On Wed, 25 Oct 2000 21:21:46 -0400, Wally Ballou
<[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

I wrote:
>> But I'm shure:
>> This human creature has *never* hunted an elephant, zebra, or
>> anything
>> able to run.

Wally:
>Is that supposed to be an argument?
>
>You'll have to explain why Lucy and her family couldn't possibly hunt,
>catch, kill and consume the fierce mice, rats, other small mammals,
>reptiles, birds, fish, crustaceans,
> and insects that would make a more
>than adequate paleo diet without ever going near elephants or zebra...

Wally I just want to share my impression seeing that small and famous
sceleton "standing" there.
What you list, reptiles insects and the like I do suppose also Lucy
would
have catched. I suppose in a savannah (low on fruit) the versatile
hominids
would have exploited any food resource available.
I think, when starving you and I and Lucy would eat grasshoppers even
if
they are not in the preferred or aesthetical food list
(This is not ment to be a presumption for *your* preferences).

However she looked so small and fragile.... you just wouldn't assume
such a
body fighting big animals. And also not running quickly.
And very probably there's a need of *defending* against predators like
leopards.

> ...and insects that would make a more
>than adequate paleo diet without ever going near elephants or zebra...

However you seem to assume that such insects and all that paleo
meat-alikes
are somewhat essential to a paleolithic living
(which are the reason to eat argo-cow muscles as a paleo diet for the
most).

I've come to the conclusion, that paleo-hominids did eat other
creatures.
And that conclusion of mine is *not* vegetarian. Don't forget that.
I eat zero animal percent. Lucy's grasshoppers are more than that.

But IMO the animals couldn't make much of a living.
Because they sparsely supply what's essential and the main bottleneck
of
paleo times: food energy.
Example: you need 4 whole lbs of rabbit for only 2200 kcal every day.
And if you don't manage to shrink the meat energy below some 35%
you'll die
of protein intoxication in a few weeks (ref Neanderthin, Speth,
Cordaine).
And where did the other two thirds come from?
Any pure fat source would be ok, but where is it, in the savannah?
I don't think it is wise to ignore two thirds of the actual paleo
nutrition
when attempting to rebuild a modern paleo nutrition.

>...I suspect that
>you would not have wanted to be the prey of a small band of them if they
>took a fancy to the idea of seeing just how tasty you might be...

You don't mean a band of Australopithecine women, Lucy and sisters, do
you?

Cheers,
Amadeus

readings:
 http://gened.emc.maricopa.edu/bio/bio181/BIOBK/BioBookHumEvol.html
 http://www.amnh.org/enews/headl/e1_h15b.html