Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2007 19:44:54 +0200 To: trex_kid@hotmail.com From: Tommy Tyrberg <tommy.tyrberg@norrkoping.mail.telia.com> Subject: RE: Pleistocene/Holocene extinctions
Actually there was some Late Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions in Africa, particularly in the southern part. However another important factor about Africa is that being the urheim of humans it is also the home of nearly all our parasites. This has kept the population low and until modern medicine came in there were large areas that were essentially uninhabitable to humans, for example through river blindness (West Africa) or nagana (Central and Eastern Africa).
Tommy Tyrberg
At 15:35 2007-09-20, you wrote:
> As for Africa and southern Eurasia: these animals co-evolved with humans> (Hominini) before they were humans (Homo sapiens), and so may have adapted> to the styles of this new predator. In contrast, the die offs in regions> where hominins were not earlier present tend to be more extreme.
Hmm...are African animals harder for humans to hunt and more dangerous towards them than species from other regions? This could be rich territory for animal behavior research to explore.
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