Human endurance running hypothesis from the perspective of physical anthropology REN Zhan-bing1，WU Jin-long1，CHEN Xiao-ying2
（1.Department of Physical Education，Shenzhen University，Shenzhen 518060，China； 2.College of Sports Media，Guangzhou Sport University，Guangzhou 510500，China)
Abstract: By reviewing and analyzing the literature on human morphological and lifestyle evolution in relation to human endurance running, by means of comparison, the authors carried out an in-depth analysis on the body struc-tures, muscle structures and biomechanical characteristics of human beings and primate chimpanzees, and further interpreted the human endurance running hypothesis from the perspectives of the characteristics of the diet structure, hunting manner and foraging distance of primitive human beings. Human endurance running can be traced back to the entire process of human origination and evolution; the formation of human endurance running was an extremely complicated process of evolution, subject to the joint influence of various factors such as human heredity, biomuta-tion and natural selection. The morphological foundation of endurance running was mainly embodied in the post-cranial characteristic, longer lower limbs, shorter toe phalangeal bones, higher and more elastic foot arch, nar-rower hip joint and wider gluteus maximus, which were more suitable for running, gradually formed in the process of human evolution; endurance running lifestyle evolution was mainly embodied in the change of the human diet structure, the appearance of meat and meat as an important proportion of diet starting to increase, the appearance of the way of persistent endurance hunting, the increase of human foraging distance, etc. From the perspective of physical anthropology, the endurance running hypothesis has certain rationality, the phenomenon of the endurance running enthusiasm in modern society has the evolution root for its formation; in the process of human evolution, the adaptive change of human’s own morphological structure is the intrinsic reason for the establishment of the en-durance running hypothesis; human lifestyle evolution and human adaptation to environments are the extrinsic rea-sons for the establishment of the endurance running hypothesis. Key words: physical anthropology；endurance running hypothesis；human evolution