ive been bouncing this idea around in my head for a while now. how do you all think civilizations and colonies in america would have developed had there not been any bering land bridge? for those who dont know, the bering land bridge is either a land bridge or expanse of ice (no one is quite sure, iirc) that once connected russia and alaska and allowed for the migration of eurasian fauna, including human beings, from russia into the americas.
these are some conclusions or assertions that ive already come up with:
fauna in many parts of the world would be considerably different. for one, there's no camels in the old world; they originated in teh americas and later migrated to afro-eurasia, and died out in the americas entirely (except for camelids like llamas, which continued to survive in south america). there would be none of the well-known big cats of both the present day and the prehistoric era, so there's no saber-tooths, american lions, mountain lions, jaguars, bobcats, or any predators like that, and there would be no mammoths, which also migrated over from eurasia. ones that im not entirely sure about are beavers, pigs, horses, and bears because im not too familiar with their fossil records. consequently, this means that its entirely possible the dominant animals in the americas by the time the europeans arrive would be meridiungulates (such as this
Toxodon and
Macrauchenia, armadillos, possibly anteaters, ground sloths (some of which could reach elephantine sizes), predatory marsupials (such as
Thylacosmilus) and the famous
terror birds. however, i wouldnt expect giant birds like
Argentavis because they had virtually no competition OTL and still died out
its also possible that humans DO still exist in the new world in spite of there being no bering land bridge because of the theory that at least some of teh american aboriginals are descended from polynesians. for what ive thought of so far (in a rather romanticized sense), the aztec and incan empires and the natives between them still appear, possibly with beliefs in theriocephalic gods similar to those of the egyptians (though this is rather unlikely from a realistic standpoint). because of this, the colonization of the americas by the europeans could be considerably more difficult in the more northerly regions because there's no friendly natives to help them get through the winters
thoughts, anyone?