Female excellence in rock climbing likely has an evolutionary origin.

Collin Carroll

doi:10.1016/j.crphys.2021.01.004

Abstract

The human body is exceptional for many reasons, not the least of which is the wide variety of movements it is capable of executing. Because our species is able to execute so many discrete activities, researchers often disagree on which were the movements most essential to the evolution of our species. This paper continues a recently introduced analysis, that the performance gap between female and male athletes narrows in sports which most reflect the movements humans evolved to do. Here, I examine the performance gap in rock climbing. Female climbers are some of the best in the world irrespective of gender, a trend that is not found in any other major sport. I conclude that the exceptional ability of female rock climbers relative to male rock climbers is further evidence of the existence of sex-blind musculoskeletal adaptations, which developed over the course of human evolution – as a result of external (non-sexual) selection forces – to facilitate essential movements. These adaptations abate some of the general physical sexual dimorphism which exists in humans. This paper provides more evidence that the human body was shaped, in part, by pressure to climb well.

Highlights

I conclude that the exceptional ability of female rock climbers relative to male rock climbers is further evidence of the existence of sex-blind musculoskeletal adaptations, which developed over the course of human evolution – as a result of external selection forces – to facilitate essential movements
Data on the 100-m dash come from WorldAthl etics.com. This figure aims to create a sense of scale to better express how close in ability the top female rock climber is to the top male climbers when compared to how close the top female sprinter is to the top male sprinters
Arboreal locomotion is well documented as an integral part of human evolution, especially as it relates to primate evolution

Summary

Introduction

For instance, claim that the ecological dominance of humans can be primarily attributed to our overhand throwing ability (Lombardo and Deaner 2018a; Roach et al 2013; Wilson et al 2016), another sect argues that endurance running has been critical to the development of our species (Bramble and Lieberman 2004; Liebenberg 2006; Lieberman et al 2006), and others still make the case that humans adapted to excel at intraspecies hand-to-hand combat (Carrier 2011; Carrier et al 2015) These are only a few perspectives on the evolutionary history of Homo sapiens, each supported by its own set of evidence. Arboreal locomotion does appear to be an essential part of our development as a species

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