Diving-Surfacing: Parallel Convergence

The blue whale's nose resembles the human nose and sea otter nose during backfloating.

Backfloating & Swimming: Infant 15 months old: Breathe on back, Swim on stomach
http://www.btaquatics.org/PPSwim.htm


The Aquaphotic Respiratory Cycle (ARC)

Explanation:

The Aquaphotic Respiratory Cycle (ARC) contains two components, relying upon the trigeminal cranial nerve:

1) submergence - Mammalian Divers Reflex (MDR) (stifled inhale)
2) emergence - Photic Sneeze (PS) (explosive exhale)

The MDR (from air surface to ~2m+ water depth) occurs when the face is
suddenly pressured, chilled and darkened which results in a inhale
reflex BUT since the face is submerged underwater, the inhaling reflex
is stifled and converted into O2 conservation or Mammalian Divers Reflex.

Human Physiology, Klinke, Silbernagel et al., 2006,
MDR: trigeminal cranial afferent nerve (V) relays the information that the
nasal and mouth cavities are submerged, which triggers the autonomus
nervous system to

* bradicardia, meaning a reduction of heart rate to about 4/5 of
normal rate
* blood "shift"(?) to the thorax to support the lung when under
pressure to keep it from collapsing (which would be bad for numerous
reasons)
* vasoconstriction, first in the limbs to protect vital organs,
and later of everything except the heart and the brain, which creates
a heart-brain circuit


The PS (from ~2m+ water depth to air surface) occurs when the face is
suddenly well lit after dark adaptation (accomodation for improved vision), (pressure and thermal changes
increase neural stimulus) -> fast forced CO2 exhale reflex and
"instant" oxygenation of tissues.

http://forums.deeperblue.com/freediving-science/79552-diving-surfacing-efficiently.html


DDeden [AAT, Deeper Blue, The ARC blog]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2006/0105-ear_popper.htm

The Ear-Popper is a handheld, battery-powered device that delivers a
constant, controlled stream of air pressure and flow into the nasal
cavity, diverting air up the Eustachian tube when the patient
swallows. This "pops" the ear so the fluid can drain, unblocking the
ear and restoring hearing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trigeminal_nerve
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facial_nerve
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cranial_nerves

http://scienceblogs.com/afarensis/2008/08/17/this_bloke_is_chuffed_a_book_r/

Chapter five, appropriately called "Getting Ahead", begins with Shubin
studying cranial nerves several days before an anatomy test. Most
cranial are easy because they have only one function and attach to one
muscle or organ. Four, however, are a bit more difficult to trace.
Shubin focuses on two of the four - the trigeminal and the facial.
Each breaks up into a number of smaller branches that take a complex
path through the head. The trigeminal nerves controls some of the
muscles we use for chewing, innervate teeth, control some muscles in
the inner ear, and is responsible for facial sensation. The facial
nerve controls the muscles used in making facial expressions and like
the trigeminal, it also controls some muscles in the inner ear. The
question is why? As Shubin puts it:

Nothing about them seems to make any sense. For example, both the
trigeminal and the facial nerves send tiny branches to muscles inside
our ears. Why do two different nerves, which innervate entirely
different parts of the face and jaw, send branches to ear muscles that
lie adjacent to one another? Even more confusing, the trigeminal and
facial almost crisscross as they send branches to our face and jaw. Why? To answer that we need to look at the developing embryo. Part of the answer lies in the four arches that for roughly 3-4 weeks after
conception. The first arch tissues, ultimately, form the upper and
lower jaws, the malleus and incus, and all the muscles that supply
them. The second arch forms the stapes, the hyoid and the muscles that
control facial expression. The trigeminal comes from the first arch,
while the facial nerve comes from the second. But there is more. In
sharks, the first arch forms the jaws, which are enervated by the
trigeminal. The second arch, in sharks, forms a cartilage rod that
eventually breaks up to form to bones that support the jaws. The first
bone is the equivalent to the hyoid in humans and supports the lower
jaw. The second bone, which supports the upper jaw is equivalent to
the stapes in humans. oing a step further, if we look at Amphioxus we
can see a notochord. Humans have one too, but ours breaks up early in
embryology and, according to Shubin, becime part of the intervertebral
disks. Like humans, Amphioxus also has arches. In this case, the
arches form cartilage that support the gill slits. Going back in time,
say 500 million years, we can see the notochord preserved in some of
the earliest worm fossils.

Chauvet cavern @ Pont d'Arc

http://www.donsmaps.com/chauvetcave.html

People have always preferred to live very near to water. This cave has paintings from 30,000 years ago. It is near this river which flows under the natural stone arc and out to the Mediterranean Sea (I guess). Now it is a gorge (steep valley) with many hiking trails.

human migration

Biggest pool

http://www.loconut.com.au/News/-27370/default.aspx?gclid=CI3G0e2n45QCFSgtagod9RcTQw

Nice place to swim, dive & backfloat, but they need a reef with pretty fish, clams, crabs, seahorses to make it interesting and more fun!

Seashores, volcanoes & humanity

http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2008/07/volcanoes_our_noble_allies_in.php

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/47171


Sedimentol.& paleogeogr.context of the Mojokerto hominin site, E.Java p.92 abstr.67th ann.meet.Soc. Vert.Paleontol. F Huffman, R Buffler, J Kappelman, D Ruez & Y Zeim 2007

... the discovery site lies above marine Mollusk Mbr II & within a fossiliferous pebbly sandstone in the upper Pucangan Fm. The sandstone is a fluvial deposit with a broad channelized base, prominent cross-bed sets & other bedding indications of mid-Channel river bars incl.preserved dune surfaces (mega-ripples) on the bars , is confortably overlain by a 4�5 m paleosol developed in a mudstone. This bed is, in turn unconformably overlain by sand+mudstone containing burrows & marine mollusks representing the basal bads of Mollusk Mbr III. These lithofacies represent a variety of deposit.environment s ranging from flood plain to delta slope , together
preserve evidence of the localized progradation of a delta lobe into a shallow water marine embayment. ... present-day deltas in this region can experience very rapid progradation rates, the Perning lobe may have been deposited in <10*4 yrs , not necessarily linked to a glacio-eustatic sea-level lowstand. Given that the Moj.hominin spm appears to have experienced min.transport, we conclude that H.erectus inhabited seacoast environment. This paleoenvironmental reonctruction is in strong contrast to the more typical savanna-woodland setting of this sp in Africa , suggest that He had a broad adaptive niche.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvrzM-BavDg&feature=dir
Where did Earth's water come from? Natl' Geographic Magazine video.

