Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!harvard!caip!seismo!rochester!bullwinkle!uw-beaver!ssc-vax!bcsaic!michaelm
From: michaelm@bcsaic.UUCP (michael maxwell)
Newsgroups: net.bio
Subject: Re: Bipedalism
Message-ID: <530@bcsaic.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 28-Apr-86 14:07:33 EDT
Article-I.D.: bcsaic.530
Posted: Mon Apr 28 14:07:33 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 3-May-86 01:55:02 EDT
References: <487@bcsaic.UUCP> <1002@cybvax0.UUCP> <32@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP> <2529@jhunix.UUCP> <1018@cybvax0.UUCP>
Reply-To: michaelm@bcsaic.UUCP (michael maxwell)
Distribution: net
Organization: Boeing Computer Services AI Center, Seattle
Lines: 18
Keywords: dinosaurs, bipedalism, hunting, escape

In article <2529@jhunix.UUCP> ins_atrh@jhunix.ARPA (Thomas Holtz) writes:
>...Actually, this should read, "Humans can now hold *predators* at bay."
>For several reasons.  First, "enemies" can be construed to include poisonous
>snakes which do not prey on humans (and which can take quite a toll in
>Africa and Asia) as well as multitudinous parasites.

This is just an aside, but there is a tribe in Ecuador called the Waorani
(their name for themselves--they're more often referred to as the "Aucas", a
word in another language that means "savages").  According to a survey done a
few years ago, over 95% of the adult men had been bitten by poisonous snakes.
This was before the advent of modern medical treatments for snakebite.
Apparently the human body can hold its own agains a number of poisonous
snakes...  I don't know what permanent affects the snakebites had, although
these men continued to lead active lives as hunters afterwards.
-- 
Mike Maxwell
Boeing Artificial Intelligence Center
	...uw-beaver!uw-june!bcsaic!michaelm