The survival and evolution of a species is dependant on both the competing claimsfor survival being asserted within the species and between different species. Timothy Flannery in his book The Future Eaters, explores the strategies backing evolution by studying certain human migratory patterns
FLANNERY'S prime supposition is that as
and when competition with other carnivores and primates increased, hominids
turned to new habitats. Such rivalry
between different species and the consequent migrations resulting from the
same constituted the main driving force
of evolution (Natural History, Vol 104,
No 12).
Fighting it out for the same
resources ultimately limited the distribution and numbers of competitors in
the world. In a highly coevolved ecosystem, each species strived to out-do its
predators by changing its survival
strategies. As and when one species
adopted fresh tactics, others quickly followed suit and this process of change
carried on in an unending manner over
time.
But once the species was released
from the burden of struggling for its
survival, depending on the sustainability
of the conditions, the particular species
at first proliferated. When resources get
depleted, their numbers decimated considerably resulting in a restoration of the
balance being maintained within the
ecosystem.
Flannery wonders if it was a similar
situation which led to the dispersion of
early humans. Biologist Jared Diamond
proposed that early humans took a great
leap forward around 40,000 years ago
when humans started making more
elaborate tools and traded widely, when
art was created, humans increased in
numbers and various belief systems
emerged. These pointers have been substantiated by the manner in which Afro-Eurasian humans have evolved. As a
group who had primarily been hunters
and gatherers for millions of years, once
they improved their skills, their Prey
also acquired new defence tactics.
For millions of years, these
hominids had looked across the
Lombok strait separating the Asian
island of Bali from the uninhabited
Lombok island of Australia. Around 40-
60 thousand years ago this great divide
was crossed and humans made their way
in to the land which had not known any
like them before.
The Lombok strait is referred to as
Wallace's line because it divides Asian
animal species from the Australasian
ones. In and around 1his new land thrived virgin resources of a great number of crabs, molluscs and a variety of
fish. There were also animal species such
as pygmy elephants, birds, bats and rats
which had never known a human
predator before. Their vulnerability and
naive nature gave the human population there an upper edge because for a
long time they never went without a
successful hunt. They were all-powerful
beings in this land of plenty and their
population flourished as never before.
The carrying capacity of Bali and
Java was limited and the competition
with other carnivores kept a check on
the human population. But this was not
the case in Lombok because as the last
pygmy elephant, the only large herbivore, satiated human appetite, the
untouched vegetation on the mountain
slopes became their next victim. The
erosion which followed led to the buildup of soil in the neighbouring lagoons
and swamps, which resulted in a collapse of marine life, but also created fertile coastal plains. Humans here now
started depending on plant resources.
Plants had crossed Wallace's line
much before and varieties of yam, wild
bananas, taro and sugarcane had already
established themselves here. Survival
instincts forced man to quickly develop
and hone his agricultural skills. This
perhaps gave rise to competition
between groups of humans leading to
the development of a social structure
within communities, which "enhanced
their ability to process and distribute
food rather than defending their own or
snatch resources from others". This may
have motivated them to develop some
ingenious technologies to gain access to
,as-yet-untapped resources'.
A similar string of events continued
over a period of thousands of years as
humans moved from one island to
another in Australasia where the archipelago stretches about 4,800 km to the
east and as far as Tasmania and the
Solomon islands in the south. Their
migrations over time fine-tuned their
navigational and ship-building skills.
Flannery concludes with the suggestion that if this great leap did not take
place in the Southeast Asian islands, it
must have occurred in the Afro-Eurasian homeland of the early
hominids some 40,000 years ago where
the build- up and exchange of knowledge took place. "Groups that possessed
such knowledge would certainly have
been able to increase their population
and thus gain a competitive advantage,"
he declares. We cannot afford a similar
leap today as it would lead to the elimination of entire biotas.
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