On Thursday 26 August 2021 at 14:39:36 UTC+1, Pandora wrote:
If they were 'competent hunters" why
are their fossils so rare on the landscape?
Biology 101: the ecological (trophic, energy) pyramid.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_pyramid
Therefore apex predators must be relatively rare.
If their theory was that hominins preyed
largely on carnivores (lions, leopards,
hyena, etc.,) then you might have some
slight beginnings of an argument. But
that's not the case. Their claim is that
hominins were carnivores (or largely so)
and chased after antelope, etc.,
competing with lions, leopards and the
like.
There are many daft theories about
human evolution. This is among the
worst. It conflicts with every principle
of ecology.
Is there anything in the evolution of
the taxon suggesting fitness for this
specialisation? . . . NO
Has the taxon any adaptations enabling
it to fit this niche? . . . NO
Are there any modern representatives
occupying this niche? . . . . NO
Are any reasons proposed for that
absence? . . . . NO
Is the taxon as a whole adapted for
life in the proposed habitat? . . . NO
It is agreed that the taxon has some
distinctive advantages -- intelligence
and cultural adaptability -- does the
theory propose that these were
exploited? . . . NO
Does it focus on the reproductive
element of the taxon -- the females
and their young? . . . . NO
Does the diet of modern members
of the taxon reflect the proposed
paleolithic diet? . . . NO
This list could be extended indefinitely.
Therefore apex predators must be relatively rare.
If their theory was that hominins preyed
largely on carnivores (lions, leopards,
hyena, etc.,) then you might have some
slight beginnings of an argument. But
that's not the case. Their claim is that
hominins were carnivores (or largely so)
and chased after antelope, etc.,
competing with lions, leopards and the
like.
The idea is that early Pleistocene Homo as a faunivore occupied one of
the higher trophic levels,
implying smaller numbers/less biomass
relative to lower levels of primary consumers.
But of course not as low as 1 hominin per 10 million bovids.
Apparently you're in a state of categorical denial.
On Saturday 28 August 2021 at 16:14:30 UTC+1, Pandora wrote:
Therefore apex predators must be relatively rare.
If their theory was that hominins preyed
largely on carnivores (lions, leopards,
hyena, etc.,) then you might have some
slight beginnings of an argument. But
that's not the case. Their claim is that
hominins were carnivores (or largely so)
and chased after antelope, etc.,
competing with lions, leopards and the
like.
The idea is that early Pleistocene Homo as a faunivore occupied one of
the higher trophic levels,
Those are empty words -- obviously so
when you can't identify any other
occupants or these 'higher trophic levels'.
In any case, no one doubts that much of
early hominin diet consisted of vegetables.
implying smaller numbers/less biomass
relative to lower levels of primary consumers.
And if hominins had wings, they'd fly
really high. IOW you first have to show
that your assumption has some basis
in reality.
But of course not as low as 1 hominin per 10 million bovids.
". . . In East Africa, my colleague Don Johanson tells me that there
is something like a one in ten million chance of finding an early
hominin fossil, if you know that they are already on the landscape.
Generally what that translates to is that about one in ten million
of the fossils they find in East Africa is an antelope fossil or some
other animal fossil . . "
You mentioned research into the Manonga
Valley from ~4.0-5.5 ma, which 'should'
have had plenty of hominin fossils -- IF
standard PA assumptions had some basis
in reality. They found none.
100 million bovid fossils to one hominin --
or GREATER -- odds are to be expected
when none have already been found nearby.
Hominins simply weren't present -- except
in extremely low numbers in rare locations.
Apparently you're in a state of categorical denial.Doctrine (based on totally unquestioned
assumptions) has overwhelmed you -- as it
has the whole profession. You've become
blind to the evidence. Hominins were NO
part of that ecology. They simply weren't
there.
OK, it's hard to take. They were necessarily
somewhere in the neighbourhood You just
have to be honest with yourself and do your
best to work it out. There are a whole
range of similar questions, such as: "How
did early (or any) hominins cope with large
predators?". (Kortlandt is the only PA
person AFAIK who was honest enough to
try to face up to that one -- not that his
answers were convincing.)
