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A comment on Mexican mammoth trap provides first evidence of prehistoric hunting pits. Parent comment

Re:Mexican mammoth trap provides first evidence of prehistor... by dsfyu404ed on Monday November 11, 2019 @06:38PM (#21510103)
>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.

Humans are the only animal with the ability to communicate complex abstract future plans (e.g. "today we all shore up the pit, tomorrow you guys wait over there and we'll drive them into this pit"). And it's not like animals can outrun us either. We're quite slow in a sprint but out cooling system is optimized for a very high duty cycle so we can just keep on chasing. Imagine being hunted by Terminator or Agent Smith. That's what the water buffalo or mammoth feels like

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Re:Mexican mammoth trap provides first evidence of prehistor... by DoingIsLearning on Tuesday November 12, 2019 @02:27AM (#21512199)
For completeness some languages do not have the concept of future or past tenses.

So even what you are taking for granted as inate in human language planning was also a social 'technology' that humans enhanced/improved on as a community.

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Re:Mexican mammoth trap provides first evidence of prehistor... by nicoburns on Monday November 11, 2019 @08:08PM (#21510578)
Whales and orcas also seem to be able to coordinate in this way.
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Re:Mexican mammoth trap provides first evidence of prehistor... by jeffdavis on Monday November 11, 2019 @11:29PM (#21511527)
How much of an advantage is our cooling system in colder climates?
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Re:Mexican mammoth trap provides first evidence of prehistor... by gknoy on Tuesday November 12, 2019 @02:20AM (#21512169)
I first read about persistence hunting in an article about a family in Siberia [0], so I'd assume that it's still feasible (if difficult).

0: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/for-40-years-this-rus...

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