Re: onomatopoetic animal sounds

Frank George Valoczy scripsit:

> On Fri, 13 Apr 2001, J Matthew Pearson wrote:
>
> > cats, chickens, cows, horses, pigs, sheep, or goats.]
>
> Wouldn't horses have come over the landbridge too?
They didn't in Our Timeline, so I don't see how.  In fact, the
traffic went the other way: the equid family is a New World one,
which four times spread to the Old World.  The first three
branches died out, and finally the New World stem died out
about 12,000 years ago; the seven species of equid still
with us are all descended from that fourth Old World migration.
Horses and donkeys only returned to the New World with the
conquistadores.

If Matt wanted to keep horses in the Tokana TL, though,
they could be descended from original New World equids
who were *not* wiped out.  There are three prominent theories
for the disappearance of New World megafauna:

1) climate change
2) direct killing by Paleo-Indians
3) destruction of top carnivores by P-Is, leading to herbivore
   overpopulation, overgrazing, and ecological collapse

The evidence is equivocal, so take your pick.

--
John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
One art/there is/no less/no more/All things/to do/with sparks/galore
        --Douglas Hofstadter