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Ancient Hyenas and The First Americans

Posted by michael on from the wise-hyenas-come-out-at-eve dept.

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."

8 of 41 comments (clear)

  1. So by dar · · Score: 5, Funny

    Who's laughing now? Huh?

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    My other Slashdot ID is much lower.
  2. Silly Hyenas... by eggstasy · · Score: 4, Funny

    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*

  3. Dogs... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Can we finally answer the age old question "Who let the dogs out?"

  4. Just goes to show by mattsucks · · Score: 3, Funny

    Even 14000 years ago, it was a dog-eat-dog world. Or a dog-eat-man world.

  5. Pet Theory by lirkbald · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Pet Theory by macdaddy357 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Another problem with the theory is that he thinks there were hyenas becase he found crushed bones. The article did not mention any hyena remains being found. Hyenas don't live on the frozen tundra! Given the evidence, I could just as easily conclude that aliens crushed those bones. Before mutilating cattle, they mutilated humans. Maybe the "hyenas" were their pets, El Chupacabra.

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  6. Good Heavens man by Syncdata · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

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    "Inattention makes clowns of us all" -Bean
  7. When the dogs changed sides by panurge · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.

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    Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.