The Historic Role of Crocodiles and Other African Aquatic Pests in Current Sport Championships
Author(s)
Simcha Lev-Yadun
Affiliation(s)
Department of Biology & Environment, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Haifa-Oranim, Tivon, Israel.
Department of Biology & Environment, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Haifa-Oranim, Tivon, Israel.
ABSTRACT
Top achievements in modern sports are not distributed evenly among humans of various origins. Athletes of African origin dominate several fields of athletics, especially short- and long-distance running, which differ in their physiological and muscle structure characters and requirements. This contrasts dramatically with their near absence from the group of leading swimmers at all distances. The conspicuous absence of world-class swimmers of African origin cannot be explained by current or recent social aspects or by the history of their discrimination, and therefore deserves an alternative explanation. I propose that the conspicuous weakness of athletes of African origin in swimming is related to their evolution in the natural African environment with the probable inherited and a certain biological and/or cultural fear of predation by crocodiles and of infection by various pathogens and parasites. Members of the genus Homo that emigrated from Africa during the last 1.8 million years or have evolved outside Africa had sufficient time to get rid of the biological and/or cultural fear of swimming directly, or by gene exchange with contemporary groups that left Africa long ago and had adapted to safer water habitats. The release from the fear of crocodiles, pathogens and parasites at higher latitudes must have influenced other aspects of environmental exploitation of aquatic habitats by various hominin types, an issue outside the scope of his assay.
Top achievements in modern sports are not distributed evenly among humans of various origins. Athletes of African origin dominate several fields of athletics, especially short- and long-distance running, which differ in their physiological and muscle structure characters and requirements. This contrasts dramatically with their near absence from the group of leading swimmers at all distances. The conspicuous absence of world-class swimmers of African origin cannot be explained by current or recent social aspects or by the history of their discrimination, and therefore deserves an alternative explanation. I propose that the conspicuous weakness of athletes of African origin in swimming is related to their evolution in the natural African environment with the probable inherited and a certain biological and/or cultural fear of predation by crocodiles and of infection by various pathogens and parasites. Members of the genus Homo that emigrated from Africa during the last 1.8 million years or have evolved outside Africa had sufficient time to get rid of the biological and/or cultural fear of swimming directly, or by gene exchange with contemporary groups that left Africa long ago and had adapted to safer water habitats. The release from the fear of crocodiles, pathogens and parasites at higher latitudes must have influenced other aspects of environmental exploitation of aquatic habitats by various hominin types, an issue outside the scope of his assay.
Cite this paper
Lev-Yadun, S. (2015). The Historic Role of Crocodiles and Other African Aquatic Pests in Current Sport Championships. Advances in Anthropology, 5, 122-125. doi: 10.4236/aa.2015.52010.
Lev-Yadun, S. (2015). The Historic Role of Crocodiles and Other African Aquatic Pests in Current Sport Championships. Advances in Anthropology, 5, 122-125. doi: 10.4236/aa.2015.52010.
References
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10750-007-9030-4 [20] McGregor, J. (2005). Crocodile Crimes: People versus Wildlife and the Politics of Postcolonial Conservation on Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe. Geoforum, 36, 353-369.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2004.06.007 [21] Pooley, A. C., Hines, T., & Shield, J. (1989). Attacks on Humans. In C. A. Ross (Ed.), Crocodiles and Alligators (pp. 172-187). London: Merchant Press. [22] Musambachime, M. C. (1987). The Fate of the Nile Crocodile in African Waterways. African Affairs, 86, 197-207. [23] Stewart, J. R., & Stringer, C. B. (2012). Human Evolution Out of Africa: The Role of Refugia and Climate Change. Science, 335, 1317-1321.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1215627 [24] Tipton, M., Eglin, C., Gennser, M., & Golden, F. (1999). Immersion Deaths and Deterioration in Swimming Performance in Cold Water. The Lancet, 354, 626-629.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(99)07273-6
