But to say “Kenyans are more likely to be great distance runners” is less accurate than saying “People whose ancestors spent uncommonly large amounts of time at great elevation with less oxygen.”
Actually no. Peruvians spent a long time at high altitude but don’t fill the ranks of prodigious distance runners. This is because they evolved a different adaption—barrel-chestedness—instead of more/better haemoglobin.
Not necessarily. We don’t know when the tribes currently living in the mountainous areas of Kenya moved there. A great deal of East Africa is low-altitude flat land, there’s nothing resembling Tibet there...
True. My main point is that there can be many possible adaptions for a similar set of high-altitude environments and not all of them will make you a good distance runner.
Actually no. Peruvians spent a long time at high altitude but don’t fill the ranks of prodigious distance runners. This is because they evolved a different adaption—barrel-chestedness—instead of more/better haemoglobin.
Not nearly as much time as Kenyans, heck they haven’t been in South America for as long as human have been in Kenya.
Not necessarily. We don’t know when the tribes currently living in the mountainous areas of Kenya moved there. A great deal of East Africa is low-altitude flat land, there’s nothing resembling Tibet there...
True. My main point is that there can be many possible adaptions for a similar set of high-altitude environments and not all of them will make you a good distance runner.
Yep. See e.g. this.
Yeah, that’s where I learned about the differences between Peruvian, Tibetan and Ethiopian adaptions :)