Mexican mammoth trap provides first evidence of prehistoric hunting pits
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Re: Mexican mammoth trap provides first evidence of prehistoric hunting pits
#2>Parts of a jawbone and spine of a camel, and the tooth of a horse were also found at the site. Both species later became extinct in the Americas.
I didn't know that.
Re: Mexican mammoth trap provides first evidence of prehistoric hunting pits
#3> Hunters may have used torches to scare the mammals into the area with the traps, which are about 6ft (1.70m) deep and 25 yards in diameter, but one of the skulls found also had marks of a spear wound on the front.
I find humans amazing. An adult mammoth is something even the more largest predators would not attempt to hunt. And yet, here is a band of puny 2 legged mammals armed with sticks with a flint at the end, hunting and killing masses of these mighty beasts.
Our most amazing ancestors were not kings and emperors, but rather these pre-historic hunters and gatherers who carved out a niche as alpha predators using brains, language, and primitive tech.
Re: Mexican mammoth trap provides first evidence of prehistoric hunting pits
#4>Parts of a jawbone and spine of a camel, and the tooth of a horse were also found at the site. Both species later became extinct in the Americas. I didn't know that.
I just watched a PBS video about this yesterday [1]. Horses evolved in North America, walked across the land bridge to Asia, died out in North America during the ice age, were domesticated in the Eurasian Steppe, were transported back to North America by Europeans, and then became feral on the plains that they initially evolved on.
Re: Mexican mammoth trap provides first evidence of prehistoric hunting pits
#5>Parts of a jawbone and spine of a camel, and the tooth of a horse were also found at the site. Both species later became extinct in the Americas. I didn't know that.
kinda related, an interesting story about pronghorn evolving speed in order to outrun North American cheetahs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHP1Ac7GX_Q
Re: Mexican mammoth trap provides first evidence of prehistoric hunting pits
#6> Hunters may have used torches to scare the mammals into the area with the traps, which are about 6ft (1.70m) deep and 25 yards in diameter, but one of the skulls found also had marks of a spear wound on the front. I find humans amazing. An adult mammoth is something even the more largest predators would not attempt to hunt. And yet, here is a band of puny 2 legged mammals armed with sticks with a flint at the end,…
They had larger brains than us.
Re: Mexican mammoth trap provides first evidence of prehistoric hunting pits
#7>Parts of a jawbone and spine of a camel, and the tooth of a horse were also found at the site. Both species later became extinct in the Americas. I didn't know that.
I just watched a PBS video about this yesterday [1]. Horses evolved in North America, walked across the land bridge to Asia, died out in North America during the ice age, were domesticated in the Eurasian Steppe, were transported back to North America by Europeans, and then became feral on the plains that they initially evolved on. 1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZoTvXvV02A
Didn’t Native Americans use horses? So they were using European horses?
Re: Mexican mammoth trap provides first evidence of prehistoric hunting pits
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just watched a PBS video about this yesterday [1]. Horses evolved in North America, walked across the land bridge to Asia, died out in North America during the ice age, were domesticated in the Eurasian Steppe, were transported back to North America by Europeans, and then became feral on the plains that they initially evolved on. 1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZoTvXvV02A
Didn’t Native Americans use horses? So they were using European horses?
Yes they were European horses, first brought by the Spanish. Once they arrived Native Americans started using horses quite quickly.
Re: Mexican mammoth trap provides first evidence of prehistoric hunting pits
#9Related interesting info:
Eating bone marrow played a key role in the evolution of the human hand
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180711105725.h...
Prehistoric humans ate bone marrow like canned soup 400,000 years ago
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191009142902.h...
Re: Mexican mammoth trap provides first evidence of prehistoric hunting pits
#10Do people seriously believe ancient humans hunted mammoths? I thought it's just a popular myth (some people even believe they rode dinosaurs, you know). Weren't there other animals handier to hunt?