> << All of these points indicate that man is not really designed for a life of > > hunting and gathering in the arid grasslands Homo Sapiens evolved to inhabit a very wet grassland, the steppe-tundra grasslands of the Pleistocene. These areas not only had high precipitation rates but also retained water in surface ponds because of permafrost. This permafrost also inhibited the growth of trees. From pollen counts we know that this environment contained more grass than we produce today even after deforestation and agriculture have laid waste to the great forests of the world. These grasslands supported in turn huge populations of herbivores which in turn expanded the grasslands by browsing during their winter migrations into regions without permafrost. This lush environment could support many more people per acre than any arid grassland populated by historical hunter-gatherers. Ray Audette Author "NeanderThin" http://www.neanderthin.com