Local - Eureka, Humboldt, California coast

Local beaches & lagoons geology/hydrology (note photos at bottom right)
http://www.northcoastjournal.com/issues/2008/07/03/lagoons-and-beaches/

Local swimming pools closing? http://www.northcoastjournal.com/issues/2008/06/19/pool-stories/

Swimming great exercise, but doesn't reduce fat, so cross-train with jogging, walking.
http://www.northcoastjournal.com/issues/2008/07/03/everybody-pool/

Eureka is 8th best town in America? (BUT water is too cold! I'd rather be tropical.)
http://ncjournal.wordpress.com/2008/06/27/eureka-declared-one-of-the-best/

Puffins and Penguins

Puffins (left pic) live north of the equator along the coasts, they both dive and fly, and tend to walk like a duck (horiz. axis).
Penguins (right pic) live south of the equator along the coasts, they only dive, and tend to hop or walk (vertical axis) somewhat like a human. Some species of puffins & penguins may look similar due to eco-niche convergent parallels, but they are not closely related.

Penguin ice island, they flock tightly to avoid the seals, orcas and sharks of deep water.
http://simonc.f2o.org/south/archives/000145.php

Petrol penguins
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080718/ap_on_sc/brazil_dead_penguins_2

Why diving birds have small wings
http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/207/17/i

Penguinology (Antarctica)
http://penguinology.blogspot.com/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
thanks to jewel for noticing my marine mammal center 'penguin' t-shirt was actually a puffin t-shirt (my oops), got me checking out the difference between the two. But why does the marine mammal center feature birds anyways?

Wild Wave, Los Cabos, Baja California, Mexico (click pic to enlarge)
link

Birth of baby whale

The umbilical cord has a weak part which snaps, normally tail-first birth, the newborn rises to the surface.

Hat tip to PZ Myers at Pharyngula blog.

Polarized Vision on water surface

Glare due to light hitting water surface can be reduced by filtering through a polarized lens. Professor (Geol. ret.) Don Garlick explains this phenomenon here:
http://www.northcoastjournal.com/issues/2008/06/05/polarized/

Nature has an abundance of forms and flavors. Vision in animals may filter for color, ultra-violet, infra-red, polarized, transparency, fluorescence, rhythmic flashing, wing-eye-spots etc.

Blue Wave

Surf the blue wave? Click on the links!

http://codgy.com/michigan-winter-ice-waves/

http://scienceblogs.com/moleculeoftheday/2008/05/water_is_blue_because_water_is.php?utm_source=networkbanner&utm_medium=link

Human ancestors at waterside, Kelp highway

map of Monte Verde, Chile

Chile coast, medicine hut with seaweed cuds


http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/05/080508-first-americans.html
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5ii-0JpxgOlM0abvwCzW4GBfvczCQ

WASHINGTON — Remains of meals that included seaweed are helping confirm the date of a settlement in southern Chile that may offer the earliest evidence of humans in the Americas.

Researchers date the seaweed found at Monte Verde to more than 14,000 years ago, 1,000 years earlier than the well-studied Clovis culture. And the report comes just a month after other scientists announced they had found coprolites - fossilized human feces - dating to about 14,000 years ago in a cave in Oregon.

http://archaeology.about.com/od/kterms/qt/kelp_highway.htm

See pictures: map, medicine hut, seaweed quids
http://archaeology.about.com/od/preclovissites/ss/monte_verde.htm

http://dudescoffeeblender.blogspot.com/2008/06/just-because.html

Kelp Iodine scavenges reactive oxygen species
FC K�pper et al.2008 PNAS 105:6954-8
Iodide accumulation provides kelp with an inorganic antioxidant impacting atmospheric chemistry

Brown algae of the Laminariales (kelps) are the strongest accumulators of iodine among living organisms. They represent a major pump in the global biogeochemical cycle of iodine and, in particular, the major source of iodo-carbons in the coastal atmosphere. Nevertheless, the chemical state & biological significance of accumulated iodine have remained unknown to this date.

Using x-ray absorption spectroscopy, we show that the accumulated form is iodide, which readily scavenges a variety of reactive oxygen species (ROS). We propose here that its biological role is that of an inorganic anti-oxidant, the first to be described in a living system. Upon oxidative stress, iodide is effluxed. On the thallus surface & in the apoplast, iodide detoxifies both aqueous oxidants & ozone, the latter resulting in the release of high levels of molecular iodine & the consequent formation of hygroscopic iodine oxides leading to particles, which are precursors to cloud condensation nuclei. In a complementary set of experiments using a heterologous system, iodide was found to effectively scavenge ROS in human
blood cells.

Early chicken in South America not Polynesian
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/americas-first-visitors-may-not-have-been-from-polynesia-suggests-new-study_10077195.html

Blue highway: African Rift - Blue Nile
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/48574/title/On_the_Scene__Droughts_gave_early_humans_survival_skills_for_later_travels
(University of Texas at Austin anthropologist) John Kappelman presented this counterintuitive idea October 19 in a talk titled “Blue Highways,” which followed his fossil digs along the Blue Nile tributaries in Ethiopia. Early humans are thought to have taken one of two routes out of Africa: along the Red Sea, or along the Nile Valley and out across Eurasia.

But “there’s been very little testing on the ground, recovering fossils and sites that actually permit us to evaluate either one of those two hypothetical migration events,” Kappelman said.

(British naturalist) Samuel Barker noticed something key: The rivers are dry for most of the year, but every summer the water rushes back “like freight cars,” Kappelman said. The torrent of water gouged out deep holes that retained water even during the dry season, leaving a necklace of isolated pools.

And the pools were full of fish. “The fish were literally in a bucket,” Kappelman says.

Kappelman and his team found double-edged blades that were probably used as arrow heads and evidence of hearth fires in several sites around the Nile.

Orangutans at waterside, laryngeal air sacs

Update 03/2010: Orangutan orphans in water
http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/orang-utan-water/1
Face always kept above water surface with throat air sac inflated while nose breathing.
-

Orangutan protects human from crocodile:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-saved-by-an-orangutan-821624.html


You can protect orangutans from extinction:
Sumatra http://www.orangutans-sos.org/

Borneo http://redapes.org%20/



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_page_id=1965&in_article_id=562236


"Swimming" orangutan, note the throat-neck, likely the bare skin is slightly swollen due to laryngeal air sacs inflated, used when vertical floating or surface sculling with head above water.

