Posted on 11/27/2011 1:20:29 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Tuna has been on the menu for a lot longer than we thought. Even 42,000 years ago, the deep-sea dweller wasn't safe from fishing tackle according to new finds in southeast Asia.
We know that open water was no barrier to travel in the Pleistocene -- humans must have crossed hundreds of kilometres of ocean to reach Australia by 50,000 years ago. But while humans had already been pulling shellfish out of the shallows for 100,000 years by that point, the first good evidence of fishing with hooks or spears comes much later -- around 12,000 years ago.
The new finds blow that record out of the water. Sue O'Connor at the Australian National University in Canberra and colleagues dug through deposits at the Jerimalai shelter in East Timor. They discovered 38,000 fish bones from 23 different taxa, including tuna and parrotfish that are found only in deep water. Radiocarbon dating revealed the earliest bones were 42,000 years old.
Amidst the fishy debris was a broken fish hook fashioned from shell, which the team dated to between 16,000 and 23,000 years...
East Timor hosts few large land animals, so early occupants would have needed highly developed fishing skills to survive...
Any sites of former human occupation that were located on the Pleistocene shore -- rather than in coastal cliffs like the Jerimalai shelter -- are now submerged.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
Damn, ya beat me!
Then there was that other age-old jingle, “Ask any cave mermaid you happen to see, ‘What’s the best tuna?’ ‘Brontosaurus of the Sea!’”
Could early man tune a piano before they could tuna fish?
(Come on, folks. We have to keep this thread alive).
That’s funny, I just tried to explain that quote to someone too young to understand Archie.
Note: this topic is from 11/27/2011. Sorry, Charlie.
We know that open water was no barrier to travel in the Pleistocene -- humans must have crossed hundreds of kilometres of ocean to reach Australia by 50,000 years ago. But while humans had already been pulling shellfish out of the shallows for 100,000 years by that point... The new finds... at the Jerimalai shelter in East Timor... 38,000 fish bones from 23 different taxa, including tuna and parrotfish that are found only in deep water. Radiocarbon dating revealed the earliest bones were 42,000 years old. Amidst the fishy debris was a broken fish hook fashioned from shell, which the team dated to between 16,000 and 23,000 years.
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