Due Oct. 22
GRACILIZATION OF THE MODERN HUMAN SKELETON
1. Explain why participating in regular physical exercise may help to prevent osteoporosis.
2. How/why can bones that lose cortical thickness (i.e. compact bone thickness) over time
remain as strong as bones that retain a thick cortex?
3. All else being equal, would a man my height that weighs 300lbs. have a femoral cortex
that is thicker, thinner, or equally as thick as mine? Why?
4. What, does the author suggest, may be responsible for our relatively weak bones? How
do comparative studies of modern athlete’s bones and our ancient ancestor’s bones help
us to infer something about our ancestor’s lifestyle and technology?
5. Explain why many contemporary non-human primates (and probably our direct primate
ancestors) have thicker bones than we do?