Orangutan attempts to hunt fish with spear (likely bamboo, note the nodes [click to enlarge photo]). See here for article on fishing macaque monkeys fishing monkeys


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3828123.ece

Naturalists were shocked to see the apes go across a river to gain access to some of their favourite fruits at a conservation refuge on Kaja island in Borneo.

Orangutans at Runga river pallas island orphan orangutan sanctuary seen entering water for sweet corn cobs, splashing. No crocs in that area. Probably not swimming. link

http://redapes.org/news-updates/leila-the-orangutan-drowns-in-german-zoo/

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/740542/Suyria-Florida-ape-Baby-orangut\
an-is-king-of-the-swimmers.html

http://redapes.org/voices-from-the-field/any-mother-will-swim-to-save-her-child/
http://www.orangutans.com.au/Orangutans-Survival-Information/Orangutans-swim-to-\
safety.aspx

The more stories and "almost swimming' photos, the more doubt arises.
Wading? Yes. Vertical floating? Possible, but probably only if learned in
shallow wetland first. Swimming horizontally? No, no clear evidence of that. Can't blame the folks there for making a fuss about it though, the forest is being destroyed so quickly for oil palm plantations and lumber.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISScU6W1vIg


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The bottom photo is of two siamang gibbons (lesser apes) which frequently call loudly with inflated air sacs. I hypothesize that ancient hominoids lived in tidal rainforests (estuarboreal), and enlarged throat air sacs were selected (like in frogs) for better vertical flotation and vocalization. Human ancestors remained at the tidal shores but moved from these dense mangroves (per MV) to open shores diving/backfloating at lagoon reefs for shellfish etc. while the ape ancestors followed rivers inland to more arboreal and less aquatic habitat. Humans today do not normally have laryngeal air sacs, however trumpet blowers and glass blowers sometimes develop laryngocoels which are pathological laryngeal air sacs.

The morphology of all extant apes (except the small gibbons) and the skeletal fossils of Lucy & Selam (Australopithecus afarensis) possessing hyoid bones indicate enlarged laryngeal air sacs, while those of Homo neandertalensis and ancient Homo sapiens do not.



Background: Laryngocoele/laryngocele/laryngeal air sac

A laryngocele is usually a cystic dilatation of the laryngeal saccule. The etiology behind its occurrence is still unclear, but congenital and acquired factors have been implicated in its development [1,2]. Laryngoceles appear to be an atavistic remnant from the higher apes (DD: correction, higher apes are not our ancestors, hominoids are ancestral to both Homo and extant apes), particularly those who use their arms with the thoracic cage fixed whilst swinging through the trees (DD: addendum, vertical climbing/floating/wading with arms holding vegetation). ... the laryngocele could have been caused by prolonged and repeated valsalva... the increased air pressure in the larynx may make an already existing laryngocele manifest [1].

Congenitally, the laryngeal saccule is a remnant corresponding to the lateral laryngeal air sacs of the higher anthropoid apes, which may on occasion, manifest suddenly in response to pressure caused by coughing, straining at stool, or trumpet playing (i.e. valsalva maneuvers [used in diving to equalize middle ear pressure]). An acquired laryngocele may develop when the laryngeal ventricle becomes functionally obstructed as a result of an increase in intraglottic pressure, e.g. excessive coughing, playing a wind instrument or obstruction of appendicular ostium [1,2].

Three types of laryngoceles are described. An internal laryngocele is confined to the interior of the larynx and extends posterosuperiorly into the false vocal cord and the aryepiglottic fold; this type appears on laryngoscopy as a smooth swelling of the supraglottis. An external laryngocele extends superiorly to appear laterally in the neck through the opening in the thyrohyoid membrane for the superior laryngeal nerve and vessels; these clinically present as a swelling in the neck at the level of the hyoid bone anterior to the sternocleidomastoid muscle. The simultaneous existence of both features is termed a combined laryngocele [1-4].

The simple laryngocele is an uncomplicated air-filled dilatation of the appendix of the laryngeal ventricle.

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2482/6/14

Laryngeal air sac in whales, function: Full size right whales forage at the water surface, swim slower than human sport swimmers, and are the fattest whales (float at the surface when dead, which is why whalers called them "right whales"). Pygmy right whales are far less fatty due to their small size and metabolism, so their laryngeal air sac adds buoyancy when foraging on krill copepods near the surface. Apes in shallow water generally seek surface Aquatic Herbaceous Vegetation (AHV) (see the gorilla videos) and only seek bottom foods (water bugs under rocks/leaves) while wading in ankle-deep water. Human ancestors at seashores were tide-affected, and foraged for food from the shallows to perhaps 30+m deep. Because they were enveloped in a thin layer of buoyant thermoinsulative skin fat, denser bones were selected for, bringing the body to neutral buoyancy in seawater (similar to sea otters and walruses).

update: bowhead whales also surface feed and have lar. air sacs, AFAICT no other whales have lar. air sacs and do not typically feed at the surface.

So, bowhead whales, pygmy right whales and apes forage near the water surface and possess laryngeal air sacs; while (ancestral) humans, sea otters, blue whales forage near the sea bottom and lack laryngeal air sacs.

Air sac size quite small (though this is a small whale), compare to 1 liter air sac in orangs or 20-50 liter pharyngeal air sac in walrus. Why did Homo lose the laryngeal air sac? Switch to humming type speech and backfloating and addition of subcutaneous fat layer and stop climbing?



