By Bruce Bower
Baseball pitchers making big bucks to hurl horsehides are carrying on a 2-million-year-old tradition.
Upper bodies that could throw objects at high speeds appeared for the first time in a human ancestor known as Homo erectus, say biological anthropologist Neil Roach of George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and his colleagues. Nearly 2 million years ago, H. erectus hunters exploited their slingshot shoulders to throw rocks or wooden spears at animal prey, Roach’s team reports in the June 27 Nature. But at least one critic argues that skeletal changes behind modern humans’ throwing ability didn’t show up until much later.
However human throwing evolved, chimps got the heave-ho. “Adult male chimps are incredibly strong but can only throw about 20 miles per hour, one-third the speed of a 12-year-old Little League pitcher,” Roach says.