Start of the evolution of man

[Nesti (Mark)]

Originally Posted by multiweb

Ha... Nesti can answer that one I'm sure.

LOL, how about a nice big asteroid wiped out all those big nasty lizard things 60 million years ago, and THAT was the the thing that gave us a chance to compete...how's that?

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by Nesti

LOL, how about a nice big asteroid wiped out all those big nasty lizard things 60 million years ago, and THAT was the the thing that gave us a chance to compete...how's that?

Actually the primate like animals were already in existence then...the oldest fossils which show fairly clear primate anatomical structure are around 80-90 million years old. Granted, the animal looked like a mouse, but it was the start of the evolution towards the primates proper (which developed around 60-64Ma), as we know it.

[Gerald Sargent]

Whilst some interesting fossils have been found in Africa, a significant part of the
Northern Hemisphere was wiped/ground down to bedrock during the last ice age,
this removed any fossil evidence that may otherwise have been found there. It is
most interesting to note that a lot of "recent" human effort seems to have bourne
fruit along the edge of the receeding ice front. Work along the silk road and about
the tarum depression north of tibet had produced interesting stuff. Likewise the
ancient shoreline, now beneath the waters, of the black sea are producing results.
In my opinion there is mounting evidence that "technological advances" from
primitive agricuture onwards seem to move north to south not from africa (where
I have spent some time E, W and Central). Gerald.

[Nesti (Mark)]

Originally Posted by renormalised

Actually the primates were already in existence then...the oldest fossils which show fairly clear primate anatomical structure are around 80-90 million years old. Granted, the animal looked like a mouse, but it was the start of the evolution towards the primates proper, as we know it.

Ergo my use of the word "compete" and not 'evolve'...

A sideways wiggling dog-sized RAT!!!

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by Gerald Sargent

Whilst some interesting fossils have been found in Africa, a significant part of the
Northern Hemisphere was wiped/ground down to bedrock during the last ice age,
this removed any fossil evidence that may otherwise have been found there. It is
most interesting to note that a lot of "recent" human effort seems to have bourne
fruit along the edge of the receeding ice front. Work along the silk road and about
the tarum depression north of tibet had produced interesting stuff. Likewise the
ancient shoreline, now beneath the waters, of the black sea are producing results.
In my opinion there is mounting evidence that "technological advances" from
primitive agricuture onwards seem to move north to south not from africa (where
I have spent some time E, W and Central). Gerald.

We're talking about a lot earlier time, Gerald...millions of years before this. But I am aware of what you're talking about.

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by Nesti

Ergo my use of the word "compete" and not 'evolve'...

A sideways wiggling dog-sized RAT!!!

Actually it was smaller...more like a mouse to a squirrel in size

[adman (Adam)]

Originally Posted by Nesti

The only clear distinctions that I see between say, Great Apes and ourselves, is that we are egotistical and have no equilibrium with the environment...

in biological systems, populations reach an equilibrium when the birth rate and the death rate are balanced. The death rate includes causes like disease, old age, predation etc. Humans are no different from any other group of animals - its just that for better or worse, the death rate is not yet equal to the birth rate. But it will come. Quite simply, at some point there will not be enough food or water. Continuous exponential population growth is not possible. Whether it will be a "soft landing", with the growth flattening out naturally, or a "hard-landing" with a sharp decline in population remains to be seen....

[xelasnave]

The answer is simple.
It was not "humans" or any "human" species we would link to our tribe that can take credit for the path we now find ourselves on...
Our evolvement ..everything we are..speech , writting etc can be traced to our best friend..the humble faithful dog....
There was a point where many humaniods could have stepped forward to claim the world but if not for the dog our tribe would have never got on top... Neanderthals were stronger and as much as folk hate the next statement..Neanderthals were better placed to over come us than we could overcome them...enter the dog... the dog let us let go our reliance upon the sence of smell ..something that took up much of our brain potential... dogs smelt for us..and being able to usxe that particular sence was at one point more critical to survival than sight or hearing... dogs befriended our ancestors... for what ever reason they selected our ancestors as the species they would support..and support us they did... whilst the Neandathals had no daogsd they had to reserve a large section of their brains to manage the sence of smell... try and comprehend what it was like way back then..smell was so important and yet the wonderful dog decided to do this job for us..and so we were able to leave that job to our dogs and release brain power to address the next level..speech... without the dog we would have been wiped out by the Neandathals ..they were stronger and as much as all hate to believe it..at that point they were better than our tribe... but with our new abilities of communication and a permanent gaurd with us at all times we got so far up on the Neandathals we finally pushed them out of the Universe... but without the dog they would have beat us and we would be extinct not them...so I say this... in answer to the question outlined in the post... the answer you seek is the humble dog... without the humble dog humans would never have survived and never would have had brain space to develope speech..and of course communication etc...so I say it was the dog that got us going to develope the power of speech so as to eliminate other competing humaniods

alex