(Stranded) Pygmy right whale dissection, showing lungs and laryngeal air sac at left.
http://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/category/pygmy-right-whale/%20

















Gorilla foraging in wetland with partly inflated laryngeal air sac:
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=gorilla&view=detail&id=F3C63788AE6768B1E99B65DFE64B1D105D87E520&first=0&qpvt=gorilla&FORM=IDFRIR

Note gorilla posture, red scalp, air sac, water just below shoulders.

upright posture - moroto/proconsul aquarboreal climbing/slow brachiating/wading/floating/walking/hanging

red scalp - post-hylobatid hominoid canopy woven nesting mimicry of raptor, grabbing hook-like hand, cooing infant (became hooting in large arboreals), human preemies have lanugo from eyebrows to scalp, which when pulled forward in surprise (eyebrow flash/frown) (or sun avoidance without protruding brows) becomes danger sign to raptor from above, evolutionarily later lost when brain-skull-protruding jaws enlarged.

air sac - visible in photo to the right of the sunlit hair, to left of throat, it is convex ( rather than concave )
due to partly inflated air sac. Human throat would show concave except at adams apple.

water - high enough to give flotation (of face) an advantage

Maritime Security: Ocean protection

http://www.abdi-secure-ecommerce.com/asis/p-808-1773.aspx

How do we protect our oceans and waterways from the blind overexploitation and pollution of our species on our planet's bodies of water? Will our future descendants have abundant clean water?


"As ships get bigger, the pollution is getting worse. The most staggering statistic of all is that just 16 of the world’s largest ships can produce as much lung-clogging sulphur pollution as all the world’s cars.
...
In the meantime, according to Corbett’s figures, nearly one million more people will die.
...
Smoke and sulphur are not the only threats from ships’ funnels. Every year they are also belching out almost one billion tons of carbon dioxide. Ships are as big a contributor to global warming as aircraft – but have had much less attention from environmentalists.

16 ships produce as much air pollution as all the worlds cars

Solunar: Gyre-Tectonic-Tide

Pangea propeller tide


Global Climate of wind and wave:
http://numbat.coas.oregonstate.edu/cogow/index.html

The winds effect on ocean surface @ Siber-Alaskan pipeline:
http://numbat.coas.oregonstate.edu/cogow/quikscat/72/jan/one_x_one.html

Tectonic and tidal effects:



http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/image/global_topo_large.gif

1800 yr ocean tidal cycle
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=18099

The gravitational force of the moon is one ten-millionth that of earth, but when you combine other forces such as the earth's centrifugal force created by its spin, you get tides.
When the moon is full or new, the gravitational pull of the moon and sun are combined. At these times, the high tides are very high and the low tides are very low. This is known as a spring tide. The net result of this is that the Earth gets deformed into a slightly squashed, ellipsoidal shape due to these tidal forces.

The tidal bulge of the Moon follows along the path on the earth's surface which intersects with the orbital plane of the Moon. This plane is tilted about 23 degrees with respect to the equatorial plane of the earth. The result is that near the equator, the difference between high tide and low tide is actually rather small, compared to other latitudes.

The Proxigean Spring Tide is a rare, unusually high tide. This very high tide occurs when the moon is both unusually close to the Earth (at its closest perigee, called the proxigee) and in the New Moon phase (when the Moon is between the Sun and the Earth). The proxigean spring tide occurs at most once every 1.5 years.

During the last 400 years, there have been 39 instances or 'Extreme Proxigean Spring Tides' where the tide-producing severity has been near the theoretical maximum. The last one of these was on March 7 1995 at 22:00 hours Greenwich Civil Time during a lunar Full Moon. There were, in fact cases of extreme tidal flooding recorded during these particular spring tides which occur once every 31 years."

Offshore, in the deep ocean, the difference in tides is usually less than 1.6 feet

Lunar tide effects
http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/moontides/

Tides are created because the Earth and the moon are attracted to each other, just like magnets are attracted to each other. The moon tries to pull at anything on the Earth to bring it closer. But, the Earth is able to hold onto everything except the water. Since the water is always moving, the Earth cannot hold onto it, and the moon is able to pull at it. Each day, there are two high tides and two low tides. The ocean is constantly moving from high tide to low tide, and then back to high tide. There is about 12 hours and 25 minutes between the two high tides.

The gravitational attraction of the moon causes the oceans to bulge out in the direction of the moon. Another bulge occurs on the opposite side, since the Earth is also being pulled toward the moon (and away from the water on the far side). Ocean levels fluctuate daily as the sun, moon and earth interact. As the moon travels around the earth and as they, together, travel around the sun, the combined gravitational forces cause the world's oceans to rise and fall. Since the earth is rotating while this is happening, two tides occur each day.

Pilgrimage: Journey of mankind

forest: foli-frugivory/qpal walk/vert. pluck/call
mangrove: coast food/upright forage-walk-wade-float/stick
seashore: bait-trap/beach-cave/diving/thrust spear/words
rivers: dugouts/travel/woodcraft/hut/throwing spear/fire
plains: herding/STPost barter/horse/fibercraft/atlatl
fields: farming/town trade/carriage/shipping/owners
city: factories/machine/mass tele-comm-travel-edu

Sequence:
omnivory plucking, poking stick for hidden food crab-termite-tuber
thrusting spear & stone hammer/knife to open seafood, cutting
bait-trap bivalves/biface/blade in fish against predators/pests
seasonal migrations coasts, rivers, fruit/nut/flint/hunt rift
seasonal herd/harvest nets->sacks carry flint, fruit, nuts home
accidental gardening garbage/feces attracts pests, bury it, seed

dugouts, trade foods/goods:
coast foods/salt, sun-drying/smoking: basketry, fish net
forest fruit, herbs, vegetables: tump-line sack, head-carry
mountain flint, gems, ochre, grinding: knap-sack, ruck-sack
floodplain grain, grassland grazers, herding: cloth, leather
ports/trading posts: concentration of goods/people, town/city

Pilgrims: Rift-coastal migrations from South Africa to China to the New World

My interpretation: first there was the clam/oyster on the shores of the
Tethys mangrove coasts, picked up and eaten by a hominoid, that then
dropped the shell below the mangrove branch which was immediately
swallowed by a croc that then died from indigestion (or so).

Xmillion years of this accidental littering/shittering produced a
hominid that intentionally sets clams filled with fishguts/rotten
crab/fresh meat out to be consumed by shore pests like cats and
baboons and crocs around the papyrus marshes while seeking eggs.

Another Xmillion years, Homo is in the Rift valley without oysters but
lots of sharp rocks to make fake shells to set traps, so as to
dominate the herding migrating masses on their way from south Africa
to China along the Peri-Tethys shores (Mediterranean/Black/Caspian/Bolkash).

