Fossils Suggest Menu That Made Humans Possible
14 years, 10 months ago

Fossils Suggest Menu That Made Humans Possible

Wired  

New fossils have provided a snapshot of proto-human diets during a critical evolutionary moment, when better fare helped our small-brained ancestors boost their cognitive capacity. Two-million-year-old bones that belonged to fish, crocodiles and turtles -- aquatic animals rich in brain-fueling fatty acids -- were found together with stone tool fragments near Kenya's Lake Turkana. "We know that the hominin brain was growing at this time, but we've had little evidence that people were able to increase the quality of their diets," said University of Cape Town archaeologist David Braun. Preserved in sediments left by sudden flooding and described June 1 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the fossil trove could have been left by any of several hominid species -- Homo habilis, Homo rudolfiensis, Paranthropus boisei -- who once lived around Lake Turkana. Image: Photograph and scanning electron microscope image of a reptile bone scored by cuts./PNAS See Also: Citation: "Early hominin diet included diverse terrestrial and aquatic animals 1.95 Ma in East Turkana, Kenya."

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Researchers reveal 2.5-million-year-old teeth of our ancestors suggest they ate GRASS
8 years, 4 months ago

Researchers reveal 2.5-million-year-old teeth of our ancestors suggest they ate GRASS

Daily Mail  

While we may enjoy a wide and varied diet, our ancient relatives may have preferred to stick to grass. Wear patterns on the fossil teeth from early East African hominids suggest that they may have eaten softer food than previously thought, according to new research. Wear patterns on the fossil teeth from East African hominims, including the Paranthropus boisei, suggest …

Our ancestors may have been scavengers, study reveals
10 years ago

Our ancestors may have been scavengers, study reveals

Daily Mail  

Researchers say it could have been a key step towards becoming hunters Early humans are widely regarded as having been voracious hunters whose appetite for meat contributed to the extinction of many of the large mammals that once roamed the planet. Scroll down for video Homo erectus, pictured in the reconstruction above, needed around 2200 calories a day to survive …

Study Suggests Earlier Meat-Eating In Hominids
14 years, 7 months ago

Study Suggests Earlier Meat-Eating In Hominids

NPR  

Study Suggests Earlier Meat-Eating In Hominids A new study in the journal Nature suggests that the butchering of animals with tools by hominids occurred nearly a million years earlier than thought. Dr. DeGUSTA: Well, first, I think before we get into the specifics, I think we should commend Dr. Alemseged and his team for the fieldwork they do at Dikika. …

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