Ever since the Pleistocene era, human societies have expanded rapidly, developing innovative ways to defend their territories and migrate across the land. Consisting of an aggregate of humans living together, these societies became more powerful as time progressed by consuming more meat (megafauna). Supporting this development, the more mammals that humans would eat, the more protein their bodies would absorb. When humans consume high amounts of protein, they develop stronger muscles, which leads to the stimulation of brain activity. By way of further explanation, amino acids from the proteins are used to make the neurotransmitters that allow your brain cells to network and communicate. Amino acids that come from the protein you eat are the building blocks of your brain’s network. They can excite or calm your brain as well as nourish your brain throughout its lifetime. Also, they allow the body's own proteins to be used to support life, particularly those found in muscle. This led humans to develop intelligence and create a wide variety of tools. These tools are what the early hominids used to develop their culture into that of hunter-gatherer-fishers, making humans a more dominant mammal within that ecosystem.
Rapidly evolving throughout the late Pleistocene to the early to mid Holocene, hunter-gatherer-fisher societies hunted megafauna creatures in a systematic and ethical way. When one species migrates to a different ecosystem, that species is not usually recognized as a threat to other species. Survival, during the late Pleistocene and Holocene era, was one of the most important aspects to life. Any organism, regardless of size, living within their environment had to stay alive and reproduce. During these two eras, it seems...
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...val then humans were not responsible for killing the massive creatures.
There are arguments for both sides, however, I found the overkill hypothesis more compelling. The attributes toward such a massive event to human intervention seems beyond what the evidence actually provides. The early hominids expanded rapidly and were very innovative in how they developed their culture into that of hunter-gatherer-fishers. Being able to exploit their resources, the hominids themselves turned into a more dominant mammal within throughout the Late Pleistocene and Holocene eras.
Works Cited
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In July of 2001, a group of archeologists discovered the skull and jaw bone of the oldest member of the human family. The skull is a new discovery and was found in the Djurab Desert of Northern Chad by a group of archeologists lead by Michel Brunet, and is thought to be six to seven million years old (Walton). The age of the skull and jaw bone were approximated through the association of the fauna that were found with the fossils (Brunet). The skull is a major find for archeologists because they now have a new piece of the puzzle that shows the evolution of humans from apes and it provides information to a period that scientists had very little knowledge about because of the lack of evidence (Whitfield).
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Man is responsible for the extinction of the North American megafauna (Donlan 2005, Rubenstein et al. 2006). Since our ancestors are responsible for the extinction, it’s our duty to fix what our ancestors have destroyed (Donlan 2005). Moreover, according to Donlan (2005) most megafauna species in Africa and Asia are endangered or under threat. Hence, relocating them to North American is a best way of conserving them because the country carries “Global conservation implications” and contrary to that Africa and Asia practice poor conservation strategies (Donlan 2005). He further argues that N...
There is evidence to suggest that Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens had coexisted for approximately 35-40,000 years, (Fagan 2010) from around 60,000 years ago to 25,000 years ago when they finally went extinct (Gibbon 2001). Anthropologists are still uncertain what the cause of their extinction was. This paper will analyze three main theories of Neanderthal extinction. The first theory is the competition theory, which claims that the Homo sapiens and Neanderthals had to compete for resources, ultimately leading to their demise. The second theory I will discuss is the climate change theory, which claims that Homo sapiens lived while Neanderthals died because they were better adapted to the climate. The last theory I will discuss is the possible “extinction through absorption” theory which claims the Neanderthal interbred with the Homo sapiens and became one species. In this paper I will also be comparing the technologies, and diets of both species. In addition, I will look at the anatomic relation between the Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, how their body shape and size differed, and if this gave any advantage to one side or the other. My thesis for this paper will state that Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis had co-existed but the disappearance of the Neanderthal in Eurasia is due to the appearance of the more culturally advanced and genetically superior Homo sapiens and the failure of the Neanderthal to adapt in an evolving climate.
I stated that brief evolutionary supposed history to prove my first point. If there is a certain change within the animals that were "supposedly" roaming the...
The AHH suggests that food shortages and predators forced a branch of our primitive ancestors out of the trees ...
An ecological ethic as defined by Aldo Leopold is “a limitation on freedom of action in the struggle for existence.” Leopold’s Land Ethic is an ethical viewpoint that acknowledges the vast and complex interconnection of all living and non-living things in biota that make up our planet and points to a way of living that, according to Leopold, “tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community.” Part of the understanding involved in the Land Ethic is that biota are a complex linkage of diverse and interdependent chains which form a pyramid with soil and microbes forming the base and apex predators forming the top.
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Thousands of years ago, hunting may have been the cause of the extinction of the North American large land mammals. “Moving up into the 1940’s and 50’s some of today’s most prominent game animals were almost non-existent.”(Kerry G) Over-hunting will directly cause the decline in the particular animal’s species. This will effect everything around it, for example ...
(6) Holmes Rolston III, "Environmental Values in and Duties to the Natural World" in Ecology, Economics, Ethics: The Broken Circle, eds. Herbert Bormann and Stephen Kellert (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991), pp. 82-96.
The separation of the Paleolithic and Neolithic Ages mark a great divide in the lives and cultures of prehistoric peoples. Many aspects of everyday life were modified to suit a new standard of living. Society, Economy, and Technology were greatly affected by the "Agricultural Revolution" that spawned the Neolithic Age.
“Changes in climate may have been partly responsible for the decline in availability of big game, particularly the large herd animals. Another possible cause of that decline was human activity, specifically overkilling of some of these animals” (Ember 180). These changes in climate, extinction of big game, as well as population growth, led humans to begin searching for other ways to eat.
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In the history of humankind, the extirpation of predators has always been at the top of the priority list. However, no one ever thought of the backlash it would have on the environment. Large predators have always been looked at as the enemy of man people have learned to fear these remarkable animals that they were directly competing with for resources and survival. The decline of large predator populations has caused ecological complications all over the world (Weber and Rabinowitz 2010). From tigers and wolves to fishers and orcas, the human species has extirpated these primary consumers for economic development, safety, and hunting preference (Weber and Rabinowitz 2010). In the past, these actions were encouraged, but as recent ecological studies have shown these top predators have proved to provide a necessary balance to ecological hierarchy (Beyer et al. 2006).