Another Xmillion years the Homo Proto-San are herding the sheep,
goats, horses, elephants, cattle along the same Peri-tethyan path when
nature lets loose with a monsoonally induced rainy glacial
melted massive flooding that swamps the entire Eurasian basin, leaving
only isolated populations in highlands separated culturally and
linguistically with confused mythic memories of terrible loss/fear of
the hordes of barbarians (herds of berber/barber/baabaa) and the
heroic shepherds "san|tek|elfs and the reindeer" (Saami, Evenki) that
saved the starving isolated upland settlements that had become so
dependent on trade due to specialized crafts.

No metaphysics, no supernatural abracadabra, just megafauna migrations
and natural interpretations from cultural myths derived from pre-literate
disasters. Ice Age mathematics-phonetics-genetics.

DDeden

tektionary

Where does language come from? Why don't apes talk, if they are genetically so similar to humans?

Our 2ma-.5ma ancestors lived along shores, they progressed from simple calls and gestures to words and languages. Here are clues:

Ural<- Ura (ore, quarry, source, Ur) mountain
Altaic <- al-tek? (Ur-al-tek?) mountain
Aztec <- az-tek? lakes, hills?
Toltec <- tol-tek mountain

Ukraine <- ochreyn ochre-crayon-clay rich moist soils (strongly suspect Hs settled the low riparian Ukraine plains w/ dugouts)

Chippewa/Ojibwe <- chip-wa <-tek-wa riparian
Ottawa <- ahkt-wa riparian

to the more obvious links to the pre-historic past through language:

oct-ahkt-hawk-hatchet-hammer (stone axe on hollow log)
ket-kit/set-(group of paint/powder/toolkit)
ket-skreyt-scratch-script-sanskrit-scribe
ket-sketch with stick/stone/ochre (ground clay writing)
keyt-skate-kaolin-clay-(Sumerian writing on clay tablets)
kleyt-clay, ochre (hammer ground) crayon (wax/grease/oil mix)
peyt-paste, paint, powder, petro (fat rock), bed(rock), beach
peyt-bait-trap in body of fish on beach, bet (chance?)
keyv-cave-cavern-carve (soft stone)-quarry (hard stone), karst
ahkt-ock-rock (English stone)
ahkt-aht-batu (Malay stone)
wawa-well-wave-wind-
wata-wet-wed (throw conf-etti/splashing)
mar-marine-marriage/marital
market-merchand-samarkand-open water shares (trade) wares fairs
ket-cut-gut-goods shared
tek-trek/tred (walk to quarry), trade/train/terrain
tekcheyn-exchange?? vows, barter(boater?), tax,

The Ket people of the Altai mountains are the closest kin
to the original Amerindians. Tek flipped is ket, indicating stone
tools and cutting. Note the word tomahawk, a handled stone-axe,
includes the sound ~ahwk, likely derived from original oct/ahkt. I
don't know the meaning of tomah~, but there is a town in Wisconsin of
that name which originated from Ojibwe/Chippewa Indian language AFAIK.
I've no doubt that the earliest AmerIndians had watercraft, not heavy
wooden dugouts but rather lightweight ribbed portables. In Africa and
southern Asia, crocs/hippos required strong dugouts, but in Eurasia
lightweight ribbed craft were faster and easier to steer in streams
and to paddle upstream to smaller steeper creeks. So Amerindians
already had experience in these vessels. Eskimo names for ribbed skin
boats: umiak and kayak, both include ~ahk, again derived from the
stone hammer-axe, but lost the wa~ and added a prefix, and no longer
used log dugouts. The Chippewa adopted ribbed birch-bark canoes, I
don't know the canoe name. The tribal name of the forest/river
dwelling Ojibwe/Chippewa may derive from chip/tek wood and stone
working ancestors of Eurasian hilly forests/streams. I can only think
that when Beringia was above sea level, it must have had some forests.

Processing stone/wood/meat:
Tek<->ket<->cut<->cook<->kitchen/cuccina/kocina
Tek<->check<->chef<->chief?/chevron?
Tek<->flake<->fillet<->file?
Tek<->tendon?<->o-raw-hide? (uncooked)
Tek<->took?<->hook?<->crook? (take the bait)
Tek<->ket<->knet<->knit<->knot (cut/tie fibers)

knapping a hand-axe / bait-trap means chipping off tets (irregular),
stone knife blades, (like a nose), are irregular tetrahedrons.
So the word 'tet', source of tetrahedron, is ancient too.

name of orig. core/manuport: 'ora' /ore/core/ura/ora/aura/raw (uncut/uncooked)
name of process: 'tek' /check/tick/flake/
name of chips: 'tet' /chip/flek/spec
name of finished bait-trap: 'gen' /gen-/gin-/gem
name of the hammer-stone: 'ahkt' or 'ahx' /axe/adze

Where oct- came from. It exists in Greek (oct) and Sanskrit (aaht). It has a sort of hollow sound (aaoo) as opposed to the sound of pebbles tikking together. My guess is that it was the name of the pounding hammer-stone used for the chipping, also used to describe drumming
hollow logs. A hollow tubular stem (bamboo, crane bone, kudu horn, conch shell) blown through with pinched lips produces only octaves so the word oct/axe was used for hammering and for the natural octaves. The later words axle and axial derived from hollow tubular cylinders like hollow tree stems used in early dugout canoes, found rotting inside-out at waterside, bending towards the
open water and sun. A stone adze/axe and fire were used later to produce a better streamlined watercraft, and then solid straight tree stems were preferred for the lightest unleakiest vessels.

Since the oldest PIE (Proto-Indo-European) name for water is akwa, I'm thinking that water was earlier called wawa or wata during daily diving, and that once dugouts were used, akwa actually was ahkt-wata meant "action in/of water" where act derived from the motion of the hammer-axe. A boat flipped is a tub and vv, in German boat is boot which flipped is toob or tube, boating in water was shortened to akwa, eventually used for any water-related activities/things once
Homo stopped daily diving and become dependent on boats and technology. PIE has no word for tidal surf (they used the 'mar' in coastal marine instead for inland riparian marshes, mires, moors,
markets, merchant), so likely it developed along the Black/Caspian seas and rivers/lakes of the Russian/Ukrainean plains, where there was no tide but there was snow, wheat and lions.

from tek to other words is a very small step "I tap the top of the typewriter keys with the tip of my finger". That sentence has 5 individual derivations from tek.

top (Sanskrit topi = hat), flipped becomes pot or bot-tom
tip, flipped becomes pit
tap, flipped becomes pat on the back
tep, now extinct, was root of step
tape, adhesive
Top-ic, iso-topic, iso-tope, iso-tropic, iso-trophic?
flip, from tip to flip/fly/flew/flutter/flow/flour/FLUID

then tube (hollow cylinder, tuba), flipped becomes boot (car trunk) tub, tab, etc.

