# You are transported back to 70 million BCE **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 25, 2025, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335 "2025-07-25T21:33:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335/101 "2025-07-31T21:43:19Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > There are YouTube videos of people doing the hardcore caveman survival challenge: starting with absolutely nothing but what they can find in their surroundings, make a stone knife and start a fire. First you punch a tree until you have enough wood to make a wooden pickaxe, then you mine some stone to make a stone pick, and now you’re ready to work towards iron ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335/102 "2025-07-31T22:42:54Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > > [@Maserschmidt](#): > > > > some way to make fire that doesn’t involve rubbing sticks together. > > Kids today… Start a fire by rubbing kids together? ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335/103 "2025-07-31T23:15:24Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > Start a fire by rubbing kids together? It was a joke, kids today want stuff handed to them. Now, get off my lawn! 😊 ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2025, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335/104 "2025-08-01T00:25:17Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > make a stone knife Assuming you can find the right kind of rock to do flint knapping so you get a useful shape with one or more sharp edges. > **[Making Arrowheads: The Ancient Art of Flint Knapping](https://www.wildernesscollege.com/making-arrowheads.html)** > > Primary concepts for making arrowheads and other edged stone tools ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2025, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335/105 "2025-08-01T01:00:42Z")
I’ve knapped flint before. I did a really lousy job of it, but it works. It’s not too tough. I’ve never managed to do fire from scratch before, though. My whole patrol, working together, just barely managed to get fire-by-friction to work, but we were using a kit and non-natural tinder. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2025, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335/106 "2025-08-01T01:36:16Z")
Additional items I’d bring—assuming they haven’t already been mentioned—include a water filter and iodine tablets, a collapsible fishing rod and gear, binoculars, a magnesium fire striker, a machete, a survival knife, a first-aid kit (with broad spectrum antibiotics), insect repellent, and an inflatable doll (hey, I might get lonely). For food, I’d pack nuts and dried legumes, freeze-dried meals and fats, honey, salt, and electrolyte packets. My hope is that by the time my carry-along supplies run out and my gear wears down, I’ll have learned enough about the environment to live off the land. For example, observing what other mammals (small and shy though they were around 70 million BCE) eat could offer clues about what’s safe for me to eat. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2025, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335/107 "2025-08-01T01:36:43Z")
I have also knapped flint and i got a sharp edge, and a belief that with hours of practice i could do a lot better. Even my crude edge could have been useful for crude cutting. And I’ve tried to start a fire with a bow, a bow that i watched someone else start a fire with, and got absolutely nothing. Bringing some flint and steel would be really helpful. Also, tending, banking, and keeping a fire is a hell of a lot easier than starting one. I’ve maintained a fire for a week, restarting it each evening from coals. (In a fireplace, it wasn’t all that dangerous.) And that wasn’t even hard. Starting a fire, after the first one, is for catastrophes. Mostly your should just plan to keep a fire. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2025, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335/108 "2025-08-01T02:07:17Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > My whole patrol, working together, just barely managed to get fire-by-friction to work, but we were using a kit and non-natural tinder. What too few sources explain to you is that you’re NOT supposed to go full-out at first, that’ll just wear you out before you get anywhere. What you’re trying to do at the start is grind out a small pile of charred wood dust. THEN once you have that, go fast enough to create a smolder. It’s also crucial that your ground-out dust can get enough air. And that’s with a bow drill, I’d have said doing it by hand-turning the spindle was impossible if I hadn’t seen videos of it. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2025, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335/109 "2025-08-01T02:15:55Z")
I have tried fires with a fire bow- finally got one, but my arms were like noodles, had issues with (real) flint and steel, but a Ferro/magnesium fire tool is pretty easy. I’d bring a few. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2025, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335/110 "2025-08-01T04:08:05Z")
> [@Tibby](#): > > insect repellent, and an inflatable doll (hey, I might get lonely). You spelled volleyball incorrectly. In the absence of a graduate student, an inflatable person might be useful in testing to see just how ferociously large, hungry, attentive and aggressive the beasts lurking in your environs are. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2025, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335/111 "2025-08-01T11:28:51Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > And that’s with a bow drill, I’d have said doing it by hand-turning the spindle was impossible if I hadn’t seen videos of it. When we tried it, we started out using the bow drill, until we broke the leather thong that came with it. Then we switched to the replacement thong. And then we broke that, and some kid volunteered one of his shoelaces. And then broke that, and we used another shoelace. And then when that broke, we switched to hand-turning the spindle, which is what eventually worked. > [@Banksiaman](#): > > In the absence of a graduate student, an inflatable person might be useful in testing to see just how ferociously large, hungry, attentive and aggressive the beasts lurking in your environs are. I’d think that most predators wouldn’t react to an inflatable person. It wouldn’t smell like prey, and (unless you were so close as to eliminate the point) it wouldn’t move like prey. And for Cretaceous predators, it wouldn’t even be shaped like anything that they’d recognize as prey. Unless you’ve got something so ferocious that it just randomly goes biting trees and rocks and such, it won’t go after a blow-up doll, either. