[VLM]

Another abundant energy source is fish protein, which always existed but our ancestors species is the only species that went nuts over fishing. Its pretty easy for hominids or scavengers in general to get fish protein at a net loss, or in very small quantities, but once you have a big enough brain our species really got into eating fish starting about 100Kyrs ago.

Apparently there is evidence you need a pretty big brain and speech abilities to run a net energy positive fishing village. A neanderthal should be able to catch fish, just not efficiently enough to live off a fishing culture. Their trash piles have all kinds of bones, just not fish bones. Ours are/were full of fish bones, anywhere there's fish.

Fishing might have been "the niche" that led to our species... starting with older hominids who were better than average at gathering fish due to some local geologic peculiarity (the perfect river to catch salmon by hand occasionally or whatever), a zillion generation later of ever improving therefore ever fatter fisherman and we got a prehistoric Captain Ahab filling the tribe trash piles with fish bones and the non-homo sapiens cousins can't fish compared to us and die off because we're fat from fish and they aren't.

Large amounts of starch would seem to require agriculture which is pretty recent compared to fishing.

[dualogy]

@VLM, ice age ancestors needed big game. Small fish are a joke for sustained energy and nourishment, maybe as a condiment to the main meal of mammoth or aurochs.

Our "ancestors" really thrived for the most part of the very mega-fauna we helped extinguish.

> Their trash piles have all kinds of bones, just not fish bones. Ours are/were full of fish bones, anywhere there's fish.

Your sources seem to wildly differ from my sources regarding the bulk of ancestral homo sapiens evolution during the ice ages. Feel free to share them.

[_0w8t]

Human ancestors got access to fire at least one million years ago. And with it it is trivial to cook starchy roots by baking in ashes.

As for the need for agriculture consider that single modern day hunter gatherer in Amazon forest can within few hours get enough starchy vegetables in a forest to feed at least 10 persons.

[_0w8t]

Human ancestors got access to fire at least one million years ago. And with it it is trivial to cook starchy roots by baking in ashes.

As for the need for agriculture consider that single modern day hunter gatherer in Amazon forest can within few hours get enough starchy vegetables in a forest to feed at least 10 persons.