New technologies challenge old ideas about early hominid diets

University of Colorado at Boulder ^ | October 13, 2011 | Unknown

[decimon]

New assessments by researchers using the latest high-tech tools to study the diets of early hominids are challenging long-held assumptions about what our ancestors ate, says a study by the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Arkansas.

By analyzing microscopic pits and scratches on hominid teeth, as well as stable isotopes of carbon found in teeth, researchers are getting a very different picture of the diet habitats of early hominids than that painted by the physical structure of the skull, jawbones and teeth. While some early hominids sported powerful jaws and large molars -- including Paranthropus boisei, dubbed "Nutcracker Man" -- they may have cracked nuts rarely if at all, said CU-Boulder anthropology Professor Matt Sponheimer, study co-author.

Such findings are forcing anthropologists to rethink long-held assumptions about early hominids, aided by technological tools that were unknown just a few years ago. A paper on the subject by Sponheimer and co-author Peter Ungar, a distinguished professor at the University of Arkansas, was published in the Oct. 14 issue of Science.

Earlier this year, Sponheimer and his colleagues showed Paranthropus boisei was essentially feeding on grasses and sedges rather than soft fruits preferred by chimpanzees. "We can now be sure that Paranthropus boisei ate foods that no self-respecting chimpanzee would stomach in quantity," said Sponheimer. "It is also clear that our previous notions of this group's diet were grossly oversimplified at best, and absolutely backward at worst."

"The morphology tells you what a hominid may have eaten," said Ungar. But it does not necessarily reveal what the animal was actually dining on, he said.

[decimon]

Graze anatomy ping.

[wolfman23601]

“By analyzing microscopic pits and scratches on hominid teeth, as well as stable isotopes of carbon found in teeth...”

I thought carbon didn’t exist before SUVs?

[ottbmare]

It didn’t! The carbon from your filthy SUV is even infecting the bones and teeth of people who lived tens of thousands of years before you were born, you corrupt capitalist patriarchal exploiter of the masses! It’s just lucky for you that I happen to have some carbon credits to sell...

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks decimon. I think this duplicates a topic posted and pinged in recent weeks, but it's been slow this week, so, mea culpa ping. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[Winstons Julia]

LOL

“Nutcracker Man”

Obviously divorced from “nutcracker woman” and who can blame him?

[SunkenCiv]

Predicting human evolution: Teeth tell the story
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-02/mu-phe022316.php

Ancient chimpanzee ‘Adam’ lived over one million years ago, research reveals
http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/press/press-releases/2016/february/ancient-chimpanzee-2018adam2019-lived-over-one-million-years-ago-research-reveals
[snip] Considering both Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA trees, humans look much more like gorillas than chimps. [/snip]

OTOH, mtDNA from America, Y-chromosome from Spain:

Spanish conquest left its imprint on men’s genes in Panama
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-02/stri-scl022216.php
Spanish Conquest of Panama Reflected in Men’s Genes
http://www.archaeology.org/news/4206-160223-panama-y-chromosomes

More UK Replacement Model Whining:

Fossil analysis pushes back human split from other primates by two million years
http://www.lanl.gov/discover/news-release-archive/2016/February/02.16-fossil-analysis.php