>From this week's Nature magazine. ---------------------------------------------------
Hominin explorers were poor planners Nature 507, 277 (20 March 2014) doi:10.1038/507277d Published online 19 March 2014 Hominin migrations, such as those out of Africa, might have been led by individuals with low levels of foresight. A team led by Colin Wren at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, modelled the migratory behaviour of individuals, based on the complexity of their environments and their cognitive ability to assess and seek out better environments. The model predicted that those with poorer foresight were more likely to stumble on a better habitat, and therefore disperse into new areas. Furthermore, homogeneous environments fostered exploration because the more constant level of resources allowed explorers to travel further than those in a more heterogeneous setting. J. Hum. Evol. http://doi.org/rwd (2014) ------------------------------------------------- I wonder if they were good cavers? Diana * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Diana R. Tomchick Professor University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Department of Biophysics 5323 Harry Hines Blvd. Rm. ND10.214A Dallas, TX 75390-8816, U.S.A. Email: [email protected] 214-645-6383 (phone) 214-645-6353 (fax) ________________________________ UT Southwestern Medical Center The future of medicine, today. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
