alternatehistory.com

This is coming off of another of my threads, the Alternate Sentients one. In there, we started discussing the possibility of sapient, tool-using mammoths evolving in the Americas, and it rapidly derailed the whole thing. So, I've started this new thread! :D

I think that the mammuthans can create agriculture on their own. From my research, I've learned that the American Mastodon IOTL ate larch, cedar, pine, and other tree species, all of which are certainly domesticatable. And anyway, I'm of the school that believes that intelligent tool use will eventually lead to agriculture, or did, anyway, in the case of humankind. After all, doesn't tool use create a positive feedback loop that makes both the user more intelligent and the tool more sophisticated? I don't see why the mammuthans couldn't eventually domesticate the tree species, before the humans arrived. This would open the possibility of mammuthan urban civilization and REALLY advanced stuff, which would certainly be cool.

Your thoughts, guys?
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