ArticleScientific reports2021
Early Pleistocene faunivorous hominins were not kleptoparasitic, and this impacted the evolution of human anatomy and socio-ecology.
Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed.
- Article
- The Natural History of Periodontitis in Man: The Past, the Present, the Future.Journal of periodontal research · 2026Article
- Early humans and the balance of power: Homo habilis as prey.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2025Article
- Meta-learning provides a robust framework to discern taxonomic carnivore agency from the analysis of tooth marks on bone: reassessing the role of felids as predators ofRoyal Society open science · 2025Article
- Human Digestive Physiology and Evolutionary Diet: A Metabolomic Perspective on Carnivorous and Scavenger Adaptations.Metabolites · 2025Review
- A bioenergetic approach favors the preservation and protection of prey, not cooking, as the drivers of early fire.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Article
- Late Acheulian stone-working by the riverbank: Patterns of continuity and change reflected in Jaljulia lithic assemblages, Israel.PloS one · 2025Article
- The wooden artifacts from Schöningen's Spear Horizon and their place in human evolution.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Computer vision enables taxon-specific identification of African carnivore tooth marks on bone.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- The late-Quaternary megafauna extinctions: Patterns, causes, ecological consequences and implications for ecosystem management in the Anthropocene.Cambridge prisms. Extinction · 2024Review
- A case of suspected chimpanzee scavenging in the Issa Valley, Tanzania.Primates; journal of primatology · 2024Article
- Human procurement of meat from lion (Panthera leo) kills: Costs of disturbance and implications for carnivore conservation.PloS one · 2024Article
- Assessing the subsistence strategies of the earliest North African inhabitants: evidence from the Early Pleistocene site of Ain Boucherit (Algeria).Archaeological and anthropological sciences · 2023Article
- Article
- Sabertooth carcass consumption behavior and the dynamics of Pleistocene large carnivoran guilds.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- No sustained increase in zooarchaeological evidence for carnivory after the appearance ofProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Article
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24 authors.
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Abstract
Humans are unique in their diet, physiology and socio-reproductive behavior compared to other primates. They are also unique in the ubiquitous adaptation to all biomes and habitats. From an evolutionary perspective, these trends seem to have started about two million years ago, coinciding with the emergence of encephalization, the reduction of the dental apparatus, the adoption of a fully terrestrial lifestyle, resulting in the emergence of the modern anatomical bauplan, the focalization of certain activities in the landscape, the use of stone tools, and the exit from Africa. It is in this period that clear taphonomic evidence of a switch in diet with respect to Pliocene hominins occurred, with the adoption of carnivory. Until now, the degree of carnivorism in early humans remained controversial. A persistent hypothesis is that hominins acquired meat irregularly (potentially as fallback food) and opportunistically through klepto-foraging. Here, we test this hypothesis and show, in contrast, that the butchery practices of early Pleistocene hominins (unveiled through systematic study of the patterning and intensity of cut marks on their prey) could not have resulted from having frequent secondary access to carcasses. We provide evidence of hominin primary access to animal resources and emphasize the role that meat played in their diets, their ecology and their anatomical evolution, ultimately resulting in the ecologically unrestricted terrestrial adaptation of our species. This has major implications to the evolution of human physiology and potentially for the evolution of the human brain.
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