Savannah apes

Savannah Apes
The term Savannah Ape was first coined by Andrew D. Mackay in the nineties to broadly describe the transitional forms between the rainforest apes of Central Africa and modern humans. Their name was taken from the basic habitat they adapted to - the bushland savannahs of East Africa. Many of our features - such as dense head hair, sweat-glands, the shape of our feet - are all to do with evolutionary adaptation to a way of life in these hot, equatorial eco-systems. They forced bi-pedalism as distances between climb-able trees (in which they may have nested safely) are often considerable. The harsh equatorial sun forced changes to hair covering and skin colour and prompted the need for a cooling system; the adiabatic cooling of perspiration. Sweat glands evolved from oil glands. Walking upright left the hands free to hold digging sticks (possibly used initially in digging for termites) which could also be used in defence. These sticks were gradually developed into weapons like crude spears and clubs. Effective spears allowed them to ambush animals at waterholes, beginning the switch from a mainly vegetarian to a meat diet. There would come a time that their successful hunting ability would allow them to eradicate any lesser evolved forms of savannah apes competing for territory.

Reference

Andrew D. Mackay evolution web-site

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