Archaeologica.org

Greetings...

I just received an interesting blurb from ACM TechNews on an evolution simulation at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. The headline:
A Computer Simulation Shows How Evolution May Have Speeded Up
Weizmann Institute of Science (08/28/07)

Here's the URL: http://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/site/e ... oc_id=4885

With everything else going on, I don't have time to pursue this particular topic (and summer just is not my time for sitting at the computer), but I'm sure some of you would like to contemplate it. I have a lot of respect for the Israelis' scientific and pragmatic approach to archaeology and related matters (except when religious/nationalistic politics gets in the way). (I do have a bit of a bias though, since my earliest training and field experience in archaeology - albeit very limited - was in that country.)

Have fun...

Regards, Alan
http://www.daysknob.com

This relates to the oldest hominid skull yet found in Chad. 6million. But back then, the ecosystem was like the Okavango is now, a river delta that dried out in the desert.

You want change? up the wazoo. you got the seaonal cyles from wet to dry with different plant foods available at different seasons. You got dry years, but then wet years when the torrents carve new channels, create new bayous, and leave new oxbow ponds.

Those who can learn to swim get across to eat. Those who can run faster across a band of savannah in the dry season get to stay alive. Those who can remember where a given fruit tree was despite the route being changed by new river channels got to feed their kids. Those who can remember to carry a digging stick at all times get to eat tubers in the dirt during the dry season, as well as use it to drive off other predators at a kill site.

But no matter what it is this month, it'll be different next month. Sounds sorta familiar.