On Fri, 5 Jan 2001 03:19:38 -0600, Ray Audette <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>... a much colder time than we currently live
>in.  This means that the temperate regions were much closer to the Equator
>than they are now.  These areas were home to the Pleistocene megafauna and
>included areas (such as Texas and Mexico) that would be considered tropical
>today.

Texas and Mexico home of Megafauna?
Mammoth?
Of course Texas and Mexico were free of any humans up to the last Cro Magnon
expansion after 40000 BC (America 12,000 or so).
While this is plain good paleolithicum, it's only the very upper end and far
too less time to let genetic adaptions happen.
As you use to state.
Under which climatic conditions are we actually evolved?

The tropical areas in similar latitudes in evolutionary areas like
Africa/Europe/Asia(?) have as a speciality the mediterraneum.
This makes the climate different and some climatic areas were totally
inexistent in this space.
And the sahara was a total extreme dry desert, hard to cross.
Because of the ice age dryness.

The picture at http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/afr(22-.gif
or http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/NEW_MAPS/africa1.gif
shows some grasslands though.

Do you assume that your fatty megafauna lived there?
I think we could find out which fauna to expect there.

It will be harder to tell it they were fatty enough and
suitable as a nutrition backbone without predominating plant food.

With regards,
Amadeus