"Red Dragon"  wrote 

> > I have the answer. It starts with a shift in climate, at
> > about 8mya, that introduced a monsoon climate, a climate
> > that had not existed on this planet for at least 300
> > million years.  The element of this climate that is most
> > significant with respect to understanding human origins
> > is seasonal dessication.
> >
> This was the earlier thinking.  

Uh, no it isn't.  

But recently, due to elaborate research into
> primordial climate through  wood fossils,  evidence revealed  that  the
> climatic condition experienced by  Australopithecines were no different from
> that of the  other primates.

A monsoon climate, which has seasonal rains and seasonal dryness, is
different from the climate in Ape habitat which is seasonless and it
rains all year round.

  Following this, the dessication theory had
> been dropped and  search is on for some other possible explanation.

You're mixed up.  Earlier theory did assume a dry TREELESS habitat
like we currently find in East Africa.  We now realize that the
climate was not quite as dry as it is currently.  But, more
importantly, we now realize that A'pith weren't in treeless habitat
but at the treed patches in a habitat that was mostly treeless.  The
factor that dictates this is a monsoon climate.  Think of the climate
in India: lots of rain at one part of the year and little or no rain
for the rest of the year.  This dictates the patchiness of the
remaining forest.

Jim
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