Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
nose”) mountains, standing witness to the passing of time on the Lebombo plain below and
life's imperatives for survival. On this plain animals have killed animals.
Lebombo plain Lookout in summer
Euphorbias at Lookout near Tsokwane in winter
Man has done battle with sabre tooth cats for around 200,000 years based on archaeological
excavations at Border cave overlooking the plain. There is also evidence from the Klasies
river (Klein) assemblages and middens that hunters hunted large primitive buffalo during the
middle Stone Age based on zoo- archaeological specimen parts found, scraping and cut marks
on bones and no evidence of predator tooth marks. This activity was estimated to occur
between 60 to 125 thousand years ago, although radiocarbon dating is not accurate and so
dates are imputed from other alternative dating analyses while man's tools and what he is able
to achieve with his mind have evolved during this time, there is little evidence he significantly
changed either anatomically or physiologically or in his mental potential, despite living in very
diverse environments with different food sources and diseases, that should have induced
changes. For example, the argument that red blood cell spherocytosis in West Africans is an
adaption to malaria hardly seems to hold water and is merely reversible genetic drift. So, why
have humans, living in isolated populations, subjected to different stresses and environments
and diseases, including population bottlenecks that should have been ideal for changing man's
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