But such an attitude will not sit well with
your colleagues. No one likes the bastard
who keeps asking hard questions to which
they have no answer -- and where they are
part of huge institutions which have no
answers -- while pretending that they're
'scientific' and have had, for a hundred or
more years, thoroughly tested solutions
to all the obvious questions.
On Wednesday, August 25, 2021 at 4:06:31 PM UTC-4, Paul Crowley wrote:
Really silly paper in Nature. It seems to
gather together every current ill-considered
fashionable PA wheeze -- such as "running
to exhaustion" and present it all as
'uncontested fact".
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-94783-4
". . . We provide evidence of hominin primary access to animal
resources and emphasize the role that meat played in their diets,
their ecology and their anatomical evolution, ultimately resulting in
the ecologically unrestricted terrestrial adaptation of our species. . . "
And John Hawks approves of it (more-or-less)
John Hawks@johnhawks 6:56 PM · Aug 13, 2021·TweetDeck
"The paper's discussion raises lots of reasons why the anatomy of
early Homo supports the idea that they were competent hunters.
On this I don't disagree"
If they were 'competent hunters" why
are their fossils so rare on the landscape?
The authors do a good job of perpetuating the usual savanna hunter story.
Endurance running shows up. The problem is that they claim He was running and walking, when actually He was waddling,
an intermediate striding gait where the head was further forward while walking on level land than Hs, thus the advantage of dense occiput and nuchal ligament to cross-balance and maintain momentum. In order to flee, they would have had to get down intoa quadrupedal sprinter's start.
In Hs, the gait became refined as the 'anchor point' shifted from the skull rear to the bony chin in front of the larger skull & brain. Note that unlike great apes, humans & hylobatids have long Achilles tendons.
The presence of a nuchal ligament in H. erectus is suggestive of the stabilization of the head to the trunk, probably to counter the shock wave effect of the heel strike of the foot during running57,58. The fact that other cursor mammal runners havenuchal ligaments suggests that H. erectus was also a runner. The co-occurrence of a nuchal ligament with the earliest evidence of long legs in a larger body size (which, although also selected for by walking, are essential for running) supports the
On Fri, 27 Aug 2021 03:34:42 -0700 (PDT), Paul Crowley
<yelworcp@gmail.com> wrote:
On Thursday 26 August 2021 at 14:39:36 UTC+1, Pandora wrote:
If they were 'competent hunters" why
are their fossils so rare on the landscape?
Biology 101: the ecological (trophic, energy) pyramid.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_pyramid
Therefore apex predators must be relatively rare.
If their theory was that hominins preyed
largely on carnivores (lions, leopards,
hyena, etc.,) then you might have some
slight beginnings of an argument. But
that's not the case. Their claim is that
hominins were carnivores (or largely so)
and chased after antelope, etc.,
competing with lions, leopards and the
like.
The idea is that early Pleistocene Homo as a faunivore occupied one of
the higher trophic levels, implying smaller numbers/less biomass
relative to lower levels of primary consumers.
But of course not as low as 1 hominin per 10 million bovids.
On Wednesday, August 25, 2021 at 9:24:49 PM UTC-4, DD'eDeN aka note/nickname/alas_my_loves wrote:
On Wednesday, August 25, 2021 at 4:06:31 PM UTC-4, Paul Crowley wrote:
Really silly paper in Nature. It seems to
gather together every current ill-considered
fashionable PA wheeze -- such as "running
to exhaustion" and present it all as
'uncontested fact".
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-94783-4
". . . We provide evidence of hominin primary access to animal
resources and emphasize the role that meat played in their diets,
their ecology and their anatomical evolution, ultimately resulting in the ecologically unrestricted terrestrial adaptation of our species. . . "
And John Hawks approves of it (more-or-less)
John Hawks@johnhawks 6:56 PM · Aug 13, 2021·TweetDeck
"The paper's discussion raises lots of reasons why the anatomy of
early Homo supports the idea that they were competent hunters.
On this I don't disagree"
If they were 'competent hunters" why
are their fossils so rare on the landscape?
The authors do a good job of perpetuating the usual savanna hunter story.
