{"id":42711,"date":"2025-01-23T08:48:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-23T08:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/aerospace\/ape-like-human-ancestors-were-largely-vegetarian-3-3-million-years-ago-in-south-africa-fossil-teeth-reveal\/"},"modified":"2025-01-23T08:48:00","modified_gmt":"2025-01-23T08:48:00","slug":"ape-like-human-ancestors-were-largely-vegetarian-3-3-million-years-ago-in-south-africa-fossil-teeth-reveal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=42711","title":{"rendered":"Ape-Like Human Ancestors Were Largely Vegetarian 3.3 Million Years Ago in South Africa, Fossil Teeth Reveal"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Hand-drawn illustration of two of the seven sampled molars from Australopithecus<\/em>
\n Dom Jack, MPIC<\/span>
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The ape-like human ancestor Australopithecus<\/em>\u2014perhaps best known from the iconic fossil \u2018Lucy\u2019<\/a>\u2014might not have had much meat on its menu. After examining more than 3.3-million-year-old remains from seven specimens in South Africa, scientists suggest these Australopithecus<\/em>\u00a0individuals were mostly vegetarian.<\/p>\n

The new work, detailed in a study published last week in the journal Science<\/em><\/a>, sheds light on prehistoric diets using the nitrogen ratios in fossilized teeth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis method opens up exciting possibilities for understanding human evolution, and it has the potential to answer crucial questions, for example, when did our ancestors begin to incorporate meat in their diet?\u201d says co-author Alfredo Mart\u00ednez-Garc\u00eda<\/a>, an environmental scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, in a statement<\/a>. \u201cAnd was the onset of meat consumption linked to an increase in brain volume?\u201d<\/p>\n

Scientists suspect that the transition to eating meat allowed our ancestors\u2019 brains to grow and, consequently, develop the crucial ability to produce and use tools. Exactly when and how that transition happened, however, is still unclear.<\/p>\n

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Lead researcher Tina L\u00fcdecke stands beside “Little Foot,” an\u00a0Australopithecus<\/em>\u00a0skeleton thought to be the most complete pre-human skeleton ever found. The specimen was uncovered in the Sterkfontein caves, South Africa, where the studied teeth were also recovered.<\/p>\n

Bernhard Zipfel \/ Wits University<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMeat likely played a significant role in the expansion of cranial capacity\u2014larger brain development\u2014during human evolution. Animal resources provide a highly concentrated source of calories and are rich in essential nutrients, minerals and vitamins that are critical for fueling a large brain,\u201d study lead author Tina L\u00fcdecke<\/a>, a geochemist at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, tells Reuters<\/a>\u2019 Will Dunham.<\/p>\n

L\u00fcdecke and her colleagues\u2019 recent work, however, suggests the transition to meat-eating did not happen during the lifetimes of the seven studied Australopithecus<\/em> individuals, which spanned between 3.3 million and 3.7 million years ago. This conclusion comes despite some evidence that associates some Australopithecus<\/em> specimens with stone tools.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are still fairly ape-like, small-brained hominins, that already walked<\/a> upright but had a more ape-like walk,\u201d L\u00fcdecke tells NPR<\/a>\u2019s Nell Greenfieldboyce. \u201cHere, for the first time, we have actual numbers to put on there to say, \u2018Ok, not much meat was consumed for these small-brained hominins.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The team analyzed nitrogen isotopes\u2014forms of nitrogen with different numbers of neutrons\u2014in the fossilized tooth enamel from the Australopithecus<\/em> remains. Because food digestion in animals ultimately expels \u201clight\u201d nitrogen (14N) from the body, it increases the body\u2019s ratio of \u201cheavy\u201d nitrogen (15N) to 14N, in comparison to its food. In other words, the higher up the food chain an animal is, the higher its 15N to 14N ratio, according to the statement.<\/p>\n

Scientists have previously analyzed nitrogen isotope ratios in \u201cyounger\u201d organic remains such as hair, claws and bones, to study human and animal diets. But for the recent research, the team developed a new method to apply this technique to tooth remains that are millions of years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cTooth enamel is the hardest tissue of the mammalian body and can preserve the isotopic fingerprint of an animal\u2019s diet for millions of years,\u201d L\u00fcdecke explains in the statement.<\/p>\n

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The Sterkfontein excavation site, where the\u00a0Australopithecus<\/em>\u00a0fossils were discovered<\/p>\n

Dominic Stratford<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The researchers then compared the 15N to 14N ratio in the Australopithecus<\/em> remains to fossilized tooth samples from animals that lived around the same time, including both ancient herbivores and carnivores. Though variable, the Australopithecus<\/em> ratios were more similar to those of herbivores, ultimately suggesting that these human ancestors depended mostly on a vegetarian diet.<\/p>\n

This finding, however, doesn\u2019t exclude the possibility that Australopithecus<\/em> feasted on termites, which contain less 15N than large mammal meat does. \u201cWe see that apes nowadays [fish for termites], so why not our ancestors?\u201d says L\u00fcdecke to Science News<\/em><\/a>\u2019 Jake Buehler.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the study suggests Australopithecus<\/em> had not yet started to enjoy a meaty diet at the time. However, the novel method L\u00fcdecke\u2019s team developed could now be used to track down those human ancestors that did.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means that one can look at other hominins, and try and do the same kind of measurements, and try to get a sense of what they were consuming during life,\u201d Bernard Wood<\/a>, a paleoanthropologist at the George Washington University who was not involved in the study, says to NPR. Moving forward, the researchers plan to continue investigating the origin of meat-eating in our ancestors and whether it triggered an evolutionary benefit.<\/p>\n

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