Humans Were Actually Apex Predators For 2 Million Years, Evidence Shows

The diet of our prehistoric ancestors was not lean and green according to a study. For 2 million years, Homo sapiens and their ancestors ate a lot of meat, putting them at the top of the food chain.

When we think ofpaleo food, we think of berries, grains, and steak. According to anthropologists from Tel Aviv University in Israel and the University of Minho in Portugal, modern hunter-gatherers have given us the wrong impression of what they ate.

The comparison is futile because 2 million years ago hunter-gatherer societies could hunt and consume elephants and other large animals.

A look through hundreds of previous studies on everything from modern human anatomy and physiology to measures of the isotopes inside ancient human bones and teeth suggests we were primarily apex predator until roughly 12,000 years ago.

Plants don't preserve as well as animal bones, teeth, and shells so reconstructing the grocery list of hominids who lived as far back as 2.5 million years ago is more difficult.

Chemical analysis of bones and tooth enamel can be used to find examples of heavy plant material diet. Extrapolating this to humanity as a whole is not straight-forward.

We can find plenty of evidence of game-hunting in the fossil record, but to determine what we gathered, anthropologists have traditionally turned to modern-day ethnography based on the assumption that little has changed.

Ben-Dor and his colleagues think this is a huge mistake.

The entire environment has changed, and conditions can't be compared, according to Ben.

It was a defining time in the history of humans. We were marching our way into the far corners of the globe, outliving every other hominid on our branch of the family tree.

Mister Ben Dor.

The graph shows where Homo sapiens sat on the spectrum of carnivore to herbivore during the UP.

Most of Europe and North America were buried under thick glaciers during the last great ice age.

The world's ecosystems were vastly different when there was so much water locked up. Large beasts, including mammoths, mastodons, and giant sloths, were plentiful in the past.

It is no secret that Homo sapiens used their ingenuity and endurance to hunt down these massive meal-tickets. It has been difficult to figure out the Frequency with which they preyed on these herbivores.

The researchers looked at the evidence in our own bodies and compared it to our closest cousins, rather than relying solely on the fossil record.

We decided to use other methods to reconstruct the diet of stone-age humans: to examine the memory preserved in our own bodies, our metabolism, genetics and physical build.

Human behavior changes quickly, but evolution is slow. The body remembers.

Our bodies need more energy per unit of mass. When it comes to our brains. When it comes to raising children, our social time limits the amount of time we can spend looking for food.

We have higher fat reserves and can quickly turn them into ketones when we need them. Our fat cells are small and numerous, like those of a predator.

Our system is similar to that of animals higher up the food chain. We might need strong stomach acid to break down the proteins and kill the harmfulbacteria we find on a week-old mammoth chop.

Our genomes show a heavier reliance on meat than on sugar.

For example, geneticists have concluded that areas of the human genome were closed off to enable a fat-rich diet, while in Chimpanzees, areas of the genome were opened to enable a sugar-rich diet.

The team has an extensive argument that touches upon evidence in tool use, signs of trace elements and nitrogen isotopes in Paleolithic remains, and dental wear.

It all tells a story of how Homo and Homo erectus became highly slaiming for us and our cousins, and remained so until 2.5 million years ago.

The Neolithic revolution of farming and agriculture was the result of a decline in large animals and a rise in plant consumption.

This isn't saying we should eat more meat. Our evolutionary past isn't an instruction guide on human health, and as the researchers emphasize, our world isn't what it used to be

Knowing where our ancestors sat in the food web has a big impact on understanding everything from our own health to our influence over the environment.

The American Journal of Physical Anthropology published this research.

This article was published in April 2021.