Endurance running shows up. The problem is that they claim He was running and walking, when actually He was waddling,If the ground is neither too wet nor too dry, tracks show up nicely. So the prey doesn't have
to be in sight while being worn down to exhaustion by alternating between walking and running.
Discover Magazine once had a detailed article about endurance vs. speed.While we are among the
slowest sprinters, long distance endurance puts only a few animals (camel, elephant, but few if any antelopes)
ahead of us. I believe Homo erectus was at least as good at endurance as we are.
into a quadrupedal sprinter's start.an intermediate striding gait where the head was further forward while walking on level land than Hs, thus the advantage of dense occiput and nuchal ligament to cross-balance and maintain momentum. In order to flee, they would have had to get down
Sprinters do start from a quadrupedal stance, but for longer distancesNope.
the advantage of that kind of start becomes comparatively insignificant. With good advance warning,
the difference can be disregarded.
In Hs, the gait became refined as the 'anchor point' shifted from the skull rear to the bony chin in front of the larger skull & brain. Note that unlike great apes, humans & hylobatids have long Achilles tendons.Thanks for the anatomy lesson, but I'm not sure how relevant it is.
nuchal ligaments suggests that H. erectus was also a runner. The co-occurrence of a nuchal ligament with the earliest evidence of long legs in a larger body size (which, although also selected for by walking, are essential for running) supports theThe presence of a nuchal ligament in H. erectus is suggestive of the stabilization of the head to the trunk, probably to counter the shock wave effect of the heel strike of the foot during running57,58. The fact that other cursor mammal runners have
Would you like to finish your sentence now?
Peter Nyikos
Professor, Dept. of Mathematics -- standard disclaimer--
Univ. of South Carolina at Columbia
http://people.math.sc.edu/nyikos
On Tuesday, August 31, 2021 at 9:29:07 PM UTC-4, peter2...@gmail.com wrote:
On Wednesday, August 25, 2021 at 9:24:49 PM UTC-4, DD'eDeN aka note/nickname/alas_my_loves wrote:
On Wednesday, August 25, 2021 at 4:06:31 PM UTC-4, Paul Crowley wrote:
Really silly paper in Nature. It seems to
gather together every current ill-considered
fashionable PA wheeze -- such as "running
to exhaustion" and present it all as
'uncontested fact".
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-94783-4
". . . We provide evidence of hominin primary access to animal resources and emphasize the role that meat played in their diets, their ecology and their anatomical evolution, ultimately resulting in the ecologically unrestricted terrestrial adaptation of our species. . . "
And John Hawks approves of it (more-or-less)
John Hawks@johnhawks 6:56 PM · Aug 13, 2021·TweetDeck
"The paper's discussion raises lots of reasons why the anatomy of early Homo supports the idea that they were competent hunters.
On this I don't disagree"
If they were 'competent hunters" why
are their fossils so rare on the landscape?
The authors do a good job of perpetuating the usual savanna hunter story.
Endurance running shows up. The problem is that they claim He was running and walking, when actually He was waddling,If the ground is neither too wet nor too dry, tracks show up nicely. So the prey doesn't have
to be in sight while being worn down to exhaustion by alternating between walking and running.
Plains ungulates walk and run daily, they don't wear down.
Only non-hunters would believe the endurance hunting scenario.
Discover Magazine once had a detailed article about endurance vs. speed. While we are among the
slowest sprinters, long distance endurance puts only a few animals (camel, elephant, but few if any antelopes)
ahead of us. I believe Homo erectus was at least as good at endurance as we are.
Neither ever used that method. Its a PA myth.
an intermediate striding gait where the head was further forward while walking on level land than Hs, thus the advantage of dense occiput and nuchal ligament to cross-balance and maintain momentum.
In order to flee, they would have had to get down into a quadrupedal sprinter's start.
Sprinters do start from a quadrupedal stance, but for longer distances
the advantage of that kind of start becomes comparatively insignificant. With good advance warning,
the difference can be disregarded.
Nope.
In Hs, the gait became refined as the 'anchor point' shifted from the skull rear to the bony chin in front of the larger skull & brain. Note that unlike great apes, humans & hylobatids have long Achilles tendons.
Thanks for the anatomy lesson, but I'm not sure how relevant it is.
