BIOL 350 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Giant Armadillo, Fertile Crescent, Bone Meal
18 Oct 2016
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4:33 pm: 10 000 bp - neolithic - emergence of agricultural revolution. Extinctions in north america from over-hunting - combined with effects of climate change: giant armadillo, giant sloths, giant deer = a lot of meat, bison were hunted almost to extinction in the 19th century. Nomadic pastorialists: hunter-gatherers who learned to follow animal migrations to learn how to manage flocks and herds (goats, sheep, etc) Plant and animal domestication, and eventually irrigation: we became farmers, single most important enlargement of humanity"s carrying capacity, fertile crescent: 1) indus, nile valley, middle east 2) the far east, 3) mexico. Cities: the stability of land made it possible for farmers to farm the same land for generations --> let us settle down and build permanent homes and store grain: something to lose, to defend, to steal. If we didn"t have farming, we wouldn"t have cities.
