A'pith Predatory Realities: not like those of extant chimps (Repost from 08/2003)


First posted in August, 2003

"Paul Crowley" <slkwuoiutiuytciu...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote

It's CHIMPS that stay in high up in trees at
night -- to avoid lions and leopards on the
ground, and leopards on the lower branches.
(Leopards can't get at chimp infants when
their mothers nest high in small branches.)
Chimps can cope with leopards on the
ground by day, but not with lions.

Paul's understanding of the predatory realities of the
earliest hominids is not accurate:

We have to be careful to take into account differences
in environment and fauna that existed back in the late
miocene and pliocene in comparison to the present.
Migratory patterns were *very* different. Nowadays
migration is mostly dominated by relatively smaller,
faster, and larger herds of grazing animals [see * note
below] like we currently find in treeless savanna
habitat. Seasonal migration tends to be from one region
to another, and the lions follow these same patterns.
Consequently extant chimps rarely come into direct
contact with lions.

The situational factors were very diffent for our A'pith
ancestors. During the late miocene and pliocene--before
the appearance of extensive grasslands--larger, slower,
browsing animals were more abundant. And their migratory
patterns were local, not regional. With the onset of the
dry season seasonal migration was from the drier, less
treed areas to the wetter, more treed areas and back again
with the return of the rainy season. And the "lions" of
that time, smilodon, followed these same patterns. This
means that A'piths would have regularly had large lion-like
predators come into their treed patches during the dry
season.

[* note] There were no extensive grasslands like we find
today in Africa. All the animals were more robust, slower,
and less able to travel long distance. Smilodon (a
saber-toothed lion), for example, was about the same size
as lions but weighed 50% more. And then there was
chalcitheres:

*************************

What follows was copied from this link:
http://www.palaeos.com/Cenozoic/Miocene/Miocene.htm

Mammal diversity reached its peak during the Miocene. Many were
hoofed grazers or browsers. The epoch was marked by further
evolution of horses, which became plains type animals as large as
ponies, the chalcitheres, camels, rhinoceroses and anthropoid apes,
including the Dryopithecus which inhabited Southern Europe, Asia,
and Africa. Also this period saw the appearance of the mastodons,
raccoons, and weasels. The first deer and giraffes also appear,
along with the first hyenas. The slow clumsy creodonts, well adapted
to the jungle thickets, were replaced by the swift intelligent cat
and dog type carnivora as the dominant predators. There were many
eccentric browsing types as well - the chalcitheres - think of a horse
crossed with a gorilla - were able to rear up on their hind legs and
pull down the branches of trees. The Asian indricatheres and the
American entelodonts both flourished then died out during this epoch.

***************************

Jim

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