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Re: AAT reply from Elaine Morgan
cc3265@albnyvms.bitnet
28 Dec 1994 22:28:46 GMT
In article <3dsi1o$a44@newsbf02.news.aol.com>, sircpu@aol.com (Sir CPU) writes:
>David Woodcock writes:
>
>The proto-hominids survived; selection on the savanna favored
>improved bipedalism. Several nonobvious factors favored survival.
>There were fewer types of large carnivores on the savanna than there
>are today. Very probably the modern big cats were absent; certainly
>the canids were. Hyenas are night hunters. Thus foraging during
>the day wasn't quite as dangerous as one might think.
>
>---------
>
>No big cats in Africa? I think you are mistaken. In fact, I think they
>were actually BIGGER than modern day cats. For example the "saper-toothed"
>tiger which fed on mammoths was larger than the modern day lion.
>
>There is also a fairly famous example of a leopard tooth which fits quite
>snuggly into an early human skull.
>
>And I would be very surprised if there were not canids in Africa as well.
>The modern day hunting dogs and jackels have ancestors which go back
>millions of years, certainly farther than human ancestors.
>
>Also, hyenas are very opportunistic. The will hunt at night, or in the
>late afternoon. It depends on the food supply.
>
>I would imagine that the savannha was a very dangerous place for our early
>ancestors. Certainly for a slow bipedial ape, with relatively poor earing
>(especially compared to other savanna creatures) and almost no sense of
>smell. While our eysight is good, it really is not much better than most
>carnavoirs, who can actually see much better in the dark than we can, and
>probably better than our early ancestors as well.
>
>This is one of the problems I have with the savanna theory happening early
>after our tree-dwelling stage. I think it is obvious that the savanna
>would be a very dangerous place for our slow ancestors, and our ancestors
>could only have ventured out onto the savannas after they had developed
>suffecient tool technology in order to protect themselves.
>
>
>Troy Kelley
Well . . . I don't know . . . baboons seem to do okay.
Caroline R. Cooper
New to this Group & Truly Amazed
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