Is there a dictionary based on these ancient roots, rather than on alphabetic order (which is much more recent) or pure phonetics?

ora = pre-chipped core or manuport
gen = hand-axe/bait-trap/clam
tek = chip from core

or-gan = whole (heart) core
Ur ~ ora ~ (See my Sumerian trading post scenario)

Conjecture: genetic root (gen-e-tic) (see origin of ur also)
original name for the hande-axe (bait trap) ~ gen
original name for the flaking ~ tek
original name for the chips ~ tek + derivatives

gen=general=the whole (can you dig 1/2 a hole?)
tek=special=the part/spec/spark/flek/flake/tack/trac/tach/tech/...

gen is soft & hummy, tek is clicky, in the mouth.

'tek' is derived from the sound of chipping stone/bone/stick
'gen' probably a tropical bivalve mollusc (the original model for the bifacial bait trap).

Tek is now a buried root word, a fossil, alive only in evolved derived forms.
detach has replaced tek in the functional sense. At-tack, at-tach, at-tach`e, abstract, attract detract, distract merging and separating items. There are an enormous variety of words that relate to the coming together and going apart (compression/tension, gravitation/radiation..), scale is part of the reason for different words, another is geographic isolation of languages..
trac-tion: frictional adhesion
derivation of "abstract": This word comes from a German root "tragen" that means "to
drag". In other words, abstract literally means "dragged away from reality."

tesselate? (sanskrit?)

Does 'compound' derive from pounding a simple stone, making many components? take a flake.. tek a flek, compound 'frac-ture' or frac-tion etc...

tek is also used for finger, digit, one in various languages.
I've 'stuck' to English, but I think all languages had a similar root.

ora-gen-tek

Po-e-tic -|- Syn-er-ge-tic -|- Pol-i-tic

[in memory of buckminster fuller, geodesic designer]
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"now i know why i don't like politics" by DDeden

pol - tic (tek)

people - separated

the skill in keeping people disunited/distracted,
(easier to make/keep them slaves/serfs that way)
Tyrants are anti-politicans, they force unity.
Politicians are anti-tyrants, dividing unity.
USA is a bifacial clam, a bilateral tyrant
made up of two political shells/parties
which trust each other to competence,
I'm not knocking (tek) politicians,
just don't follow their religion
pick pock tick tock nick knock
spec spark spire pyre fire
first spear was a spire
first gem was a gen
1st shard shared,
1st croc snared
lions scared
un homme
laird
wet
~


the bait-trap tek culture really was a major league change-up in human pre-history. Before it, language was there but limited to natural objects mom, dad, nana, eat, water, etc. filled with physical gestures and sounds.

boater-barter-border(war?)-bother-buffer-boundary-brother-boarder
sailor-seller (not cellar), seller-dweller, sail-sale
paddler-peddler (not pedestrian)

Why do European languages start their teens at 13, not 11? Because they derived from the Caspian basin Proto-Indo-European nomadic herders.

I see there is a difference in counting systems.

Decimal: (small base) 10, (large base) 100 (Modern, India)
Duodecimal: (small base) 12, (large base) 144 (Niger plateau)
Caspian: (small base) 12, (large base) 120 (PIE Caspian basin)
Sumerian: (small base) 60, (large base) 3600 (Sumerian Traders)

The ancestral European counting system from the Caspian basin counted their knuckles and fingers 120. This allowed them to trade goods at Sumerian trading posts along rivers from Sumer to Moscow, who used the 30/60/360/3600 counting system which is still used in degrees, minutes.

Does anyone know where I can verify the real history of the 12/120-based system? Wikipedia doesn't even mention the herding.
http://www.sizes.com/units/hundred.htm#120
(I think some translation errors snuck in, eg Doggermen probably used 8 x 12 + 4)
Note that 120 is used with heads/herds, 100 with iron.

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/duodecimal
http://www3.aa.tufs.ac.jp/~P_aflang/TEXTS/oct98/decimal.html

my words:

The first cattle herding began on the Nigerian plateau and the Caspian plains, a few
plateau Nigerian languages still use the duodecimal system, but in Europe only the vestige of 11, 12 not being -teen, and the presence of dozen in the languages indicate a past use before the decimal system.)

herd = 12 head / kids (kind-herd) / tribes / tributaries Mesopotamian
herders, exported to Levant, Caspian.

A head-count of 12 was counted/divided quickly using the thumbtip
tapping the flesh above the 12 inner knuckles of one hand, dividing by
2, 3, 4, 6 was easy. Continue to higher numbers by folding a finger or
thumb to represent each additional 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84, 96,
108, 120 when all digits folded = both hands closed = count-herd-ol =
10 x 12 (hundredfold)

cent<- kent-um = 100 among city folk. (10 x itself)
hundred<- count10 x herd12 = 120 among nomad herders. (10 x 12 knuckles)

The word hundred meant 120 items. from count-herd
The word gross meant 144 items. big/many
The word cent meant 100 items. from kentum
The word count meant 12 items. from kent
The word kent meant 10 items.

herd = 12 head / kids (kind-herd) / tribes / tributaries Mesopotamian herders, exported to Levant, Caspian.

A head-count of 12 was counted/divided quickly using the thumbtip tapping the flesh above the 12 inner knuckles of one hand, dividing by 2, 3, 4, 6 was easy. Continue to higher numbers by folding a finger or thumb to represent each additional 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84, 96, 108, 120 when all digits folded = both hands closed = kent-herd-ol = 10 x 12 (hundredfold)

kent-um = 100 among city, port. (10 x itself)
count-herd = 120 among nomad herders. (10 x 12 knuckles)

-ol- fold, wool, roll, scroll, wheel
-ai!- eye, hive, fly, spyre, pain, fire

PIE and IE retained this (China lost it, instead using 10 fingers (no knuckles) and decimal abacus from shells/coins on a string). IE teens start at 13, not 11.

Our later written numerals are based on the Chinese decimal (as did Rome) via India/Arabia numerals which added the 0.