[1] Anderson, C. M. (1986). Predation and Primate Evolution. Primates, 27, 15-39.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02382520 [2] Bar-Yosef, O., & Goren-Inbar, N. (1993). The Lithic Assemblage of 'Ubeidiya. Qedem 34. Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. [3] Bracha, H. S. (2006). Human Brain Evolution and the “Neuroevolutionary Time-Depth Principle”: Implications for the Reclassification of Fear-Circuitry-Related Traits in DSM-V and for Studying Resilience to Warzone-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychology, 30, 827-853.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pnpbp.2006.01.008 [4] Brannigan, D., Rogers, I. R., Jacobs, I., Montgomery, A., Williams, A., & Khangure, N. (2009). Hypothermia Is a Significant Medical Risk of Mass Participation Long-Distance Open Water Swimming. Wildlife and Environmental Medicine, 20, 14-18.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1580/08-WEME-OR-214.1 [5] Cairncross, S., Muller, R., & Zagaria, N. (2002). Dracunculiasis (Guinea Worm Disease) and the Eradication Initiative. Clinical Microbiology Reviews, 15, 223-246.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/CMR.15.2.223-246.2002 [6] Cann, R. C. (2013). Y Weigh in Again on Modern Humans. Science, 341, 465-467.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1242899 [7] Cook, M., & Mineka, S. (1989). Observational Conditioning of Fear to Fear-Relevant versus Fear-Irrelevant Stimuli in Rhesus Monkeys. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 98, 448-459.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X.98.4.448 [8] Cox, F. E. G. (2002). History of Human Parasitology. Clinical Microbiology Reviews, 15, 595-612.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/CMR.15.4.595-612.2002 [9] Dunham, K. M., Ghiurghi, A., Cumbi, R., & Urbano, F. (2010). Human-Wildlife Conflict in Mozambique: A National Perspective, with Emphasis on Wildlife Attacks on Humans. Oryx, 44, 185-193.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S003060530999086X [10] Epstein, D. (2013). The Sports Gene. Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance. New York: Current. [11] Fong, D. W., Kane, T. C., & Culver, D. C. (1995). Vestigialization and Loss of Nonfunctional Characters. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 26, 249-268.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.es.26.110195.001341 [12] Goren-Inbar, N., Feibel, C. S., Verosub, K. L., Melamed, Y., Kislev, M. E., Tchernov, E., & Saragusti, I. (2000). Pleistocene Milestones on the Out-of-Africa Corridor at Gesher Benot Ya’aqov, Israel. Science, 289, 944-947.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.289.5481.944 [13] Huerta-Sánchez, E., Jin, X., Asan Bianba, Z., Peter, B. M., Vinckenbosch, N., Liang, Y., Yi, X. et al. (2014). Altitude Adaptation in Tibetans Caused by Introgression of Denisovan-Like DNA. Nature, 512, 194-197.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature13408 [14] Ingalhalikar, M., Smith, A., Parker, D., Satterthwaite, T. D., Elliott, M. A., Ruparel, K., Hakonarson, H. et al. (2014). Sex Differences in the Structural Connectome of the Human Brain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111, 823-828.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1316909110 [15] Jordan, P., & Rosenfield, P. L. (1983). Schistosomiasis Control: Past, Present, and Future. Annual Review of Public Health, 4, 311-334.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.pu.04.050183.001523 [16] Klyosov, A. A. (2014). Reconsideration of the “Out of Africa” Concept as Not Having Enough Proof. Advances in Anthropology, 4, 18-37.
http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/aa.2014.41004 [17] Lachance, J., & Tishkoff, S. A. (2013). Population Genomics of Human Adaptation. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 44, 123-143.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-110512-135833 [18] Lordkipanidze, D., de León, M. S. P., Margvelashvili, A., Rak, Y., Rightmire, G. P., Vekua, A., & Zollikofer, C. P. E. (2013). A Complete Skull from Dmanisi, Georgia, and the Evolutionary Biology of Early Homo. Science, 342, 326-331.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1238484 [19] Martin, S. (2008). Global Diversity of Crocodiles (Crocodilia, Reptilia) in Freshwater. Hydrobiology, 595, 587-591.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10750-007-9030-4 [20] McGregor, J. (2005). Crocodile Crimes: People versus Wildlife and the Politics of Postcolonial Conservation on Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe. Geoforum, 36, 353-369.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2004.06.007 [21] Pooley, A. C., Hines, T., & Shield, J. (1989). Attacks on Humans. In C. A. Ross (Ed.), Crocodiles and Alligators (pp. 172-187). London: Merchant Press. [22] Musambachime, M. C. (1987). The Fate of the Nile Crocodile in African Waterways. African Affairs, 86, 197-207. [23] Stewart, J. R., & Stringer, C. B. (2012). Human Evolution Out of Africa: The Role of Refugia and Climate Change. Science, 335, 1317-1321.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1215627 [24] Tipton, M., Eglin, C., Gennser, M., & Golden, F. (1999). Immersion Deaths and Deterioration in Swimming Performance in Cold Water. The Lancet, 354, 626-629.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(99)07273-6