On Tuesday, July 6, 2004, at 07:39 AM, Ray Audette wrote:

> Modern domestic animals get the gene for storing fat from the
> Pleistocene
> Megafauna that they are the sad remants of ( as are we ).  Any
> creature that

I wonder, Ray, how much of our genetic background was in the shadow of
the glaciers.

The zone just south of the glaciers would have been chilly, but from
what I understand, true tropical and sub tropical areas were not much
cooler than they are today, certainly not cold enough to freeze solid
in the winter. Most of human history, and most of our genetic
adaptation would be to tropical climates, and to tropical foods,
including the lean tropical animals.

Modern Homo Sapiens moved into ice age Europe some 100,000 years ago.
We can suppose that modern Europeans are their descendants, but most
modern humans are descended from tropical peoples.