Abraham <- ora-ham (in Chaldean) ora = source, core, origin

Neither Chinese, Eskimos nor Austronesians herded cattle/sheep on open plains, their counting systems differed.

calendrical temporal jitterbug regulate
morality-mythos-taboo jitterbug IKTHYS4MEN
head-count trade-good jitterbug knuckle/digit
icosa-cubocta-octa-tet jitterbug hexapenta
10c 12 oz. weight coin jitterbug cheap metals

A constant bore tube's lowest notes aren't octave intervals.
A conical bore tube's lowest notes may approximate an octave interval.

It is interesting, the bugle frequency ratios 2-3-4-5-6
I'd guess it is actually 1-2-3-4-5-6-12, with the 1-2 gap equal to an octave (if I have inferred correctly).

I am basing this on Buckmister Fuller's "Jitterbug transformation"
where in geometry, there is an overlap between an icosahedron (1-2-3-4-6-12 fold symmetry) and a cuboctahedron (5 fold symmetry)

(note images at right)
http://www.4dsolutions.net/synergetica/synergetica6.html
"The jitterbug transformation starts with a cuboctahedron and twist contracts it into a regular octahedron with 1/5th the volume, passing through the intermediate icosahedral phase on the way. This latter form of the jitterbug is useful when applied to individual spheres as it shows how they can contract to become between-sphere concave octahedral voids (see 1:1032.00). Fuller uses oscillatory ripplings of such sphere-into-space-into-sphere alternations, the so-called space-filling jitterbug transformation, to suggest new models of omnidirectional energy propagation within the fields of electro- and hydrodynamics."

I believe the same math mechanism was used by Proto-Indo-European herdsmen and Sumerian traders, calculating quantities via knuckles (12 base) and fingers (10 base).

Wikipedia, hundred: "The larger value originated with the Teutonic tribes that invaded England after the Romans departed; their Hundert equalled 120."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teutonic
The word Teutonic derives at once from both the Latin name for a tribe who were thought by the Romans to be Germanic, die Teutonen, "the Teutons" and, from the Germanic word tiutisch (New High German deutsch = German), originally meaning "belonging to the people".

The Romans identified die Teutonen as a Germanic tribe, and therefore Roman writers began to use the term Teutonicus as a synonym for their existing word for Germanic peoples, Germanicus.

Today many scholars think that die Teutonen were not a Germanic tribe at all, but rather, that they were a Celtic tribe. It has been suggested that Teutone derives from the Celtic word tuath meaning "the people" or "the tribe" (as in the mythical Irish race, the Tuatha de Danaan, the "tribe of Danaan").[citation needed] [1]

Tiutisch is the source of the German word Deutsch, as well as the English word "Dutch". English is considered a Germanic language by linguists.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_language

rind: cattle
kind: children





--- In AAT@yahoogroups.com, Ken Moore wrote:
>
> DDeden wrote:
> >
> > "a conch shell, a bugle, a didgeroo, and a shoffar (bored out kudu or
> > ram's horn) when blown with pursed lips at various air pressures can
> > only produce full octave tones or no tone at all".
> >
> > Would you agree that is accurate?
> >
> No. If constant bore tubes, such as didgeridoos, are blown with pursed
> lips sealed to one end, the interval between the two lowest resonances
> will not be an octave. A shofar may be close to a conical bore, in
> which case its corresponding interval will be near an octave. A bugle
> is designed so that the lowest note is rarely used. It will be
> approximately an octave below the second, but the main object of the
> designer is that notes 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 will be in those frequency
> ratios, giving intervals of a fifth, a fourth, a major third and a minor
> third, typically Bb, F, Bb D, F. (per Ken)


kent<-ket(=cut)<->tek(chip/flake)
count<-kent
kindred<-kent & herd
hundred<-kent & herd
hand*2<-kent

The addition of 'r' usually indicates separation/torn/sherds/parts/rip/scratch,

While the -um means "times itself" or mirrored
eg. bivalve/bilateral sYMMetry, Mirror, clAM, Multiply, tIMes, Mollusc, centUM, sateM

name of orig. core/manuport: 'or' /ore/core/ura/ora/aura
name of process: 'tek' /check/tick/flake/
name of chips: 'tet' /chip/flek/spec
name of finished bait-trap: 'gen' /gen-/gin-/gem
name of the hammer-stone: 'ahkt' or 'ahx' /axe/adze

Sorry, typo. Khald, not Kald. Derived into Kali, Cailleach, Catholic, Gaelic, Chaldean, Celtic, Baltic, Bog, Basque, Khalidya, Goth, (Thor?) Gott, numerous other IE terms in various locales where IE/Aryan/Celtic/Cultic/Turkmen/German/herdsmen of the Black-Caspian basin and Ukraine-Central Asian plains herded between mountain ranges then settling at well watered sites engaged in trade of dried salmon, flint, salt, herds. Settlements at fertile farmlands and trading posts produced great chiefs (probably Kiev, then King) who employed jesters (gestures) and mimes to assist in language/dialect translation before writing arrived. Later writing put a new overlay, with new names of tribes and homelands.

Cailleach myth
by Karla Morgan
Cailleach is referred to as the "Mother of All" in parts of Scotland. Also known as Scotia, she is depicted as an old hag with the teeth of a wild bear and boar's tusks..She is also known to have created the earth. "With her hammer she alternately splinters [flint, perhaps flanders] mountains,.."


