Re: Speciation - how do you know?

Nick Maclaren (nmm1@cus.cam.ac.uk)
15 Sep 1996 18:03:39 GMT

In article <323C23C6.4177@megafauna.com>,
Stephen Barnard <steve@megafauna.com> wrote:
>
>You didn't make it very clear who you were attributing opinions to,
>Nick. Just for the the record, the *only* thing I wrote was the part
>about the Masi killing lions with spears. It's totally plausible to me
>that Neandertals killed large animals with spears.

Sorry. Upon rereading, that wasn't the only cock-up I made in that
posting! In the following:

>> This claim seems a bit extreme. You are implying that humans armed
>> with wooden spears are much less lethal than African hunting dogs. The
>> latter have been reported as occasionally killing even Cape buffalo,
>> which are a damn sight tougher than the aurochs was. And they routinely
>> kill wildebeest, which are nearly the size of aurochs (though more
>> lightly built).

I failed to say that I was talking about "proportional to weight"! It
is, of course, complete nonsense that a wildebeest is nearly the size of
an aurochs. But it IS true, when weighted by the hunting dog versus
Neanderthal mass :-) Apologies to all.

Nick Maclaren,
University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory,
New Museums Site, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QG, England.
Email: nmm1@cam.ac.uk
Tel.: +44 1223 334761 Fax: +44 1223 334679