Humans live on the earth, and now they have gradually become the masters of the earth. Although there are many animals that are stronger than humans, humans rely on their own civilization and wisdom to be called the hegemon of the earth, and today’s Humans also have no specific natural enemies. But do you know? In fact, as early as 1.4 million years ago, human ancestors also had natural enemies. There is a kind of animal called the terrestrial cat that feeds on human ancestors. Fortunately, it is now extinct, otherwise the human species might not exist on the earth. Up.
1.4 million years ago, Dinocats ate human ancestors. Why did they become extinct afterwards?
According to relevant statistics, about 5 million to 1.4 million years ago, there was such an animal in Eurasia, North America and other places, and it was a cat. This is a kind of cat, and the Dinocats living in Africa at that time and the ancestors of humans once lived in the same area, which means that they lived almost at the same time as Australopithecus, but Australopithecus at that time It is one of the main food sources for cats, but because Australopithecus is preyed by cats, it also promoted the evolution of Australopithecus to humans.
In fact, an animal like a cat is very similar to today’s cats. Its forelimbs are like the realization of today’s cheetahs, and it is very likely that it can climb trees. At that time, the Australopithecus was very slow, and its response was not so sensitive, just like the gorillas nowadays. At that time, the climate in Africa was hot, so Australopithecus, which had lived in trees for a long time, had to walk down to the ground to find food. At this time, although they could walk upright, their speed was very slow and their counterattacks were very weak, so In the process of searching for food underground, it is easy to be chased by cats.
For the fear of cats, their ability to move is very fast, and they have a relatively strong body, so for Australopithecus, if they move too slowly, they will eventually become a dish for the fear of cats. Therefore, at this time A part of Australopithecus began to move quickly to avoid chasing, which also made them slowly evolve in the direction of current humans. And the skulls of some Australopithecus fossils that were left at that time all had the scars of the Deinus cat. Scientists believe that this shows that the Dein cat was indeed the natural enemy of human ancestors at that time and fed on these animals.
So why did the fear cats go extinct afterwards? In fact, the reason may be related to two aspects. On the one hand, it is due to the body structure of Kong cats. In fact, they are very similar to cheetahs, tigers and lions, but their weight can reach nearly 200 kilograms, so they will become more and more bulky. And at that time, they could only use the slow-moving Australopithecus as their prey. With the continuous evolution of Australopithecus, it will be difficult for the cats to chase down such prey at this time, and the climate in Africa is getting hotter and hotter. However, it is difficult for cats of equal size to catch food, so their numbers are decreasing.
In addition, as Australopithecus continues to evolve to humans, it has gradually mastered a certain amount of wisdom and can skillfully use certain weapons or tools. And they also began to live in groups, so facing an animal like the cat that would attack them, humans began to fight back, using weapons or tools in their hands to drive away or kill the cat, causing the cat to be scared. The number of cats is getting smaller and smaller, and after so long, the cats are facing such a situation, so they will eventually become extinct.
I am afraid that this kind of animal is now extinct, which is good for human evolution as a whole, and if they were not extinct at that time and were gradually growing, then the fate of mankind might be unimaginable.