Gigantism among mammals = cold. Warmth produces smaller bodies that expel heat, while cold encourages layers and fat

Wisconsin Ice Age ended ~10,000 years ago, lasted ~100,000 years

North and South America had no humans or early tools: too far from source

48,000 years ago humans reached supercontinent Sahul: Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea

“We have all but forgotten how to inhabit this kind of fear. We gave up spears and skins and the weather on us day and night for cup holders and cell phones and doors that close behind us. What, I wonder, was lost?”

First priority in Paleolithic minds: don’t get eaten

Increased genetic presence of dopamine receptor D4 correlated with restless behavior and novelty-seeking: genetic study of prehistoric people found it in 32% in North America, 42% in Central, 69% in South

Pleistocene human brains 5% larger: domestic animals have smaller brains as result of atrophied aggression

“We think of ourselves as different from other animals. We extol our own tool use, congratulate our sentience, but our needs are the same. We are creatures on a planet looking for a way ahead. Why do we like vistas? Why are pullouts drawn on the sides of highways, signs with arrows showing where to stand for the best view? The love for the panorama comes from memory, the earliest form of cartography, a sense of location. Little feels better than knowing where you are, and having a reason to be there.”

Earliest known shaman from ~12,000 years ago: burned with animals parts

North and South America separate until 3 million years ago

Clovis name from town in New Mexico where first Ice Age mammoth kill site found with tools; much more abundant in Florida or Maryland

On Clovis being named after random town: “Science is useful, it fills in the blanks with precision, but history is ultimately more about stories and the unfolding of human whims.”

“Am I sentimental to hold on to our familiar age? Who is not in love with these blue skies pillared with clouds, and the many species around us, the way more oxygen comes out of the ocean than methane, the deep breathing of the forests and grasslands? I do not want this party to end, yet another one seems to be starting, pushed onstage with zeal.”