-- I'm wondering if perhaps the apparently abundant and huge elephants contributed to the patches and corridors of deforestation and resulting expanded herbal plants and grasses? That and localized collecting and gathering of firewood, spears, tent poles, digging sticks and sundry feng shui, of course if neandertalensis is being discussed we must also insinuate potential possibility of ritual or ceremonial and artistic deforestation and herb gardening. The elephants were ruining the view and landscaping and we're immediately attacked and eaten, but this too could be evidence of ritual funerary practice expressing respect and belief in an after life or reincarnation and celebration of elephant fat. Otherwise they were into herbs, arts and crafts and landscaping. True facts.. 😆

Amazing research and also a brutally honest, rare to see such openness about issues with research during destruction.

To the whole point about domestication beginning by accident disproving that are humans special - it still does show humans are special, as even if a chimpanzee "adopts" a cat, chimpanzees as a whole do not keep domesticated animals, while most humans around the globe do. So domestication does make us humans special as we are the only mammal species which can maintain and has maintained domesticated animals, and that over many generations and over millennia modified them by systematically culling the most aggressive individuals among them. No other species on the planet does it.

Thank You.

Victoria, that was excellent. Thanks