# The Travails of Prehistoric Man



## polymorphikos (Sep 1, 2004)

Whilst I understand that they were capable of making stone-tipped spears that would easily pierce a thick hide, I have yet to have it explained to me how a Neanderthal might slay a Tyrannosaurus using only a bow and arrows. If I understand correctly, Neanderthals didn't have bows and arrows.

Am I wrong or am I right, and how can we solve the mystery of how our ancestors fought giant carnosaurs and succeeded, in spite of there being no evidence of the use of staves as advanced as a theory in documentaries such as "One Million Years BC". Did they perhaps employ the stampede method used to drive mammoths off of cliffs?

I am deeply interested in this problem, and would appreciate any help.


----------



## dwndrgn (Sep 1, 2004)

Um, it's my guess that because they never lived in the same time period there was no need to fight them off...er...I could be wrong


----------



## Brian G Turner (Sep 1, 2004)

1 million years BC took a few liberties with palaeontology. 

 I'm not sure when bows are first recorded - but T-Rex and co disappeared at the end of the Cretaceous, 65 million years ago - - - whilst the first ancestor of humans that is apparently traceable is Australapithicus, who existed around 5 million years ago, and was nothing more than a small upright-but-hunched-up ape. 

 I don;t know if you had them in Australia, but the BBC commissioned a series of programs a while back - "Walking with Dinosaurs" and "Walking with Mammals", which are excellent CGI-based "documentaries" of prehistoric life. The "Walking with Mammals" series included some coverage of early humans tackling woolly mammoths - very interesting stuff.


----------



## littlemissattitude (Sep 1, 2004)

I was always under the impression that it was Raquel Welch in that fur bikini that just stunned the beasts into catatonia, allowing the hunters to approach and spear them with impunity.  Then again, that would have probably only worked on the boy beasts.  Then again, again, removing the male beasts, if they got all of them, would have pretty much sent them into extinction.

Unless, of course, some of the females mutated into males, a la "Jurassic Park", which would start the whole cycle over again.

Never mind.  This is getting to complicated.  I think I'll just stick with dwndrgn's explanation.


----------



## Brian G Turner (Sep 1, 2004)

I think it was just the animators it worked on.


----------



## littlemissattitude (Sep 1, 2004)

Not to mention all the men in the audience.


----------



## Brian G Turner (Sep 1, 2004)

I haven't see that film since I was a boy - maybe I should hunt it down?


----------



## polymorphikos (Sep 2, 2004)

I hate it when smart-arses are smart-arsed about other smart-arses being smart-arsed


----------



## littlemissattitude (Sep 2, 2004)

Aw, polymorphikos, we were just trying to help.  You did ask.


----------



## polymorphikos (Sep 2, 2004)

Humph!

Well, anyway, I have always wondered how humans would have fared if, somehow, they found themselves in a Lost World setting. So to return to my question, discounting the smart-arsery upon which it was based, how would a human kill a T-Rex? Or hunt a Brachiosaurus.

Questions, questions...


----------



## Brian G Turner (Sep 2, 2004)

Kill them directly? Well there's probably going to be very thick hide to puncture through, plus the general danger of being in the near vicinity of any angry carnosaur - or one about to collapse dead with all that tonnage.

 On a one-to-one basis - I doubt it would be either very practical to attack a T-Rex with any kind of hand-held or missle weapon. Even an elephant gun wouldn't necessarily be effective quick enough. 

 What was the name of the large gun in Predator - was it a minimgun or minicannon or something? One of those, aimed well, might stop a T-Rex quickly enough. 

 It's a really good question at heart, though - humanity often has a terrible time dealing with top predators, and large herbivores - tigers and lions, for example, I do not believe have been hunted by native peoples - certainly not before the invention of powerful firearms, and elephants can still wreak havoc and damage in rural areas. It's interesting to imagine the  defensive requirements involved of keeping a village safe from wandering dinosaurs. Outright confrontation would probably be right out - but defensive measures such as a deep outer ditch would have to be pretty deep and wide indeed.


----------



## Jayaprakash Satyamurthy (Sep 2, 2004)

Maybe they could drive them off cliffs? Wave around some burning torches, make a lot of noise (humans are very good at that) and hey presto, dino steak, on the rocks.


----------



## Princess Ivy (Sep 2, 2004)

Ah, a theory proposed by the esteamed Douglas Adams, if I am not mistaken...


----------



## Brian G Turner (Sep 2, 2004)

knivesout said:
			
		

> Maybe they could drive them off cliffs? Wave around some burning torches, make a lot of noise (humans are very good at that) and hey presto, dino steak, on the rocks.


 That's in "Walking with Mammals" by the BBC - humans driving a few mammoths off a cliff.

 Approach a T-Rex with a torch, though, and you're probably hogin to look like a snack-sized _human flambe_.


----------



## polymorphikos (Sep 3, 2004)

The Masai, I believe, hunted (maybe still do) lions with spears as part of an initiation ceremony. I'm not sure with my facts, though.

I just thought, what about like in Return of the Jedi? A large dinosaur could be lured between two trees, or even next to one, and then the giant sharpened log comes swinging down.


----------



## Rhuidean (May 30, 2006)

*


			
				I said:
			
		


			That's in "Walking with Mammals" by the BBC - humans driving a few mammoths off a cliff.
		
Click to expand...

*


			
				I said:
			
		

> *Wasn't that 'Walking With Beasts'?*


----------



## cornelius (May 30, 2006)

a lion -- a twenty foot T rex 

I think Humans wouldn't actually hunt down a T rex. a Brachiosaurus is easier, try to get a spear or some arrows into the head and the rest goes down.


----------



## SilentBob (Sep 3, 2006)

cornelius said:
			
		

> a lion -- a twenty foot T rex
> 
> I think Humans wouldn't actually hunt down a T rex. a Brachiosaurus is easier, try to get a spear or some arrows into the head and the rest goes down.




I know it's a bit late from the last post, but here's something: the human specie appeared in Africa roughly 2 million years ago (i'm not talking about the Aostralopitecs, but just the first Homo specie, _Homo habilis_). The dinosaurs disappeared roughly 60 million years ago. So it's pretty hard to hit  a brachiosaurus even with a photon torpedo or something


----------

