According to the conclusions from 4 new related studies that looked at the diet of ancient hominid species, the diet of certain evolutionary human ancestors changed around 3.5 million years ago.
How our diet evolved over the past millions of years has been explored by many researchers.
According to the conclusions from 4 new related studies that looked at the diet of ancient hominid species, the diet of certain evolutionary human ancestors changed around 3 and a half million years ago.
Researchers from the University of Colorado in Boulder studied fossilized tooth enamel from many different extinct hominid species.
By analyzing the carbon atoms in the enamel, researchers were able to tell what kind of diet these hominids had.
Doctor Matt Sponheimer, professor of Anthropology at UC Boulder, and lead author of the study, said: “about 3.5 million years ago, some of these hominids started to eat things that they did not eat before, and it is quite possible that these changes in diet were an important step in becoming human.”
The change in diet is also reflected by the variation in tooth size and shape among the different species.
Exactly why their diets changed is still unclear, but there is a possibility that the change may have included eating meat.
