Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Mammoth meals helped early tribes thrive
The Times ^ | April 18, 2006 | Mark Henderson

Posted on 04/17/2006 7:13:44 PM PDT by george76

REGULAR meals of mammoth meat helped some early human tribes to expand more quickly than their largely vegetarian contemporaries, according to a genetic study.

Human populations in east Asia about 30,000 years ago developed at dramatically different rates, following a pattern that appears to reflect the availability of mammoths and other large game.

In the part of the region covering what is now northern China, Mongolia and southern Siberia, vast plains teemed with mammals such as mammoths, mastodons and woolly rhinoceroses and the number of early human beings grew between 34,000 and 20,000 years ago.

Further south, where the terrain was covered in thick forest, the population expansion began much later - between 18,000 and 12,000 years ago.

Chris Tyler-Smith, of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridgeshire, who led the research, said: "The only robust explanation for the early success of the northern populations is that they enjoyed a better and richer diet: they thrived on mammoths and other large animals."

A diet rich in mammoth meat would have improved overall nutrition, giving people a ready source of protein and fat that would have been invaluable during the last ice age, Dr Tyler-Smith said.

"The mammoths' value would not just have been for food: they would also have provided materials such as skins and bones for use in clothing, shelter and toolmaking.""


TOPICS: Australia/New Zealand; Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: alf; asia; china; clothing; dietandcuisine; earlyhuman; east; eastasia; elf; freepun; godsgravesglyphs; improved; improvednutrition; mammoth; mammothmeat; mammoths; mastodons; meat; mongolia; nutrition; overall; peta; petasucks; protein; rhinoceroses; shelter; siberia; toolmaking; vegans; vegetarianism; vegetarians; woolly; woollyrhinoceroses
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-50 next last
To: Alouette
I am reminded of that delightful Jimmy Buffett song " Cheeseburger is Paradise".
21 posted on 04/17/2006 7:37:14 PM PDT by wintertime (Good ideas win! Why? Because people are not stupid.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: ClearCase_guy

If one applied the same laws of nature to humans as are applied to wild life, one could surmise that a hard life in a demanding climate removed the weak and the stupid from the human gene pool before they could reproduce. This, of course, strengthened the human population in the northern areas, but just the opposite happened in the southern areas where there was little or no "pressure" on the human population.


22 posted on 04/17/2006 7:44:27 PM PDT by DJ Taylor (Once again our country is at war, and once again the Democrats have sided with our enemy.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: george76
Scientists 'to clone mammoth'


23 posted on 04/17/2006 7:51:11 PM PDT by Conservative Firster
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: pissant
Can you imagine the drumstick?

Seriously. Like buffalo wings from a real buffalo!
24 posted on 04/17/2006 8:02:03 PM PDT by hypocritter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: george76

All this talk about food is making me hungry, now where did Wilma put those brontosaurus burgers....
25 posted on 04/17/2006 8:15:53 PM PDT by TheForceOfOne (El Chupacabra spotted near U.S./Mexican border feeding on illegal immigrants. Pass it on..)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Conservative Firster

Chances of making a mammoth successfully, 80 to 90%.
That's about 15 X better then drawing an antelope tag in Oregon. When can I put in for my mammoth tag?


26 posted on 04/17/2006 8:22:59 PM PDT by Cold Heart
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: ClearCase_guy
Looked at slightly differently, it appears that people in the North have a tendency to work hard and maximize the potential use of their surroundings. People in warmer, more Southern areas have a tendency to kick back and take it easy. "Don't worry, be happy."

And perhaps the challenge of surviving a cold snowy winter produced people with greater thinking capacity. Food is not available year 'round. One must prepare and plan ahead. And your tribe had to prepare and store food for the winter

27 posted on 04/17/2006 8:27:14 PM PDT by dennisw (If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles-Sun Tzu)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: DJ Taylor
If one applied the same laws of nature to humans as are applied to wild life, one could surmise that a hard life in a demanding climate removed the weak and the stupid from the human gene pool before they could reproduce. This, of course, strengthened the human population in the northern areas, but just the opposite happened in the southern areas where there was little or no "pressure" on the human population.

Deserts are also demanding environments. I would say it made the Arabs tougher even though today they mostly live in cities.

28 posted on 04/17/2006 8:30:04 PM PDT by dennisw (If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles-Sun Tzu)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: george76

Who paid Captain Obvious to do the research on this brilliant theory?


