La Brea Tar Pits

Luckily, humans have put in efforts to understand and sometimes reverse the damage done. Wilcove describes ecosystem restoration, where usually humans put concentrated effort into recreating original habitats to restore indigenous populations. This is, unless “a very different assemblage of species has taken hold of the land and cannot be dislodged,” also known as a new “steady state” (Wilcove, 2000, p. 12). Wilcove himself joined the effort by studying the impacts humans have caused on woodland critters. He surveyed an area in Maryland to detect predators by setting cardboard coated in masonry powder to record footprints. He concluded that there were “six predators: opossum, raccoon, striped skunk, dog, cat, and blue jay. All are animals that benefit mightily from their association with people”(Wilcove, 2000, p. 42). He also mentions how extensive data can only be collected when looking at the observations of many people over the generations. He talks about “generational blindness,” which means how observers of a current generation cannot make conclusions on populations without the help of data collected from the past (Wilcove, 2000, p. 13).

Humans also had to limit their population with practices like abortion because they had limited resources, just like how China only allows family’s to have one child. At the end of the last ice age, foragers became affluent because the land was rich and they could settle down. Once the land was depleted, they were stuck because that happened to all of the people around them. They now had to develop ways to live off their section of the land and the seeds of agriculture were planted.

The reading by Paul S. Martin, Twilight of the Mammoths: Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of America, explores the idea that extinction is a phenomenon that could be explained by human arrival. Humankind has an impact on animal extinction. He says: “based on the concept that animal populations could have sustained some additional predation, but not as much as took place after human arrival, this explanation has come to be known as overkill “(Martin, 48). In this passage Martin is explaining that humans are predators and upon their arrival many animals died. Martin also goes on to say that meteor strikes and climatic

The first example of human manipulation of changes within the biosphere is through expansion. The rapid growth of the population has led to expansion in development; the need for more space is causing strain on other living organisms such as plants and animals. Human procurement of forest, grass, and wetlands has weighed on the animal population heavily. As a result of this domination, animals have lost areas they use to thrive in, causing migration and in more serious cases extinction. Animals are a prevalent source of protein for humans, and when a species is threatened by extinction, it not only disrupts the balance of the ecosystem, but it also disrupts the food chain. The more resources that are required to sustain human life, the bigger the need to migrate to surrounding areas in a short period of time (Haines).

This in turn would lead to more consumption at the top of the food chain, eliminating the predators to creatures at the lower end

The Spindletop oil pool was what is known as a salt dome oil field. It was the first salt-dome oil discovery in Texas. A salt dome forms when masses of salt develop underground and are pushed up towards the surface by pressure in the earth

When feeding in a treacherous environment both prey and predator must develop a varied range of hunting and defense behaviors.

S. 969). In order to prove the viability of an overkill theory, Martin constructed a model that would consider both the expanding population of an invading people and the population of megafauna that they are hunting throughout their colonization. He determined that even a very large biomass (in this case the megafauna) of 2.3 X 10^ 8 metric tons could be overkilled within just 1,000 years by a biomass of no more than 10^6 metric tons of Clovis hunters (Martin P. S. 972). Additionally, Martin argued that carnivores that Clovis hunters were not hunting such as the saber-tooth tiger would have become extinct around this time because of the removal of their herbivore prey (Grayson and Meltzer 586).

This is because the animals are overhunted. They are overhunted because of all the new people. Also there will be less farmland because of using to much nutrients and the aforementioned lack of space. Also plants will be overgathered so nomadic tribes would suffer. Many would starve and die because of lack of food.

b. Environment change and global warming caused the human population to experience a rapid growth. As more gatherers and hunters occupied the earth, more animals were being hunted. As a result of this, many megafaunal animals became extinct so the gatherers and hunters had to adjust their food supply. From the need of food came the discovery of agriculture. For the Iroquois, they built their villages around maize fields. The women would tend the crops and overlook the community, while the men would hunt.

-Reintroduction of a top predator lowered the number of over grazing herbivores, leaving a more stable amount of food for many species of herbivores.

Comparison The Roman and Han empire's technology and societies were very different, yet similar in certain aspects as well. One of the biggest differences between the chinese and the romans’ societies was how they ran their empires. Han China ran their empire by following the philosophy of confucianism, and they were an absolute monarchy. while rome ran a republic.

The Folsom Bone Pit was used in the late 1400’s by the first Americans, however it was not discovered until the 1920’s. The bone pit is located in Folsom, Mexico and it contained the bones of bison, hence the name Folsom Bone Pit. The discovery of the bone pit advanced the knowledge of the first Americans in several ways. Scholars used the discovery to uncover things such as the information on the geological conditions, the origins of the first Americans, migration into America, and why the world became so diverse when Europeans began exploring.

These humans used complex hunting tools and techniques to stalk and kill the targeted pray. The precise planning that went into hunting large game consisted of technological advances in the production of tools used to kill, and the cooperation of a group to obtain the game. The adoption of hunting strategies presented humans with daily reliable access to essential proteins and other micronutrients. The animals also proved to be easier to digest and contained more calories, which gave humans more energy to continue hunting these large

People have had trouble growing enough food since early in human history. “With a demographic