William wrote:
> On Sat, 24 Mar 2007 16:53:39 -0400, Juergen Botz <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>
>>>
>> And there are hunter gatherers still today who die of most of those
>> causes.
>
> Yes, the unlucky and the stupid. Too rare to be considered as a common 
> cause of death.
"Approximately 6 percent to 10 percent of early humans were preyed upon, 
according to evidence such as teeth marks on bones, talon marks on 
skulls and holes in a fossil cranium into which saber-tooth cat fangs 
fit."  http://record.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/4777.html

We may question the main hypothesis of Sussman's book, that early 
hominids weren't much as hunters, but the evidence that they were preyed 
upon has been acknowledged by many.  Add infectious diseases, parasites 
and the other things that Juergen listed, and it's not hard to see that 
many didn't live to, or much past, their prime.  Once again, all wild 
mammals are killed by parasites, infectious disease, predation, 
exposure, and so on.  The burden of proof rests on anyone who supposes 
that paleolithic humans and hominids were somehow exempt.

Todd Moody
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