Hostname: page-component-77f85d65b8-9nbrm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-04-17T17:40:27.803Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Environment and Human Evolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

John L. Cloudsley-Thompson
John L. Cloudsley-Thompson
Affiliation:
Professor of Zoology, Birkbeck College (University of London), Malet Street, London WCI, England; formerly Professor and Head, Department of Zoology, University of Khartoum, and Keeper, Sudan Natural History Museum, Khartoum, Sudan.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The suggestion is made that Man evolved orthograde posture and bipedal locomotion at the fringe of tropical forest rather than in open savanna. The primary adaptive function of bipedal locomotion was for walking and stalking game from the cover of trees, in the absence of undergrowth. Hairlessness was thermally advantageous when Man emerged from the trees, yet would have imposed no great hardship on our hominid ancestors while they were inside the forest, where the climate was constantly warm. Man's primitive skin-colour was probably pale-brown. It is thought that dark skins were later acquired primarily as a protection against ultraviolet radiation in tropical regions, whereas depigmentation occurred as an adaptation that enhanced the synthesis of calciferol in regions of low light-intensity.

Man's so-called ‘racial’ adaptations occurred when his scavenging and hunter-gathering technology was unable to counter natural selection. Recently, however, he has ceased to respond to environmental feed-back. Unless he begins to do so again soon, degradation of the environment may accelerate beyond the point of no return and our species be doomed.

Information

Type
Main Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 2 , Issue 4 , Winter 1975 , pp. 265 - 269
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 1975

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Aschoff, J. (1965). Circadian rhythms in Man. Science, 148, pp. 1427–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blum, H. F. (1961). Does the melanin pigment of human skin have adaptive value? Quart. Rev. Biol., 36, pp. 50–63.Google ScholarPubMed
Cloudsley-Thompson, J. L. (1965). Animal Conflict and Adaptation. Foulis, London: xi + 160 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Cloudsley-Thompson, J. L. (1969). The Zoology of Tropical Africa. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London: xv + 355 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Cloudsley-Thompson, J. L. (1974). The expanding Sahara. Environmental Conservation, 1(1), pp. 5–13, 7 figs.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cloudsley-Thompson, J. L. (1975). Terrestrial Environments. Croom Helm, London: viii + 256 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Comfort, A. (1974). The likelihood of human pheromones. Pp. 386–96 in Pheromones (Ed. Birch, M. C.). North-Holland, Amsterdam & London: xxi + 495 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Coon, C. S., Gam, S. M. & Birdsell, J. B. (1950). Races. A Study of the Problem of Race Formation in Man. Thomas, Springfield, Illinois: xiv + 153 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Cowles, R. B. (1959). Some ecological factors bearing on the origin and evolution of pigment in the human skin. Amer. Nat., 93, pp. 283–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowles, R. B. (1963). Missiles, clay posts, and mortality rates in primitive Man. Amer. Nat., 97, pp. 29–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darwin, C. (1874). The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (2nd edn.). Murray, London: xvi + 688 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Ehrlich, P. R. (1974). Human population and environmental problems. Environmental Conservation, 1(1), pp. 15–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodhart, C. B. (1960). The evolutionary significance of human hair patterns and skin covering. Advanc. Sci., 17, pp. 53–9.Google Scholar
Guthrie, R. D. (1970). Evolution of human threat display organs. Evolutionary Biology, 4, pp. 257–302.Google Scholar
Hamilton, W. J. (1973). Life's Color Code. McGraw-Hill, New York: x + 238 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Loomis, W. F. (1967). Skin-pigment regulation of Vitamin-D biosynthesis in Man. Science, 157, pp. 501–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morris, D. (1967). The Naked Ape. Jonathan Cape, London: 252 pp.Google Scholar
Pollock, N. C. (1974). Animals, Environment and Man in Africa. Saxon House, Farnborough, Hants.: ix + 159 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Polunin, N. (1974). Thoughts on some conceivable ecodisasters. Environmental Conservation, 1(3), pp. 177–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomson, M. L. (1951). Dyshidrosis produced by general and regional ultraviolet radiation in Man. j. Physiol., 112, pp. 22–42, illustr.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Washburn, S. L. (1959). Speculations on the interrelations of the history of tools and biological evolution. Human Biol., 31, pp. 21–31.Google ScholarPubMed
Weiner, J. S. (1971). Man's Natural History. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London: xii + 255 pp., illustr.Google Scholar