Re: A critique of the BBC aquatic ape programme and the transcript.


Algis Kuliukas wrote:
> Su Solomon wrote:
> > Algis Kuliukas wrote:
> > >
> > > spiznet wrote:
> > > > You probly won't be this lucky again.
> > > > Did you just get back from Ed's Kookaburra Ranch & Grill, or what is
> > > > the true story here...?
> > > >
> > > > Ross, don't you think those salty crocs gonna eat up little hominids
> > > > real fast if they start fooling around in the water instead of acting
> > > > like a petrified antelope, all alert and worried and furtive, drink
> > > > fast and run away...
> > >
> > > No salties in E Africa,
> >
> > Crocodylus niloticus
>
> http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/natsci/herpetology/brittoncrocs/csp_cpor.htm
>
> > > I'm afraid. The crocs of the Awash are known to
> > > be rather benign.
> >
> > On what authority are you claiming this?
>
> Johanson et al (1981:151)

And the reason these particular crocs were "rather benign" is because
of their "smaller" size ( Johanson and Edey 1981:151). Crocs understand
size pecking-order very well. One reason for the smaller size and
timid behavior of these particular crocs, I suspect, is:

http://www.geocities.com/akababi/wildlife.htm
"All adult males of the Dankalia Afar, Issa, Keraiyu and Ito peoples,
carry AK47's and are recently reported to be killing "a few" animals
for food. All carnivores are shot on sight."

I would like to see some croc size data during the Plio/Pleistocene for
that area, and I know there were no AK47s around in those days to
discourage them. If crocs were anything like many of the other
predators 4-6 million years ago, Johanson's group or Lucy wading in
the Awash during the Plio/Pleistocene would have ended up looking like
this:
http://home.att.net/~crinaustin/Croc.htm

.

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