If a new food source becomes accessible, rewarding, and lightly contested, some lineage will exploit it.

The turning point in the Devonian – from Ariane’s notes

Before jawed vertebrates, vertebrates were either filter feeders or scavengers. Only the jaw made it possible to actively grasp and overpower prey. This was so successful that jawed vertebrates in the Devonian almost completely displaced their jawless competitors. Today, about 99% of all vertebrates descend from these predators. This includes sharks, bony fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.

Carnivores have an energetic advantage because flesh is more similar to their own body tissue than plant cells. Nevertheless, in every ecosystem there are always more prey than predators (the 10:1 rule of biomass).

The predatory potential is the core “DNA” of almost all vertebrates. Every time energy moves up one trophic level (from plant to herbivore, from herbivore to predator), about 90% of the energy is lost. To feed a 100 kg lion, thousands of kilograms of zebras (prey) are required, which in turn consume tons of grass. Many jawed vertebrates shifted into herbivory because food is constantly available.

Many humans today use only a small portion of their physical potential and mainly operate in patterns of protection, adaptation, and avoidance. They possess the hardware of a predator (the spine, jaw closure, diagonal chains), but use only the software of escape and compression.

The earliest jawed vertebrates appeared about 430–450 million years ago. Placoderms were the first truly large, active predators in Earth’s history. Dunkleosteus lived in the Devonian (around 380 million years ago) and reached lengths of up to ten meters. It had no classical teeth, but sharp bony cutting plates.

With jaws, animals could consume larger prey, exploit new ecological niches, and grow faster. This led to an evolutionary arms race. Prey evolved in step with predator feeding capabilities.

The jaw was not just a feeding tool; it was an evolutionary lever. A small anatomical change → enormous ecological consequences.

The human body is an adaptive system that shifts between different organizational forms of tension. These states correspond to different ways of relating to gravity, load, and environment. In everyday life, most individuals are dominated by a gravity-oriented organization. This manifests as reduced movement variability, compensatory tension patterns, and a tendency to stabilize the body rather than actively transmit forces through it. This form of organization works well within the spectrum of low demands.

Aslan and Anson teach alternative movement concepts. They advocate the primacy of transmission and celebrate kinetic momentum in all situations. A central principle of transmissive organization is diagonal force transmission. While vertical patterns concentrate load along the gravity axis, diagonal structures enable the distribution of forces across larger functional units of the body. Muscles do not work in isolation, but in chains that absorb, transform, and transmit force.

In this context, external load can play an important role. It acts not only as a mechanical challenge, but also as an organizing factor for the nervous system. Under clearly defined load, movement often becomes more precise, unnecessary muscular activity decreases, and coordination between different body segments improves. Tension is built up in a targeted way, efficiently transmitted, and equally efficiently released. The ability to regulate is central. A well-organized system is characterized by the ability to use tension in a differentiated manner.

In this sense, training should be understood less as a pure increase in load and more as a reorganization of movement and tension under variable conditions. The goal is not the maximization of individual parameters, but the improvement of the entire structure in which force is generated and expressed.