Ingrid Bauer/Jean-Claude Catry wrote:

>>Waht would be "optimal foraging" in the area where the species "human"
>>developed - out of  primate predecessors?
>>In the savannah, for 1-2 mio years?
>>Optimal foraging would be digging out tubers - they are plenty,
>>
>>
>nutritious.
>
>
>>Or harvesting tree and bush fruits - nuts.Accessible to upright walking
>>primates with stones to smash the shells.
>>Maybe brains of leftover skulls from predator kills - if walking long
>>distances in the savannah  could count as "optimal".
>>What do you think?
>>
>>
>
> also fresh water life is very available ( they will for sure living on the
>shore of fresh water bodies) like fishes shrimps mussells etc , then you
>have all the aquatic birds easy to get by throwing stones at also all the
>mamals coming to drink ( at their most vulnerable to humans or carnivorous )
>and at last left over from carnivorous animals .
>living at the edge of the savannah,  water and forest seems to me the ideal
>place to forage animals and plants .
>
>jean-claude
>
>
>
Interesting you should mention that. Because in the Mississippi drainage
there were Indians who depended upon freshwater mussels to such an
extent that they built their houses and ceremonial lodges on top of
heaps of  these shells. This was from approx. 6,000 BC to 1,000 BC.
Mounds of this type were often as much as 300 feet wide, 600 feet long,
and 15 to 20 feet high. They had as much as 60,000 to 100,000 cubic
yards of material.

Barry