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Ancient Hyenas and The First Americans
DrLudicrous writes "ABC is running a story about anthropologist Christy Turner's theory about hyenas, humans and dogs. The idea is that humans were unable to encroach on Alaska, and thus the Americas, thousands of years ago because of gigantic, bone-crushing hyenas, much larger than their African cousins. Eventually, the domestication of dogs somehow provided the first Americans with protection against these beasts, and within a couple of millenia, the ancient hyenas were extinct."
Who's laughing now? Huh?
My other Slashdot ID is much lower.
Don't you know that we are the humans? The single most advanced species on the surface of the planet?
Look at the pretty opposable thumb! LOOK AT THE THUMB DAMNIT!
*CHOMP*
Can we finally answer the age old question "Who let the dogs out?"
Even 14000 years ago, it was a dog-eat-dog world. Or a dog-eat-man world.
This really has the sound of a 'pet theory' to me (no pun intended :-p). This guy really, really, likes hyenas, and therefore concludes that they are the solution to a significant archeological mystery. I mean, really, hyenas aren't the only predators around; why didn't (say) the lions in Africa kill off humans there?
Nothing wrong with pet theories... he's just gonna need more evidence than a dog skull in a hyena cave to prove it.
extinct because of humans. We really are the cancer of this planet.
Oh yes, what a shame it is that we no longer have packs of 40-50 giant unafraid hyenas scouring the continent. I for one, plan to cry myself to sleep tonight, for the poor, misunderstood giant hyena.
What we did was supplant one pack hunter for another. And I for one, am rooting for the Humans.
"Inattention makes clowns of us all" -Bean
I'd just like to know when the dogs decided that the humans were going to win, so it was worth becoming domesticated...or did they just hang around people thinking "They're bigger, the hyenas will eat them first?"
I know that, faced with a giant bone-crunching hyena, our dogs would bravely hide behind me and wait to see what happened next.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
I read it as that too, PhysicsGenius.
Fun fact: During the ice age, Alaska was in the tropics, hence the hyenas. This was caused by the tilt of the Earth.
If you don't understand any of my sayings, come to me in private and I shall take you in my German mouth.
Humans, hyenas, and dogs -- and these relate to nerds how? Is this like one of those SAT analogy questions? Or are we talking metaphor here? Lets see, the users are humans, the programmers dogs, the bosses hyenas ... or was that users dogs, programmers hyenas, bosses human ... nah, users hyenas, programmers....
It's hard to imagine a sufficiently menacing hyena, or my neighbor's terrier taking it on to protect alpha, but anything's possible.
on CNN about how long dogs have been domesticated, and their surprising understanding of humans.
Brevity is the soul of wit
-- Polonius
Seeing a dog bone here and there isn't much evidence.
I could also say the humans are the ones enabling the dogs to enter. Not the dogs enabling the humans.
Could be symbiosis but a society smart enough to domesticate dogs would be smart enough to deal with the hyenas. 40 hyenas vs 20 skilled humans with spears and shields, I'd say the humans will win.
As far as I see, if a bunch of animals start to become a problem with humans, the humans may get fed up and start systematically wiping them out. No greenpeace in those days. Most large predators have lost ground to humans in areas with higher order civilisations. Don't see many asiatic lions anymore do you?
Maybe a bunch of East Asians acquired a taste for specially prepared Giant Hyena Stew (especially for weddings and other auspicious events).