Humans drink water with 2 cupped hands, as do hylobatids, no other hominoid does.
have nuchal ligaments suggests that H. erectus was also a runner. The co-occurrence of a nuchal ligament with the earliest evidence of long legs in a larger body size (which, although also selected for by walking, are essential for running) supports theThe presence of a nuchal ligament in H. erectus is suggestive of the stabilization of the head to the trunk, probably to counter the shock wave effect of the heel strike of the foot during running57,58. The fact that other cursor mammal runners
Would you like to finish your sentence now?
Peter Nyikos
Professor, Dept. of Mathematics -- standard disclaimer--
Univ. of South Carolina at Columbia
http://people.math.sc.edu/nyikos
Why bother, you prefer endurance hunting myths to reality.
On Thursday, September 2, 2021 at 2:34:45 AM UTC-4, DD'eDeN aka note/nickname/alas_my_loves wrote:
On Tuesday, August 31, 2021 at 9:29:07 PM UTC-4, peter2...@gmail.com wrote:
On Wednesday, August 25, 2021 at 9:24:49 PM UTC-4, DD'eDeN aka note/nickname/alas_my_loves wrote:
On Wednesday, August 25, 2021 at 4:06:31 PM UTC-4, Paul Crowley wrote:
Really silly paper in Nature. It seems to
gather together every current ill-considered
fashionable PA wheeze -- such as "running
to exhaustion" and present it all as
'uncontested fact".
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-94783-4
". . . We provide evidence of hominin primary access to animal resources and emphasize the role that meat played in their diets, their ecology and their anatomical evolution, ultimately resulting in
the ecologically unrestricted terrestrial adaptation of our species. . . "
And John Hawks approves of it (more-or-less)
John Hawks@johnhawks 6:56 PM · Aug 13, 2021·TweetDeck
"The paper's discussion raises lots of reasons why the anatomy of early Homo supports the idea that they were competent hunters.
On this I don't disagree"
If they were 'competent hunters" why
are their fossils so rare on the landscape?
The authors do a good job of perpetuating the usual savanna hunter story.
Endurance running shows up. The problem is that they claim He was running and walking, when actually He was waddling,If the ground is neither too wet nor too dry, tracks show up nicely. So the prey doesn't have
to be in sight while being worn down to exhaustion by alternating between walking and running.
Plains ungulates walk and run daily, they don't wear down.They walk and run all day without stopping? Where do you get this information?
Only non-hunters would believe the endurance hunting scenario.You, a non-paleo-hunter
than that of the Nature editors who approved the article?
[1] You never followed a deer for a whole day with snow on the ground, did you?
If you had, you might have been able to dispatch it at the end of the day with a spear thrust,
if there is anything to what I wrote about next.
Discover Magazine once had a detailed article about endurance vs. speed. While we are among the
slowest sprinters, long distance endurance puts only a few animals (camel, elephant, but few if any antelopes)
ahead of us. I believe Homo erectus was at least as good at endurance as we are.
Neither ever used that method. Its a PA myth.No method involved here: *Discover* simply talked about
being able to keep going for a whole day and covering a lot of distance to boot.
You shouldn't have tried to sound erudite. A word search in the Nature article for "nuchal" showed wherean intermediate striding gait where the head was further forward while walking on level land than Hs, thus the advantage of dense occiput and nuchal ligament to cross-balance and maintain momentum.
you got this information AND their connection with endurance running:
"The fact that other cursor mammal runners have nuchal ligaments suggests that H. erectus was also a runner. The co-occurrence of a nuchal ligament with the earliest evidence of long legs in a larger body size (which, although also selected for bywalking, are essential for running) supports the interpretation that this hominin taxon engaged in endurance running."
In order to flee, they would have had to get down into a quadrupedal sprinter's start.
Sprinters do start from a quadrupedal stance, but for longer distances the advantage of that kind of start becomes comparatively insignificant.
the difference can be disregarded.
Nope.Tell me why you disagree, and if you try, you might discover that you misread what I wrote.
In Hs, the gait became refined as the 'anchor point' shifted from the skull rear to the bony chin in front of the larger skull & brain. Note that unlike great apes, humans & hylobatids have long Achilles tendons.
