Study of ancient predators sheds light on how humans did - or didn't - find food
A new Rice University-led analysis of the remains of ancient predators reveals new information about how prehistoric humans did -- or didn't -- find their food.
For more than three decades, archaeologists thought that one potential source of meat -- crucial for the development of the early human brain -- was the flesh abandoned from sabertooth cat kills. Until very recently, researchers thought that prehistoric humans stripped flesh from abandoned animal carcasses to consume, but these ancient remains suggest that was not the case. The new research, conducted on fossil remains from 1.5 million years ago, reveals that sabertooth cats fully devoured the flesh of their prey and even consumed some bones.
The finding is important, Dominguez-Rodrigo said, because it means that early humans relied on different ways of finding sources of protein. It provides more support to the idea that early humans were already successful hunters.
Dominguez-Rodrigo said the research helps further this area of study as it eliminates a source of this important type of food for ancient humans. However, he said, there are still a lot of unanswered questions about how prehistoric humans hunted and gathered food, and these topics will be the focus of future work.
The research was published in the Nature Scientific Reports.
Author: Amy McCaig | Source: Rice University [May 03, 2022]
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