Predators 'Drove Human Evolution'

BBC ^ | 2-19-2006 | Paul Ricon

[1FASTGLOCK45]

Naw, I was trying to be funny but i guess it didn't work. Back to the drawing board. :)

[the final gentleman]

Children. Little babies and small children.

Wolves, eagles, and bears and cats of all sizes found them delicious and irresistible.

But only when the wild man with the big stick was otherwise preoccupied.

[Defiant]

eagles and crocodiles.

OK, who were these people being carried off by eagles???

And any people who were stupid enough to get eaten by crocodiles on a regular basis are about as smart as water buffalo, and deserve to be extinct. One member of the tribe falling prey every few years, ok, that is acceptable. But if you are going down to the local watering hole and keep getting eaten, you are not going to last long enough to evolve into anything. Me, I'd find another water source the first time it happened to anyone in my tribe.

[blam]

"Just ask Timothy Treadwell if he thinks animals hunted humans..."

Grizzly man, huh? The bears recently ate him and his girlfriend. Amazingly, there is an audio of that incident. They cut the bear open to retrieve the human body parts from his stomach, they knew which one did it because he had just filmed the bear.

It was a closed casket funeral.

[trashcanbred]

I HIGHLY recommend watching the movie about him. The guy acts really bizarre like when he gets into the water and swims with a bear. Also all of his friends and the people they talk to (like the coroner), they are just... strange. There is sort of a surreal nature about the people they interview and if I did not know any better I would have thought this was an Ed Wood movie.

besides that the guy did get some great video of bears fighting and eating.

[blam]

"Despite? Nothing humans do requires more social skill than war. If two tribes get into a fight, the more social side will usually win due to better teamwork. Almost all modern human traits can be traced to its advantage in war. We walk upright to be able to carry weapons. Our long lifespan, well past breeding years, is so we have old wise men around to direct the battle. I can't figure out why anthropologists grasp at any explanation other than the real one: humans evolved from war and we are by nature war makers."

Of all the primates, humans are the only one that gives birth with the baby facing to to the rear. The mother is hindered with assisting birth because she'll break the baby's back if she tugs... she needs help from other humans...monkeys and other primates do not have this problem.
Humans are born 'backwards' due to the large head whose size is driven by a large brain. They do a 180 degree turn just before birth.

[blam]

"Me, I'd find another water source the first time it happened to anyone in my tribe."

Me, I'd make the crocodile fearful of me.

[sphinx]

I can't figure out why anthropologists grasp at any explanation other than the real one: humans evolved from war and we are by nature war makers.

Homo homini lupus.

[Dustbunny]

Arn't people part of the food chain now for all large predators when they are unarmed with defensive weapons?

[edcoil]

With the exception of horses, more humans are killed by dogs then any other animal.

[A. Goodwin]

It was a movie quote (and it turned out that the ROUS existed in the movie, too). Capybaras crack me up...

[Dustbunny]

According to the theory espoused by Professor Sussman, early humans evolved not as hunters but as prey for animals such as wild dogs, cats, hyenas, eagles and crocodiles.

I hate to tell Professor Sussman but my husband says he is full of crap. Prey animals have eyes on the sides of their heads and all predators have their eyes in the front of their heads.

Most people we know have their eyes in the front of their heads. LOL /sarc

[Reeses]

Cesarean section births are now very common so evolution of brain size has probably resumed. Unfortunately with the invention of reliable birth control, the bigger brained the mother the less children she will probably have. I suspect male brain size will increase but not so much female.

Robots are now appearing on the battlefield and just like human evolution they are now on the evolutionary fast track. 1,000 years from now humans may just be a curiosity at a zoo named Earth.

[HP8753]

Darwins 4th law ....Survival of the least tasty !!

[HP8753]

My sister was bit by a moose.

Was she holding cheese??.....That attracts them ,you know. ;-)

[Raycpa]

Prey animals have eyes on the sides of their heads

That is consistent with some of the singles bars i once frequented.

[blam]

"I suspect male brain size will increase but not so much female."

Because big brained women will be too smart for their own good. (and, not have children)

[Eclectica]

Most of the large vertebrates were gone by 10,000 years ago—except in Africa.

If Darwin is correct, and if the out-of-africa evolution theory is correct, it would follow that East Africans would be the winners of New York City and Boston marathons.

[Beagle8U]

"Rodents of unusual size exist in South America...they're called capybaras (Spanish carpinchos) and are about 40 inches long."

I think the Taper is classified as a rodent, and weighs several hundred pounds.

[csense]

The 'Taung' child (2Mya) might have been killed by a bird of prey. A triangular shaped hole in the skull is similar to what is produced by an eagle's talon. In addition there was som damage around the eye sockets indicating a bird attempting to get at the brain.

I'm not trying to be disrespectful here, but I find it highly unlikely that one could even begin to ascertain such things from a skull that has been exposed to the elements, and God knows what else, for two million years.