Thanks for the anatomy lesson, but I'm not sure how relevant it is.
Humans drink water with 2 cupped hands, as do hylobatids, no other hominoid does.Read Judges 7: 3-6 to see where out of 10,000 soldiers, only 300 drank with cupped hands.
Besides, you are doing zilch to explain the relevance of what you wrote earlier.have nuchal ligaments suggests that H. erectus was also a runner. The co-occurrence of a nuchal ligament with the earliest evidence of long legs in a larger body size (which, although also selected for by walking, are essential for running) supports the
The presence of a nuchal ligament in H. erectus is suggestive of the stabilization of the head to the trunk, probably to counter the shock wave effect of the heel strike of the foot during running57,58. The fact that other cursor mammal runners
You give a rotten excuse for not finishing it below.Would you like to finish your sentence now?
Peter Nyikos
Professor, Dept. of Mathematics -- standard disclaimer--
Univ. of South Carolina at Columbia
http://people.math.sc.edu/nyikos
Why bother, you prefer endurance hunting myths to reality.I see. You dismiss a *Nature* article AND an article in *Discover* back in the 1980's,
when it was still on the level where *Scientific American* was a decade ago, and you call it a "myth" without any evidence but your say-so for what you claim to be "reality".Gigo.
I expect such behavior in sci.bio.paleontology from Oxyaena and John Harshman, but
from you this comes as an unpleasant novelty.
Peter Nyikos
On Saturday 28 August 2021 at 16:14:30 UTC+1, Pandora wrote:
Therefore apex predators must be relatively rare.
If their theory was that hominins preyed
largely on carnivores (lions, leopards,
hyena, etc.,) then you might have some
slight beginnings of an argument. But
that's not the case. Their claim is that
hominins were carnivores (or largely so)
and chased after antelope, etc.,
competing with lions, leopards and the
like.
The idea is that early Pleistocene Homo as a faunivore occupied one of
the higher trophic levels,
But not what I would call the apex level, and it looks like you don't either:
Those are empty words -- obviously so
when you can't identify any other
occupants or these 'higher trophic levels'.
Smaller omnivores would be my guess. Like some members of
the raccoon family. Also bears, see below.
Analogy: no one doubts that meat comprises a minority
of the consumption of most members of the bear family,
yet we do think of bears as high on the food chain (trophic levels).
I think you are getting too hung up on semantics here.
But of course not as low as 1 hominin per 10 million bovids.
". . . In East Africa, my colleague Don Johanson tells me that there
is something like a one in ten million chance of finding an early
hominin fossil, if you know that they are already on the landscape.
Generally what that translates to is that about one in ten million
of the fossils they find in East Africa is an antelope fossil or some
other animal fossil . . "
I suspect antelopes were much more common in East Africa
than hominins.
It's fun to play the role of "Jack the Giant Professor Killer"
but a little more respect might garner you some
more thoughtful answers.
On Wednesday, September 1, 2021 at 2:09:08 AM UTC+1, peter2...@gmail.com wrote:
On Sunday, August 29, 2021 at 6:54:53 AM UTC-4, Paul Crowley wrote:
On Saturday 28 August 2021 at 16:14:30 UTC+1, Pandora wrote:
On Fri, 27 Aug 2021 03:34:42 -0700 (PDT), Paul Crowley <yelw...@gmail.com> wrote:
On Thursday 26 August 2021 at 14:39:36 UTC+1, Pandora wrote:
Therefore apex predators must be relatively rare.
If their theory was that hominins preyed
largely on carnivores (lions, leopards,
hyena, etc.,) then you might have some
slight beginnings of an argument. But
that's not the case. Their claim is that
hominins were carnivores (or largely so)
and chased after antelope, etc.,
competing with lions, leopards and the
like.
The idea is that early Pleistocene Homo as a faunivore occupied one of >>> the higher trophic levels,
But not what I would call the apex level, and it looks like you don't either:
There is no 'apex level' for large terrestrial
mammals. There are no 'super-carnivores'
that live by eating other carnivores
Those are empty words -- obviously so
when you can't identify any other
occupants or these 'higher trophic levels'.