--- In HumanMigrations@yahoogroups.com, "DDeden" wrote:
>
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Indo-Eurasian_research/message/9088
>
> why does your keyboard start with qwerty? qrt/krt/krst/ktb
> reading, writing, reciting, and a-rith-ma-tic. Education.
> The al quran name begins at the same source as krist/krish, and are
> derived from Assyria/Syria/Urartu/Armenia region. The name of their
> Deity was "Kald", now retained as "God", (not Deus or YHWH or Elohim
> or Allah in English), they were Kaldian aka Celt/Gaul/Chaldean, but
> through time they mixed with others and had different names, now
> Armenian.
>
>
>
>
> --- In HumanMigrations@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Parker"
> wrote:
> >
> > Daoud - you're treading or paddling in very dangerous waters.
> >
> > Krit may be a proto-word for all I know, and may be related to
> > Sans_krit_ and _Kri_shna and s_cript_ure, but it is also very
> > obviously related to _Chri_st.
> >
> > Don't ever suggest anyhing like that in the Bible Belt, or you'll be
> > lynched.
> >
> > regards
> >
> >
> > Richard
> >
> >
> > --- In HumanMigrations@yahoogroups.com, "DDeden"
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > RP: Greek may share some root words with Sanskrit, but was not
> > inherited
> > > from it. They both derive from Proto-Indo-European (PIE), an
> > > entirely imaginary language 'reconstructed' from later descendent
> > > languages. PIE, or something very like it, just may have been
> > spoken
> > > by the people who were present when the roots of Indo-European were
> > > being set up, but PIE is an imaginary language, not a real one.
> > >
> > > DD: The sound -krit-/-grik- derived from the sound of scratching a
> > > stick/stone/stylus on stone/clay/leaf, and the later
> > > national/tribal/cultural designations in the title above were
> > merely
> > > local derivations. The modern word "written" had lost the initial
> > k/g,
> > > while the modern word "scripture" has preserved it.
> > >
> > > Once you remove the written word from their ancestors, what were
> > they?
> > > PIE. I guess that both scribe and priest were derived from krit,
> > > (krist = writer, cf artist) (krshna in Hindu). Writers created
> > (krit-d
> > > cf crafted) religions and omni-gods from muddled old memories,
> > while
> > > oratory folktales were retained because they included music and
> > > gesture (jester) not yet available in written (tab) form.
> > > DDeden
> > >
> >
>

Acheulean Hand Axe or Bifacial Bait Trap?

Update January 2010: Poisonous yellow lichen Letharia vulpina mixed with ground glass or fat in reindeer carcass used to poison wolves. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letharia_vulpina

The use of this species for poisoning wolves and foxes goes back at least hundreds of years, based on the mention of the practice in Christoph Gedner's "Of the use of curiosity", collected in Benjamin Stillingfleet, Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Natural History, Husbandry and Physics (London, 1759).[5] According to British lichenologist Annie Lorrain Smith, reindeer carcasses were stuffed with lichen and powdered glass (small chert flakes?), and suggests that the sharp edges of the glass would make the animals' internal organs more susceptible to the effects of the lichen poison.[6] However, it is known that the lichen itself is also effective—powdered lichen added to fat and inserted into reindeer carcasses will also be fatal to wolves that consume it.[5] The toxic chemical is the yellow dye vulpinic acid, which is poisonous to all meat-eaters, but not to mice and rabbits.[5] (hat tip to Brian & comments at Laelaps).)

After more thought on hand axes, I now think that by 1ma they were primarily used as simple tomahawks and later adzes, using hand-wound roots/vines to attach the bifaces to wood handles.
However, it is not unlikely that small biface stones, chert/obsidian flakes, razor clam shards or sharp sticks could have been inserted into fish or game meat/fat/organs as night-time bait-traps against any nocturnal predators around the cave or beaver-lodge-style hut camp.
-

Hand axes in Crete: Crete bifaces
Stone hand axes unearthed on the Mediterranean island of Crete indicate that an ancient Homo species — perhaps Homo erectus — had used rafts or other seagoing vessels to cross from northern Africa to Europe via at least some of the larger islands in between, says archaeologist Thomas Strasser of Providence College in Rhode Island. Several hundred double-edged cutting implements discovered at nine sites in southwestern Crete date to at least 130,000 years ago and probably much earlier, Strasser reported January 7 at the annual meeting of the American Institute of Archaeology. Many of these finds closely resemble hand axes fashioned in Africa about 800,000 years ago by H. erectus, he says. It was around that time that H. erectus spread from Africa to parts of Asia and Europe.
-

Original from 2007:

I've read that one way Inuits reduced competition from wolves was by inserting a sharp blade into a chunk of meat, swallowed it would tear up the stomach and kill it.

Could a hand axe or sharp blade be put in a fish or meat bait at waterside to kill a lion, sabercat, leopard, tiger, crocodile? (Rhetorical question)

Since unlike hyenas they don't crack and eat the bones, they may be susceptible to something sharp lodging in the GI tract.

Crocs (and seals and other aquatic animals) swallow rounded stones for ballast. Louis Leakey found near-sphere pebbles ("bolas") among masses of hand axes in the Rift valley at Olorgesailie, according to Rick Potts. Thanks to Lee Olsen for bringing Potts article to my attention.

Fishermen fishing for catfish in some areas attach chicken or other meat materials wrapped around a stick sharpened at both ends, which lodges in the pharyngeal-GI tract.

East of the Movius line in Asia, bifacial hand axes are only rarely found (Unlike Africa, Europe and west Asia). Most likely bamboo slivers were used instead.

Tyranosaurus Rex didn't chew, it tore flesh into chunks, probably tossing them into the air and swallowing whole, similar to how Orcas toss baby seals and cats toss mice. Crocs and big cats have their own methods, but have some resemblance to this style of carnivory.

I don't think hand-axes aka bifacials were simply the result of knapping flakes, nor do I think they were used effectively as frisbees. (As I said in Paleoanthro.) I think the butted hand-axes
were used in woodcraft and possibly bone splitting, the cleavers were used in butchery, the "beautiful" ones perhaps as social trade/status items, but the majority which according to Mikey Brass were found at waterside, were used as bait traps for carnivores that did not habitually chew medium-sized chunks of meat or fish but rather swallowed them whole without chewing.

If effective in terminating competition, it would not be surprising that hand-axes continued to be in use for such a long time with little modification. The unique flattened teardrop shape being effective for swallowing but not regurgitating.

I'd appreciate any relevant comments.
DDeden

Video: Elaine Morgan, human prehistory

YouTube Playlist about Elaine Morgan by Algis Kuliakas
video link

froggy on my bloggy? 2008 Year of the Frog

copied from Tetrapod Zoology blog, better quality photos and descriptions there:
http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2007/12/flying_frogs_and_friends.php

2008 is the year of the frog. Frogs and other amphibians are under stress, they are keystone species in many ecosystems. See how you can help here: tetrapod zoo

Earth = Home. Can't just throw it away & buy a new one.

Videos, pics, articles on human ancestry along sea coasts and whale evolution
humans and dolphin link

Some of the lines of Siddhidas Mahaju(N.S.987-N.S.1050) read as follows

सज्जन मनुष्या संगतनं मूर्ख नापं भिना वै
पलेला लपते ल वंसा म्वति थें ल सना वै

which state that even a moron can improve with the company of good people just like even a drop of water appears like a pearl when it descends upon the leaves of a lotus plant.

(my last blog post for now, can't predict the future)