The speed of human evolution is actually incredible, and it only took us three million years to evolve from an ape who only uses simple stones and sticks to a modern human with high intelligence. We don't have much strong bodies, no strong claws and teeth, but we still stand at the top of the food chain.
Although there are so many dangerous animals in nature now, an unarmed person, on his own, has almost no chance of winning against medium and large cats, poisonous snakes, pythons, medium and large canines, and even medium and large herbivores.
From the perspective of physical fitness alone, human beings are too weak, and a virus and a bacterium can easily kill humans.
But so many dangerous animals, the reality is that they do not dare to act rashly when they see humans. They observe for a while at most, and basically do not do it first without harming themselves.
In the introduction of many animals, it is shown that although the animal is so powerful, it will not actively attack humans.
Nature is a world of the weak and the strong, and one explanation for this is that people are upright, and animals are mostly on all fours, so in the eyes of animals, the image of man is very tall. And the tall size means the strength of the strong, so animals will naturally be jealous of people.
This statement may not have been true millions of years ago.
6 million years ago, in the early New Age, the giant chin tiger appeared in North America and the Old Road, that is, Eurasia and Africa, and was widely distributed, until the Middle Pleistocene, 730,000 years ago, and gradually became extinct.
5 to 1.5 million years ago in Eurasia, Africa and North America, cats were also widely distributed until the end of the Ice Age, when temperatures suddenly warmed up and cats struggled to adapt to severe climate change before becoming extinct.
These two animals, which can be called the nightmares of ancient humans, finally became extinct, and the ancient humans finally breathed their breath and began their rapid development.
At that time, it was the Quaternary Ice Age that the earth ushered in, the early cats crossed the continent, and ancient humans also began their own development from apes to humans. More than 5 million years ago, chimpanzee-like apes evolved into Australopithecus australopithecus, fighting these cats for millions of years.
Of all the cats of the time, the giant chin tiger and the cat were not the biggest and strongest, but they were the nightmares of ancient humans. While other cats, such as sawtooth tigers, saber-toothed tigers, and ancient lions, they all prefer ungulates, wild boars, antelopes, etc. to be more delicious than Australopithecus.
The giant chin tiger and the cat have set their sights on australopithecus in a long hunt. According to fossil testing, their feeding habits are more biased towards primates.
However, at that time, for cats of the size of the giant chin tiger and the cat, eating monkeys could replenish the energy of eating monkeys was far less than the energy consumed by catching monkeys, compared to australopithecus, which came down from trees and changed from walking on all fours to walking on two legs, which was easier to catch.
Many of the fossils of gigacompan tigers and cats found today are accompanied by the remains of Australopithecus australopithecus. Their long canine teeth can easily pierce the head of Australopithecus australis, and their unique hunting skills allow them to bite off australopithecus throat without biting off their spines or biting their heads off. After that, drag australopithecus away and enjoy it.
At that time, australopithecus was only about two-thirds of the height of modern humans, that is, between 1 meter and 1 meter 2, and the body length of the giant chin tiger was also between 1 meter and 1 meter 2. The cat is larger, about two meters long.
Australopithecus was too weak in front of the cats at that time, although standing up and looking higher than others, but what was the use? Hitting and fighting, the giant jawed tiger slapped it with one claw, the australopithecus was not dead or crippled, the fragile skin could not bear the bite of the giant chin tiger, the whole tiger pounced on it, and the australopithecus could not move immediately. Even if it is running, australopithecus cannot run.
As for the tree, sorry, cats will also go up the tree, and since australopithecus evolved to walk upright, there are no monkeys climbing trees.
The only tools that Australopithecus could use were stones and wooden sticks, and many people could smash the felines such as giant chin tigers and phobia cats together when they were lucky.
Giant chin tigers and cats prefer to lurk in the mouth of australopithecus caves, taking advantage of their surprise attacks. At that time, the giant chin tiger and the cat, which mainly fed on primates, were the biggest nightmare of australopithecus, our ancestors.
Felines, poisonous scorpions, monitor lizards, venomous snakes, large canines, giant eagles, these are all real threats that ancient humans faced in the early stages of evolution. There were originally 17 species under the human family, and now only 1 species remains, that is, Homo sapiens, and gradually developed to the present, breeding endlessly.
So our fear of very large animals, of snakes, of insects, of the heights is innate, of being in the genes.
Now many people even in the face of petite and cute cats, will be unconsciously afraid, want to stay away, the source is in millions of years, felines are a shadow over human development.
But it is strange that since felines are the nightmare of ancient humans, why do so many people like felines now? Domestic cats are now the most popular pets.
Also, since in ancient times, cats were absolutely oppressive of ancient humans, and even natural enemies are not exaggerated, why did modern tigers dare not eat people after the extinction of saber-toothed tigers?
This is the change in strength, modern tigers are still powerful in nature, but humans have not gone extinct in those million years, focusing on evolving their brains. Although humans still can't beat tigers with their bare hands, humans have long learned to use fire, and now they have more and more powerful tools.
The animal's instincts help them remember where they have suffered, and the next time they immediately hide away, especially the always cautious felines. As long as they have suffered a loss, they will not provoke again for a long time.
And human success lies in overcoming this instinct, so there is the tenacity and perseverance of "falling in the same place, just getting up in the same place", fear does not matter, overcome it.
To this day, we still have an instinctive fear of these animals, but these animals are equally jealous of humans.
A Brief History of Man From Animals to God Yuval Harari ¥7.9 Buy