Re: Speciation - how do you know?
Nicholas Rosen (ndrosen@bu.edu)
2 Oct 1996 01:23:20 GMT
Paul Crowley (Paul@crowleyp.demon.co.uk) wrote:
: In article <52lrce$snj@lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk>
: nmm1@cus.cam.ac.uk "Nick Maclaren" writes:
: Compare these putative hunters to a pride of lions. They have
: everything, including sprinting speed. Lions do not find life that
: easy. They never adapted to Europe (AFAIK). The prey is too rare
: or too dangerous or too something else. So how could a much less
: effective hunter with a much greater energy requirement make out?
One minor point. There were lions in Europe until about the first
century A.D., when they were killed off by humans.
: In a group of 40, you'd only have 8 or fewer mature males. So
: your group has to be much larger. Even then the rate of death
: or serious injury would seem much too high. Comparing with other
: predators (assuming H.n. was a predator) such as lions, the risk
: of serious injury has to be much lower. H.n.'s lifespan is much
: longer and the replacement of a mature male would have been much
: slower and more costly.
I certainly agree with this.
--
Nicholas Rosen
Standard disclaimers apply. I'm not speaking for Boston University. Look,
when our esteemed Chancellor has an opinion on something, he doesn't need
me to express it for him.
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