How could human beings move out of Africa with so many large, fierce animals?

Discussion in 'General Science & Technology' started by geek, Dec 6, 2017.

  1. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    That is not what even this weird poster was suggesting.
     
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  3. iceaura Valued Senior Member

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    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34494.The_Wee_Free_Men

    "It doesn't stop being magic just because you know how it's done" (Pratchett, or close enough)

    My nomination for the inscription on the Great Seal Of The Scientific Endeavor. (It's Still Magic When You Know How It's Done, etc - pick one)

    This is a better book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34501.A_Hat_Full_of_Sky

    but the inscription is perhaps too general - for everyone pretending to be human:

    "Shudupshudupshudupshudup" (Pratchett).
     
    Last edited: Dec 7, 2017
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  5. Write4U Valued Senior Member

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    On a more serious note, I doubt that early humans migrated through inland routes of Africa but along both the East coast and the West coast.
    Some of the earliest toolmakers existed at the southernmost tip of South Africa. They were coastal dwellers and existed for a large part on fishing and clams which were abundant at that time. This may have resulted in a greater advance in sophisticated tool use and also in intelligence.

    Of course this was long after the age of dinosaurs.
    https://asunow.asu.edu/content/early-modern-humans-use-fire-engineer-tools

    and
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinnacle_Point

    It would seem entirely reasonable that coastal migration north along the east and west coasts of Africa may have started by these already advanced humans. Abundant seafood and relative safety from large predators would be a much preferred route than over the much hotter inland routes which also would be much more hazardous.

    At that time, this might have resulted in two separate "bottleneck" land connections. Along the west coast through Spain and along the east coast through the Middle East land connection.

    This separation may have resulted in separate evolutionary processes and account for some of the diversity in the human race.
     
    Last edited: Dec 7, 2017
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  7. Seattle Valued Senior Member

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    How can humans (today) go for a walk with all these large automobiles around? Surely they will all be run over soon.
     
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  8. Kittamaru Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Adieu, Sciforums. Valued Senior Member

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    My response to this thread can best be summed up as:

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  9. Seattle Valued Senior Member

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    Yet another general science and technology thread.

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    No need to move it I guess. If all such threads were moved, there would be no threads left in the science sections.

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  10. sweetpea Valued Senior Member

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    origin likes this.
  11. Kittamaru Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Adieu, Sciforums. Valued Senior Member

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    I would suspect that, over the intervening timespan, that "wall" became more vertical than it was when Dino's walked upon it.
     
  12. sweetpea Valued Senior Member

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    And, there's me thinking gravity was much weaker back then.

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  13. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    It seems to be a limestone slab from the Maastrichtian period, right at the end of the Cretaceous, so about 65-70m yrs ago. The period is named after chalk outcrops found near Maastricht in the Netherlands. So these tracks were made at the very end of the dinosaur epoch.
     
  14. Gawdzilla Sama Valued Senior Member

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    "All fail the mighty home schooled child."
     
  15. origin Heading towards oblivion Valued Senior Member

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    Wow, that is really amazing. The real earth is so much more interesting than the creationist earth.
     
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  16. Kittamaru Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Adieu, Sciforums. Valued Senior Member

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    Neat! Out of curiosity - would a limestone slab of such a size be able to handle the tectonic forces required to shunt it from mostly horizontal to mostly vertical without simply shattering? Curious to know if my idea holds water (well, obviously not because it's limestone - water would erode it

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  17. Gawdzilla Sama Valued Senior Member

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    The dynamics of the move and the constitution of the slab allowed it to happen. Probably a slow up-thrust rather than Fantasia-type upheaval.
     
  18. origin Heading towards oblivion Valued Senior Member

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    The mountains in Glacier park Montana are the result of an over thrust. That means that the youngest rock layers are at the bottom of the mountains and the oldest are on the top.

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    See Lewis Overthrust if you are interested.
     
  19. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    I would assume it was covered by mudstone or something when it was laid down and that when the uplift took place it would have been part of a large block of strata. The mudstone would have been subsequently eroded away, leaving the limestone exposed. So yes, no reason why it could not have become tilted as part of a general folding process, as it would have been protected by being embedded in something larger.
     
  20. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    It probably is shattered, but at such a large scale it still leaves large areas unbroken.
     
  21. Kittamaru Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Adieu, Sciforums. Valued Senior Member

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    Holy nuts... the kinds of forces involved in these kinds of things rather boggle the mind.
     
  22. Write4U Valued Senior Member

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    It was a tongue in cheek response to post #10 and post #16
     
  23. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    Well, you sortta answered your own question there.

    Modern humans (at least the Australian ones) are quite capable of coexisting with giant earthworms. Why wouldn't ancient man?

    And while we're at it, modern humans are also quite capable of coexisting creatures a hundred times - nay - two thousand times - the size of a human.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_whale#Size
     

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