On Mon, 19 Oct 1998, Ray Audette wrote:

> But best sources I can give you for Neoteny are "Covenant of The Wild"
> by Budiansky and Paul Shepard's "The Tender Carnivore and the Sacred
> Game" both in my bibliography.  This process that we call domestication
> is a common one in Nature and leads to a lot of symbiotic relations
> (lichen is a good example).

Neoteny is one thing.  The thesis that Cro-Magnons were
neotenized Neanderthals is another.  It is possible that if there
was a split in lineage, one line leading to CM and the other to
Neanderthal, as many anthropologists believe, the CM line is the
one that eventually became neotenized.

In terms of diet, the theory that the omnivorous A. Africanus
flourished while the vegetarian A. Robustus became extinct makes
sense.  And that took place about 2.5 mya.  It's not clear that
neoteny has any implications for diet.  I think it is your view
that, in the context of dogs and wolves for example, it doesn't.

Todd Moody
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