Smaller omnivores would be my guess. Like some members of
the raccoon family. Also bears, see below.
Polar bears eat seals, and are really
part of a marine trophic system.
They can be regarded as 'super-
carnivores' with (for humans) highly
toxic livers.
Analogy: no one doubts that meat comprises a minority
of the consumption of most members of the bear family,
yet we do think of bears as high on the food chain (trophic levels).
Other than polar bears, no one thinks
of bears as high in the food chain.
I think you are getting too hung up on semantics here.
Not me. Humans (and undoubtedly their
hominin ancestors) find carnivore liver
toxic. Ergo, they certainly weren't apex
predators. In fact (given that intolerance
and the sheer difficulty of catching fast
prey) they were hardly predators at all
and ate little meat.
But of course not as low as 1 hominin per 10 million bovids.
". . . In East Africa, my colleague Don Johanson tells me that there
is something like a one in ten million chance of finding an early hominin fossil, if you know that they are already on the landscape.
Generally what that translates to is that about one in ten million
of the fossils they find in East Africa is an antelope fossil or some other animal fossil . . "
I suspect antelopes were much more common in East Africa
than hominins.
Yep, around 100 million to one -- based on
the visible fossil record. Meaning that
hominins were not, in any sense, part of
the ecology. They were absent. BUT. over
wide swathes of Africa, they left enormous
numbers of tools -- i.e. 'handaxes'.
So, what's the story? The great bulk of
professional PAs reflect the emptiness of
your mind. Not aware that there's even
a problem!
It's fun to play the role of "Jack the Giant Professor Killer"
but a little more respect might garner you some
more thoughtful answers.
You haven't a clue as to what's going on.
The professors have not being doing their job for
many decades. They've forgotten the questions
that they are supposed to be answering.
And you are so enthralled in your admiration of the
fine clothes they claim to wear, that you have
not noticed their nakedness.
Where are the explanations of bipedalism.
Is 'jumping over small streams' still one of
the leading theories?
In what habitat did the taxon evolve? It
certainly wasn't one for which it is wholly
unfitted -- the African savanna. But that's
still the ONLY contender in the pages of
Nature, Science, et al.
What were all those billions of 'hand-axes'
for? How come they were left in enormous
piles, most ass sharp as the day they were
made?
Is there any progress towards a solution
to this and similar questions? The answer
is NO, NO, NO and always NO.
Was there ever a 'science' so bereft of purpose
and sense? And so unaware of its own defects?
There is no 'apex level' for large terrestrial
mammals. There are no 'super-carnivores'
that live by eating other carnivores
I see you don't count the polar bear as being terrestrial.
Not me. Humans (and undoubtedly their
hominin ancestors) find carnivore liver
toxic. Ergo, they certainly weren't apex
predators. In fact (given that intolerance
and the sheer difficulty of catching fast
prey) they were hardly predators at all
and ate little meat.
The Nature article says otherwise. Daud isn't doing a crash-hot job
of refuting it. Can you do better?
[..]". . . In East Africa, my colleague Don Johanson tells me that there
is something like a one in ten million chance of finding an early hominin fossil, if you know that they are already on the landscape.
Generally what that translates to is that about one in ten million
of the fossils they find in East Africa is an antelope fossil or some other animal fossil . . "
The professors have not being doing their job for
many decades. They've forgotten the questions
that they are supposed to be answering.
On the whole this is true, but these things need to be taken
on a case by case basis.
Pandora is an invaluable contributor
to sci.bio.paleontology, and is invariably thoughtful there.
And you are so enthralled in your admiration of the
fine clothes they claim to wear, that you have
not noticed their nakedness.
Are you generally so prone to jump to conclusions about people?
What were all those billions of 'hand-axes'
for? How come they were left in enormous
piles, most as sharp as the day they were
made?
I've seen the hypothesis that they were for tearing through
the tough hides of dead mammals to get at the meat.
How does that hypothesis fare here?
Really silly paper in
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-94783-4
On Friday 3 September 2021 at 21:09:34 UTC+1, peter2...@gmail.com wrote:
[..]
