With apologies to all listers who have little contact with
animals:   It seems that some of you have little
understanding of animals!  Or hunting!  So may I suggest
that you may not understand what is going on today and
certainly not what would have happened 50K years ago

> >evidence suggests Neanderthals hunted mammoth with
nothing more than
> >crude spears.

I contend that some of them thought that their "spears"
were finely crafted.   The Chinese found that bamboo can
make a very sharp knife,   and  a fire hardened piece of
wood can be brought to a fine edge.

There was a documentary on TV that followed a "Bushman" thru
the Forest.  This  Bushman trailed or followed an Elephant
for several days until the Elephant no longer feared the
Bushman.   Then the Bushman fired off several arrows into
the soft stomach area of the Elephant.    Then the Bushman
followed the Elephant for another few days until the
Elephant as too badly infected in the gut to walk any
longer.  Then the Bushman returned to his village and led
all villagers to the dying Elephant.  Then they camped at
that site for as long as it took them to eat all the
Elephant  meat that they could stand to eat.  It was said
that they did not eat an Elephant every week.  Then, then,
then,then, ??

If this is how Mammoths were hunted do you think that our
ancestors exterminated the Mammoth,  I think that idea is
absurd!

May I suggest that five Neanderthals with five spears could
have done in a Mammoth in the same way.    IMHO many species
got too fat and lazy then some change in circumstance wiped
them out.   Passenger Pigeons--shotguns,  Buffalo--Rifles,
Dodos-  ?

Again and again please do a better job of describing hunting
and wild animals --  it seems that you all grew up in a big
City and have strange, unrealistic  ideas about animals and
hunting.   Or I could get more firm and say "Wrong"  ideas
about animals and hunting.  So how on earth could you
propose something about wild animals and wild humans?

> On a steppe or open grassland with a herd of bison's
(mammoth, whatever) the
> main problem should be just to come close to them.
> >you would be amazed how easy it is to get close to a
kangaroo.

The "American Indian"  had no trouble getting food  until
forced to live on poor land!

Would all of you please take a trip to the nearest Ocean
shore.   Then dig with a stick in the sand and the pebbly
places.  You may find that there are many edible items.

The Ancients who were smart enough to live near the Ocean
shore could never ever have been hungry.  Maybe bored with
eating mollusks, but never hungry.  The "Tide" goes out
twice a day:  The "Table is set" twice a day.

I propose that the reason we have trouble completing the
fossil chain is that the shoreline went up and down every
50K years, and covered the evidence we seek.   We are left
with only the campsites that were on high ground.

We have plenty of evidence from stone age men,  why is it so
hard to understand.

Regards,  Lorenzo