Ability to throw is humanity's natural weapon

[Peter B]

I'm not sure if this topic has been raised elsewhere here, but I was fascinated by this talk:

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/throwing-and-human-evolution/5759974#transcript

Why is it so alluring for us humans to throw, and why is it that Jane Goodall never saw a chimpanzee doing the same thing? Quite simply, it’s because we evolved to throw, or more accurately, throwing shaped our evolution in some very important ways.

[Wickian]

Well apes and monkeys do underhanded tosses sometimes, not the 80+ mph balls some professionals can do though.

[Peter B]

Well apes and monkeys do underhanded tosses sometimes, not the 80+ mph balls some professionals can do though.

That's exactly one of the points the speaker makes - humans can throw things perhaps four times faster than any other animal, which means 16 times the energy. His point was that being hit by a rock thrown by a chimp might hurt, but humans can kill animals (or each other) with thrown rocks.

[Taun]

Monkeys and chimps do fling poo however...

But seriously, there are a whole laundry list of things that make humans unique.. I must admit this was not one I had thought of...

[Crabby Kitten]

I've observed lots of animals throwing, including spiders, squirrels and chimps.

[Capt.]

A common demonstration at reenactments is that a thrown ax or knife sinks about twice as far into a target as someone can stab or hack with one in hand. Humans are throwing machines.

Then our grandcestors invented the atl-atl to greatly amplify that throwing range and power:

This might be why we are the surviving hominid as well as having something to do with why so many Pleistocene mega-fauna species disappeared.