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2025, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335/112 "2025-08-01T11:48:50Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Unless you’ve got something so ferocious that it just randomly goes biting trees and rocks and such, it won’t go after a blow-up doll, either. I was suggesting that if it launched itself at a blowup doll, and it popped loudly or made an embarrassing, prolonged farting noise as it deflated, the tyrannosaur-mosasaur-smilodon would think twice about attacking another pinkish biped. And you are right about the sensory aspect - which is why I would bring self-adhesive bacon strips. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2025, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335/113 "2025-08-01T11:52:38Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > It wouldn’t smell like prey, and (unless you were so close as to eliminate the point) it wouldn’t move like prey. And for Cretaceous predators, it wouldn’t even be shaped like anything that they’d recognize as prey. Wasn’t that the point of the megafauna extinction in the Americas, and also a feature of the Galapagos fauna when men first visited - the animals did not recognize humans (in this case, as a threat) and simly ignored them. I’ve heard similar about visitors on the Serengeti and similar African locales, that the animals don’t recognize a rolling box full of torsos as anything they’ve seen before, so not food or a threat. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2025, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335/114 "2025-08-01T12:17:57Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I’d think that most predators wouldn’t react to an inflatable person. It wouldn’t smell like prey, and (unless you were so close as to eliminate the point) it wouldn’t move like prey. And for Cretaceous predators, it wouldn’t even be shaped like anything that they’d recognize as prey. Unless you’ve got something so ferocious that it just randomly goes biting trees and rocks and such, it won’t go after a blow-up doll, either. Assuming the dinosaur predator had bird-like curiosity and keen vision, I think it might very well attack a blow-up doll—especially if it was fluttering in the wind. Movement would likely trigger a predatory response, even without a scent. If it were a smaller predator and you were well hidden nearby, the distraction could give you a golden opportunity to sneak up and take it down for food. There’s even a chance your scent could get muddled with the doll’s if you were both downwind, adding to the confusion. And if it were a large predator—something you _definitely_ don’t want to tango with—the momentary diversion might buy you just enough time to high-tail it out of there before becoming dino chow. 🏃‍♂️🦖 ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2025, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335/115 "2025-08-01T14:21:32Z")
All this discussion of predator-prey relationships adds to the impact of @Tibby ‘s avatar. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2025, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335/116 "2025-08-01T15:20:17Z")
Why yes… cat’s gotta eat, too. I may look fluffy, but every purr is just me calculating protein intake. 🏃🏃‍♀️🐈🔪🍴 ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2025, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335/117 "2025-08-01T16:12:08Z")
> [@md-2000](#): > > I’ve heard similar about visitors on the Serengeti and similar African locales, that the animals don’t recognize a rolling box full of torsos as anything they’ve seen before, so not food or a threat. I heard something similar (along with warnings not to leave the vehicle) but i note that many of the animals we watched were intelligent and flexible, but also, that they have seen an enormous number of trucks full of tourists, and those trucks are pretty reliably not a threat. (Also, most mammalian predators learn what suitable prey is from their mother, and mostly stick with what works, unless they are desperate.) ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2025, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335/118 "2025-08-01T16:43:13Z")
I was taught that a species is something that naturally breeds together and makes fertile offspring, so I don’t understand why this is considered cross-species mating, or why then Neanderthals are a different species, if humans have some Neanderthal DNA. Who can straighten this out for me? ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2025, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335/119 "2025-08-01T16:53:50Z")
Once upon a time, we were taught biology in a way that wiped out ambiguity. We were taught that different species can’t interbreed, that sex is binary, and that people come in distinct races, and that a gene is either present or absent. All of these turn out to be false. Or, charitably, as a simplification of reality. Species, like sex, turns out to be a continuum, with heavy concentrations in some areas and sparse coverage in others. Race turns out to be a political construct to describe clusters of characteristics. Genes turn out to be variable, and also heavily influenced by epigenetics. Basically, you were taught wrong. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2025, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335/120 "2025-08-01T19:04:52Z")
Continuing that fine point … This **[Species - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species)** runs to 15 printed pages of prose. And a further 15 printed pages of citations. The article also contains a fairly approachable explanation of what’s termed “the species problem”, namely that Nature is not tidy. “Species” is not simple. Not even remotely. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-back-to-70-million-bce/1021335.md?page=7)