When apes learned to sharpen sticks, every other animal was FUUUUUUUUUCKED. Those animals should try not to be so stupid though. Dogs and cats are smart. They joined our side.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction
Going strong for over 30,000 years.
Dogs and cats are smart. They joined our side.
Dogs and cats are half the fucking problem.
Explain.
A recent study by the Smithsonian Institution and the US Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that domestic cats kill about 2.4 billion birds and 12.3 billion small mammals each year in the lower forty-eight states. This is far higher—and probably more accurate–than previous figures, and likely exceeds all other sources of human-related losses of these animals.
I'm not sure we are in the same conversation, brother. I said that cats benefited from befriending humanity. You seem to be posting statistics that argue in my favor.
I said that cats benefited from befriending humanity
Absolutely. And I added that they're a primary agent by which humans propagate the Holocene Extinction.
Like, we wouldn't be nearly as successful at killing so many small mammals and insects if we weren't bringing domesticated cats with us all over the world.
I see what you're saying.
We didn't bring cats anywhere though, they came on their on volition. They do what they want. Dogs are just happy to be anywhere.
We didn’t bring cats anywhere though
:-/
A House Cat Was Brought To A Remote Island In 1894—A Year Later A Species Was Extinct
"Try pointy stick."
"Me no want to."
gets stabbed by pointy stick
"Me now see value of pointy stick."
And my axe!
But that would be a stabby stick. A pointy stick is to point at stuff.
What’s brown and sticky?
Tap for spoiler
A stick!
Don't forget sharp stick! Sharp stick game changer
Can’t overlook banging rocks together to get a sharper rock. Big tech, invest now!
It is funny how until the invention of ~~fire ants~~ firearms, almost always the best weapon was a pointy stick.
Then firearms happen and we learned to throw the stick very quickly.
Fire ants are also a viable biological weapon, knew a guy who had a nest of the things thrown at him. Poor bastard had to take an alcohol bath to get them all off.
At summer camp when I was like 8 a camper stood in a fire ant nest without realizing it and had bites ALL up and down her legs. I remember a couple of older kids hauling her to the counselors while she was just screaming, crying and unable to walk from the pain. Watch out for fire ant nests, they will fuck you up!
People think we won because of our big brains or fire use, no, it's cause we have the only halfway decent ranged ability in the game.
We broke the assumption that billions of years of evolution was built on, distance = safety.
We basically collected the unstoppable exodia:
I threw a pinecone at a bird that was picking at the siding. Seemed to break his brain to see something coming at him like that.
you: throws pinecone at mach 30
birb: is-is that a.... squints
birb: GAH! FUCK!!!
I don't think that is actually the innovation that made us own the planet.
One human throwing rocks? Meh.
15-20 humans working together, some throwing rocks, others fetching new ones, or supplying the throwers? Jup. That would do it.
So, community and working together is what allowed us to win the crown.
We better not stop doing that..
There are lots of animals that have cooperative social groups and they don't rule the planet.
Very few can throw weapons.
Communication, abstract planning, and being able to walk 100km without stopping is what really won it for us.
Yeah, there were studies done that found a human can't reliably throw a rock hard enough to kill even a rabbit from pretty close range. Rocks are blunt and usually only stun the target.
It was the fact that a dozen people all throwing rocks is an unassailable obstacle to any predator or prey. You can corner animals or ward them away. And if you think about it that's always been roughly how human wars have gone: masses of spears, slings, arrows, bolts, bullets, shells, missiles, etc. Our one big trick is a DDoS of violence.
Dexterity exploit speedrun.
We won the arms race, we have literal arms
Am I a joke to you?
We didn't even need to throw a rock. There's evidence that early man was a persistence hunter.
All other animals sprint. But man is the only animal that could jog them to death by jogging and never stopping until the animal collapses from exhaustion.
In addition to the ability to jog, run and walk during the hottest part of the day ... early humans could avoid most predators who were less capable of being active in the heat. The benefits of being a hairless sweaty upright ape.
Op skin (that does need some high tech maintenance in form of clothes, and other winter logistics/planning).
"Saying a big hello to all you sentient lifeforms out there and for everyone else the secret is to bang the rocks together, guys!"
And not just throw rock, also run very long distance.
The white, African man learned to throw rocks. Yeah...
It’s a Neanderthal according to reverse image searches for the original illustration. There were light skinned Neanderthals in Europe, so it’s not an inaccurate illustration, just an inaccurate caption
Perhaps a bit inaccurate image use with that description as well.
Yeah, that’s what I was trying to say in terms of the caption being inaccurate
Oh, yes, that's clear actually, no idea why I thought I was adding to the convo, lol.
Also cuts his hair and beard
Monkeys can and do throw things that are much smellier than rocks.
Trivia time: Chimpanzees are the best primates after man at throwing.
At best they can throw things at the level of semi-athletic child.
Humans have unique rotating shoulder joint that just gives us a huge edge over any other species, when it comes to throwing things.
Yes, this, it's sapiens adaptation/specialisation, we take it for granted. Much like (related) stick use dexterity, which is another warfare advancement that should've gotten nerfed a few million years ago.
Then man learned to fly. Then man learned to drop suns from the sky.
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but fucking fire was what broke my home.
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