https://phys.org/news/2018-09-gene-mutation-humans-optimal-long-distance.html A mutation that confers treadmill endurance ability and hindlimb muscle growth in mice has been provisionally dated in hominids to the same time as the movement of hominids unto the African savannah. (They were already bipedal, etc).
That bolsters the idea that humans were so successful because they could outrun their prey in long distance marathons.
