12 JAN 2006 Rack Cross . Carl Zimmer in a Discover, February 1996, article: "Death From the Pleistocene Sky," described the australopithecine Taung child fossil as being 2 million years old. Given this time scale, an attack from an eagle or other predator would not have resulted in "human flesh" being tasted. Rather, a Monkey-eating Eagle eating a monkey, similar to our modern Monkey-eating (Harpy) eagle eating a monkey today. . Contemporary humans have aggressive encounters with birds today as well. Steve Erwin of Animal Planet discloses in one of his "Croc Files" that he has suffered irreparable damage from a confrontation with a Cassowary! At least a cultural myth is that of infant humans being attacked by eagles, although I have not researched the validity of these tales. If so, however, it seems not much has changed over the years. . Despite the hype, the ornithological value of predatory mechanics of large birds of prey is highly interesting to me. . 'Til we bird again . Rack Cross Blountville, TN =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation. You are also required to list the count in which the birds you report were seen. The actual date of observation should appear in the first paragraph. _____________________________________________________________ To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx _____________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. ______________________________________________________________ TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s) endorse the views or opinions expressed by the members of this discussion group. Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx _____________________________________________________________ Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp _____________________________________________________________