Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Monday, February 13. 2006

Old Animals

It is widely accepted today that the early Indians were responsible for the extinction of the large animals of North America - the amazing Pleistocene mammals - mammoths, camels, etc. that were abundant here during the retreat of the most recent Ice Age. However, now it appears that the Indians had a major impact on all edible species, and that the abundance of animals found by the early European explorers may have been a consequence of the Indian population collapse due to disease. Story about the Indians and California wildlife here.

For really old animals - Spinosaurus.  It seems that this guy was the largest carnivorous dinosaur. H/T, Lucianne.

Posted by Bird Dog in Natural History and Conservation at 17:45 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)

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Yup. All other predatory animals do the same thing. Gorge themselves silly on their prey until they exhaust it, then crash themselves.

I always hated the sappy history about my redskin ancestors as if they were sweeter than a Sunday school picnic...Also, different tribes were more different from each other physically, socially, spiritually than the different groups today inhabiting N. America. They didn't tolerate each other, they butchered each other. So it is possible that we have progressed, despite the nauseating excesses of political correctness. I might dislike Hollywood's godless degeneracyt, but I won't scalp anyone for it. Our brethren of another faith in the Middle East have not yet reached our stage...

There is a really good series of pictures on the BBC News site right now about charcoal burning in Chad which should similarly disabuse people of any romanticism about pre-modern peoples living in harmony with their environment. Desperately hungry people will do what is necessary to feed their families. And environment and tree-huggers be damned (I love trees, but then my family have never had to go hungry...)
#1 retriever on 2006-02-14 19:40 (Reply)
You mean the Indians did NOT live in harmony with the land? Wow, and I thought the absence of large trees within transport distance of Chaco Canyon at the time of its demise was due to global warming. Has anyone told Al Gore?

Now that you brought the subject up, will you feel guilty if you dont correct all the textbooks K--12--PhD?
#2 LomaAlta (Link) on 2006-02-15 00:34 (Reply)

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