SOUTH AFRICAN MAN-APES — DART 329 



as many as 200 ± bone fragments; and there the bones may attract the 

 attention of porcupines. Porcupines, living in low recesses, also take 

 advantage of the proximity of hyena (or possibly other carnivore) 

 kills to drag these bones and horns into or near their occupation sites. 

 At Makapansgat, however, we are dealing with bone, tooth, and horn- 

 core fragments reckoned not by scores but by thousands. Hyenas are 

 not cannibals and they cannot prey upon porcupines ; in consequence 

 at hyena or hyena-porcupine sites no hyena or porcupine skulls have 

 been found; at Makapansgat, on the other hand, the skulls of both 

 hyenas and porcupines, even giant porcupines, are found in relative 

 frequency and also in a very damaged state. 



The bones and shells of water turtles at Makapansgat, like the crabs 

 at Taungs, show that the Australopithecinae hunted in streams and 

 knew how to break open with a club or stone a turtle- or tortoise-shell 

 case : this a hyena does not and cannot do. From eggshells and the 

 skulls of birds such as the shrike, vulture, and marabou stork, we see 

 that these Australopithecinae delighted, like baboons, gibbons, and all 

 naughty boys, in bird nesting ; and also in driving carrion birds away 

 from their prey, or clubbing them when they were so gluttonously full 

 that they could not fly away. So, too, in disputes over prey they 

 probably clubbed the hyenas and the wild dog, jackal, leopard, saber- 

 toothed tiger, and other carnivores, both medium and small, whose 

 broken skulls are found in the deposit at Makapansgat. The giant 

 rodent moles and spring hares found at Taungs could only be cap- 

 tured by digging them out of their burrows. The two hares at Maka- 

 pansgat indicate their manlike speed ; the eight porcupines, including 

 two giant specimens, reveal their capacity to deal with prickly 

 problems. 



Clearly the australopithecines, like all primitive human beings, took 

 fleshy food wherever they found it ; they hunted small game and large 

 game alike. We have the remains of at least 39 large bucks of kudu 

 and roan antelope size, 126 medium of wildebeeste proportions, 100 

 small ones of the gazelle order, and 28 of the tiny duiker type repre- 

 sented at Makapansgat. In that bone breccia are also remnants of 4 

 fossil horses, 6 chalicotheres (an extinct type of tree-browsing creature 

 with split toes like bear's claws for dragging down tree branches), 

 6 fossil giraffes, 5 rhinoceroses, a hippopotamus, no less than 20 wart 

 hogs, and 45 baboons. No creature except man was so wide-ranging 

 a hunter in stream or tree; above earth or underground; catching 

 reptile, bird, rodent, carnivore, primate, or ungulate. The animals 

 they caught were generally the young or the old, those most easily 

 overtaken and overpowered; but it would be an error to underrate 

 the manlike skill implied by the versatility displayed by the animals 

 they hunted. 



