90% of the time span of fully modern humans was spent following a
big game use adaptation.
from U. Iowa online course on human origins.
http://www.uiowa.edu/~anthro/origins/campus/campus.htmlhttp://www.uiowa.edu/~anthro/origins/campus/lec22.html -
The interesting thing about the animals eaten by H. erectus is that
they are almost always large animals. We don't
find the bones of rabbits, but instead the bones of woolly mammoths,
giant deer, bison, and other large mammals
So, this adaptation is usually referred to as the big game hunting
tradition. However, since we aren't really sure
that they were actually hunting, I prefer to call this the big game
use tradition.
From the animals found in butchery sites, H. erectus was able to
hunt or otherwise exploit an astonishing number
of large animals. At Zhoukoudian there is evidence that they
butchered and ate elephants, deer, woolly rhinos, and
giant beavers.
Philip Thrift
http://www.paleofitness.com