endurance running hypothesis

The endurance running hypothesis is the hypothesis that the evolution of certain human characteristics can be explained as adaptations to long distance running.

Pickering, T.R., Bunn, H.T. (2007) The endurance running hypothesis and hunting and scavenging in savanna-woodlands.

The endurance running hypothesis suggests that bipedalism and running endurance in the Homo genus arose because travelling over large areas improved scavenging opportunities and allowed persistence hunting.

He promotes the endurance running hypothesis, arguing that humans left the forests and moved to the savannas by developing the ability to run long distances in order to literally run down prey.

According to the endurance running hypothesis, long-distance running as in persistence hunting, a method still practiced by some hunter-gatherer groups in modern times, was likely the driving evolutionary force leading to the evolution of certain human characteristics.