the launch of the site is at

   http://cgi1.usatoday.com/mchat/20010416002/tscript.htm

and is going on real-time (now Monday 2:30 CDT). Johanson is impressive
in answering even the goofy questions (you can see what they are).

Also here one apropos:

Macomb, IL: Is there any evidence that increased protein intake results in
increased brain size? If not, the premise of humans evolving from hunter
gathers becomes suspect. This is not to deny human evolution. Rather, it
merely requests a causal relationship for it. I hold that short cycle
repetitive tasks (specifically food storage) are the basis of human
intelligence and are capable of effecting natural selection. In short, did
hunter gathers evolve from a crudely agrarian being?

Donald Johanson: I think the addition, fairly early on, of some degree of
meat, high in protein and amino acids, was very important for nourishing a
developing brain. we re beginning to see int he fossil record a co-
occurrence of tools, meat and larger brains--I know co-occurrence isn't
causation, but it is interesting that the vegetarian australopithecines
never really developed large brains, in part probably related to diet. good
question. hunter/gathers evolved initially from gatherers/scavengers who
had a large amount of vegetation in their diets.






Philip Thrift
http://www.paleofitness.com