There is no 'apex level' for large terrestrial
mammals. There are no 'super-carnivores'
that live by eating other carnivores
I see you don't count the polar bear as being terrestrial.
The polar bear is certainly terrestrial. It
happens to feed on marine animals that
are high in a marine trophic system.
[..]
Not me. Humans (and undoubtedly their
hominin ancestors) find carnivore liver
toxic. Ergo, they certainly weren't apex
predators.
In fact (given that intolerance
and the sheer difficulty of catching fast
prey) they were hardly predators at all
and ate little meat.
The Nature article says otherwise. Daud isn't doing a crash-hot job
of refuting it. Can you do better?
Nature regurgitates traditional thinking.
Sometimes it makes sense, often it
doesn't. Intolerance of vitamin-A is
clear proof that hominins were never
more than occasional carnivores.
Unlike the herbivores and carnivores
of the savanna, they did not evolve --
over tens of millions of years -- for fast
and/or persistent running
[..]
". . . In East Africa, my colleague Don Johanson tells me that there is something like a one in ten million chance of finding an early hominin fossil, if you know that they are already on the landscape.
[..]Generally what that translates to is that about one in ten million
of the fossils they find in East Africa is an antelope fossil or some other animal fossil . . "
The professors have not being doing their job for
many decades. They've forgotten the questions
that they are supposed to be answering.
On the whole this is true, but these things need to be taken
on a case by case basis.
Not so. In the 17th century the big question
was 'The date of Creation',
and some of the best minds devoted themselves to it.
Cromwell (no C of E man) gave a state funeral
(a rare honour) to Archbishop Ussher, largely
for his great work in the field. When a
discipline goes badly wrong, no one later
looks at its merits on a 'case by case' basis.
Pandora is an invaluable contributorShe's very good. Many in the field come
to sci.bio.paleontology, and is invariably thoughtful there.
close to 'Archbiship Ussher status'. Due
high respect.
And you are so enthralled in your admiration of the
fine clothes they claim to wear, that you have
not noticed their nakedness.
Are you generally so prone to jump to conclusions about people?
You referred to 'Nature' as though it was an
ultimate authority.
[..]
What were all those billions of 'hand-axes'
for? How come they were left in enormous
piles, most as sharp as the day they were
made?
I've seen the hypothesis that they were for tearing through
the tough hides of dead mammals to get at the meat.
That would not lead to billions of them,
mostly razor-sharp, being piled often
metres deep.
How does that hypothesis fare here?
It's rarely discussed -- as is the pattern
everywhere.
The polar bear is certainly terrestrial. It
happens to feed on marine animals that
are high in a marine trophic system.
OK, I will take this as you withdrawing your claim to which I was responding here.
[..]
Not me. Humans (and undoubtedly their
hominin ancestors) find carnivore liver
toxic. Ergo, they certainly weren't apex
predators.
That does not necessarily follow. Even so lowly a mammal as the
bandicoot learned, not long after cane toads were introduced
to Australia, to avoid eating the organs containing a deadly toxin.
Unlike the herbivores and carnivores
of the savanna, they did not evolve --
over tens of millions of years -- for fast
and/or persistent running
I have seen no convincing argument against the "persistent" part.
Can you provide one, despite the existence of ultramarathoners in contemporary humans?
and some of the best minds devoted themselves to it.
Cromwell (no C of E man) gave a state funeral
(a rare honour) to Archbishop Ussher, largely
for his great work in the field. When a
discipline goes badly wrong, no one later
looks at its merits on a 'case by case' basis.
I'm not talking about whole disciplines, only individual issues,
and individual scientists like Pandora:
Pandora is an invaluable contributor
to sci.bio.paleontology, and is invariably thoughtful there.
She's very good. Many in the field come
close to 'Archbiship Ussher status'. Due
high respect.
I hope you aren't being sarcastic here.
[..]
What were all those billions of 'hand-axes'
for? How come they were left in enormous
piles, most as sharp as the day they were
made?
I never heard of "billions" nor of enormous piles. Can you provide me with a reference?
Since this is about raw data, I hope you can point me to some universally undisputed references.
It's rarely discussed -- as is the pattern
everywhere.
Any opposing views before I came along?
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