29 posted on 04/17/2006 8:37:38 PM PDT by A Balrog of Morgoth (With fire, sword, and stinging whip I drive the RINOs in terror before me.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: A Balrog of Morgoth

We also recently learned that it is the sun that is causing global warming.


30 posted on 04/17/2006 8:57:51 PM PDT by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: Conservative Firster
Scientists 'to clone mammoth'

Russians and Eskimos to get a nice hunting trade in 50 + years.

How'd you like a Mammoth Rug and some tusks for a trophy room?

31 posted on 04/17/2006 9:26:51 PM PDT by Centurion2000 (Every man must be tempted, sometimes,to hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: george76; blam; FairOpinion; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 24Karet; 3AngelaD; ...
Thanks george76.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

32 posted on 04/17/2006 9:53:42 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: george76
This Pleistocene "vegetarian contemporaries" idea is a PETA induced fantasy. Trust a British paper to include it in a science story.

Clue to the Times,
"Humans evolved beyond their vegetarian roots and became meat-eaters at the dawn of the genus Homo, around 2.5 million years ago, according to a study of our ancestors' teeth."
(http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4122)

33 posted on 04/18/2006 4:19:57 AM PDT by Varda
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: george76

".....Meat Good....."

Yep....think I'll take some venison out of the freezer....


34 posted on 04/18/2006 5:37:09 AM PDT by Renfield (If Gene Tracy was the entertainment at your senior prom, YOU might be a redneck...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Cold Heart

Bear tastes better than antelope (to me, anyway), and you can buy a bear permit over the counter in Oregon. Why go after antelope?


35 posted on 04/18/2006 5:39:35 AM PDT by Renfield (If Gene Tracy was the entertainment at your senior prom, YOU might be a redneck...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: Conservative Firster

"Last year, the Vladivostok News in Russia reported that scientists believed they could resurrect extinct animals - such as the mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros - to create a prehistoric safari park in northern Siberia.

The region's limited infrastructure was seen as one of the obstacles to establishing such a sanctuary."

Talk about putting the cart before the mammoth.

What ever happened to the talk about cloning from this frozen mammoth tissue?


36 posted on 04/18/2006 5:49:35 AM PDT by RouxStir (No islam, know peace.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Renfield

I have my spring bear permit and am ready to go. I even picked up some sausage casings two days ago.

Antelope? I spent 13 years putting in for a tag before I got drawn. I didn't get an antelope but it was a memorable different kind of hunt.


37 posted on 04/18/2006 5:59:56 AM PDT by Cold Heart
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: Centurion2000
I wrote a thesis paper while I was in school (@ 15 yrs. ago) stating that it was only a matter of time before the scientists cloned mammoths. The technologies involved were heading toward each other at that time. Do you know about the Sierra Club and some of the other related groups that are buying up land across the world to create Pleistocene parks to put these creations on? One of them currently owned takes up parts of Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. They want to get rid of all trace of humans and fill it with mammoths,camels,lions, cave bears, whatever THEY think is the closest relation to the last ice age.
Theoretically, We WILL be able to clone anything up to 40,000 years ago. Giant armadillos, Giant Sloths,dodo birds, woolly rhinos, any of the saber-toothed cats, you name it, It could really be done. So, my point of all of this is, with the direction that these radical groups like the Sierra Club are heading, we may all get a chance someday to see these creatures again, for better or worse. What happens when saber-toothed cats decide we make easier prey? Here in Texas, it's a hanging offense to have a pair of fence cutters in you're back pocket(never enforced anymore), would that law get reinstated after some high school seniors decided to pull a trick, cut the fence, and got eaten? On the other hand, placing the park down on the border with Mexico might fix a few things too. Forget just building a fence. Feed the cats, AND stop Illegal Immigration, now that sells!

I don't know anymore, the world's becoming a weird place to live in.
38 posted on 04/18/2006 6:04:52 AM PDT by DavemeisterP (It's never too late to be what you might have been....George Elliot)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: DavemeisterP

"Theoretically, We WILL be able to clone anything up to 40,000 years ago."

1776 Philadelphia Theme Park complete with living cloned Founding Fathers?


39 posted on 04/18/2006 6:15:01 AM PDT by RouxStir (No islam, know peace.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: pissant; george76

Don't forget the barbequed ribs! MMMM!


40 posted on 04/18/2006 6:33:42 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (There's a dwindling market for Marxist homosexual lunatic wet dreams posing as journalism)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-50 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson