Persistence hunting may have been one of the most efficient forms of hunting, and as a consequence may have shaped human evolution.
- Danny Longman
Pre-birth exposure to high levels of the male sex hormone testosterone has already been shown to confer evolutionary advantages for men: strength of sex drive, sperm count, cardiovascular efficiency and spatial awareness, for example.
Now, latest research on marathon runners using finger length as a marker for hormone exposure shows that people who experienced higher testosterone in the womb are also better at distance running – a correlation particularly strong in men, although also present in women.
Researchers say the finding that males with greater “reproductive potential” from an evolutionary standpoint are better distance runners suggests females may have selected for such athletic endurance when mating during our hunter-gatherer past, perhaps because ‘persistence hunting’ – exhausting prey by tirelessly tracking it – was a vital way to get food.
Distance running may also have acted as a positive ‘signal’ for females of desirable male genetics more generally, say researchers: good runners were likely to be better persistence hunters and consequently better providers. This increases the likelihood they would have other key traits of good providers such as intelligence and generosity.
The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Cambridge’s Division of Biological Anthropology and is published in the journal PLOS ONE.
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Image: Running
Credit: Warein
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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