Ancient Humans Were Apex Predators For 2 Million Years, Study Finds

The diet of our prehistoric ancestors was not lean and green.

Homo sapiens and their ancestors ate a lot of meat, which put them at the top of the food chain.

When we think ofpaleo food, we think of berries, grains, and steak.

According to a study done by anthropologists from Israel's Tel Aviv University and the University of Minho in Portugal, modern hunter-gatherers have given us the wrong impression of what we used to eat.

Today's hunter-gatherers do not have access to the bounty of 2 million years ago, which is why this comparison is futile.

Over the course of hundreds of studies, it's been shown that we were primarily apex predator until around 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 2.5 million years ago is more difficult.

Chemical analysis of bones and teeth can be used to find examples of heavy plant material diet. Extrapolating this to humanity as a whole is not straightforward.

We can find plenty of evidence of game hunting in the fossil record, but to determine what we found, anthropologists have traditionally turned to modern-day ethnography.

This is a huge mistake according to Ben-Dor.

BenDor said that the conditions can't be compared.

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

The graph shows where Homo sapiens was during the UP. There is a doctor named Dr. Ben Dor.

Most of Europe and North America were buried under thick glaciers.

The world was different with so much water locked up. mammoths, mastodons, and giant sloths were among the large beasts that ruled the landscape in the past.

Humans used their ingenuity and endurance to hunt down these massive meal tickets. It has been difficult to figure out the number of times they preyed on these animals.

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

BenDor said that they decided to use other methods to reconstruct the diet of stone age humans.

Evolution is slower than human behavior. The body knows what happened.

Our bodies need more energy than other primate's. It's especially important when it comes to our brainpower. We can't spend as much time looking for food when we're raising children because of our social time.

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

Animals higher up the food chain have similar systems. We might need strong stomach acid to be able to break down and kill harmfulbacteria.

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

BenDor said that areas of the human genome were closed off to enable a fat-rich diet, while areas of the Chimpanzees' genome were open to allow a sugar-rich diet.

The team's argument touches upon evidence in tool use, signs of trace elements, and dental wear.

Homo's position in the food web became highly predatory for us and our cousins, Homo erectus, over 2.5 million years ago.

The Neolithic revolution of farming and agriculture came about as a result of a decline in large animals and a rise in plant consumption.

This isn't saying we should eat more meat. Our world isn't what it used to be because our evolutionary past isn't an instruction guide.

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

The research was published in a journal.

The first version of this article was published in 2020.