ABSTRACT
As early as 1950, Ernst Mayr suggested applying the competitive exclusion principle to early hominid evolution. The fact that culture is an integral part of man's adaptive pattern suggests that cultural evidence is as important as osteological evidence in reconstructing hominid evolutionary history. Most authors now apply the results of competitive exclusion interpreting Mid-Pleistocene and more recent hominids, recognising only one synchronic hominid species. The single species hypothesis is primarily applied to hominid origins, predicting the valid application of competitive exclusion in interpreting earlier hominid remains. If selection for increased learning capacity, associated with cultural behaviour, resulted in delayed maturation in Lower Pleistocene hominids, it must have been operative before the Pleistocene. A dependence upon tools both in offensive and defensive behaviour explains the selective advantage of bipedal locomotion: the hands are freed during locomotion so that a tool or weapon is available at all times.
