Archaeologists have found that our ancient ancestors were vegetarians, rewriting prehistory.
By University of The Witwatersrand
There is no indication that Australopithecus consumed meat, according to nitrogen
isotope study of tooth enamel.
Australopithecus, an early human predecessor that lived in southern Africa
some 3.5 million years ago, may have eaten little to no meat, according to
new study published in the journal Science.
An examination of nitrogen isotopes in ancient tooth enamel from seven
Australopithecus individuals served as the basis for this discovery.
The findings show that there is little evidence of these early hominins
consuming meat and that they mostly lived off of plants.
One of the most significant turning points in human evolution is said to
have been the transition to animal-based resources, especially meat.
The high protein content of meat is linked to both the development
of tool-making skills and brain growth.
It has been difficult to determine when early ancestors started eating meat
and to comprehend how it was gradually included into the diet.
Now, strong evidence has been presented by a study team from the
University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa and the Max Planck Institute
for Chemistry in Germany.
According to their research, Australopithecus people lived in southern Africa
between 3.7 and 3.3 million years ago and ate mostly plants.
In the Sterkfontein cave near Johannesburg, which is regarded as the
"Cradle of Humankind" due to its extensive collection of early human fossils,
the study team examined stable isotope data from the tooth enamel
of Australopithecus individuals. They contrasted the isotopic information of Australopithecus with that of tooth
samples from species that coexisted with it, such as antelopes, monkeys,
and huge predators like big cats, jackals, and hyenas.
Dietary signatures were maintained by tooth enamel.
The study's lead author, geochemist Tina Lüdecke, states that tooth enamel,
the toughest tissue in mammals, may retain the isotopic imprint of an animal's
diet for millions of years.
Lüdecke is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Evolutionary Studies Institute
of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and has been the
head of the "Emmy-Noether Junior Research Group for Hominin
Meat Consumption" at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz since 2021.
She frequently visits Africa to collect fossilized tooth samples for her research.
The Australopithecus specimens are in the custody of Wits University,
which also controls the Sterkfontein Caves.
The "light" isotope of nitrogen (14N) is preferred by biological reactions
during animal digestion. As a result, there are significant amounts of 14N in the breakdown products
that their bodies create.
The body's ratio of "heavy" nitrogen (15N) to this "light" nitrogen is increased
in relation to the food it consumes when these "light" nitrogen molecules
are expelled in the form of sweat, feces, or urine.
Accordingly, predators have a greater nitrogen isotope ratio than their prey,
while herbivores have a higher ratio than the plants they eat.
Consequently, the larger the ratio of 15N to 14N in a tissue sample, the higher
the organism's trophic position within the food chain.
The diets of contemporary animals and people have long been studied using
nitrogen isotope ratios found in hair, claws, bones, and a variety
of other organic materials.
However, because organic material degrades over time, these observations
have only been possible in samples that are a few tens of thousands of years
old in fossil material.
Tina Lüdecke measured the nitrogen isotope ratios in preserved tooth enamel
that is millions of years old using a new method created in
Alfredo Martínez-García's group at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry.
Proof of primarily plant-based diet The researchers discovered that while the nitrogen isotope ratios in Australopithecus
tooth enamel varied, they were always low, comparable to herbivores,
and significantly lower than those of modern carnivores.
They come to the conclusion that although these hominins' diet varied,
it was mostly or entirely plant-based. Australopithecus, then
Additional investigation into preserved tooth enamel
Lüdecke's group intends to broaden their investigation by gathering further
information from various hominin species and eras.
In order to determine when meat consumption started, how it developed,
and whether it gave our ancestors an evolutionary edge, they plan to study
fossils from other significant locations in eastern and southern Africa as well
as southeast Asia.
"This approach has the potential to provide important answers, such as when our
ancestors started eating meat, and it offers up fascinating possibilities for
understanding human evolution."
And was there a connection between the start of meat consumption and an
increase in brain volume? says Max Planck Institute for Chemistry's
Alfredo Martínez-García.
This research is a significant step toward expanding our knowledge
of the trophic levels and diets of all creatures back to the scale of millions of years. The study offers convincing proof that there was not a substantial amount
of meat in its diet.
Professor Dominic Stratford, Director of Research at the Sterkfontein
Caves and co-author of the paper, says,
"We are honored that the groundbreaking application of this new method was
spearheaded at Sterkfontein, a site that continues to make fundamental
contributions to science even 89 years after the first hominin fossils were
discovered there by Robert Broom."
Source scitechdaily.com
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