run dont walk

Q: Our long legs with long spring-like tendons, compact feet with longitudinal arches, small toes, shock-absorbing knees, big bottoms (larger than other primates), long waists, broad shoulders for stability, copious sweat glands, minimal body hair, tendency to breathe through our mouths during strenuous activity . . . What’s the point?

A: All are ideal human adaptations for running, suggesting to anthropologists that running and especially endurance running (also unique among primates) has been far more important in our development as a species even than walking, says archaeologist Steven Mithen in The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind and Body. We humans are happy runners, and runners it seems we long have been.

from Bill and Rich Sones at strangetrue@compuserve.com.