The Ultimate Guide: Big Cats (10 of 19)
In Tanzania's Olduvai Gorge, one of the cradles of humanity, Rob Blumenschine has made intriguing discoveries about the changing relationship between early hominids and the big cats.
The setting for these fossil localities is usually...
ah, in an area around water, either large river basis or, ah, lake basins.
Ah, areas which clearly attracted large numbers of animals, ah, the menagerie that one gets in places like the Serengeti today.
But then with some unusual additions to it.
Ah, creatures which none of us have ever seen in the flesh.
Ah, saber-toothed cats, ah, two varieties at least of saber-toothed cats who were somehow dividing up the big cat niche with, ah, lions.
Ah, we also see stone tools produced by hominids.
Creatures very different from ourselves.
Yes, they walked on two legs and their, ah, yet their brains were half our size, and they had only just started at this time, ah, to encroach upon the larger carnivore guild.
Rob looks for clues as to how animals died.
The big cats were unable to break bones and get at the calorie-rich marrow inside.
He has found the telltale signs of a craftier carnivore, taking advantage of the cat kills.
Coming from about the same level, here's another specimen which, well, this has already come out of the outcrop.
And this is a beautiful specimen.
You can't tell exactly what kind of animal this was.
Yet, what it preserves are fracture patterns which are clearly diagnostic of hominids having taken a stone hammer and, ah, broken this bone open to remove the very fat rich high calorie marrow from this bone.
Simply, give it a few skilled bursts which will nicely fracture the bone. |
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