Re: Predation
Tom Clarke (clarke@longwood.cs.ucf.edu)
14 Nov 1995 15:31:41 -0500
j#d#.moore@canrem.com (J. Moore) writes:
>Tk> As far as this crocodile thing is concerned, I hope Jim Moore won't mind
>Tk> if we laid it to rest.
>I can understand your reluctance, common to all AATers, to come to
>grips with the problem of predation, a problem that all theories
>of human evolution must address.
Hey Jim, I've declared as an AAT agnostic. Is that why you haven't
responded to my repost with commentary of your crocodile predation
horror story? [Of course we are on a spur of the internet down here
in Florida and sometimes I think our postings don't get out. If that
is the case and you see this let me know and I'll repost. Does a post
in a forest unread constitute a post?]
>Now, as I have pointed out many many times in the past, it is
>certain that some early hominids would be killed by land predators,
>just as some chimpanzees are.
There is fossil evidence of an Australopithicene killed by a panther,
but none of death by crocodile that I have heard of. Of course this
could mean either that crocs weren't a much greater problem than
panthers, or that death by croc victims never fossilized, or that
the Australopithenes never went near water - wait Lucy was found
in conjunction with aquatic fossils so that can't be the case.
>Couple that with the massive numbers of crocodiles, and the manner
>in which they mass
Jim, you really don't like crocodiles, do you?
> -- this leaves out shorelines and mangroves, and in fact
>it simply eliminates from consideration all the places Morgan has
>suggested as habitat.
I forgot about the crab fossils that Lucy was supposed to be found
among. Do I infer from this and your crocodile lethality arguments
that a croc got Lucy? How about the Turkana boy?
Tom Clarke
--
People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment
and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against
the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices - Adam Smith, WofN
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