On Mon, 11 Dec 2000 09:47:11 -0800 Ken Stuart <[log in to unmask]> writes:
> I'm not sure it would even occur to H-Gs to even try to eat leaves
> or stems of plants - especially since the first such attempts would
indicate
> that these did not sustain life.
Ardeith writes:
Why not?.........
I think I missed something here.....as I understand it, we
share a common ancestor with the apes, and through much
of our development we are thought to have lived much like
the apes.....family groups and such.....and we are thought
to have fed ourselves much as the apes do.....leaves, tender
stems, fruit, insects, perhaps bird eggs, occasionally hunting
down and eating monkeys......I've seen film of gorillas wading
in marshes and digging up tubers with their feet, and eating
the tubers.....they also pull up and eat some sort of onion
bulb.....the gorillas have also been filmed pulling off the
seed heads of grasses and chewing on them as well as
eating the tender bit at the end of grass stems......all of
which indicates to me that our early ancestors probably
did much the same thing.......gorillas and chimps get
most of their nourishment from leaves.....so do long-
nosed monkeys.....and all three species have huge
stomach paunches because it take so much leafy
matter to supply all the nutrients they need.........
We came out of the trees ready and willing to eat
leaves, stems, roots, bulbs, tubers, seeds, fruit, nuts,
eggs (bird and reptile), insects, and any small animal
we could catch and kill....turtles and snakes come to
mind..........on the open savannahs, the leaves of the
trees and vines that once fed us we no longer available,
and we probably ate more roots, bulbs, tubers, and
grass seed than before.....I think we probably ate the
tender pods of many sorts of beans and peas too....
The studies I read at college indicated that our earliest
ancestors were really more Gatherer/Hunters than Hunter/
Gatherers.......and later ancestors who had learned to
hunt effectively could subsist quite well on what could
be gathered......hunting added a welcome source of
meat to be sure.....but that meat was more likely to be
small animals than large ones.....we developed this way
for thousands of years.....and it was not until we ventured
into the colder areas that we had such a huge need for
the fats of the animals......and big game hunting became
a necessity......we also needed the hides and fur to keep
us warm..........
Why do you suppose the "Hunting Season" is in the Fall
of the year? Don't you suppose our ancestors took game
animals whenever they had a need for meat? Spring or
Summer? Yes, they did......but when we migrated to
cold climates, and it became necessary to store up meat
and fats for the winter months, our ancestors hunted in the
Fall, when the animals were fattest because they had stored
up the fat to get them through the winter....
When we began to keep herds we had to thin them in
the Fall for we could not store enough food for them to
last all winter.....so killing off the excess livestock also
became a Fall thing....
Fur animals had the thickest coats in the Fall for the same
reason....to survive the winter.......so trapping for furs
became a fall and winter routine.....
Tender leaves and stems of many plants have been part
of our diet for most of our evolution.....and there are
many "weeds" out there that were there when our
ancestors had nothing but a pointed stick to dig with....
or to kill something with.......Humans can no longer
live well on just leaves and such as the gorillas do....
we have become carnivorous omnivours.......we can
and do eat almost anything that can't get away from
us......
And as an afterthought......the apes and some monkeys
develop large paunches because they have to eat so
much leafy stuff just to survive.......and I've seen pictures
of people who are living in starvation conditions who
also had big stomachs..........because they are eating
so much of the wrong stuff just to survive? I wonder
...................
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Walk The Path With Practical Feet!
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