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Date: | Wed, 30 May 2007 09:54:24 -0400 |
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William wrote:-
"Easier to get meat from a herd than a wild animal - let us not
underestimate the laziness (efficiency) of paleoman."
Domestication of wild cattle in the Palaeolithic would have been rather more
difficult than you might think - you have to remember that Palaeolithic/Early
Neolithic-era wild cattle were giant aurochs, easily capable of killing a human
being, they were not the timid, inbred modern cattle we have today. Without
the use of domesticated dogs to help harass these ancient,giant cattle into
enclosures, raising domesticated aurochs would have been very dangerous for
humans, and therefore highly unlikely.
Taken from the Aurochs entry for Wikipedia:-
"Modern cattle have become much smaller than their wild forebears: the height
at the withers of a domesticated cow is about 1.4 meters, whereas an
aurochs could reach about 1.75 meters. Aurochs also had several features
rarely seen in modern cattle, such as lyre-shaped horns set at a forward
angle, a pale stripe down the spine, and sexual dimorphism of coat color. Males
were black with a pale eel stripe down the spine, while females and calves
were reddish. They were also known to have very aggressive temperaments
and killing one was seen as a great act of courage in ancient cultures."
Current genetic DNA-research(re Wikipedia etc.) places the domestication of
dogs(from captured wolves) to c.14,000 to 17,000 years ago, preceding
domestication of any other animals, such as horses,cattle etc.
Here's a couple of standard standard links re Punctuated Equilibrium. It's
remarkably Creationist in its approach:-
http://tinyurl.com/yo9vwy
http://tinyurl.com/365mty
Geoff
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